Welcome to our newsletter.

We hope this information keeps you connected to our church family. 

The day is finally here! St. Andrew’s set to become a parish on Saturday, November 9!

Some founding members of St. Andrew’s have worked for more than forty years to see this day arrive—the day we move from a mission to a parish. The Bishop’s Committee has been preparing for this moment for several years, and members have represented us before multiple committees of the diocese in the last six months. Now it’s time to celebrate! We hope you’ll join us at the Riverside Convention Center on Saturday morning. If you would like to participate in our celebratory procession, here are the details:

What should we wear?

Please wear your St. Andrew's t-shirt, a Pride t-shirt, or a solid colored shirt. We will be outside on the convention center plaza to assemble, so bring a jacket for 55° weather. If you have your St. Andrew's name tag, please bring that. 

How far is it? Are there carpools? Where should we park? 

The Riverside Convention Center is 41 miles from the church via the 241 toll road, or 50 miles via the 55/91 freeways. Carpools have been assigned and have organized their own meeting places. If you need a ride, please contact Chris Pounds immediately at chris.pounds@gmail.com or (801) 635-5967. Park at city Lot 33 at 3300 Market Street–the street level lot next to the convention center. Parking is $15 for the day. 

Where will we meet?

Meet at 9:30 a.m. on the plaza in front of the Lower Concourse (on the side facing the Marriott Hotel). We will pray, set the procession order, identify the flag and banner carriers, and practice our celebratory hymn, which you can find here. Then we’ll gather inside the convention center.

What happens next? 

At about 10:30 a.m., we’ll process into the convention, cheer, say a few words on the stage, then sing the hymn as we exit. We should be done by 11:00 a.m.

What else should we do while in Riverside?

• Tour the Convention exhibition hall (Make a donation at the UTO booth for things for which we are thankful!) 
• Farmers Market (between 5th and 6th on Main, adjacent to the Convention Center)
• Cheech Marin Center / Riverside Museum (3581 Mission Inn Ave) (4 blocks from parking)
• Mission Inn (3649 Mission Inn Avenue) (3 blocks from parking) 

Who can answer my questions?

For more information, contact Chris Pounds at chris.pounds@gmail.com or (801) 635-5967 or Kathy Cartelli at kathycartelli@gmail.com.

We hope to see you there!

In Q3, we reduced our paper usage by 2,837 sheets—almost six reams saved compared to Q2. Great job, St. Andrew’s! We will be printing fewer bulletins in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint. We realize that using a device to read the bulletin may be a daunting task, but we have several congregants who are ready to help if you need it. If we are able to purchase less paper over time, we will donate the savings to our outreach efforts. If you don’t have a device to use, but are willing to share a bulletin with your neighbor, that helps us reach our goal too.

Pastoral Care

Sunday School News

Expert day care for infants and children 3 yrs old and younger during the 10 a.m. service will be provided by Samira Sameni, a preschool teacher at our Saint Andrew’s Children’s Center. Drop-off will be in the courtyard of the Children’s Center.

Sunday School for children 4 yrs and up will be taught by Tammy Smecker-Hane, and drop off is in the courtyard of the Children’s Center. This Sunday we will be discussing prayer with examples from the UTO Prayer Book and the Book of Common Prayer. If your child still has his/her “Give Thanks” prayer book from last year (it has a yellow cover decorated with leaves and is bound with brown string), please have them bring it with them to Sunday School so we can add prayers to it. If not, then we will have some extras to give out. We will also start coloring an advent poster, a gift to our parish in December. Remember to give thanks every day for the blessings you have using your UTO Box. We’ll bring our filled UTO boxes them back to church on Dec 8, and every penny we donate will go to solving water problems in communities in the US and wider world. If you have any questions about Sunday School, please email Tammy Smecker-Hane.

United Thank Offering

The United Thanks Offering (UTO) invites every Episcopalian to NOTICE the good things that happen each day, GIVE thanks to God for your blessings, MAKE an offering for each blessing by dropping a coin in a UTO box, and every penny you donate becomes BLESSINGS for others through UTO grants. These competitive annual grants power innovative solutions to problems facing people in the US and the wider world throughout the Anglican Communion. For over 130 years, we have empowered community leaders to hold vaccine clinics, build preschools, establish community gardens in food deserts, minister to incarcerated people and so much more! Motivated by the Beatitudes to focus on the least among us, the theme of this year’s grants will be solving water problems.

Pick up your traditional blue or the new “color-your-own” UTO box in the Narthex. Then over the month challenge yourself and your family to notice the blessings in your daily lives and put a coin or dollar into your UTO box in gratitude.

We’ll hold our UTO Ingathering on Sunday, Dec 8, when we bring our UTO boxes back to Saint Andrew’s, combine our donations, and bless our offerings. Envelopes will be provided in the pews that day, too, in case you forget your box or want to donate by check. (Make it payable to Saint Andrew's Church with "UTO" in the memo line.)

In addition to participating in the Ingathering, you can donate on-line or by text:

•  Online by clicking here
•  By texting INGATHERING to 41444

For more information about UTO, go their website by clicking here or follow their Facebook page by clicking here to get up-to-date news and highlights from UTO grants. 

