We are a Christian community seeking to know and unconditionally share God's unfailing love.

Weekly Newsletter

Thursday, December 21

• Blue Christmas Service at 6:00pm in the Chapel (see below)

Sunday, December 24

• Morning Eucharist at 10:00am
• Children's Pageant at 4:00pm
• Table Singers' Christmas Eve Service at 7:00pm
• Christmas Eve with The St. Wilfrid Choir and Orchestra at 10:30pm

Monday, December 25

• The Church, Office, and Preschool will be closed in celebration of Christmas

Tuesday, December 26

• The Church, Office and Preschool will be closed in celebration of Christmas
• Tuesday's Bible Study will resume in January

Wednesday, December 27

• Morning Prayer Service at 7:15am in the Chapel
• The Office and Preschool will be closed in celebration of Christmas

Thursday, December 28

• The Church, Office, and Preschool will be closed in celebration of Christmas

Friday, December 29

• The Church, Office, and Preschool will be closed in celebration of Christmas

Sunday, December 31

• Guest Preacher the Rev. Jonathan Stoner
• Wisdom Potluck and New Year's Eve Afternoon Games in Sacquety Hall

Monday, January 1

• The Church and Office will be closed in celebration of Christmas

Tuesday, January 2

• Preschool reopens after Christmas Break

Wednesday, January 3

• Weekly Holy Eucharist Service at 7:15am in the Chapel
• Engagement Committee Meeting at 6:00pm in Fr. Nathan's Office

Saturday, January 6

• Epiphany Morning Prayer Service at 9:00am in the Chapel

Sunday, January 7

• The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ Sunday
• Youth Group Meeting at 4:30pm in the Youth Center

Tuesday, January 9

• Rector's Bible Study at 11:00am in Room 11/12

Wednesday, January 10

• Weekly Holy Eucharist Service at 7:15am in the Chapel

Sunday, January 14

• Small Change Sunday to support our Laundry Love Ministry
• Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at 4:00pm at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Los Angeles (see below)

Monday, January 15

• The Office and Preschool will be closed in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Tuesday, January 16

• Grief Group Meeting at 9:30am in the Office
• Rector's Bible Study at 11:00am in Sacquety Hall
• Men's Group Meeting at 7:30pm in the Office

Wednesday, January 17

• Weekly Holy Eucharist Service at 7:15am in the Chapel
• Laundry Love at 5:30pm at Huntington Coin Laundry

Sunday, January 21

• Youth Group Meeting at 4:30pm in the Youth Center

Monday, January 22

• Vestry Meeting at 6:00pm in Sacquety Hall

Tuesday, January 23

• Rector's Bible Study at 11:00am in Sacquety Hall

Wednesday, January 24

• Weekly Holy Eucharist Service at 7:15am in the Chapel

Saturday, January 27

• Wisdom Luncheon at 11:30am in Sacquety Hall

Sunday, January 28

• One Service at 10:00am in the Sanctuary with Guest Preacher, the Rev. Karen Maurer
• Annual Parish Meeting after the service in Sacquety Hall

Tuesday, January 30

• Rector's Bible Study at 11:00am in Sacquety Hall

Wednesday, January 31

• Weekly Holy Eucharist Service at 7:15am in the Chapel

Many people want to make an extra donation at Christmas, often to honor a special person as a memorial or thanksgiving. We welcome these gifts because of the good they do and because of the impact they make on our community.

Our Flower Guild enhances our Sanctuary with poinsettias; Christmas music makes a profound impact, opening members and visitors alike to the miracle of God's love and grace.

If you would like to support the mission and ministries of St. Wilfrid's by giving online, please click the link below.

Some of you have been particularly observant and noticed that, at the beginning of the season of Advent, there has been a slight change at the Consecration of the bread and the wine. To enhance the worship of our Advent season, St. Wilfrid's borrowed a Santus Bell from Fr. Lee Walker+, a former Associate Priest at St. Wilfrid’s.

Did you notice a change in the way the Santus Bell sounds? It is rung twice. The first time is when the priest lifts the bread up above their head after saying the words of the Consecration, "On the night before he died for us, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread…." It is rung a second time when the chalice is lifted up after these words, "After supper, he took the cup…."

