Our Activities
Listed below are the news articles for the month of November.
November 01, 2006
Parish Election Confirms New Vestry Slate
At the Parish-wide election October 22, four church members were elected to serve as the 2007 Vestry Class: Lisa Deal, Linda Hubbard Gulker, Haydi Sowerwine, and Cathy Sage. All four new Vestry members have been active Parishioners with a rich blend of Trinity experiences. Haydi and her husband David were married at Trinity and she currently serves on the Pastoral Care Commission. She and David recently returned to Menlo Park after 13+ years working on the Bridges in Nepal effort, an outreach program Trinity has supported. Cathy has been doing Adult Bible Study and is a member of the Family Ministries Commission. She looks forward to her new role with us. Both Linda and Lisa have been engaged this past year in the intense work of the New Rector Search Committee. They both look forward to the completion of that role in the next few months and their new roles with our Vestry.
Please congratulate these new Vestry members when you see them, and keep them and all our staff and lay leaders in your prayers.
Also, special thanks to the Vestry Nominating Committee served by Evelyn Beckwith, Elaine Hammond, Laurie Hunter, Maggie Pringle and David Arscott (Chair). Thanks to them for all their work.
November 13, 2006
The Fall Family Challenge
Soccer games and shorter days. When’s the next business trip, and how will we cope? Helping with homework, often at the last minute. How is this child getting home while I’m across town? Am I doing the right thing? How are we going to fit everything in?
Several years ago, I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen R. Covey. I don’t agree with Covey’s complete agenda, which is quite conservative, but he does have some good overarching themes in his approach to raising a family.
Covey says to “put the Big Rocks in first,” when you’re trying to cram everything into a fixed schedule. He uses the illustration of putting a collection of fist-sized rocks and a lot of pebbles into a wide-mouthed jar. If you put the pebbles into the jar first, it’s just about impossible to fit the big rocks in. There’s no room. But if you put the big rocks in first, then the pebbles fit around the rocks.
In the midst of the fall family challenge, I encourage you to make coming to church one of the “big rocks” you put first into your family life “jar.” There is only so much time in the week, and worship in community, is important. Somehow, it makes everything else fit.
Come to church to be renewed and have your perspective refocused. Worship with your children and meet other parents of young children at the 9:10 service. Or listen to beautiful music at the 10:00 am service and hear the homily on the scripture readings of the day. Children can go to Sunday School, childcare in Angus Hall, or attend the 10:00 am service with you. Try the 8:00 am Rite I service. It’s quiet and reflective. I enjoyed participating in it several weeks ago as the preacher. The predictable rhythms of our Episcopal liturgy can be comforting when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Or wind up your weekend at the 5:00 pm service.
At every Holy Eucharist, we pass the peace, and then come forward to receive communion. In the midst of the “fall family challenge,” God waits for us to come closer, to rest and be renewed. Afterward, we are sent forth again into life reconciled with God and each other.
Trinity is going through its own fall challenges, as the search for the new Rector continues, and we wrestle with serious budget cuts. Change and growth can be difficult. We are all “Big Rocks” in the life of Trinity Parish. If we put ourselves into the Trinity community first, the pebbles, the rest of the unsolved issues will follow, and will be washed, like the stones at the 9:10 service, with God’s grace and love.
Yours in Christ, Beth Foote
Family Ministries Director
November 29, 2006
Be a part of the Christmas Eve Pageant
All children and youth who would like to participate in the pageant are invited to come to a first, 30 minute rehearsal in the church on Sunday, December 3rd at 12:15 following the Advent Festival. We will assign roles and hand out costumes at the first rehearsal.
There are roles for a flock of sheep, a flight of angels, shepherds, a Joseph and Mary, two narrators and three wise men.
We’ll meet three more times to rehearse:
Sunday, 12/12 after the 10:00 service;
Sunday 12/19 after the 10:00 service;
Sunday 12/24 at 3:00 for the dress rehearsal. The pageant will take place during the 4:00 family service, immediately following the rehearsal.
Vestry Minutes -October
The October Vestry minutes are available for download here
A simpler, more meaningful Christmas
I’ve been discovering a treasure trove of resources in my office in the last couple of weeks. One is Unplug the Christmas Machine by Robinson and Staeheli. These are the four things they say children really want for Christmas:
1. A relaxed and loving time with the family
2. Realistic expectations about gifts
3. An evenly paced holiday season
4. Reliable family traditions
Thinking through these four points so that we approach the Christmas season with some intentionality can help us enjoy it rather than “getting through it.”
Visit this address at SimpleLiving.org to see “10 Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Christmas,.” and other good resources for thinking through how to approach the coming season.
http://www.simpleliving.org/indexoth.php?place=archives/MR/10tips.php
A number of years ago we began placing the Wise Men figures of our Foote family Creche scene at various points in the living room at the beginning of Advent and moving them closer to the Manger as Christmas approached. This took a toll on several of the Wise Men—one is now headless, another one is missing a hand—but I think it’s a good, concrete way to imagine them journeying toward Bethlehem. And our kids have always enjoyed moving them closer day by day. I think it mirrors our journey of faith over our lifetime. Every Advent and Christmas roles around with new meaning as we experience their themes at a different point in our lives.
Like so much of life, I’ve realized that Christmas is more about the journey, the process, rather than the destination. When we celebrate Christmas as part of the continuum of the Church Year, rather than a “festival of presents” it puts Christmas and its meaning into context.
One of the reasons I am Episcopalian is our Anglican emphasis on the Incarnation of Christ which celebrates how Christ became human, became one of us on Christmas. Jesus entered the world as a tiny, helpless infant, like us, totally dependent upon his mother and father’s care.
The Incarnation, the coming of Christ into the world, infuses our world with holiness. We can celebrate God’s being with us in the particularity of our lives, even the messiness of our everyday existence, because God chose to fully enter into it.
So this Advent and Christmas Season, I wish you the joy of letting the meaning of the Incarnation soak into your daily life as we journey together through Advent, Christmas and on into Epiphany.
Beth Foote
Family Ministries Director