Gathering Information
On Sundays we meet at 9:30 a.m.

On Sunday, for the Feast of Christ the King, Father Ed Busch will be the guest celebrant and preacher



The Youtube liturgy is posted on Saturday evening.
Sunday, November 24th: Feast of Christ the King
Arts and Craft Room
Shirthouse Band
Boutique
The Bazaar with multiple Venues a Great Success with the Help of So Many! Thank you!
A wonderful Bazaar Event this year even as it stretched us to our personnel capacity and challenged our aging aching backs. But thank God we did it, and did it together with lots of devoted work.

The leaders worked many hours in sorting and pricing. The crafters worked many hours at their homes making and donating works of art for the Craftroom. A first this year.

The list of workers is a who's who in our parish. Sandy Bedard, Jenn DeSimone, Carol Weissenberger, Laura Myers, Fern Smith, and Gail Voorhes were leaders in the various Bazaar venues.

Gail anchored the outdoor yard sale and she was helped by Julie Voorhes, John Schaub, Michael Voorhes, Kimberly Whitney, Steve Whitney, Laurie O'Brien, Sam Roy, and Lisa Gouse. The crew from In His Step were vital in the set up and in carrying the left over items to be used by their charitable organization in our community.

The Arts and Crafts were blessed with the work of Jenn DeSimone, Carol Weissenberger, Sue Dawe, Karen Cooke, Fern Smith, Sandy Bedard, Cathy Jackson, Cass Martin, Cindy Dodson, Debbie Benson, Deborah Lewallen, Susie and Janet Sheeley. We are very pleased with the sales that came from the Arts and Craft Room. The credit card option provided a boost to sales this year.

We are grateful for Cathy Knowles and Pam Patterson who were present to handle the collection of monies from the sales.

The Boutique included many hours of sorting and pricing by Sandy Bedard, Laura Myers Georgie Suitor, Dawn Kezer and others who came help. We are thankful for the help of Belinda Long, Janice, Colin and Eric Backholer, Ernie Bedard Sr., Ernie Bedard, Jr., Bill and Debbie Benson, Cathy Jackson, Barbara Jones, Dave Myers, Virginia Pollack, Michael Underwood, Gary Weissenberger, Stephen and Kimberly Whitney.

Special thanks for the work on the storage sheds by Greg and Dawn Kezar.

The entire event had the lovely sound atmosphere provided by Rob Lewallen and his two fellow pickers and singers of the wonderful Shirthouse Band. We are grateful for their music!

Special thanks to Jenn DeSimone for making the lovely quilt for the drawing. Lots of tickets were sold and we had a repeat winner, Ms. Ledesema, who won the drawing in a previous year.

And to enter 12th street you had to pass through the lovely balloon pillars provided and crafted by Tere Nichols.

Thank you to everyone. Please let us know if we missed to recognize anyone who worked in this wonderful event. We don't have a final total of funds raise but it is in the neighborhood of $7K.
Tere's Lovely Balloon Pillar
Calendar for the Week



Youtube Service will be available on Saturday evening
 


Friday, November 19, 2021
8:30 Centering Prayer
Office Closed


Saturday, November 20, 2021
Office Closed
No Prayers and Squares

Sunday, November 21, 2021
9:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist
Father Ed Busch, Celebrant and preacher

Monday, November 22, 2021
Office hours: 10 a.m.-Noon
4:30 p.m. Centering Prayer

Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Office hours: 10 a.m.-Noon

Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Office hours: 10 a.m.-Noon

Thursday, November 25, 2021
Office Closed: Happy Thanksgiving

Friday, November 26, 2021
Office Closed


The Office Hours are listed above, but you can contact Fr. Phil, to arrange a meeting at other convenient times during the week. He can meet you at the church office.


Diocesan Convention Recap
The Best way to experience the results of the Diocesan Convention held virtually on November 6-7, is to visit the recap link and watch the video reports. You can find our Bishop's sermon and address. Of special interest was the live virtual interview with our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. You will find this interview as one of the videos in Recap Link. The theme of the Convention was, "You are the Light of the World." Connie Bley and Karen Cooke represented St. Mary's as lay delegates. Fr. Phil had seat and voice.
Buying Scrip Helps St. Mary's. Contact Gail
Advent Book Study Invitation

Have you ever asked what the Gospels really teach about the birth of Jesus? "Because of the importance of Christmas, how we understand the stories of Jesus's birth matters. What we think they are about - how we hear them, read them, interpret them - matters". This statement is from the preface of a book called The First Christmas, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. If you are interested in joining this book discussion group during Advent, please contact Fr. Phil or Cindy Dodson. We will make the time and the venue convenient for those who would like to read and talk about this compelling book.
An Invitation to Intentional Stewardship
St. Mary’s-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church
P.O. Box 491
1010 12th Avenue
Ramona, CA 92065
760-789-0890
Fall 2021
 
Fellow Stewards of St. Mary’s:
 
God loves cheerful givers because the flow of our time, talent, and treasure from our creative beings can be the joyful release of having our lives be relevant to other people in goodness in our specific ministries at St. Mary’s.
 
In the name of Christ, who sacrificed his life for that we might be living sacrifices, I invite you to intentional stewardship for our parish in 2022. Why do I believe we are a worthy “investment” for our stewardship investments?
 
1-Our parish is a graceful expression of the catholic church, with direct continuity in an historic tradition, where we forgive people of the past for not being perfect, but don’t let their failure at the full practice of justice keep us from more inclusive practice of love and justice in our age.
 
2-We need to survive, even when we don’t seem popular, because people are nomadic in their faith, and when persons grow disillusioned with other narrow-minded faith communities, we need to be a welcoming community.
 
