Wednesday, December 15, 2010

November 2010

Oktoberfest a Smashing Success; Thanks Be To God


Hearty thanks are in order for all our tireless volunteers who worked together to make this year’s Oktoberfest a great success. The final list of registrants stood at a record 150 (139 on Sunday night, 109 on Monday, and 23 on Tuesday).
Our featured speaker, Dr. David Scaer, commented afterwards that this kind of thing sometimes takes several years to get noticed, but then it takes off. This year we had guests from eleven states. Eighteen of them were seminarians from Fort Wayne, where Dr. Scaer teaches.
Our next major event is our Christmas retreat, which will be kicked off with our Christmas choral vespers on Sunday night, January 2nd (the ninth day of Christmas), and will continue with two days of theological reflection Monday and Tuesday. Details are below, in this newsletter.
As the pastor of St. Paul’s I am pleased and gratified that we are able to put on such events, as it is my conviction that they are of great encouragement and help to the guests who attend, all serving to advance the cause of confessional and liturgical Lutheran reform.
Speaking of Lutheran reform, we are reminded on Reformation Day (Sunday, October 31st) that the Reformation itself, begun in 1517, is nearly 500 years old.
So it is that two great anniversaries loom. In addition to the Reformation anniversary in 2017, we note that 2013 is the sesquicentennial year of the founding of this congregation, and we hope to celebrate that on several occasions throughout that year. Sue Murphy’s in charge of coordinating it, if you want to volunteer to help.
Meanwhile at St. Paul’s, this small, fragile, unassuming parish, we continue to pray the Lord’s blessing and benediction upon us. To use the words of Moses, we would say, “Establish Thou the work of our hands, yea, the work of our hands, establish Thou it” (Psalm 90). Of course, that verse has to do in the first and primary place with the works of Jesus’ hands, since His holy incarnation has made His hands and our hands to be the same hands; and His work of atonement has been established for all eternity, for our salvation, by His mercy. But secondarily, our works begun, continued, and completed in Him are never in vain, but shall, by the same mercy, redound to whatever good He shall see fit.
Soli Deo Gloria!

+ Pastor Eckardt



November Birthdays
11/10 Cassandra Krueger
11/13 Shannon Peart
11/14 Carol Robinson
11/15 Kami Boswell
11/19 Steve Kraklow
11/20 Jewneel Walker
11/30 Charlene Sovanski

November Anniversaries
11/5 Steve and Berniece Harris
11/11 Gayle and Phil Beauprez
November Ushers
Otis Anderson Scott Clapper, John Ricknell, Bill Thompson

Thanksgiving to be observed November 24th

As usual, we will celebrate Thanksgiving the night before Thanksgiving Day, Wednesday, November 24th, at our regular 7 pm hour. Come and worship, giving thanks to almighty God for His rich benevolence and grace.

Private Confession is always available to anyone between 6 and 6:30 pm on these Wednesdays, and also, as always, by appointment.

Shut ins

Carole Sanders at home; Mary Hamilton at home; Ruth Snider at home; Mark Baker at home, and Anna Baker at home. Mirilda Greiert at Kewanee Care; Ila Scaiffe at Courtyard Estates; Elva Garrison at Roseville Country Manor in Roseville, IL.
All Saints Mass Nov. 1
Between our regular first Monday Altar Guild an Elders meetings this month, we will observe All Saints Mass at 7 p.m. Join us!
In Our Prayers
In addition to our shut-ins, our current list of prayer intentions at mass includes the names on the lists here following. Anyone wishing to update the lest by addition or subtraction, please inform the pastor.

Those who are sick:

Yvette Baker [re Baker]
David Dakin [re Harris]
Anna Rutowicz [re Harris]
Tarah Allen [cancer, friend of Jill Powers]
Kay Nimrick, [friend of Jill Powers with cancer]
Nicole Smith [niece of Jean Russell]
Barry Brown [friend of the Thompsons]
Mildred Russell [re Russell]
Don Loesch [father of Jude Clapper]
Sara Bidni, mother of Svetlana Meeker
Julie Ross [Svetlana Meaker’s daughter, cancer]
Caleb Cleaver [Ricknell’s grandson who has childhood leukemia]
Pam Mansnarus [Ricknell’s niece, stage four lung cancer]

Those who are in the military:
John Eckardt
Brent Matthews [re Fisher]
Melinda Newmann [re Kemerling]
Michelle Steuber [re Fisher]
Kevin Thompson
Donny Appleman [re Ricknell]
Timmy Giesenhagen [Gee zen hagen][re Powers]
Thomas Kim [re Shreck]
And Chaplain Michael Frese

Those who are in trouble:
Unborn children in danger of abortion
Those suffering from persecution, genocide, and imprisonment in
Burma
Nigeria
Sudan
Iran
Iraq
North Korea
China
elsewhere

Altar Guild Notes

All Saints Day will be observed Monday, November 1, at 7 pm. Color is red.

All Souls Day (The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed) is a First Class Feast, Mass is scheduled for 8:30 am Tuesday, November 2, and again the next day at Wednesday 7 pm mass. Color is white. Thanksgiving is observed Wednesday night, November 24th. Color is White.
First Sunday in Advent is November 28th. Color is Purple beginning on Saturday, November 28th.

First Monday Nov. 1

On Monday, November 1st, Altar Guild meets as usual at 6 p.m., and Elders at 7:45 p.m. Between them is All Saints Mass at 7 p.m., conveniently placed so both groups can attend. All members are invited to attend All Saints Mass.

