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Weekly Update
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October 26, 2012
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Calendar
At a Glance
Fri 10-26
Middle School
Movie Night
7-9pm
Sun 10-28
Worship
8am
Education Hour
9am
Worship
10:15am
Confirmation Class
6pm
Tue 10-30
AA
7:30pm
Thu 11-01
Choir Practice
7:30pm
Fri 11-02
Mug 'n' Muffin Playgroup
9:30am
Sat 11-03
Confirmation Class Service Project
2-5pm
Sun 11-04
Worship
8am
Education Hour
9am
Worship
10:15am
Confirmation Class
6pm
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8am; 10:15am Worship
On Sunday we celebrate the heart of our faith: the gospel of Christ-the good news-that makes us free! Though we give thanks for the events of the sixteenth-century Reformation that brought renewal to the church of that time, we pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to unite the church today in its proclamation and witness to the world. In the waters of baptism we are made one body; we pray for the day that all Christians will also be one at the Lord's table.
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| Announcements
Reformation Sunday All-Ages. This Sunday, families and children of all ages are invited to join us in the Fellowship Hall during the education hour to learn about Martin Luther and participate in some fun Reformation crafts and activities. Be sure to wear red and come ready for fun and worship!
Oops! I was misinformed: we welcome one--not three--of God's children in holy baptism this Sunday [Noelle Dogic], and one more on November 11! Noelle's two elder sisters will accompany her at the fount.
Also this Sunday: the Confirmation class will engage with the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, and Ishmael. See you then!
Next Sunday, Nov 4, we will celebrate All Saints Day and we will be remembering those who have died over the past year.
What makes a Lutheran a 'Lutheran'? If you're interested in discussing some of the answers to this question please join us for an adult 'Confirmation' class. We will meet about once per month until Easter and will conclude the class with a service of affirmation of baptism. If you are interested, please contact Vicar Daniel (781-646-7773 ext. 13) with some days or nights that would work well for you. Keep an eye out for the date of the first class!
Godly Play Training NEW DATE: Saturday, Dec 1, 9am-1pm. This will be a special workshop, led by some of our own veteran Godly Play teachers, open to anyone who is interested in learning more about our wonderful Sunday morning program for pre-K through 2nd graders. Come learn about the Godly Play stories with us!
Christmas Caroling Extravaganza Sunday, Dec 16, 12-3pm. Get ready to bring the Christmas cheer to the Arlington community! We will be carpooling to different locations after the 10:15am service and close by gathering for some Christmas treats!
- Mug 'n' Muffin Play Group, Friday, Nov 2 and Dec 7, from 9:30-11am. This drop-in playgroup is a time for parents of small children to fellowship together over coffee and treats. The nursery will be open for the little ones to play together. Please feel free to join us for this sweet time of togetherness!
- Meal Packaging event Sunday, Dec 2, from 2-4 pm. We're partnering with Sanctuary Church in Marshfield, MA for an awesome meal packaging service project for KidsCare. Join us in packaging meals for hungry families in New England. There will be carpools leaving St. Paul after the 10:15 service. From now until Dec 2, our coffee hour offering will go toward a financial contribution to support KidsCare and help provide more meals. Learn more.
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A Note From Pastor Goodman
Pledge Sunday is November 11
Pledge Sunday, November 11 will be a day when we celebrate all that we are able to do together through our generous response to God's blessings in our lives. As we look ahead to this year's celebration, we encourage everyone to complete a giving response card for the 2013 Annual Appeal for Saint Paul prior to worship that day.
Giving response cards will be mailed next week with a letter from congregation President Mark Olson describing our 2013 preliminary budget. Giving response cards will be available at church on November 4 and 11. We hope that everyone at St. Paul will have prayed and conversed about their giving for next year. We hope you will join us in supporting the 2013 Annual Appeal, as together we continue to reflect the love of God!
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Dear Friends,
Almost 500 years ago, the church was collecting money through the sale of indulgences as part of a fundraising effort to help renovate St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Indulgences were dispensations sold by the medieval Roman Catholic Church which were believed to reduce or eliminate the amount of time someone had to spend in purgatory paying for their sins through punishment. Johann Tetzel, the man collecting funds in Luther's home of Wittenberg allegedly said, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs." In response to this, Martin Luther, a young theology professor and priest, wrote a response to this called the 95 Theses and posted them to the door of the University of Wittenberg. Luther's 36th thesis states, "Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters." Martin Luther argues that we cannot buy our way into God's love. God loves and forgives us because God simply has chosen to do so. God then gives us the faith to believe that this is true.
Continued
Missed the first two Stewardship letters? Here they are for your reading enjoyment! Letter 1; letter 2.
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Coming Together as a Community
Sundays during Education Hour
October 28
We will meet in the fellowship hall during adult forum to begin working together on a card ministry for St. Paul. We will continue working on the cards during coffee hour after the 10:15 service. Come join us as we write cards to our members on the prayer list, as well as birthday cards for upcoming birthdays. If you are like many of us that met last week, you probably have a few cards at home that never got sent. Bring these cards along and we will put them to good use! There will be coffee and goodies to share as we start this community building ministry. Donations of postage are also welcome.
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October is full of fun events! Get signed up to join us!
Middle School Movie Night
TONIGHT, Friday 10/26, 7-9 pm
6th-8th grade only! Popcorn, movies, and friends make for an excellent Friday night!
