Happy December St. Thomas! Have you turned in your 2024 Pledge Card??

In addition to Advent and Christmas, December is also the important time for anyone who has not yet filled out & turned in their pledge card for 2024 to do so! St. Thomas has big, exciting plans for 2024, but we can't do it without EVERYONE lending a hand in our "Giving for Growth" campaign. PLEASE CONSIDER TURNING IN A PLEDGE CARD BEFORE DECEMBER 31ST, TO SHOW YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT FOR ST. THOMAS & TO ALLOW US TO HAVE WHAT WE NEED TO GROW IN MINISTRY, FELLOWSHIP, & FAITH NEXT YEAR!

Every pledge counts!

THE EPISTLE:

December 07, 2023

Moms' Group meets TONIGHT, Dec. 7th

St. Thomas’ Mom's group ministry for mothers with children ages 0 - 18 is meeting again TONIGHT, Thursday, December 7th, at 6:30pm in the Parish Hall!

The monthly Mom's Group is a time to come together as mothers with young children to support one another, share in the love and laughter, and help each other through the challenges and struggles that motherhood brings. Being a mom is not always easy, so one night a month we come together to ask the good Lord for patience and strength and to lean on one another in this shared experience. Please bring a mom friend! Contact Audrey Cain at audreysherkin@gmail.com for more info

A Festival of Lessons and Carols, NEXT WEDNESDAY, December 13th!

The Choirs of St. Thomas will present an Advent Service of Nine Lessons and Carols next week on Wednesday evening, December 13, at 6:00 pm in the Nave. Works by Malcolm Archer, Pavel Chesnokov and Thomas Luis de Victoria will be included, with the highlight being Franz Biebl's beloved setting of the "Ave Maria." This service is open to the public so invite you friends and neighbors! Do not miss this special "Wednesdays in Advent" at St. Thomas!

PRAY THE ROSARY FOR ADVENT WITH FATHER DONAVAN

During the season of Advent, Fr. Donavan is inviting you to join him in deepening your prayer life with the beads of the traditional Catholic Rosary! Fr. Donavan will open the church again tomorrow at 12:10pm, for 20 to 30 minutes of praying the Rosary with reading of scripture from the King James Version of the Bible. This scriptural Rosary will continue every Friday in Advent through December 22nd.

Each and every Advent season calls us to prayer and preparation, and the Rosary can offer you a moving, tactile way to deepen your spirituality and prayer life. Whether you've always prayed with Rosary beads or have never held a Rosary before, this is your opportunity to experience the ancient Christian practice of praying with beads.

The church will have plenty of Rosaries to give out to everyone who needs one, so you can bring your own or simply come into the church and pick one up here. And remember, Fr. Donavan is using the older, traditional 50 bead Catholic rosary and not the shorter, newer Anglican rosary. The rosaries available each Friday will be Catholic rosaries.

Bring your Christmas Gifts for Shellie's Kids and Operation Santa Claus THIS SUNDAY!

Thank you to everyone who "adopted" a Shellie's Kids child for Christmas this year and for everyone who also signed up to provide a Walmart Gift Card for our neighbors receiving services from Wellstone Behavioral Health. THIS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10TH IS THE DEADLINE FOR TURNING IN YOUR GIFTS AND GIFT CARDS! Someone from both groups will be available at St. Thomas this Sunday morning to help with your drop off, so please don't forget to bring them to church or drop them off while the office is open today or tomorrow. For more details on gifts for Shellie's Kids, contact Travis Lee at (850)-503-5587 or tlee777790@gmail.com, and for more details on Operation Santa Claus, call Susan Smith at 256-503-0695.

Thank you, St. Thomas, for helping to make this Christmas season special for those in need in our community!

Children's Christmas Pageant Practice this Sunday, Dec. 10th



All St. Thomas children are invited to join Miss Kathy and Ms. Laura Beth in the Parlor from 9:30am-9:45am on Sunday, December 10 for St. Thomas Night practice. This year, we'll be performing The Best Old Fashioned Christmas Pageant Ever. After these Sunday practices, we will have an abbreviated Sunday school in Hiers Hall.

We will have one final practice the morning of Saturday, December 16 at 10:30am followed by our annual Children's Christmas Party. 

St. Thomas Night will be at 5pm on Sunday, December 17.

New Adult Christian Formation Class for Advent:

Angels in Christian Scripture & Tradition is underway now!

What are angels and how have they been understood in the Bible and in the history of the church?  What roles do angels play in the Old Testament and where do they appear in Gospel stories of Jesus and in the New Testament? Where do our understanding of angels today move from the Bible and the church and into popular culture? And, finally, do angels still interact and impact the lives of Christians today?

For the season of Advent this year, join Fr. Donavan for a 3 week class on the place of Angels in Christian scripture and tradition at 9:30 am in the Parish Hall.  Come dive deeper into what the church knows, understands, and still proclaims about these mysterious creatures of Judeo-Christian scripture and legend and be prepared to rethink all you think you know about angels.

Nominations are OPEN now for the St. Thomas Vestry

St. Thomas is preparing to elect four new Vestry members at the upcoming 2024 Annual Parish Meeting, set for Sunday, January 14th in the Parish Hall. Current vestry members, Mike Bestor, Linda Lou Hardison, Elysa Jones and Scott Moore, will be completing their terms, and if you or someone you know would be interested serving on the vestry, you can now submit the name in the box marked VESTRY in the Narthex. If you'd like to nominate someone, please be sure to discuss it with that person first to be sure they are willing to serve the three-year term. 

Vestry responsibilities include:

·Attending vestry meetings on the third Tuesday evening of each month.

·Attending the overnight vestry retreat at Camp McDowell, January 26-27.

·On a rotating basis, two vestry members count the offering and secure the building each Sunday after worship services.

·Vestry members also cook, serving and cleaning up breakfast on a rotating schedule, one Sunday per month. Each vestry member signs up for breakfast four times a year.

Please prayerfully consider if you, or someone you know, may be called to serve our parish in this important leadership role. Nominations will be closed after the 5pm St. Thomas Night pageant and dinner on December 17th, and nominations will not be accepted from the floor during the annual parish meeting.

To be nominated for the Vestry, per the Canons of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Alabama, a person must be a confirmed Episcopalian, a communicant in good standing, and known to the treasurer.

Looking for a gift to give to the church this Christmas: Make a Donation to our Clergy's Discretionary Accounts

Did you know that St. Thomas receives calls and stop-ins regularly from people in our local community seeking direct assistance for food, rent, and electric bills? It is the church's policy to never give out cash as assistance, but we can and often do call Huntsville Utilities to help with a portion of someone's utility bills, write checks to assist with rent, and give out gift cards to help with food and gas. Our clergy also occasionally get approached by people within our own parish family who need help. All of this assistance primarily comes from our Clergy's Discretionary Accounts. Clergy Discretionary Accounts, as stated in the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, are set up to allow clergy to provide direct assistance for the poor and to support church and non-profit local, national, and international organizations seeking assistance for their charitable work.

Fr. Donavan, Mtr. Ranie, and Dcn. Jeannie each have there own discretionary account for these specific reasons and those specific reasons only. If you'd like to help our clergy have funds to directly support the poor, the sick, those in specific need, and the work of the church in the world, please consider a donation this Advent-Christmas season (or anytime!) to the clergy's discretionary accounts. You can give to one of our clergy specifically, or you can simply write your check and mark the check and the envelope as a donation for "Clergy Discretionary Accounts" (make out all checks to St. Thomas) and your donation will be divided equally among St. Thomas' three clergy. Thank you!

St. Thomas Book Club

Dec. 11th

St. Thomas Book Club will meet on December 11 at 10 am in the Parlor. We are discussing All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. We'd love to have you join us. Call Elouisa Stokes at 256-604-8669 if you have any questions.

Film Screening of the Philadelphia Eleven, changed to December 11th, at Nativity

Did you know that The Episcopal Church did not always have women priests? Get to know their story and celebrate that history through the new documentary The Philadelphia Eleven. The film will be screened at The Church of the Nativity in downtown Huntsville on December 11th at Noon and again at 6PM. If you have questions please email Mtr. Ranie at associate@stthomashuntsville.org

Final 'Wednesdays in Advent' is December 20th:

Cocoa, Cookies, & Christmas Carols

Our final "Wednesdays in Advent" program this year is set for Wednesday, December 20th. Everyone is invited to come join us in the Parish Hall at 6pm for a fun and festive "Cocoa, Cookies and Christmas Carol" carol sing. Come get your Christmas cheer revved up with your favorite Christmas carols, a warm cup of hot cocoa, and some wonderful Christmas cookies.

Children and Youth Christian Formation Information

St. Thomas' Children and Youth Christian Formation classes are now underway every Sunday! We offer five different Sunday school classes for our children and youth!



Pre-K - 1st grade: Godly Play- Renee' Redfield - Hiers 4

2nd grade-3rd grade: Love First- Laura Beth Bestor - Hiers 2 (new room)

4th grade-5th grade: Thou Art- Kathie Clayton & Lila Powell - Hiers 6

6th grade-7th grade: My Faith, My Life- Sonya Carrier & Jane Allgood - Hiers 5

8th grade- 12th grade: Youth Room

Contact our Children's Ministry Coordinator, Laura Beth Bestor, at children@stthomashuntsville.org or our Youth Ministries Coordinator, The Rev. Jeannie Randall at jrann228@gmail.com if you have questions or would like to help out with this important aspect of our ministries.

Christian Formation Offering for Adults: Bible Study on Romans

Each Sunday in Conference Rm 1, we will be studying Paul's Epistle to the Romans with Mtr. Ranie. Bring a Bible and all your questions and wonderment involving Saint Paul and the messy, fascinating theology his works foster. Mtr. Ranie will be leading the class. If you have any questions, please email her at associate@stthomashuntsville.org.

"Come As You Are"

5 PM Holy Eucharist

St. Thomas' "Come as You Are" 5pm Sunday worship service is every Sunday. Dinner is now offered on the FIRST SUNDAY of each month. Our 5pm Holy Eucharist features simple hymns from the Alleluia III hymnal, good sermons preached from the floor, and Holy Communion. Come as you are and invite a friend to join you for the 5pm Evening Holy Eucharist EVERY SUNDAY at St. Thomas.

Acolyte Sign-Up Genius is now available!

Calling all youth and children 2^nd grade and older to help serve our Church by being an acolyte! Click to access the 10:30am Acolyte Schedule Sign-Up Genius which schedules through January 2024.  Please consider signing up 2-3 times to share your works.  Contact Jeannie at jrann228@gmail.com with questions.

At A Glance: December 1st - December 6th

Phone: 256.880.0247

Email: StThomas@stthomashuntsville.org