Stewardship 2024 - Walk in Love

This year our stewardship campaign - Walk in Love - has reached the point where we ask you to prayerfully consider how you can support the ministries, worship, and outreach of St. Andrew's. Each of us hears this call differently, just as each of us has been blessed by God differently. How will you feel God’s call to walk in love this year? How will you determine how you will share your gifts with God’s people in the world? Before you fill out the pledge card included in this letter, we invite you to pray, discuss, and discern how God is calling you to share your gifts. Whether it is increasing your annual pledge, volunteering your talents, or getting involved in a new ministry, all of us have an integral role to play in the life of St. Andrew’s, especially this year as we transition from mission to parish.

You will be receiving physical pledge cards in the mail, but if you wish to pledge online, you can do so by clicking here. Whether you pledge physically or digitally we ask that you complete your pledge by Sunday November 17, and join us for a stewardship brunch after the 10am service where we will gather in gratitude for all that we have been given.

Please consider this proportional giving chart as you determine what is right for you and your household.

How has giving or receiving a gift transformed your life? 

Please share your reflections by clicking on the button below.

Our 2024 Stewardship theme is “Walk in Love.” As we walk in love together on the next leg of our journey as a congregation, we encourage everyone to reflect on the gift that St. Andrew’s has been in our lives. 

To be good stewards of this community (that gives us life, love and hope) is to recognize the gifts of grace that we have been given and, with a grateful heart, offer up some of these gifts - our time, talent, and treasure - to God and to one another. 

We invite you to prayerfully consider how you can help sustain our life-giving community. Whether by getting involved in a new ministry or pledging more financial support, you make a difference. The gifts we give - and receive - transform and enrich us, our community, and our relationship to God.

Formal pledge cards will be mailed in early November. Thank you for sharing your reflections on the theme of stewardship!

Yours in fellowship,

Deb Calkins and Chris Sardo

Stewardship Co-Chairs 

Prayer Shawl Ministry - November 12

The Prayer Shawl Ministry meets this coming Tuesday, November 12 at 3:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Court. Contact Sharon Brooks for more information.

Book Group - November 13

The Virtual Book Group meets weekly on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. followed by noonday prayer. Scroll down to Events and Activities on our website homepage for the new reading. To be added to the Zoom invitation please contact the office.

Webinar on Climate Change - November 20

Internationally renowned climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe will keynote a diocese-wide webinar set for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20 by the Bishop’s Commission on Climate Change. Attendees are asked to register by clicking here.

Hayhoe is chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy and a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University, where she is also an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. In addition, she is a principal investigator for the Department of Interior’s South-Central Climate Adaptation Science Center and the National Science Foundation’s Global Infrastructure Climate Network.

Hayhoe notes that her research “currently focuses on establishing a scientific basis for assessing the regional to local-scale impacts of climate change on human systems and the natural environment. To this end, I analyze observations, compare future scenarios, evaluate global and regional climate models, build and assess statistical downscaling models, and constantly strive to develop better ways of translating climate projections into information relevant to agriculture, ecosystems, energy, infrastructure, public health, and water resources.”

Three Journeys: Where We've Been

Orange County Women's Chorus

December 7 and December 8

Kathy Baldasari, Mary Langsdorf, and Ellen Quandahl invite you to Three Journeys: Where We’ve Been, on December 7 and 8 at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Corona del Mar and St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, Huntington Beach.

The OCWC invites audiences to share in the souvenirs they’ve brought back from their three international tours. Hear music for the season for voices and instruments from England and Wales, Canada, and Croatia—plus a special bonus finale from the ensemble’s 2022 Carnegie Hall debut.

This program’s opening concert will take place at a new location—St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, 3233 Pacific View Drive, Corona Del Mar, CA 92625. The second performance of this winter concert and all subsequent concerts this season will be held at the choir’s usual venue, St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, 18631 Chapel Lane, Huntington Beach, CA 92646.

Ticketing Information:

Single tickets* are $35 for adults; $30 for seniors; $15 for students

*Ticketing fees of $2, $1.75, and $1.50, respectively, applied at purchase.

Purchase a season subscription for the best pricing and other benefits! For more information, visit the OCWC website.

A Look Ahead.........

  NOVEMBER

·        11/9 - Diocesan Convention – Riverside Convention Center

·        11/11 - Veterans Day (Monday)

·        11/17 - St. Andrew’s Day / Gratitude Sunday

DECEMBER

·        12/1 - Advent Begins

·        12/8 - UTO Ingathering – Bring your UTO Boxes back to church

·        12/8 - Alternative Gift Fair – Day 1 – 8am & 10am services

·        12/12 - Women's Advent Gathering – 5pm to 7pm

·        12/15 - Alternative Gift Fair – Day 2 – 10am service

·        12/21 - Blue Christmas - 5pm

·        12/22 - Advent 4, Greening of the Church

·        12/24 - Tuesday-Christmas Eve 5pm Holy Eucharist with Choir

·        12/25 - Wednesday-Christmas Day (Service: 10am Said Holy Eucharist)

Pray for Peace in the Holy Land

The Rt. Rev. John Harvey Taylor asks us to pray for peace and keep in our hearts the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and its archbishop, the Rt. Rev. Hosam Naoum. Bishop Taylor has written to him on our diocese’s behalf and invites us to make a gift to the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which supports the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Archbishop Naoum calls on all to unite in prayer for reconciliation.

Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church | 949-559-4699

The Very Rev. Peter Browning, Vicar

office@standrewsirvine.org | www.standrewsirvine.org

 Office Administration Hours:

 In-office: Monday and Thursday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

 Remote: Tuesday and Wednesday 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.