Church Parking Request

Please take a little extra time when pulling into a parking space along the side of the church hall or in front of the Biorientation Garden. I have placed snow stakes along the sides of both beds to prevent vehicles from encroaching into the bed spaces. New plants have been or will be planted in these areas and the planting area is small. Please, don’t back into the parking space. Thanks for your help and support! Jim

Garden Cleanup

Sunday, November 23

After Each Service!

On November 23rd, we’re inviting everyone to wear gardening clothes to church! After each service, we’ll have a chance to help bag up the leaves in our yard and do some other light tasks to prepare the gardens for winter. Garden Steward Jim Keepers will have teams we can join for some friendly competition! Advent Wreaths and kids’ activities will be available in the parish hall that morning as well, if your kids need something to do while we garden! All ages are welcome to join us in the garden.

Plan Ahead: St. Nick Dinner on Wednesday, December 3!

Join us on Wednesday, December 3 at 6:00 p.m. for dinner and a visit from St. Nicholas-- who will be spreading some cheer in honor of his upcoming feast day! 

Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and rolls will be provided, and we are inviting everyone to provide their favorite holiday side dish or dessert to share! We will have a sign-up sheet at the next few Wednesday dinners, and it will also be out on Sunday! 

Please invite your family and friends for this fun, festive evening! 

Questions? Contact  Leslie Stubbendieck, Parish Life Chair

Special Bible Study: December 3 & 4

On Wednesday, Dec 3rd at 7pm and Thursday, Dec 4th at noon, we’ll have a special “one-off” Bible Study about the Lectionary Calendar we’ll be using this coming season! Join Fr Ben and Mother Lisa for conversation about the scriptures for our worship in weeks ahead, and how these calendars work.

Advent and Christmas at St. A's

Advent is coming! 

Each year, the four Sundays before Christmas mark the season of Advent (from the Latin word for "waiting"). At St A's, we have opportunities to study, pray, and celebrate together. Here's some things to expect!

• Sunday, 11/23:  Advent Wreath Making. Our staff will provide greenery, frames, and candles to make wreaths for our homes, allowing you to light Advent candles at your house to mark the weeks of the season. We'll have a brief lesson about the meaning of the candles and prayers you can pray as you light the wreath through the season.
• Sunday, 11/23: Garden cleanup! You're invited to wear work clothes to church and plan to spend some time after worship helping to bag up leaves and other garden items as we settle our gardens in for the winter. Garden Steward Jim Keepers has a teams challenge this year to see who can bag more leaves!
• Wednesday, 12/3: St Nick's Visit. Guest Norm Melichar from Trinity Cathedral will bring St Nick to life and lead stories and a cloves-and-orange decorating activity. We'll have a festive feast for this Wednesday evening! If you'd like to help, please contact Kate at ministries@sainta.net. 
• Sunday, 12/7: Magdalene Marketplace. This tradition is going strong and growing stronger! We rent table space to local artisans and crafters for a nominal fee that goes to support our "anchor tenant" for the event, Magdalene Omaha. This is a great opportunity for Sunday morning holiday shopping that supports their powerful work.
• Wednesday, 12/10: Cookie Decorating Party. This Wednesday evening we'll have a chance to decorate cookies at church before our Annual Lessons and Carols service. Cookies will be served at the Sunday coffee hour!
• Sunday, 12/14, combined 9:30 am: Lessons and Carols. Join us for this special annual worship service, which will be the only service this Sunday. In place of our usual liturgy of Word and Table, we will have more lessons from scripture, followed by seasonal carols and hymns and a cookie themed coffee hour.
• Sunday, 12/14: Blue Christmas, 3:00 pm. The holiday season can be a time of really remembering loved ones who have died. The Blue Christmas service involves readings from scripture and other sources, and a chance to gather in support of loved ones and one another. We light vigil candles in memory of them. This can be a meaningful service to invite a friend to attend as they remember a loved one.
• Advent Study. Throughout Advent, you're invited to pick up a Living Well Through Advent booklet from Living Compass. These booklets will be available on the Narthex (entryway) table.
• Longest Night with Magdalene - Sunday, 12/21. The Fourth Year of this fundraiser with our outreach partner, Magdalene Omaha, invites us to donate funds or go and stand vigil at Magdalene's programming building at 933 S. Saddle Creek Drive. Members of our church are invited to help contribute or participate in the vigil, holding light as a sign of hope for survivors throughout the longest night of the year.
• Christmas Eve Worship, Wednesday, 12/24. On Christmas Eve, we will hold worship services at 3:00 pm (livestreamed and then hosted on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/st.augustine.omaha if you want to join us while traveling!) and 11:00 pm. The later service begins with a 10:30 pm hymn sing, before leading into our "midnight mass," a tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve worship with the arrival of Christmas Day at the midnight hour, and the birth of Jesus. Each of these services will have the singing of the candlelit carol, Silent Night.

An Evening with Bishop Budde Thursday, December 11 at 6:30 PM Creighton Campus-Mike and Josie Harper Center Auditorium

The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and its Balancing the Scales of Justice and Racial Reconciliation ministries are hosting a public and ecumenical keynote and conversation with Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde on the evening of Thursday, December 11th. Bishop Budde’s topic is “Dignity, Honesty, Humility, and Mercy: Four Pillars of Faithful Leadership,” and she has expressly hoped that the audience will be religiously and politically diverse and interested in a rich conversation and Q&A. A registration link will be forthcoming with an opportunity to submit questions beforehand or at the event. The Auditorium is at 602 N 20th St, Omaha, NE 68178.

