Search This Blog

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Purify Our Conscience

Grace Episcopal Church
Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes
18 December 2014

As we draw closer to the end of the calendar year, it is natural to think about what will happen in the year to come.  We like to make plans, albeit realizing that whatever we intend to be different will have to wait until after the busyness of the Christmas holiday season.  But in planning we must remind ourselves that God’s purpose is best accomplished when we get our own wills out of the way and allow God’s will to work in us.  The initiative is with God, as recognized in collect for the fourth Sunday of Advent:
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.
Notice that the Collect doesn't describe us as active but God as active.  Like Joseph in the nativity story we are to make ourselves available to God, to hear His message and respond to it.  We need to be ready to receive the message of the Gospel.  We need to open our hearts and minds to allow God to enter into and dwell within us, to allow the message of hope that we receive in this season of Advent to become the hope that lives within us; the hope that life is everlasting in Christ Jesus. 
How do we do this; how do we open our hearts and minds to God?  Again, the Collect tells us that it is not by our own power and of our own will alone that we can be open to God.  We pray that our conscience—that is our heart and mind—may be purified by God.  Purified how?  By God’s daily visitation; by the fact that at all times God reaches out to us and calls us to Him.  To the extent we don’t resist that touch, that call, we can then receive God, and in receiving Him come to know His truth:  that Jesus is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
As we prepare for our annual celebration of the incarnation of God, let’s focus on one plan that does very much involve our individual wills.  This plan is to make ourselves each more available to God.  We can do this by inviting God into a “daily visitation,” in prayer, in the reading and study of Scripture, in attendance on worship, in the offering of thanksgiving and praise, in inviting others to know God in worship.  Let God’s will be done by giving Him your will.

Grace abounds:  Please thank:
§  Bob and Hanne Hanlon, and Paul and Andrea Aparcio for the Sunday coffee hours.
§  Jane Hanson for help in the office.
§  Pat Ford Smith for work to put visitor crosses together with parish “leave behind cars”.

Small bookmark shaped cards are available for you to give to friends when you talk about the church.  These cards list the times of all of our prayer and worship serives, how to get mor einformation, when Bible study and adult education meet, etc.  The cards are available in the office or in the Ontario Avenue entrance to the nave.  The supply in the office is packaged with small olive wood crosses.  These “leave behind cards” should always be offered to visitors, but also take a supply with yoiu to share in outreach.
Call for ContributionsIf you have a spiritual reflection to share, or want to point your fellow worshippers toward a resource, submit your contributions to Fr. Karl (by email) by Wednesday in the week of publication.

Youth Ministry:  This Saturday we are going to be having a Family Movie Night. Everyone is invited to join us as we watch The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen. Our evening begins at 6:00 pm and will end right around 8:00 pm. Theater style popcorn, juice, coffee and tea will be served. Feel free to bring a snack for yourself, a seat if you want to a different type of chair (bean-bag chair, etc...), or to wear comfortable clothing (pajamas are perfectly acceptable). 

Plans for a Family Game Night are in the works to take place in January. More information about this as plans develop.
Thank you for your support, and participation!                                                    ―Nick

Ministry Opportunities:  At a recent parish forum questions were raised about how people are asked to serve in specific ministries.  The long and short answer is that people are not asked; rather, they ask to serve.  A complete list of parish ministries is found on the parish website, www.gracesheboygan.com.  Ministry opportunities are listed under the following headings (found in the pull-down menu in the top banner):
  • Worship:  Ministry Opportunities  Descriptions include those of lector, acolyte, altar guild, greeter, lay eucharistic minister, usher, verger.
  • Outreach:  Separate headings are found for Our Community, Our Nation, and Our World.  Under each heading ministries are described, such as work with The Salvation Army.  Contact information is provided, or, if it is left undefined you can always contact the parish office.
  • Grace Ministries and Spiritual Gifts:  A lengthy menu allows you to explore an inventory and description of spiritual gifts and how these gifts relate to ministries of the parish.
Don’t forget the choir!  Singers are needed.  You can contact Dr. Benjamin Dobey for more details about the music ministries of the parish.
What’s not on the list?  What is not on the list is what Our Lord is calling you to offer as a ministry.  If you believe you are called to a ministry not listed, please come forward so that we can recruit others to serve with you.