Jr. and Sr. High Games Night
It's time for another evening of snacks, fun, and Munchkins! Join us at St. Paul for some awesome board gaming!
Painting Service Project with Youth
All youth of St. Paul are invited to participate in a service project at The Intersection, a new ministry in Dorchester. We will meet at the church on Saturday, Nov 3 at 1 pm and travel to the site where we will help paint their fellowship hall and a few other rooms in the building. We should be finished before dinner time (by 4 or 5pm). Wear clothes you don't mind getting messy!! Please contact Vicar Daniel (781-646-7773 ext. 13 or vicar@stpaularlington.org) and let him know if you plan on attending!
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NeXt Church
Read Bishop Hazelwood's article in The Lutheran e-newsletter about the future of the Church.
NeXt Step Mission Consults
NEXT Step is about beginning to shape mission support around specific, concrete activities for mission and ministry. Leaders are encouraged to attend one of the NEXT Step consultation events this fall. More information could be found here.
NEXT STEP Events are scheduled for:
- November 1, 2012 6:30 p.m. in Warwick, RI: Pilgrim Lutheran Church, 1817 Warwick Avenue.
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From the Lutheran Blogosphere
Someone asked me today, "What startles you?" I was asking people for topics to write about, and this particular question piqued my interest, even though I'm not sure what was meant by 'startled.' So, what startles me?
Meanness startles me. No matter how many times I encounter it, I'm always taken aback by the things people say and do to one another. On the internet, first of all: I have the bad habit of reading the comments under articles I read on-line. Reading the comments is sort of like slowing down to watch the aftermath of a car crash on the highway; it's always disturbing, and I'm sorry that I did it. But on-line meanness is not the only kind that startles me. I'm often startled by the meanness of teenagers in their interactions with one another, even though I know in my heart how insecure and unlovely some of them feel, and I know where those words come from. I'm startled when I hear stories of that bring out our lack of regard for one another. I remember once going to the capital to advocate for funds for education. In a conversation with a legislator from southern Minnesota, I stated that children are one of our best investments. He looked at me and said, "not all of them.".
Continued
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Post & Riposte
Weekly Links
Here are a few posts that caught Vicar Dan's and my eye this week:
Refreshing:
Election Day Communion Aims To Heal The Partisan Breach
"Come to me, all ye who are weary of negative political ads and burdened by the wounds of a brutal campaign season. I will give you rest. That twist on the call of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew is resonating this year as more than 400 local churches prepare for a new tradition: Election Day Communion. As voting winds down on Nov. 6, people of every political stripe will leave their respective partisan bunkers and line up side by side to receive the sacrament."
Insightful:
Caring for Our Lives
"In the now infamous secretly recorded tape, Mitt Romney said of 47 percent of the American population, "I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." While this may be a coded way of blaming the victims of class distinction in this country, as a professor of pastoral theology and care, I can't resist taking the bait. What does it mean to take personal responsibility and care for our lives?"
Interesting [Thanks for the link, Don Mitchell!]:
""Who plays the organ anymore when they're not trying to scare someone?" asks a post on YouTube, and the answer is, frighteningly enough, practically every Catholic parish. Despite the fact that the most recognizable organ music, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, opens the film "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," the pipe organ remains the central instrument, besides the human voice, of Christian worship. It endures not because anyone particularly likes organ music (there's none on iTunes's top singles this week, and, I'm betting, none on your iPod), but simply because it's there. Usually ensconced in the balcony of a church, an organ is too heavy to move and too expensive to burn, so we might as well play the thing, no matter how many young people we're scaring away."
Yay, Rachel Held Evans!:
15 Minutes
"You have to get up early for the Today Show. It's kind of like a Benedictine monastery in that way. I told the ladies in hair and makeup that I felt like I was getting ready for the Hunger Games and they were my Cinna. Dan says I laugh really hard at my own jokes when I'm nervous. Everyone was super-nice, though. Natalie said some really kind things about the book, which I don't exactly remember because I was mesmerized by her high, high heels. We didn't get to meet Barry Manilow, but he was around there somewhere."
Challenging:
"This idea of distance is one that Rowan Williams picks up on in a different but not unconnected example. "The terrorist, the suicide bomber, is someone who's got to the point where they can only see from a distance: the sort of distance from which you can't see a face, meet the eyes of someone, hear who they are, imagine who or what they love. All violence works with that sort of distance. It depends upon not seeing things."
Came across any interesting articles online? Email them to stpaularlington@verizon.net and they'll be posted in the next Weekly.
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Reformation Sunday, October 28, 2012
Serving in Worship & Fellowship
Deacon: Katherine Corneilson
Lector: Lois Mitchell Tellers: Hannah Lienhard, Scott Vermilya Ushers: Ralph Johansson, Bob Waehler, Taryn Weaver, George Wilson
Altar Guild: Nancy Tiedeman, Taryn Weaver
Worship Assistants: Adrian Porras, Owen Davidson, Sebastian Little
Children's Church Leaders: Maile & Peter Hedlund
Cantor: Don Mitchell
Coffee Helpers: Heather Sheridan and Phyllis Wampler
Sermon: Never been Slaves by Vicar Daniel Eisenberg
Texts Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 46
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36
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In Our Prayers
In solidarity with our ecumenical partners, the World Council of Churches invites us to pray for specific countries each week. This week we pray for Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, and Seychelles. You can find the year-long prayer cycle online at oikoumene.org. |
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St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church 929 Concord Turnpike, Arlington, MA 02476
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