It somehow seems fitting that with the start of Advent and the new church year that we welcome the Rev. Stephanie Johnson as our new Rector.  Stephanie will celebrate her first Eucharist with us this Sunday.  Speaking on behalf of the entire Vestry, we are thrilled to have had her accept our call to be our new Rector.  Please go out of your way to welcome Stephanie and her family to our parish family and make an extra effort to wear your nametags at coffee hour!

 

It is also soon the start of a new calendar year and with that, many of the administrative cycles of our parish.  The nominating committee is busy filling the slate of a new junior warden, a new treasurer, three new vestry members, diocesan convention delegates and alternates and next year's nominating committee co-chair.  Volunteers for these positions are always welcome and if you have never served in a parish-wide role like this, please consider giving of your time in that way.  We are truly blessed to have such dedicated volunteers in our parish.

 

As we shifted liturgical gears into Advent this past Sunday, we left behind close to two month of thoughts about stewardship and "Living Generously".  This Vestry's last big task is planning the budget for the coming year.  While we experienced the expected "dip" in giving during our transition year, we are now on the other side of that process and are excited to be moving forward together with our new rector and exploring all the possibilities that this new start has to offer.

 

As of the end of November, we have received only 40 pledges, which is about 1/3rd of the total number of pledges that we received for this year and about 1/4th of the total number of pledges that we received in 2015 before our transition started.  To those of you who have already returned your pledge cards - thank you.  For those of you still considering how you can help our parish with financial support for the coming year, please do your best to make your pledges in the coming weeks so we may have the benefit of them for our budgeting process.

 

We hope that all of you share the same sense of excitement that we have for both the new beginning that we share as a parish with Stephanie's arrival and the coming of the Emmanuel!  Thanks be to God!

 

Ken & Jonathan

 

Please join us on Sunday, December 18th from 12-1pm (directly following coffee hour), for our 4th Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party!

Children of all ages are welcome to decorate or to simply watch and enjoy.   Please bring  CANDY  to share for decorating. We will order pizza lunch. [No charge for lunch or to decorate!] 

Please RSVP with the number of decorators you will bring so we can have plenty of houses ready. RSVP to Margaret Feldmeth ( [email protected], 203-524- 5293) or Wendy Browning-Lynch ( [email protected],  917-749-9607).

A huge thank you to everyone who donated to the  Thanksgiving Basket fundraiser.  Thanks to your generosity we were able provide Inspirica with over 85 baskets! 

And a special  thank you to our amazing volunteers!  Paul and Cindy Lindemeyer for coordinating the project.  Daren Powers, Assistant Manager of Shop Rite for making the food shopping process seamless.  And our amazing volunteers, David Bonney, Martha Howland, Michael Karaffa.  Thank you, thank you!    

 

New Neighbor to Neighbor Collection Box

Exciting news...We have a new collection box for Neighbor to Neighbor!  The box is located in the same location as the barrel used to be (by Selleck Hall at the bottom of the stairs to the Day School) and should hold many more donations than the barrel did.  When making your donations, please be reminded of the following:

- Clothing, shoes, hats, mittens and gloves from newborn up should be clean and seasonally appropriate

- Diapers, sheets, towels, SMALL household items and children's books are also appreciated

- When placing donations in the box, please make sure they are in a bag that can tie at the top (e.g. trash bag or plastic grocery bag)

You are always welcome to take your donations directly to Neighbor to Neighbor (especially if they are of the larger variety) at 248 East Putnam, on the right hand side of Christ Church.

• For those parishioners who like to place their pledge payments inside envelopes, you may order envelopes for 2017 through Elizabeth. Please order before December 15. 
• If Elizabeth doesn't hear from you, she will assume that you will utilize another method of payment. 
• These envelopes will be available starting December 21 for your use in 2017. The boxes of envelopes will be available on the big table outside the office. 
• For those who have been using envelopes, please do NOT use this year's envelopes for next year's contributions. 

  Happy Birthday... Mary Kate Anderson, Derek Brown, Wheeler Carrescia, Nancy Cooper, Kristen Crossman, Crosby Cuneo, Sabrina Fischer, Turner Franco, Bob Grele, Janet Grimm, Holly Izant-McSharry, Alex Jackson, Barbara Jackson, Anna Jernstedt, Charles Kosinski, Grace Lohr, George Lowther V, Grace Lynch, Parker Lynch, Leigh MacDougall, Paulette Marshall, Will Maus, Billy Bills IV, Thomas Miranowski, Brooks Montgomery, John Phillipps, Alena Pobjoy, Jenna Pobjoy, Rebecca Riolo, Clara Sibley, Peter Spielman, Jim Stafford, Philip Stevens, Frances Streich, Diana Whyte, Tony Wynne. If we missed your name, please let us know so we can update our database.