Welcome to newcomers Tara Burns and her son and daughter, Haak and Elka (Eleonore); Guilia and Mike Maiolo and their son and daughter, Gabriel and Anna; and Victoria and Jeff Quake, and their son and daughter, Tyler and Avery. It is wonderful to have you all here.

Welcome to newcomers Catherine and Andrew Jones. It’s great to have you at Saint Saviour’s.
Thanks to Pat and Hugh Friedmann for their generous contribution of the lovely Advent wreaths last month.

Thanks to all the parishioners, young and old, who spread Christmas cheer with carols on December 20.

Thanks to Rob Buckingham and Owen West for their conversation about their service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thanks to Helen Rasmussen for organizing a holiday card and letter writing effort to reach out to prisoners of conscience around the world. Helen also spoke about the effort on a local radio show.

Thanks to Lisa Byrns and Michele Graham (Bruce Graham wife) for their help in gaining good publicity for the parish in local media.

Thanks to all the youth and adults who helped sell raffle tickets and other items at the December 5 Dance School holiday show. Elves included Lizzie Devlin, Alex Yancey, Aubrey Carter, Michael Yancey, Lauren Stephens, Bill Mahone, and Michael Rose. Congratulations to all the Saint Saviour’s parishioners who danced in the show, including Verity Woodward, Lilly Marinelli, Grace Marinelli, Harry Waters, Oliver Waters, Maria Caperton, Maya Edward, Nina Edward, and Ellie Tiedemann. (Apologies if anyone’s name was left out in error.)

Thanks to all the children who, with Michele Beudert Richard, made the Christmas-themed ornaments for the tree in the narthex.

The next FOODBANK SUNDAY will be
January 10.

(PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN DATE.)

Please put the date on your calendar, and, remember, if you are not going to be in church on January 10, you may make a small donation by check, payable to “Saint Saviour's Church” and designated on the memo line for the FoodBank. I know it is difficult to maintain our enthusiasm month after month, but the need is so desperate, and the folks who receive the food are so grateful! We are collecting items that the FoodBank most needs. It’s quite a list and gives us lots to choose from. These items are:

canned chicken and tuna, soup,
Carnation Instant Breakfast, saltine crackers,
breakfast cereals, peanut butter, grape jelly, rice, powered milk,
jarred or canned spaghetti sauce, pasta,
canned vegetables, pork and beans,
macaroni and cheese, and applesauce.

Thanks to all of you for your generosity. Shel Grant.

Please pack your food contributions in boxes if you can,
as cartons make it easier for the folks doing the pickup.

The Social Committee is thinking about a parish skate for families on January 10, sometime in the afternoon, and an evening for adults on January 23 (details of both to be worked out). Please mark your calendars.

Michele Richard will talk about her summer mission trip to Haiti on January 24 at 11:30..

Mac Barnum, former Archdeacon of The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, will offer a program at St. Barnabas Church on January 30 from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m.. The program is entitled “How to be Happier, Healthier, and Radically Wealthy: Achieving your God-given potential to flourish for the rest of your life” and is open to members of parishes in the Stamford deanery (which includes Saint Saviour’s). Please invite friends, too. More details to come.

Thanks to all who helped present the nativity story on Christmas Eve at 5 p. m., including Michael Yancey, Whitney Lees, Lizzie Devlin, Katie Devlin, Maya Edward, Aubrey Carter, Alex Yancey, Clem Carter, Emma Hardwick, Haak Burns, Gavin West, Elka Burns, Sarah Hardwick, Claire Marinelli, Grace Marinelli, Ellie Tiedemann, Coco Whittle, Jonathan Buckingham, Lilly Marinelli, Tyler Quake, Ella Shaw, Jake Shaw, Abigail Sullivan, Matthew Sullivan, Ryan West, Nina Edward, Charlotte D’Acierno, and Gillian D’Acierno. Thank you, Lynn Bowman Mahone, Jeanne Lamp, and Dianne Ellis for your help in shaping, directing, and leading the pageant.

