Gentleness and Silence

Dearest Holy Comforter Family,

There is just one Sunday left in what we call “The Season after Pentecost.”  The following Sunday, when I suspect all of us will still be eating leftovers from Thanksgiving, we enter the season of Advent. With each passing year, I find myself more and more resistant to what I have come to call the “Christmaspalooza” craziness that claims it is in spending lots of money that we find the meaning of the season. I welcome the longer nights and find myself thankful for a comfortable chair, a good book to read, and the warmth of a fire burning in our fireplace.

This year at Holy Comforter, we are keeping things simple for Advent. On the 27th, immediately after church, we hope you will join us in McMaster Hall to prepare an advent wreath for your home or for one of the members of our congregation who struggles with isolation and is homebound. On the 18th of December, we will gather in McMaster again. this time, Randy will be at the piano and lead us as we sing beloved Christmas songs and then begin the final stretch before Christmas Eve. We will have a simple snack to enjoy together that Sunday before heading home.  

Although our observance of the season will be more simple than usual, there's a lot going on here at the church. Starting this Sunday, we will offer communion at the rail as we have in the past; additionally, there will be a communion station in the nave, right under the pulpit. Anyone who would prefer to avoid the steps up to the altar is more than welcome to receive communion there.

Along with starting to test some new, hopefully, safer ways of worshiping together, we continue to explore and plan for the new arts-based ministry program we look forward to launching in January. Finally, we have Vestry elections this Sunday, we have about wrapped up our stewardship drive, and the finance team is working with Diane to have a budget to present to the vestry for an initial review at the December vestry meeting.

Once again, Jan Richardson, artist, writer, UMC ordained minister, has given me just the right words as we enter into the season of Advent and a new liturgical year. 

“The Season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before. It is not possible to keep it from coming because it will. That’s just how Advent works. What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s hindquarters fade in the distance.

So stay. Sit.

Linger. Tarry.

Ponder. Wait.

Behold. Wonder.

There will be enough time for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.”

-Night Visions, Jan L. Richardson

May your days be filled with peace and joyful anticipation as we look ahead to the coming of our Messiah.  Rosa+

immediately following church service

Read about the candidates here.

WEDNESDAYS 

Stewardship: please remember to send in your pledge cards or drop them in the offering plate on Sunday. Thank you!

The music for All Saints celebration on Sunday, November 6 was drawn from a variety of traditions and was composed by a number of contemporary musicians.

The opening organ Voluntary was “A Love So Fierce and Free: A Litany” by David Ashley White, who is an American academic and composer. He is known for his choral and organ compositions. He has composed many hymn tunes that are included in hymnals, including The Hymnal 1982, and published in collections of his works. The title of this piece is from a line of a hymn text by Carl P. Daw:  Yet deep within this darkness lives a Love so fierce and free, that arcs all voids and—risk supreme!—embraces agony.

The prayer, “Nada te Turbe,” was found in the breviary of the 16th cent. Christian mystic and saint, Teresa de Ávila (1515-1582), written in her own hand. Her words have consoled countless numbers of people. It seemed the perfect piece to accompany the reading of the names of our beloved departed souls. The words remain surprisingly cogent for us today: “Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God is enough.” The music is from the Community of Taizé in France.

John Rutter is one of the most performed and well-loved contemporary English composers of both sacred and secular choral music. His Requiem is a musical setting of parts of the Latin Requiem for the Dead with added psalms and biblical verses in English, completed in 1985. The third movement is the Pie Jesu, a text that concludes the sequence Dies irae. Rutter omits the sequence but includes the prayer to Jesus for rest. It begins with a soprano soloist singing with a very light accompaniment, with only slight involvement of the chorus echoing the words "Dona eis requiem, Dona eis sempiternam requiem".

Cantad al Señor, un cántico nuevo! is a wonderful video version of the song that provided the inspiration for the closing organ voluntary at the All Saints service. The organ version was arranged by Louse Mundinger, Music Director of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. The message of the hymns is simple and clearly alludes to the Psalms; the Psalm for All Saints day says “Sing to the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.”

Many versions exist of this strong, angular hymn that boldly encourages us to sing a new song to God. Originally in Portuguese, this hymn of unknown authorship comes to us from Brazil. As it has made its way to the USA, most likely through conferences supported by the World Council of churches, it is now translated into several languages and is included in over 22 hymnals.

The hymns at the service were favorites: “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” sung to the tune “lasst uns erfreuen,” I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” and “For all the Saints” composed by Ralph Vaughn Williams.

Sunday, Nov 27ᵗʰ, 11:15 AM

Be sure to join the fun in McMaster Hall to make Advent wreaths!

We're getting busier and busier now that the word is out about the Food Pantry reopening - in four hours over 40 families were served this past Tuesday!

Winn Dixie Carter Hill chose the Food Pantry for the month of Nov. to donate one dollar for every Winn Dixie reusable bag sold—if you shop that way, be sure to stop by and purchase a reusable bag.  

Donations can be left in the bins outside McMaster Hall.

Please leave donations for the Backpack program in the basket outside

the front office window.

Thank you for your support!

November

Birthdays & Anniversaries 

Watch over thy children O Lord, as their days increase; bless and guide them wherever they may be. Strengthen them when they stand; comfort them when discouraged or sorrowful; raise them up if they fall; and in their heart may thy peace which passeth understanding abide all the days of their life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Birthdays

Rosa Lindahl, Mary Gibson, Adam Winter, Grayson Anzalone, Paul Hard, Allan Barber, Catherine Tapia, Rand Neeley, Claudene Thomas, Braxton Trest, Callie Miles, Bob Yonker, Roger Brewer, Roy Paul, Bebe Neeley

(no anniversaries)

This Saturday's Garden Workday is postponed

until a Saturday in December.

DATES to REMEMBER