Who are the unchurched?  These are people in the community around us who profess some degree of faith; they speak some langauge of faith, but are not affiliated with any church.  These are the “low hanging fruit” in outreach.  Chracteristics of this group can be reviewed here:

Music this week:  The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Prelude                        Three Verses on Creator of the Stars of Night                                Titelouze
Entrance Hymn 72      “Hark! The glad sound! The Savior comes”                                  Richmond
Offertory Hymn 56     “O come, O come, Emmanuel”                                             Veni Emmanuel
Communion Motet      Ave Maria                                                                                         Arcadelt
Comm. Hymn 60        “Creator of the stars of night”                                              Conditor alme siderum
Closing Hymn 436      “Lift up your heads, ye might gates”                                                    Truro
Postlude                      Prelude on Venez Divin Messie                                                           Benoit

Christmas:  Music will be offered at all three Christmas services (4 and 10:30 p.m. on 24 December, and 9 a.m. on Christmas Day), but as of the publication of this update we only have details for the late service on the 24th:

Prelude at 10:30pm
Organ              Prelude on God rest ye merry                                                Wilbur Held
Cello                Adagio cantabile; Largo (Sonata in E)                                   François Francouer  
Lindsay Fischer, cello
Flute duet        Pastorale from the Christmas Concerto                                 Arcangelo Corelli
                        Sandie Palmer and Sutton Cecil, flutes
                        Lindsay Fischer, cello
Hymn 81         “Lo, how a rose e’er blooming”                                              Es ist ein Ros
Choir               Still, still, still                                                   Austrian carol, arr. Norman Luboff
Hymn 105       “God rest ye merry, gentlepersons”                                        God rest ye merry
Choir               Christmas Night                                  16th century French melody, arr. John Rutter
                        Unto us is born a Son               Medieval Scandinavian carol, arr. David Willcocks

Solemn High Mass at 11pm
Introit (sung in Latin)        Dominus dixit                                                        Medieval Plainsong
Antiphon:  The Lord hath said unto me: Thou art my Son, this day have begotten thee.
Psalm:      Why do the nations so furiously rage together: and why do the people imagine
      a vain thing?
                  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
      As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Antiphon:  The Lord hath said unto me: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Hymn 83         O come all ye faithful                                                              John Francis Wade
Offertory 79    O little town of Bethlehem                                                       Phillip Brooks
Agnus Dei (choir, sung in Latin)         Missa de Angelis (Mass of the Angels)  Medieval Plainsong
            Lamb of God, who takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
            Lamb of God, who takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
            Lamb of God, who takest away the sin of the world, grant us thy peace.
Communion Motets     O little one sweet                              Old German melody, harm. J. S. Bach
Infant holy, infant lowly                            Polish carol, arr. David Willcocks
Comm. Hymn 111   Silent night, holy night     Joseph Mohr
Closing Hymn  96  Angels we have heard on high  French carol
Postlude                 Allegro giocoso from the Christmas Concerto                         Ricardo Liberti

December 25th at 9am

Entrance Hymn 83                    “O come, all ye faithful”
Gloria in excelsis                       New English Folk Mass
Offertory Hymn 87                   “Hark! the herald angels sing”
Sanctus & Agnus Dei                New English Folk Mass
Communion Hymn 115             “What child is this”

Closing Hymn 96                      “Angels we have heard on high”

Parish Notices

§  Christmas Flowers: If you would like to donate for Christmas flowers please fill out the slip of paper in the mass booklet, include a designation for memorials and/or thanksgivings. Deadline to be included in the list of donors in the Christmas mass booklets is this Monday, December 22, at noon. Please make checks out to Grace Church with Christmas flowers/music in the memo.

§  Youth and Children’s Choir: The final rehearsal will be Sunday, December 21st at 9:00am. The choir is open to 2nd graders through high school, and will sing for the 4pm service on Christmas Eve.

§  Christmas Pageant Rehearsals: Participation is open to youth of all ages. The Pageant will take place during the 4:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass. Please sign up on the sheet in the Narthex. If your child would like to participate but cannot make rehearsals please note that on the sheet or call the office.

§  Christmas Joy: is scheduled to meet on Monday, December 22 at 11:00am in the church kitchen. At that time we will assemble winter greens and flowers and bag cookies, and then make deliveries (there is a sign-up sheet in the narthex.) We need helping hands and money (to buy for packaging supplies and flowers.) Can you bake, make a delivery or help arrange? Please join us for this fulfilling and fun ministry to our shut-ins. They will appreciate it. If you have questions please call Barb MacEwen at 467-6909. 

§  2014 Pledge Statements: Please make every effort to pay the remainder of your pledge before the end of the year. If you need to know your balance, please call the office at 452-9659. If you want tax credit for your pledge paid in 2014, you must have the payment in the office by Tuesday, December 30th. A check dated the 30th, but arriving later cannot be counted as paid in 2014. All payments received after the 30th will be credited in 2015. Thank you so much.

§  Directory Update: We will be printing a new directory to be finished in time for the Annual Meeting on January 25th. Please check your entry to make sure your address, phone and email are all correct. The draft can be found on the narthex table. Thank you.

§  The Feast of the Epiphany: We will celebrate the Feast of Epiphany Tuesday, January 6th. Parishioners and their guests are invited to Solemn Mass beginning at 6:00 p.m. followed by a gala reception. Please sign up in the narthex or by calling the church office at 452-9659.


§  Flower Schedule for 2015: Giving the gift of flowers is a wonderful way to remember a loved one or to offer thanksgiving for your blessings. If you wish to sign up for a specific Sunday, the Flower Schedule is available on the table in the narthex. More than one person can sign up for each Sunday.

No comments:

Post a Comment