Advent Lectionary Changes

Our worship readings come from a schedule called a "lectionary," which sets readings for each of the "liturgical seasons" of the year, officially beginning with Advent, then Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. The long seasons after Epiphany and Pentecost are called "ordinary time." Our usual lectionary, the Revised Common Lectionary, covers about 14% of the Hebrew Bible (the "Old Testament") and 71% of the New Testament over six years (Year A, B, and C with two tracks available from Pentecost to Advent). This leaves much of the Bible unheard at worship! Starting this Advent, we're going to try out a new lectionary called "The Women's Lectionary - Year A." This lectionary still uses the liturgical seasons, but with an emphasis on making sure that the stories of women in scripture are included, or sometimes simply paired differently with the readings across the morning. Our Vestry has talked for several months about this opportunity, and have a general level of excitement about hearing more of the Bible and some new pairings of familiar readings. We'll be learning more about this from Father Ben and Mother Lisa as we begin using this new schedule; feel free to let us know what you think or what questions you have!

2026 Is Just Around The Corner!

Have you thought about completing your 2025 operating and/or building loan pledge, prepaying your 2026 pledge or just making that additional contribution to St. Augustine’s for tax purposes? In order for you to be able to deduct your charitable contribution on your 2025 tax return, all money must be deposited by December 31, 2025.

Considering holidays and office closures, we have some options for you and deadlines to consider.

If you want to use our PayPal system via www.sainta.net, you need to create your transfer no later than December 23, as it takes 2-3 business days to reach our account after we initiate your transfer on our end.

If you are paying by check, please make sure it reaches the office by December 30.

If you need to know your pledge balance for 2025, please contact Jay by phone or e-mail as she is still working as our financial administrator and has all the updated information. Thank you for working with us to meet our deadlines and to make the end of the year a smooth transition into 2026!!

The Special Outreach

Collection for November

is the Canned Goods Tree

Each year, we set a special Christmas Tree of canned goods in the midst of our parish hall. This is a sign that the celebrations of Jesus's entry into the world are intimately bound up with how we love our neighbors as ourselves, and it has been our tradition to have the canned goods stand as that witness throughout Advent before we send them to COPE (Christian Outreach Program of Elkhorn) and other partners for their pantry shelves. The November collection will help seed the funding for our canned goods for the following year; we purchase in bulk and on sale as we prepare for the tree. This year, we are tracking particular food needs at COPE and the tree may be sent to the shelves early to help the hungry. Donations placed in the basket or designated to "Canned Goods Tree" in the memo line of checks will go to fund this program as our November special offering.

Our Special Collection in October raised $1068 for the San Andres Food Pantry. Thank You to everyone for supporting this important ministry!

November Outreach Notes

The Outreach Committee met on November 4th to review the October Blood Drive and Magdalene Graduation and plan ahead for the Chili Cookoff/Mystery Party, the Magdalene Marketplace, and various COPE events. We have dates for Blood Drives, COPE cookouts, and the schedule of Sunday offerings in 2026! That schedule will include one food ministry each quarter, regular DioNeb and TEC partnerships such as Magdalene and ERD, our youth program, direct clergy relief funds, and more. Outreach will not meet in December, and will hold a Sunday meeting on January 11th at 11:30 am for regular business and to invite interested new folks to attend and participate!

Reverse Advent Calendar with DOK

The Daughters of the King are inviting us to “reverse” our Advent Calendars this year by setting aside an item each day and bringing them to church, either through the season or as we celebrate Epiphany on Sunday, January 4th.

Suggested items:

• Week of Nov 6th:  

-Protein-Beans, Canned Meats, Soups

• Week of Dec 7th:  

-Breakfast Items: Cereal, Pancake Mix, Syrup, Canned Fruit

-Baking Items: Mixes, Flour, Oil, Sugar, Spices, Salt/Pepper

• Week of Dec 14th: 

-Paper Products: Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, Tissues

           -Home Products: Detergents, Spray Cleaners

           -Personal Items: Shampoo/Soap, Feminine Products Size 5-6-7 Diapers/Pull-

ups (most-needed sizes)

• Week of Dec 21st: 

-Condiments and Sides: Noodle/Pasta/Rice boxes

Epiphany Pageant and Celebration of Mother Ruth Sunday January 4

This coming year, we'll be celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany on Sunday, January 4. That morning, at both services, we’ll have a blessing of chalk that can be used to mark the lintel over your front door for the coming year. At the 10:30 Service, we will have our youth present an Epiphany Pageant! All youth attending that day are welcome to put on a costume, and process with the groups. All speaking parts will be covered. In addition, the Feast of the Epiphany will be Mother Ruth Tomlinson’s 25th anniversary of her ordination to the priesthood! She’ll serve as our celebrant and our 8:30 preacher, and we’ll have a coffee hour reception to celebrate the ministry of this “wise woman!”

Elaine Randall Book Club

Tuesday, November 25 at 11:30 AM Wild, by Cheryl Strayed

You can borrow from the book bag on the shelf by the kitchen, please be sure to sign your name and book number before you go!

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone.