~ the eSPIRE Newsletter ~
December 22, 2019
The Fourth Sunday in Advent
No inSPIRE the next two weeks
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- Wednesdays Alive! service, supper, and classes: Resume January 8
- Rector's Bible Study: Resumes January 9
- Sunday School, Rector’s Forum: Resume January 5
The church office will close at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, December 23, and will reopen at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 2.
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Drop Your $25 Gift Cards off today!
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It’s not too late to drop off your $25 gift card to Walmart, Target, Big Lots, Family Dollar, or Dollar Tree to bless a local family in need or a Sanders-Clyde Elementary School teacher at Christmas! For more information about this endeavor, please click below.
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A Christmas Story
by David L. Gilbert, St. Philip's Youth Minister
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The Christmas Eve service is so beautiful and special to my heart for so many reasons. I was raised in a non-Christian home and didn’t come to the Lord until I was 22. I was visiting Charleston for Christmas (this was before Jordan Warlick and I were wed) and it was my first time meeting her parents, Bill and Carolyn Warlick. They discovered I wasn’t a Christian and started asking me questions and dared me to think deeply about Christianity being the Truth. So on Christmas Eve when Bill asked, “Who wants to go to the Christmas Eve service at St. Philip’s?”, I quickly said, “I will go!”
My motives were not pure. I was trying to win him over and show him that I was just the kind of guy his daughter should marry! But God’s motives were pure and Jesus began a work in me that unraveled all my defenses.
After the Gospel was preached I knew I had to ask Jesus into my heart forever! I did and sat there floored by the power of God, the music, and the presence of his people. I wept when the lights went out and the church sang, “Silent Night, Holy Night.” I had heard that song hundreds of times before on the radio, but I had never heard it in a church and never with the power of the Holy Spirit showing me truth after truth through each stanza! I had no idea what God had in store for my life and there was no way I could have imagined that it would lead me to be a volunteer leader and then youth pastor at St. Philip’s for 16 years. It is my joy to invite you and your loved ones to the very service that saved my soul!
Pictured above: David Gilbert with his future wife, Jordan Warlick
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Lessons and Carols: A Team Effort
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Preparations for this year’s Lessons and Carols service, which falls annually on the Third Sunday in Advent, began months ago when Pat Gould, the St. Philip’s Choir director; Jo Hethcox, director of the Cherub, St. Nicholas, Canterbury, and St. David Choirs; and Andrea White, the St. Cecilia Choir director, began choosing the anthems their choristers would be singing to drive home the message of our salvation that would be told through the nine lessons.
The Friday before the service, the Flower Guild led other members of the ECW (Every Church Woman), along with a crowd of volunteers, in “greening” the church, which for some meant getting several feet above their comfort zone as wreaths were hung above gates, and lights and ornaments were draped about the 12-feet-tall tree in the narthex.
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Top: Sexton Ben Singleton hangs a bow on the wreath above the south gate; Above: Gene Lesesne (left), who once again headed up the Wassail Bowl reception, with Officer Karen Nix and DuBose Blakeney.
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Grace and Mercy at Christmas
by Martha Vetter, World Missions Committee
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During this Advent season, as we anticipate the beauty of Christmas, I am forever grateful to those who have walked alongside of me in this ministry to our friends at the Dufatanye Organization (DO) in Rwanda. As we have shared during the prayers on Sundays at St. Philip’s, the DO is a nonprofit organization that ministers to victims of genocide and AIDS. This ministry assists in four different areas: The Dufatanye Cooperative, which is a farm; the Dufatanye Ministry Center, a community center; The Village of Hope, an outreach to the impoverished community near our site; and Medical Ministry and Navigation, where we assist sick and traumatized people at the DO and in the surrounding area.
The over-arching purpose of this ministry is to bring Jesus Christ, the living Word and the written Word, to all peoples with whom we minister. It is our prayer and desire that all may enter into a vibrant, growing relationship with Christ as their Savior and Lord.
Recently, I have been particularly moved by the story of a man I’ll call “Ishmael” who has been a DO member since before 2006. Throughout the years, though Ishmael has been a Muslim for much of his life, he has attended almost every one of my and others’ Bible studies at our Ministry Center. He always sits in the first or second row and eagerly participates in our discussions and skits. All this time, he has straddled the fence between his Islamic faith and his interest in Christianity.
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Last month, St. John’s Chapel, a mission church of our diocese, hosted “Unity in the Community,” an afternoon of BBQ, music, and fellowship that aimed to foster peace while raising funds for security in a neighborhood plagued by crime. St. Philip’s made a donation to the cause and helped promote the event, and the leadership of St. John’s was very grateful:
To the Congregation of St. Philip’s,
Thank you, brothers and sisters, for your amazing support of St. John’s Chapel on the Eastside in standing with us for our Unity in the Community endeavor. Your generosity allowed us to fulfill our mission, successfully bringing disparate groups on the Eastside together as one agreeing on one need in common––better security and safety in the neighborhood.
We far exceeded our goals with God looking down and supporters like you. We’re getting ready to install Ring cameras throughout the Eastside as a tool to deter crime and, if committed, bring criminals to justice. Thank you for standing with us.
