In a letter to the congregation last month, Senior Warden Kat Phillips and Junior Warden Penn Hagood wrote:

Dear St. Philip’s family,

On March 5th of 2023, we will hold our Annual Parish Meeting. During that meeting, we will elect the next class of leaders to serve on the Vestry. At our last meeting, the Vestry appointed Kat Phillips (Senior Warden), Penn Hagood (Junior Warden), Bob Kunes, Robby Marion, Joanna Ghegan, Suzanne McCord, Cordes Ford, and Langdon Hartsock to serve as a nominating committee. 

The goal is for this to be a Spirit-led process, executed by the Vestry and blessed by the clergy. We encourage you to spend time in prayer concerning this matter and to allow the Lord to lay on your heart individuals that might well serve the church in this leadership position. We ask that you not contact the person regarding your nomination as the names submitted will be held in confidence by the committee. After committee review and prayer, qualified candidates will be contacted by the committee regarding their interest in serving. 

If you would like to make a contribution to the Christmas Flower Fund as a memorial or in thanksgiving for a loved one, please click the link below and submit your information by 5:00 p.m. today for inclusion in the Christmas Eve service bulletins. After you complete the form, you may pay online on our website, stphilipschurchsc.org (select "Christmas Flowers" from the dropdown menu), or you may drop off a check payable to St. Philip's Church or mail it to:

St. Philip's Church

Attn: Juli Garland, Christmas Flowers

142 Church St.

Charleston, SC 29401

Please make your donation in any amount by Monday, December 19.

Thank you to all who have so generously donated gift cards to help support our neighbors in need at Lowcountry Pregnancy Center and Star Gospel Mission! And great news for those who may have missed the original deadline of 9:00 a.m. this past Monday––your Home Missions Team was able to push the deadline to this evening, so you may drop off your $25 gift card(s) to Walmart, Target, or Family Dollar at the church office today (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) or drop off with a Home Missions Team member tonight at church (the last Wednesdays Alive! of 2022). Advent blessings and many thanks to all!

The Lessons and Carols service was simply spectacular, complete with brass, strings, and all the choirs of St. Philip’s––from our three-year-old Cherubs to the adults of the St. Philip’s Choir––coming together to help tell the story of God’s plan of salvation and allow us to reflect on the wonder and beauty of Jesus Christ.

We are so grateful to all who helped with the service: our lectors, acolytes, and ushers; our talented choirs and guest musicians; and our volunteers (especially Ann Hunley Harrington!) who worked behind the scenes to do things like bundle and organize worship bulletins and fill the pew racks with visitor/newcomer cards in preparation for a packed house.

The annual Wassail Bowl reception which followed the service was another beautiful group effort, headed up by the Clark, Moore, and Gilbert families with the youth group helping serve the wassail and other drinks, keep tables tidy, and clean up afterwards. We greatly appreciate the work they all put in so that we all could eat, drink, and be merry!

Lastly, we are of course grateful to the Compassion Committee for preparing the cards and poinsettias for those who are especially in our hearts this season, and we are grateful to all of you who got them delivered throughout the Charleston area!

Thank you, thank you, everyone!

Every year in December, Star Gospel Mission, one of St. Philip’s Home Missions ministry partners, distributes gift cards for groceries to hundreds of people in need in the Lowcountry.  

Gift card distribution spans five days so that each individual who qualifies for assistance is able to have an appointment with a caseworker, who takes down important information such as personal and family needs, asks about specific prayer requests, and offers to pray for and with them.

Last week, 12 St. Philippian volunteers served as caseworkers or greeters during the distribution. My role as a greeter gave me the opportunity to meet all who came through those welcoming doors at Star Gospel. Every client was gracious and appreciative, and some opened up about their struggles. While it was difficult to hear about the challenging times they were going through, it was encouraging to remember Whose they are and that He always meets His children at our greatest need. Star Gospel was truly a vessel at meeting needs last week, as they are year-round in our community.   

After five days of one-on-one appointments, nearly 600 people received gift cards, prayer, dignity, and love from Star Gospel.

The Chosen is the first multi-season series about the life and ministry of Jesus. Its success and popularity have been a huge surprise to Hollywood because it is completely independently funded, produced, and directed apart from any influence from any of the mainstream studios. Rated by Rotten Tomatoes at 100%, it is the largest crowd-funded (meaning it has been financed by individuals and investors independent of the usual process for TV series or movies to go forward) media project of all time, and the first two seasons have been watched by 450 million people to date. Episodes one and two of season three were premiered in theaters over the past three weeks. The first weekend, it was rated #3 at the box office, beating many other movies showing. It has been translated into 62 languages. It is free to watch, and viewers are given the opportunity to “pay it forward” for others to watch for free. 

Click the image below to watch a Screwtape-esque video (part of the studio's satirical marketing strategy) in which Satan shares the reasons you should not watch The Chosen.

Foundations is one of the best ways to get connected at St. Philip’s. This semester-long course explores the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith in an environment that allows for conversation and connection. For those who feel led to join St. Philip’s, the class will culminate in the service of Confirmation when the bishop makes his annual visitation (typically on the Sunday after Easter). Both newcomers to the church and longtime members will find the journey of Foundations to be an enriching, encouraging, and spiritually enlightening experience!

