Merry Christmas to all of you!
My Dear Siblings in Christ,
As I begin a new ministry as our newsletter editor, please keep me in your prayers that this missive may be a means for all of us to find God’s grace. Many, many thanks to Jo Marie and Cindy for all of their great heart, their hard work, and their spirit-filled insights. What a wonderful ministry they have had! - Bill
Selecting Our Next Missioner
In the coming months our cluster will be calling a new missioner to replace Fr. Harry. This will have a huge effect on the life of our congregation, hopefully for the better. This missioner will officially be the priest-in-charge of our congregation, and therefore have a strong voice in our congregational life.
Three members from the three congregations in our cluster will be selecting this new missioner. Bill, Dorothy, and Sandy will represent Saint Francis. Please keep them in your prayers, and let them know what you think we should be looking for.
A Clearing in the Forest
A meditation on the Collect for Advent 1
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who lives and reigns with the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
"The phrase "works of darkness" sounds melodramatic, even exotic. What can the works of darkness have to do with my humdrum, ordinary life? The answer is -- a great deal! A human life is very like the floor of a forest. Light and darkness are dappled everywhere.
Sometimes there are clearings of brilliant light, sometimes great groves of deep shadow. My darknesses are many - anger, hatred, betrayal, greed, lust, envy, depression, anxiety, fear, and many more. Many things that we "work" emerge from our inner shadows and darkness. They are our works of darkness.
Yet if we continue the image of the forest for a moment, it is very important to realize that the forest, even with all its mingling of light and darkness, is a single living form. Mysteriously my light and my darkness is one. I am not two beings, one wonderfully full of light, the other a rather horrible pool of darkness! In fact my wholeness as a human being depends on my bringing my whole self before God and offering its light and its darkness. Then I find wonderful things can begin to happen. Reconciliation can take place. Creativity can begin to flow. I begin to discover the glorious, liberating, and energizing truth that God can use both my light and my darkness.
My battle, my quest, always takes place in the ongoing events of my life. This task I may be doing now, this person I am with now, this joy or pain I am feeling now, this work of art I am experiencing now -- each of these can become the context of the spiritual, each can be the meeting place with the eternally contemporary Christ. This is what the mystery we call the Incarnation means, that the Christ comes "in the time of this mortal life," in the seemingly ordinary fabric of today's events and tasks. This is the magnificent paradox of our Lord."
Prayers for the Breaking of Bread, by Herbert O'Driscoll
(contributed by Mary Bulles, St. Francis)
It’s official!
Our Phina is officially the Ministry Developer for our cluster.
What luck!
We have already had the benefit of her presence, because she is working on the diocesan presentation to Living Stones (every diocese in North America involved in Total Ministry is part of Living Stones and meets every year to problem solve). The subject is how our diocese will support and evaluate the existing Total Ministry teams, (i.e., Willits and Colusa). It caused a lot of heartfelt discussion, soul-searching and prayer on our part, always good with Total Ministry . . . At convention we put together the TM display and a number of congregations asked for a copy of our St Francis’ PowerPoint presentation.
In The Calendar
We are taking a huge step in our ministry December 3 by opening our church every weekday from 10 AM to 2 PM. It sounds so simple and easy, but to do this forevermore for a small congregation is a huge undertaking. There is also some trepidation since we are downtown and have had a large homeless population all summer, but we have decided: prepare well, have faith, and believe . . . We are reintroducing evening Taizé services December 5 following a short Eucharist. This will be combined with choir practice. We have a choir! With Greg Schindel leading it is quite unlike other choirs, and quite spirited . . . Speaking of singing, we will again be singing at the Willits inter-denominational sing, Dec. 9, 6 PM, at the Mormon Church south of Willits. They always demand that our version of “Peace Like a River” be our third song. It is a wonderful event with a plethora of desserts after, so come if you can . . . Put the Night Light concert on your calendar for Jan. 26. The talent that is donating their expertise is exceptional! We will send a poster that will tell all . . .
Calendar
December Dates:
3 10 AM-2 PM, Mon-Fri, New Ministry: Church doors open to public
Noon- 1 PM, Worship Committee
5 6 PM, Holy Eucharist
7 PM, Taizé Service of candlelight, chant, prayer and silence
9 Total Ministry Team Meeting after the service
6 PM, Annual Christmas Sing at the Mormon Church
16 Mission Committee Meeting after the service
24 6:30 PM – Caroling at the Church
7 PM - Christmas Eve Service; hot cider & cookies afterward
26 Holy Baptism – We welcome Teddy Dawson. Even though it is
the day after Christmas do try and come. It is the only day that
the Dawson clan can get together for this blessed christening.