Daily Prayer
For daily prayer in the homes of members, the following helps are offered:
Use your hymnal. The order of matins (morning) or vespers (evening) is easily adoptable for personal use.
A more brief form of prayer, as given in the catechism, is to say the Invocation, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and as a closing option Luther’s morning or evening prayer.
The hymnal is also a good resource for a schedule of daily readings. See page 161. These readings correspond with the material in Every Day Will I Bless Thee: Meditations for the Daily Office, my book of meditations for daily use.
+ Pastor Eckardt



Looking ahead: 2-4 January 2011

A CHRISTMASTIDE retreat:
two Days of Theological Reflection
opening with the
Annual Christmas Choral Vespers

The January Days of Theological Reflection will begin with our annual Christmas Choral Vespers on Sunday night the 2nd of January, and then Monday and Tuesday, the 3rd and 4th, from 8:30 – 3:30. This twelfth retreat in the series is entitled,
“LET A DOUBLE PORTION OF THY SPIRIT BE UPON ME.”

It will focus on the Christology of Elijah and Elisha (I Kings 17 – II Kings 13), and, as ever, with an eye to finding Christ there, as He himself said of the Scriptures, “They testify of me.”
Sunday evening’s Choral Vespers, at 7 p.m., is always followed by our wine and cheese reception in the school cafeteria, another annual tradition. If there is inclement weather, a snow date is scheduled for Monday, January 3rd, at 7 p.m.

Tuesdays
Feel free to join us every Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. for low mass. The service runs a little over a half hour.
Wednesdays
Feel free to join us most Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m. for our recording of the weekly radio program, a study of Sunday’s Gospel.
Saturdays
Catechesis for new members is on Saturdays at 9 am, but anyone can come (and some others do). Annual Voters’ Assembly
Our annual voters’ assembly will be held on a Sunday late in January, following Mass, as we did last January.

This year your council will be proposing some changes to our bylaws.

First, we’re considering the possibility of having only one regular congregational voters’ assembly per year, rather than four. Over the past several years members have seemed content to let the Council handle regular business, and if special items come up, a special voters’ meeting is usually called in any case. The “annual” voters’ assembly would become truly annual, as was not uncommon early in American Lutheran history.

Secondly, according to the bylaws we are to have three trustees; but we’d like to make that number flexible, since the trustees’ duties involve willing participants, and we now have more than three.

At the January meeting we will also be electing officers, as we do every January.

Why?
This series, containing brief liturgical questions and Pastor Eckardt’s answers, began to appear in 1995, as a regular feature in this newsletter. It was then published, about ten years ago, as a Gottesdienst book.

Why is violet the color of Advent and Lent?
Violet is the color of royalty, having once been a rare and costly color to which only the rich and royal had access. The rich man who failed to notice poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) was “clothed in purple and fine linen.” Jesus was clothed in a purple robe when His royalty was mocked by Pilate’s soldiers (John 19:2).
Therefore it is fitting that the Church employ violet in her seasons of penitence, for our recollection of the scorn heaped upon our Lord must produce contrite hearts. The color of violet therefore serves to symbolize both the true royalty of Christ (the Anointed, cf. Ps. 2) and the His humiliation, which ought to humble us all in due preparation to receive Him. Violet is a penitential color, not a festive color. Its rich hue designates somber penitence and prayer.

Why is blue sometimes seen in churches?
The color blue has in recent years been used as an alternate color for Advent, inasmuch as blue universally symbolizes hope. During Advent the Church emphasizes her perpetually hopeful wait for the coming of Christ.
This innovation, while providing a helpful distinction between Advent and Lent, also de-emphasizes the need for understanding Advent as a penitential season. Preparation for the coming of Christ must always be penitential. Moreover, the use of blue for Advent is a departure from its traditional use as the color for the Blessed Virgin Mary. In iconography she has traditionally been seen in red or royal blue, or both, perhaps because she herself is emblematic of the Church’s hopeful expectation of the coming of her Son.
The church which has blue paraments might well employ them for the Marian feasts and retain violet for Advent.
(continued on back page)
(continued from page 4)
Why is the color rose sometimes used liturgically?

The color rose, when it is used, is only seen during two days of the year, Sundays set in the midst of the year’s two penitential seasons. Rose is accordingly appropriate for the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete) and for the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare). The reason for this usage is that rose is a lightening of the purple hue, and as such a reminder that even in the depths of sorrows or penitence, Christian faith is appropriately joyful, ever mindful of the victory which Christ has obtained for us. These two Sundays are therefore set at the midpoint of the penitential seasons, and the color rose is employed only on the Sundays themselves, and not for the weeks following them.
Similarly flowers, which are traditionally absent during Lent, are used on Laetare Sunday, as a further reminder of the joy set in the midst of penitential sorrows.


A Message from
CONCORDIA
THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY
FORT WAYNE, INDIANA

ME, A PASTOR? ME A DEACONESS? If you have found yourself asking this question, now is
the time to do something about it! Rev. Steve Wagner of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort
Wayne, Indiana, is going to be at Lutheran Church 1705 E. Locust St,.in Davenport, IA, on Friday
November 19, 2010, from 4:30 to 7:30pm.

Come and explore the possibilities! Men of all ages are invited, as are their wives, fiancees, and parents. Women interested in the deaconess program are also invited, along with their families. Conferences are individual and informal.

Reservations are not required; however, if you are able, please phone Holy Cross Lutheran Church
at (563) 322-2654 - or email Rev. Wagner at wagnerse@ctsfw.edu to alert him that you are coming, and feel free to call him on his cell at 260-449-0135 if you are having trouble locating him.

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