Foundations is an adult Sunday School class for those who are:

• New to St. Philip’s, or
• Looking for a refresher on what we believe as Christians and why we believe it, or
• The parent of a student currently enrolled in our Confirmation Class, or
• Interested in:
• Being baptized
• Becoming a member of the St. Philip’s family through Confirmation/Reception
• Having their infant baptized
• Getting connected into the St. Philip’s community
• Reaffirming their faith in Jesus Christ

Questions? Contact the Rev. Andrew O’Dell at (843) 722-7734 or aodell@stphilipschurchsc.org. Ready to register? Click the link below!

TONIGHT: Final Wednesdays Alive! of 2022!

Resumes January 11 ~ No nursery tonight

TOMORROW: Final Rector's Bible Study of 2022!

Resumes January 12

These will be the final youth group meetings of 2022.

Youth group will resume January 6 and January 8.

Open to all youth regardless of church affiliation.

The Rev. Jeffrey S. Miller will be preaching this Sunday at our services of Holy Communion at 8:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Sunday morning Christian formation, including Sunday School and the Rector's Forum, is now in recess.

Checking in With Our Part-Time Staffers

It feels like it's been a long time since our part-time staffers, namely sexton-in-training Cecilia Walchesky and her many-months-younger sidekick Gus the office helper, showed up to get things done at the office.

But it's not because they've been slacking off. On the contrary, Cecilia is a full-time student devoted to her art and pursuit of candy, and while Gus is in school only part-time (Thursdays only), he's devoted much of his "free" time the past several months to interviewing other potential part-time helpers. He thinks his friend Willow could work out, and Ms. Walchesky seemed inclined to agree after watching the recorded interview. Stay tuned!

If you follow St. Philip's on Facebook and Instagram, then you've already been briefed on our part-timers' whereabouts. But if you're just now catching up, don't you think you should take a moment to follow us so that you, too, can be among the first to hear about upcoming events, weather-related schedule updates, and the latest news about our young helpers?

Important Dates

December 14 ~ Final Wednesdays Alive! of 2022 (no nursery available)

December 15 ~ Final Rector's Bible Study of 2022

December 16 ~ Vestry nominations due (5:00 p.m.) 

December 16 & 18 ~ Final youth group of 2022 

December 24 ~ Christmas Eve services (4:30, 7:30, 10:30 p.m. ~ no nursery or children's church)

December 25 ~ Christmas Day service (10:00 a.m., no nursery or children's church)

December 26–January 2 ~ Church office closed

January 1 ~ No nursery or children’s church

January 6 ~ The “Un”–Greening of the Church

January 8 ~ Sunday School, Rector’s Forum resume

January 8 ~ 20s-30s Oyster Roast (3:00 p.m.)

January 10 ~ Theology on Tap (7:00 p.m. at Henry’s)

January 11 ~ Wednesdays Alive! resumes

January 12 ~ Rector's Bible Study resumes

January 26–28, 2023 ~ Mere Anglicanism Conference

June 7–18 ~ Holy Land Pilgrimage (waitlist available)

We pray for the sick: Arthur Applegate, Tim Bass, Elizabeth Bowles, Mimi Cathcart, Karen Collins, Mark Cumins, George Rawling Evans, Sally Fayard, Elizabeth Flowers, Mary Forbes, Zelphia Galantis, Robert Gould, Susan Hemminger, Molly Hughes, Susan Keenan, Robert Kizer, Libby LeLand Puckette, Ernie Long, Rena Mack, John Murray, Bill Phillipps, Valerie Rouillard, Fran Sanders, Pete Sperr, Margaret Swanson, Judy Vandiford, Jenny White, Lindsey Wing, and Harrison Woods.

We grieve with and pray for John Lescow and family on the death of his sister, Jean Gail Kurth, on December 6.

We grieve with and pray for Rob Gamble and family on the death of his mother, Randy Gamble, on December 10. 

We pray for our expectant parents: Boykin and Thomas Anderson; Kimbrell and Bruce Blackwood; Torrey and Ryan Knapp; Ainsley and Dominic Monda.

We pray for protection for Becca Baird, Graham Blunt, Henry Clayton, Ben Colyer, David Daughtridge, Eric Gaines, Morgan and Mason Herring, Andrew Kane, Quin Kane, Horry Kerrison, Frazier Kulze, John Mason, Zach McFadden, Philip Middleton III, Jackson Miller, Edward Pritchard, Nathaniel Rollings, and David Scott.

We pray for our home and world missions: Star Gospel Mission, Lowcountry Pregnancy Center, Suzy McCall and LAMB, for the medical missions to Honduras, for ministry to victims of genocide and AIDS in Rwanda, for the Persecuted Church, for Anglican Frontier Missions, for Uganda Christian University Partners, for Water Mission and the Global Water Center, and for St. Jean Baptiste, our sister church, and the schools in Haiti.

Collect for Sunday:

We beseech thee, Almighty God, to purify our consciences by thy daily visitation, that when thy Son our Lord cometh he may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for Sunday:

• Isaiah 7:10-17
• Psalm 24
• Matthew 1:18-2