First Sunday of Advent: Guest Preacher, Chili Supper Prepping, Cookie Baking, Wreath Making, "Black Friday 'Specials'"

Dear Hearts,

As I write this, it is the last day of one Church Year, and tomorrow, Sunday, December 1, will be the First Sunday of Advent, and therefore, the first day of a new Church Year.  We'll move from the year when most of the Gospel readings came from Luke's witness (Year C) to a year when most will come from the account attributed to Matthew the Tax Collector (Year A).  It will be the same Gospel; just a different perspective. 

To help inaugurate that different perspective, I have prevailed upon my houseguest, the Rev. Scott Lee, to be our preacher on this First Sunday of Advent and a new Church Year.  Fr. Scott was last in the pulpit as our Consecration Sunday guest leader in 2018, and so you will remember that he crafts his sermons well.  We are good friends, but cut from different bolts of spiritual goods.  Scott+ is an introvert who revels in the disciplines of Contemplative Prayer; I'm an extrovert who doesn't recognize a spiritual experience until there are tears on my face.  Scott is also a genuine scholar in all things literary, theological and clever.  It'll be the same Gospel of the Good News of Jesus Christ -- just from a different perspective.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this Thanksgiving special!   Particular thanks to:

• everyone who participated in our Ingathering of Thanksgiving foods for the Guilford Food Pantry!  By Monday afternoon, the window sills were indeed lined front to back with all sorts of food to help allow all our neighbors to enjoy a bountiful Thanksgiving.
• our choir members and music director who participated in last Sunday's Interfaith Service of Thanksgiving hosted by First Congregational Church of Madison.  The music was indeed lovely and wide-ranging; and the perspectives on gratitude were both challenging and inspiring. And, to
• all who came out on a lovely brisk Thanksgiving morningto celebrate our national Day of Thanksgiving with the great hymns of the day, the Great Thanksgiving (Holy Eucharist), and George Washington's first presidential proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving in November 1789.  (Christ Church was 45 years old at the time, and worshiping literally on the Green in a wooden building much damaged during the Revolution.)

Now, we turn our attention to chili, cookies, gift items and wreaths. Our Tree-Lighting Chili Supper will be Friday, December 6, from 5-7p.m.  Please be in touch with Jennifer Huebner about how you might help host; on Sunday, she'll be the lady with the aluminum pans for cornbread that you bake at home, and the sign-up sheets with how you might help with set-up, serving or clean-up!  Do be sure to invite your family and friends to come out of the cold to enjoy a warm -- even spicy hot if they prefer -- meal.  Proceeds from the supper support the Meals-on-Wheels ministry of Guilford Interfaith Volunteers, delivering hot meals to our homebound neighbors.

For dessert, there'll be the cookies from the ECW's Cookie Saletables.  The ECW depends upon all of us to bake up batches of our favorite holiday cookies for them to sell.  Please bring them to the parish hall anytime prior to 5p.m. on the 6th.  The ECW and the Evening ECW have both come up with some clever hand-made gift items that will also delight your holiday guests.  The funds raised by the Cookie Sale provide for the scholarships the ECW awards to graduating high school seniors.

Of course, if chili and cookies are in the Parish Hall, then there'll be Wreaths for sale in the Rectory garage.  Pre-orders for the wreaths continue on December 1st during Coffee Hour.  Although this project helps fund special youth activities, such as transportation for High School NYC mini-pilgrimages and the Ropes Course at the Middle School overnight, youth-of-all-ages are invited to help decorate the wreaths on Thursday, December 5 from 4-6p.m. in the Parish Hall.  Please see Sue Shackford for details.

The Tag Sale Team plans to bring out some items for a sale table of inexpensive items.  Look for them just outside the garage! 

Many thanks to all who have provided their Estimate-of-Giving for our 2020 Operating Budget.  We've received 70 cards to date!  To the households whose cards are still in your hands, please take seriously Consecration Sunday preacher, Mary Anne Osborn's story about the bag of cookies (it never really was ours) and poem about bridge building (God calls us to build bridges for each other and for the future). Please return you Estimate-of-Giving Card as soon as you can.  If somehow you have not received a Card, they're available on the Ushers' Table and in the Parish Office. 

I wouldn't normally remark on "Black Friday Specials," but there are two that I find truly "special:"

1. Episcopal Relief & Development has some special gifts that you can purchase for someone you will never meet, but your gift could have a life-changing impact on their life.  Click here to transform a life with the gift of a goat, a fruit tree, assistance with clean water, literacy training for women, etc.
2. This is a gift for Xfinity cable subscribers from HBO OnDemand:  Check out HBO's OnDemand Thanksgiving weekend of free viewing.  Lynda & Charlie Tyson reported being able to watch for free, Jen McShane's new documentary Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops.  They join me in recommending to you this buddy story about two San Antonio Texas police officers who successfully de-escalate tense situations with people in acute mental distress, and get them into treatment instead of jails or emergency rooms ill-equipped for mental crises.

If you are traveling this weekend, I pray that you get home safely.  If you are in town, I hope to share our first Sunday of a new Church Year with you.  The anxiety mavens are doing their best to gin up concern about the weather.  Do be careful, but be assured that there's always worship at the appointed hours at Christ Church.
In faith, hope, and love,
Harrison+
YFNR.