30 Christmas Lessons and Carols
followed by Spiritual Direction Group meeting
Birthdays:
Bill Hall, Dec. 8;
Wilma Sweazey, Dec. 13
Carol Dawson, Dec. 24
AND LOOKING AHEAD:
January 6: Annual Epiphany Pageant
January 6: Greg and Malakai are the featured act at the Soul Café @
the Methodist Church. We are providing the food as a
fundraiser for our church
January 24: Phina’s Intercession course on congregational ministry
development at CDSP, Berkeley. She would like some of
us to come down. See note elsewhere
January 26: Nightlight Concert at Willits High School Auditorium
Grieving and Loss
If you are grieving the loss of a loved one this holiday season, there are several things that might help make things easier:
✝ Consider doing something entirely different on the holidays
so you don't connect your loved one with that time.
✝ Volunteer to serve at a Senior Center – or anywhere –
where you can eat and be with new people.
✝ Have someone new to dinner on the holiday.
✝ Take lots of walks. Walking is very good for people who have lost someone.
✝ Do something nice for someone else.
✝ Write out memories of other holidays beforehand. You will enjoy them and it takes some of the energy out of your grief.
In Willits, Hospice is giving a program on acknowledging loss at the holidays. It will be held on December 5, 5:30-7:30 PM. Call Stephanie at 456-3243 for information.
The first holidays are the hardest, but you are never alone.
-- Jo Marie Tripp
An Invitation From Phina
To Teach Others Total Ministry
Phina teaches a short course in congregational ministry development for priests-t0-be in seminary. She has established a tradition of having people come in who are actually doing this (that’s us just being ourselves). Last year Dorothy and Bill went down and visited with this class and had a lot of fun and were surprised how much they could contribute.
This year’s class is on Thursday January 24, (probably 1- 3 p.m.) on congregational team building. Some of the class will be on the diocesan Living Stones report (which is about us and Colusa). Phina says, “It would be great to have two or three or a carload from Saint Francis (especially the ministry team) come down to the seminary to work with the student priests. Dorothy was wonderful two years ago.”
The diocese will pay for your mileage & Phina will provide lunch. CDSP also has a nice bookstore.
Redwood Cluster Notes
Saint John’s, Lakeport
“It seems to me that we are busy with keeping the church activities up and running, but have not lost sight of our ministry to each other and our community in the process.” Barbara Knight, Acting Senior Warden They have a full breakfast after the service on the last Sunday of each month - great attendance at the fellowship hour and in my experience is a great way to spend time together.
Holy Trinity, Ukiah
Members of the congregation lead Wednesday Morning Prayer. You might schedule a trip to Ukiah so that you could join in. 10 AM.
Sending Forth The Disciples
Next to the calling of the disciples, I expect that Matthew's story about their sending forth is one of the most confrontational stories in all the Bible. Can you imagine? There you are, perfectly content to be a follower, when Jesus comes home all worn out one day with his hair hanging in his face and his clothes ringed with sweat and dirt. He looks around at those of you who have been with him all along and says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. I need some help, and I'm nominating you."
Since we have been hearing this story about the sending of the disciples for so long now, we may take their job description for granted. In short, they were given exactly the same things to do that Jesus himself had been given to do, but it did not have to be that way. He could have pointed out that none of them was the son of God, after all. None of them had been born under a blinding star, or had angels sing hosannas over their cribs, or received exotic gifts from foreign dignitaries before they so much as cut a tooth.
He could have reminded them of all that and insisted that they remain his assistants-for their own safety, you understand, to avoid malpractice suits. He could have let them mix the mud when he healed blind people, or spray the Lysol when he cleansed lepers, or unwrap the bandages from those he had raised form the dead. He could have done that, but he did not. Instead, he transferred his ministry to them while he was still alive. He entrusted it to them. With no training and very little advice, he sent them out to heal wounds and restore outcasts and bring the dead back to life.
What keeps nagging at me, though, is the way he sent them out-no money, no shoes, not even a walking stick. Why send them out with so much power and so few accessories? The way Jesus set it up, they could not provide for others out of their own abundance; they could only provide for them out of their need. What must it be like to own nothing, to have nothing but your own need, and to understand that the only thing you have to offer anyone else is what you yourself have been given?
When it comes down to being a provider of God's love, there is really only one provider, who sends us out with nothing at all and with everything we need: healing, forgiveness, restoration, resurrection. Those are the only things we really have to share with the world, which is just as well, since they are the only things the world really needs.
From "Heaven at Hand" in Bread of Angels by Barbara Brown Taylor (Cowley, 1997).