Thanks to Dianne Ellis and Joyce Kelley for the lovely 9 p. m. service on Christmas Eve. Together, Dianne and Joyce (Dianne’s mother) played beautiful carols and other music on the bassoon and piano.
Thanks to Bill Mahone and Lizzie Devlin for putting out the luminaria on Christmas Eve, lighting the way for worshippers that evening.

Thank you, Joan Towse, Joy Zang, and other members of the Altar and Flower Guilds, for your faithful labors to clean and decorate the sanctuary for the celebration of Christmas.

If you would like to donate securities to the parish, please contact Treasurer Bruce Graham at 637-5563 or bgraham@clearbrookic.com . Please also alert the parish office about your gift of securities because usually the donor’s name is not included with the transmittal, and the parish bookkeeper does not know whose account to credit.

Our contact at Merrill Lynch for the purpose of giving securities is:

John Walsh
301 Stamford Blvd., 10th Floor
Stamford, CT 06901
J_Walsh@ml.com
1-800-234-6381

Thank you for your financial support of the parish.
Inter-faith book club

An inter-faith book club meets monthly (September-May with a Christmas-New Year’s break) to discuss books that enhance mutual understanding between our various world religions. Gatherings are usually on the fourth Thursdays of the month (except November and May), from 7 to 8:30 p. m. The books selected are positive and contemporary representations of their respective traditions, contemporary versions of time-honored classic texts, or historical overviews of various world faiths or interfaith spirituality. Recommendations are welcomed that meet this criteria. Among the books the group has discussed in the past are Awakening the Buddha Within, The Tao Te Ching, The Bhagavad Gita, The Qur’an and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. This reading club gathers in the downstairs community room of the Stamford Church of Christ, 1264 High Ridge Road, just 300 yards north of the Merritt Parkway (Exit 35) on the left. All are welcome. For more information, contact Dale Pauls at DalePauls@worldnet.att.net.

Upcoming schedule:

January 28
Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi. From its cover: “At once an absorbing account of a singular search for Truth and a comprehensive introduction to the whole science and philosophy of Yoga, revealing the underlying unity of the great religions of East and West.”
A book passionately Hindu and yet Christ-haunted.

February 25
Ed McGaa, Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and Our World. A portrayal of Native American spirituality from the inside out, both a love song to creation and a very practical hands-on introduction to Native American practices.

March 25
The Monks of New Skete, In the Spirit of Happiness. From the rhythms and richness of monastic tradition these famous dog-training monks finds in the midst of everyday life a happiness anchored in discovering God’s mercy and compassion at the heart of all things.

April 29
Robert A. F. Thurman, trans. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation through Understanding in the Between. A Buddhist classic for centuries, more recently, influential in the West for its psychological insights into the processes of death and dying—and what they can teach us about the way we live our lives.

June 3
Malidoma Patrice Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life’s Purpose Through Nature, Ritual, and Community. Draws on the life and ritual of indigenous people to re-establish for us all an intimate relationship with the natural world.

As of December 21, 2009, 43 households had pledged to support the mission and ministry of Saint Saviour’s in 2010, pledging a total of $128,170. We hope to receive pledges from the roughly 35 remaining households in the parish. Your pledge helps the vestry gage the level of funds available to cover anticipated expenses in the coming year. Our annual operating expenses currently run on the order of $300,000. If you have not submitted a pledge yet, please do so as soon as you can. Many thanks.

Please note the following changes to contact information:

Anthony Pawlowski’s preferred e-mail address is now anthonyjp@optonline.net.

Noreen McLaughlin has moved to 26 Lyon Avenue, Apt. 2, Greenwich, CT 06830;
telephone: (203) 979-6185; e-mail: normcl4@yahoo.com
(note: the letter “l,” not the number “1” in the middle)

For all who give you a face by Lucien Deiss

For all who give you a face, Lord Jesus, by spreading your love in the world,
we praise you.