I hope that you have been enjoying hearing our temporary use of the Santus Bell with its deeper and more vibrant ring. Fr. Lee+ has graciously offered to let us use it through Easter Day. He also lent us one other item, but to provide some foreshadowing, this second item will not make an appearance until Holy Week, the week before Easter.

However, I suspect that Easter is hardly on anyone's mind since we are just days away from celebrating Christmas. This Sunday is Christmas Eve! Instead of two Sunday morning services, we will be having one service at 10am, to celebrate the fourth Sunday in Advent. Then, later in the day, we will celebrate the birth of Christ with three Christmas Eve Services.

Our first Christmas Eve gathering is the Christmas Pageant, our family service, at 4:00pm. The core of this service is the children’s reenactment of the Nativity Story. For many families, this is the perfect service because it gives all children an opportunity to participate. There is still time for any child to be a part of this service. If your children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren would like to join this moving and fun family service, please arrive at 3:15pm and we will be sure to have a costume ready.

Then, at 7:00pm, we have our Table Singers’ Christmas Eve Service, joyfully proclaiming the Good News of Jesus’ birth. This balances the more classical elements of an Episcopal service within a more contemporary musical setting.

The St. Wilfrid’s Choir and Orchestra’s Christmas Eve Service begins at 10:30pm. The music of the season, sung beautifully by our talented choir, offers a stunningly moving selection of Christmas Carols. This service is designed to conclude at midnight as we welcome an early Christmas morning together.

With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday, we will not be offering any services on Christmas Day this year.

I want to wish each and every one of you a very special and meaningful holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Many blessings,

Fr. Nathan Biornstad+

Rector

Sometimes, due to loss, grief, or for whatever reason, it can be hard to enter into the joy of the season. We acknowledge this reality, not by pretending that it doesn’t exist, but by acknowledging that God is with us, even when we may feel otherwise. The Blue Christmas Service provides an opportunity for people to come just as they are – they don’t have to pretend that they are happy when they are feeling sad, pretend to be engaged when they feel despondent, or smile when they feel isolated or lonely. This service is designed to provide space for those who have something to lament and to reflect God’s radical welcome – that we can come to God no matter where we are on our spiritual journey, no matter what our recent experiences have been.  

Join St. Wilfrid’s as we launch the season of Epiphany with a special Morning Prayer Service on Saturday, January 6th at 9:00am in the Chapel. The Season of Epiphany begins after 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany marks the arrival of the Wise Men on their fateful journey to Bethlehem and concludes with the dramatic revelation of Jesus' identity as the Son of God.

This season is a special time where we reflect on the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the world. It reminds us of the importance of seeking and finding Jesus in our lives, just as the Wise Men did. During this season, we are called to renew our faith and deepen our relationship with God. We invite you to join us in this celebration and to start the new year with a renewed sense of purpose and hope. We look forward to seeing you on January 6th.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Well here we are right in the middle of preparations for Christmas. There are those of us who are pumped, those of us who are suffering, and those of us who are in between. But where ever we are we have the love of our St Wilfrid community expressing the love of God.

Wisdom celebrates our togetherness every month and December is no different. But we do not celebrate Wisdom with a luncheon, instead we have a New Years Eve Game Day. And since it is on a Sunday this year we will start at 12pm right after 10:30 service. There will be sandwiches, make your own tacos and more. Please bring something to share.

We will have games or you can watch the movie "Fly Away". It's a great way to welcome the New Year, have some fun and still be home before dark. Hope to see you then in the mean time stay safe.

The Diocese of Los Angeles, through the Program Group on Black Ministries, will present its annual Martin Luther King Day celebration. If you would like to attend, please sign up to carpool from St. Wilfrid's at the SCRIP table on Sundays or by calling the office.

Featured speaker will be the Rev. Ron Byrd, missioner for African Descent Ministries for The Episcopal Church. 

Byrd, who took part in a panel discussion on new communities at the L.A. diocese's Nov. 10 - 11 annual convention, is a strong proponent of entrepreneurial ministry and leadership development. He worked for 20 years in executive management, including positions at four Fortune 500 companies. He has served as a deputy to General Convention, a design team member for international Black clergy conferences; and as lead consultant for the Episcopal Church Foundation’s newest leadership development program, Vital Teams.

In 2011, Byrd and the congregation of St. Katherine’s Episcopal Church in Williamston, Mich., created and launched Forster Woods Adult Day Center, a facility that ministers to persons living with dementia and other physical and mental impairments.