3-St. Mary’s has a unique ministry in Ramona: openness to persons of different ethnic/faith backgrounds, affirm full participation of women in all ministries, openness to LGBTQ persons and their ministry in our church; we believe in modern science and modern medicine, and we believe that we can be poets and scientifically sound without contradiction.
 
4-We are established to be enlightened American patriots. We derived from the Church of England which was a state “established” church. We adapted to the American constitutional separation of church and state. We believe our strategies of loving our neighbors as ourselves are the fitting expressions of holding that all are created equal in God’s image and due equitable life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
 
What is not to like about our identity and aspirations, as a community who believe that our faults are always correctable as we try to live out Spirit-filled lives? If you believe in our aspirations and ideals and that they are worthy to be promulgated in word and deed here in Ramona, please be a steward with us. Fill out a pledge card and Time and Talent Survey to help us plan for 2022, a year of great promise as we recover from the effects of the pandemic.
 
Thank you for the gift of your life which you offered to God, Christ, and the church in your baptism.
 
From a fellow steward who needs to give more,
 
 
Philip R. Cooke
Vicar

Sacred Ground
Sacred Ground completed their sessions on Wednesday, November 17 with a liturgy of Repentance for the conditions of Racial injustice in our country. It also included a commissioning of the participants in the continued work of Justice and Reconciliation. We are grateful to Cindy Dodson for the time she spent preparing to be the mentor for the Sacred Ground Sessions. The time was a blessed time of sharing and reflection on some provoking readings and video presentations.

Those completing the session were: Phil and Karen Cooke, Belinda Long, Cindy Dodson, Stanley V. Smith, Jr., Fern Smith, Gail Voorhes, Virginia Pollack. We finished the session with a challenge to keep the work for racial justice on the front burner of our mission.

To get some more information on the Sacred Ground program you can visit this link:Sacred Ground
Centering Prayer
Is God calling you to Centering Prayer? Two Opportunities to Explore


Centering Prayer will meet on November 22nd, at 4:15 p.m.(prayer starts at 4:30 prompt) in person at the church. We have several copies of the updated version of Fr. Keatings's Open Mind, Open Heart, enough so that we probably don't need to share books. We will use this book for formation and we will practice lectio divina with our readings. The Friday morning Centering Prayer on Zoom continues at 8:30 a.m. for a short, half hour session of meditation only. (It will not meet the day after Thanksgiving). If you want to know more and are interested in joining, please contact either Deb Lewallen (deborahslewallen@gmail.com) or Cindy Dodson (cindysberrypatch@gmail.com).
 
Vicar's Voice
Dear Parish family and friends,


Karen and I will be gone November 19-21, and the Rev. Dr. Ed Busch will be the guest preacher and celebrant on the 21st. (Ed and I were ordained together to the diaconate in June of 1981, and he added the ordained ministry to his career as a physician. His wife, The Rev. Babs Mears is also a priest who served as the Head chaplain at the VA Center in San Diego).

Thanks to all who helped make the Bazaar a success. It is a big undertaking and our numbers are dwindling and we lost a year of practice because of the pandemic. We did pull it off, even as we had like all life events, minor glitches which tested our patience. But we made it and earned the parish some funds which may help us not to have to borrow from reserve funds to meet our budget. So that is indeed good news.

The BC met on Tuesday evening and heard reports from all areas of parish ministries. It is nice to know we are on a trajectory of gearing back up toward regular church activity.

The BC want us to review all aspects of the Bazaar so that we can assess what went well and what needs to be adjusted and improved.

The BC will also be looking for candidates for the BC to be elected at our Annual Meeting in January.

The BC was given the report about the visit of Ms. Chan from the Diocesan Property Committee regarding a grant to repair the cracked slab in the Nave of the church. Ms. Chan indicated that a grant of $10,000 would be available and we have submitted request and bids to fulfill the requirement. We are grateful for this promise of help from the Diocese, and very thankful for the devoted work of lay persons like Ms. Chan.

La Misa in English volunteers will be taking cultural training on December 1st. We are hoping to be a place of welcome and meeting for our Latino friends in our neighborhood. The diocese is helping with this program by providing funds for music and musicians, as well as cultural training.

The list of request for Christmas Gift has grown substantially and with supplements from the Vicar's Outreach Fund we hope to provide lots of gifts this year. Debbie and Dawn will be setting up the tree soon.

And let's not forget to be thankful. Thanksgiving is the cure for any temptation to pettiness. We can only look upon the incredible need of people in our country and world to return to being thankful, and then be inspired to give so that others can be thankful too.

Blessings and much love,


Father Phil

HEALING & RECOVERY
Keith, Jerry J., Nikki M., Bob W., Richard R., Janet S,Dottie H., Ralph D.,Doug S.,Jennifer D., Jerry P., Sarah S., Guillermo, Stanley S., Antonio M., Frank and Rose, Donna N., Pamela W., Karen H., Nicole, Donna B., Dianne B., Kris J.
 
THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER


CONTINUING CARE
Betty C., Michael B., Dave C.

Faithful Departed
John B., Thomas P.

SUPPORT & COMFORT
Chila, Dave C., Virginia P.

 MILITARY
Brooke S., Barron S., Chris R., Ricky S.,
Joseph F.

Please submit the names of persons for our Prayer Lists so that we can keep them current and up to date

Vicar's Office Hours 10 a.m.-Noon
Tuesday - Thursday
760-789-0890
stmramona@gmail.com
stmarysramona@hotmail.com

Blessings to you and your family and friends!
St. Mary's-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church
stmramona@gmail.com
stmarysramona@hotmail.com
1010 Twelfth Street, Ramona, CA 92065
Mail: P.O. Box 491
(760) 789-0890
Like us on Facebook!