In Christ,
MaryAnne Poole, Vestry
The Rev. Matthew Rivers, Vicar
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Reminder: Vestry Nominations Due January 5
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As the deadline to submit names to the Nominating Committee rapidly approaches, please prayerfully consider those St. Philippians you feel would be faithful stewards of the bounty God has given us and who would help lead our parish spiritually.
The wardens’ letter regarding the nomination process was emailed in November. A link to letter is below, and copies are available in the church office and in the narthex. Please submit names to Dorothy Lancaster, Nominating Committee member (
doroathome@yahoo.com), or to Rachel Murphy, Executive Assistant to the Rector (
rmurphy@stphilipschurchsc.org).
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Mission to LAMB in Honduras Coming Up in March
Information session Sunday, January 12, in the Parlor after the 10:30 service
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Jeff and Connie Rink will be leading a mission team to LAMB in Honduras March 7-14, 2020. All ages are welcome––youth under 18 must be accompanied by a parent.
The team will be taking much-needed dental care to the children at LAMB and beyond, working at the LAMB Children’s home on a building project, loving and ministering to the LAMB community, and seeing with our own eyes all that God is doing there for the Kingdom.
Please come to the informational meeting and learn more about this wonderful
opportunity to go to LAMB in Honduras!
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Would you like to take another listen to Sunday's sermon? Or were you out of town and you missed it the first time? Sermons, the Rector's Forum, and more are available on our website,
stphilipschurchsc.org/sermons-classes.
Accompanying slide presentations for certain classes are also available for download.
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Never miss a sermon! Click below to subscribe to our Sermons podcast.
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SAVE THE DATE
Dec. 18 ~ Community Carol Sing and Lunch (12:30 p.m.)
Dec. 24–Jan. 1 ~ Church office closed
Dec. 24 ~ Christmas Eve Services
• 4:30 p.m. Christmas Pageant (
click here
to register your child)
• 7:30 p.m. Holy Eucharist: Rite I (children’s choirs)
• 10:30 p.m. Holy Eucharist: Rite I (St. Philip’s Choir)
Dec. 25 ~ Christmas Day Service (10:00 a.m.)
Jan. 5 ~ Epiphany Fellowship Brunch (after 10:30 service)
Jan. 8 ~
First
Second Wednesday Men’s Lunch (12 noon)
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Membership Directory
Are you looking for a fellow parishioner's contact information? Our directory is online! Click the "My St. Philip's" button on our homepage,
stphilipschurchsc.org
, to log in or sign up for an account. And for easy access on your phone, download the Church Life app!
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Do you have a loved one you would like added to our prayer list?
Please provide his or her name by calling the church office, 843-722-7734
.
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We pray for the sick:
Katie Burris; Kelly Corlett; Elizabeth Flowers; Meredith Gale; Robert Gould; Tracy Graudin; Janet Hanger; Jonathan Hanger; Delia Hipp; Bobby Hood, Sr.; Patricia Irvin; Barbara Lisle; Joe Livesay; Miller Love; Jacqui Luce; Peter Moore; Stuart Philp; Aranell Ray; Edmund Rhett; Benjamin Schools; David Smythe; and Lindsey Wing.
We grieve with and pray for: Wallace Marshall and family on the death of his brother, Jonathan Marshall, on December 12.
We pray for our expectant parents:
Ryan and Jennie Emerson, Oliver and
Courtney Iselin.
We pray for protection for:
Becca Baird, Julia Beasley, Graham Blunt, Henry Clayton, Ben Colyer, David Daughtridge, Hayes Fair, George Hoefer, Andrew Kane, Charles Kirkman, Frazier Kulze,
John Mason,
Ned Montgomery, Edward Pritchard, and David Scott serving in our Armed Forces.
We pray for our home missions:
Star Gospel Mission, Tricounty Family Ministries, Life Resources, St. John's Chapel, and the Open Door Committee.
We pray for our world missions:
For Suzy McCall and LAMB, for the medical missions to Honduras, for ministry to victims of genocide and AIDS in Rwanda, for 10/40 Tribal Commission, for Water Mission, and for St. Jean Baptiste, our sister church, and the schools in Haiti.
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St. Philip's Regular Weekly Worship Services
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Collect for
the Fourth Sunday in Advent
:
We beseech thee, Almighty God, to purify our consciences by thy daily visitation, that when thy Son Jesus Christ 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
- Romans 1:1-7
- Matthew 1:18-25
- Psalm 24
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Sundays
8:15 a.m. – Holy Communion: Rite I, in the Church
10:30 a.m. – Holy Communion: Rite I, in the Church (on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays)
10:30 a.m. – Morning Prayer: Rite I, in the Church (on the 2nd and 4th Sundays)
Wednesdays
8:00 a.m. – Morning Prayer, 1928 Prayer Book, in the Chapel
5:30 p.m. – Wednesdays Alive! Holy Communion: Rite II, in the Church (Sept.–June)
Lay server schedules are sent out quarterly, one month prior to the start of each quarter.
If you are unable to serve, please make an effort to find a substitute, and let
Felicia Lescow
in the church office know who will be substituting for you.
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ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH
142 Church Street | Charleston, SC 29401
Church Office Hours
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday | 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Friday
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HERE
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