For all who give you hands, by doing their best toward their sisters and brothers,
we praise you.

For all who give you a mouth, Lord Jesus, by defending the weak and the oppressed, we praise you.

For all who give you eyes, by seeing every bit of love in the heart of man and woman, we praise you.

For all who give you a heart, Lord Jesus, by preferring the poor to the rich, the weak to the strong,
we praise you.

For all who give to your poverty the look of hope for your Reign,
we praise you.

For all who reveal you simply by what they are, Lord Jesus, because they reflect your beauty in their lives,
we praise you.

You who are the God of a thousand faces, yet whom nothing can reveal completely
except the face of the child of Bethlehem,
we pray to you.

Continue in our lives the mystery of Christmas.
Let your Son become flesh in us so that we may be for all our brothers and sisters the revelation of your love.

From Chalice Hymnal c 1995 Chalice Press. Used with permission under OneLicense.net License Number A-700352. All rights reserved

What does a vestry member do?

Someone recently asked me this question. By way of an answer, here is a “job description” for a vestry member here at Saint Saviour’s. If you have questions about this, or about
what vestries do, or about church governance in general, please speak to me or
to Senior Warden Joe Marinelli. Victoria

________________________________________________

Under the parish By-Laws, Vestry Members are elected at the Annual Meeting of the parish to serve three year terms. Immediate re-election of anyone who has served three consecutive years is precluded, although that person may be elected to serve as Clerk or Treasurer or (with a five year limit) Warden.

According to the national canons (Title I, Canon 14, Section 2), “Except as provided by the law of the State or of the Diocese, the Vestry shall be agents and legal representatives of the Parish in all matters concerning its corporate property and the relations of the Parish to its Clergy.” There are a few other, brief references to the duties of vestries in the canons, including the requirement that a vestry (jointly with the rector) provide financial and statistical data to the bishop (Title I, Canon 6, Section 1) and that a vestry meet the minimum standards prescribed for administering the parish’s business affairs (Title I, Canon 7, and Title II, Canon 7, Section 2). There are also canons governing how vestries participate in the screening and recommendation of candidates from the parish for ordination (Title III, Canons 4-9) and how they work with the bishop and diocese when a rector retires, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform his or her duties (Title III, Canon 18 and Canon 14, Section 4b).

In practice, Vestry Members may expect to:

1. support and work with the rector in promoting the spiritual welfare of the parish.

2. assist the rector and parish in discerning the parish’s mission and in identifying and developing programs or other activities to support that mission.

3. serve as agents and legal representatives in all matters concerning property, including the maintenance of buildings, furnishings, and grounds and the provision of adequate insurance.

4. working with the Treasurer, be responsible for the parish’s finances, including the raising of money; the prompt payment of salaries and bills (and other obligations); the prudent care of trust funds, endowments, and bequests; the sale and transfer of securities and other assets; the maintenance of financial records; the approval of an annual budget.

5. with the Clerk, be responsible for the maintenance of parish records generally.

6. represent the parish in its relations with the rector.

7. serve as a council of advice for the rector, when requested

8. recruit, encourage, and guide parish candidates for Holy Orders.

To be elected to the Vestry, one must (according to diocesan canons):

* be an adult communicant (18 years of age or older; officially listed on the parish register);

* have been an active communicant of the parish for at least 6 months prior to election;

* faithfully attend services in the parish “unless for good cause prevented;”

* be a faithful contributor to the support of the parish;

* be faithful in working, praying, and giving for the spread of the Kingdom of God.

Time commitments – attendance is expected at:
vestry meetings
vestry retreats
regular attendance at worship services
regular attendance at congregational events
periodic meetings with rector, others, as required/desired
diocesan meetings as necessary
annual meeting of parish

Suggestions?

Please let me know if you have topics you would like addressed in sermons and/or hymns you would like us to sing. I’ll try to weave these into upcoming services. Please also let me know if there are subjects for adult education you would be interested in pursuing. Victoria