A food reception will follow the service. All are welcome.

This was submitted by one of our parishioners. Please send us your service experience to share.

Our recent sermon reminded us to live our theology in our world, so that our community knows and unconditionally shares God’s unfailing love.

One opportunity to share is the Huntington Beach Public Library. Volunteer service work includes the Circulation Department, Computer Coach, Friends of the Children’s Library and general library, the Homework Club, Genealogy and Literacy Programs, both adult and family. The family literacy program improves the English language skills in our neighboring Oak View School library branch. Click the link below to learn more about the volunteer opportunities at our local library.

Please share with us at St. Wilfrid’s your experience in living God’s good news to all.

We have a new website!

Our new website is designed with you in mind. With a sleek and modern look, it's easier than ever to navigate and find the information you need. Whether you're a longtime member or a first-time visitor, our website has everything you need to know about St. Wilfrid’s. 

We understand how important it is to have a seamless online experience, which is why our website is optimized for all devices. Whether you're on your desktop, tablet, or mobile phone, our website is easy to use and navigate.

So what are you waiting for? Visit our new website today at www.stwilfridschurch.org to see all the exciting things we have in store!

The promise of the Nativity: A Christmas message

My siblings in in Christ:

May you and yours have a blessed Christmas and New Year.

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge scenes of his childhood. The movie versions we love capture the sights but usually not the smells. “He was conscious of a thousand odors floating in the air,” Dickens writes, “each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long, long forgotten.”

So too with most of us. While I have been around Christmas decorations all month, I didn’t get a good whiff of pine needles until the evening of the third Sunday of Advent, from the boughs encircling the baptismal font at St. John’s Cathedral. Bending down to smell again, I was briefly back as a little boy with my tiny family at the Eastern Market in Detroit, looking for a Christmas tree, anxiously understanding how important it was to holiday success that the tree be just right, the ideal tree, the best tree ever, our limited finances permitting.

Thousands of thoughts, hopes, joys, and cares – hundreds of thousands, millions, if we’re counting for a whole diocesan community. Wanting to make Christmas perfect, or never having had a perfect Christmas. Looking forward to being with those we love, or conscious mainly of those we’ve lost. Praying for peace on earth, yet finding that peace seems scarcer than ever. Wanting the Child to be safe, while knowing that children are dying daily in a terrible war in the land of His birth.

In all, Christ is our pastor and advocate, our counselor and pioneer. Advent and Christmas twin the promise of the Nativity, God with us, with Christ’s return in majesty to inaugurate God’s realm of justice, peace, righteousness, and love. In the work we do together in mission and parish, in the diocese and Episcopal Church-wide, we help make straight the Savior’s path. May all the sights and smells of this season, all the fellowship, comfort, and joy, fortify and embolden us to continue our community’s shared work of glorifying God and caring for God’s people.

Yours in the name of the baby born at Bethlehem to save the world.

The Rt. Rev. John Harvey Taylor

VII Bishop of Los Angeles

‘The Philadelphia 11’ documentary evokes memories of women’s struggle for equality in the church

By Pat McCaughan

For the Rev. Canon Judy Heffron, grainy 8-millimeter home video footage documenting the “irregular” ordinations of eleven women at the Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia nearly 50 years ago, unleashed a flood of emotional memories.

“It was very powerful,” Heffron told The Episcopal News recently. “To see and hear them actually speak about those personal experiences … was very, very moving. As a woman at that time, my heart resonated with what they were experiencing in terms of rejection,” said Heffron, retired dean of Deanery Six, who was ordained a priest in 1982 in the Los Angeles diocese.

Heffron, retired rector of Holy Trinity Church, Covina, joined about 75 others who gathered Dec. 16 at Claremont’s Laemmle Theater to view the film. As the 50th anniversary of those ordinations approaches July 29, 2024, filmmakers Margot Guernsey and Nikki Bramley felt it was a “story for everyone … about how to break down barriers with grace, and be true to oneself in the process,” according to the film website. “And it is about standing up to institutions that do not allow all people to be who they are called to be.”

Deanery Six hosted the screening, according to the Rev. Jennifer Hughes, who serves at St. Peter’s Church in Rialto, and helped organize the event along with the Rev. Jessie Smith, rector of St. Ambrose Church in Claremont.

Read more here.