Notices_Third Sunday of Advent_12th Dec 2021

NOTICES:

Rehears­al with Jo Bur­ton – today after ser­vice & morn­ing tea.  Jo Bur­ton will be lead­ing a group of sing­ers in a small num­ber of short excerpts of song to intro­duce the major sec­tions of the play on Sun 19^th Dec, as part of our Christ­mas Car­ol Ser­vice in the car park.  All welcome!

 

Lunch on Sundays: It was the cus­tom long before I arrived in the par­ish for a num­ber of mem­bers to adjourn to the War­ren View for lunch after morn­ing tea.  Michelle and I always like to join this group to spend some time with the parish­ion­ers who come.  Recently someone asked me if this prac­tice had recom­menced fol­low­ing the end of the recent lock­down.  It has done and this is, of course, open to ALL.  At the moment we do need to make a book­ing so if you plan on com­ing please let Michelle or Jen­nifer know.   Fr. Jeff

 

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Christ­mas Car­ols With Play & FREE BBQ – in the car park — 6pm on Sunday 19th Dec.

There will be abund­ant oppor­tun­it­ies to par­ti­cip­ate in the ser­vice.  Volun­teers are needed to read a part in the Christ­mas Play.  We hope as many young parish­ion­ers as pos­sible can take part, sup­ple­men­ted by grown-ups with Fabi­an provid­ing dress-ups.  Since we can all sing the car­ols togeth­er this year, there will be no form­al choir.  Jo Bur­ton will lead a group of sing­ers in a small num­ber of short excerpts of song to intro­duce the major sec­tions of the play.

Please con­tact Stu­art Veitch at morn­ing tea (or on 0400 312 354) to register your interest/for fur­ther information.

 

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Stan­more Nurs­ing Home Gifts:  Money can be donated via the offer­tory plate (placed in a sep­ar­ate labelled envel­ope) or the St Luke’s Church Work­ing Account (see back of Ser­vice book­let for details).  Please remem­ber to ref­er­ence your gift – “Nurs­ing Home”.

 

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Christ­mas cards sale: New stock now avail­able!  2021 Stock — $8 or $10 per pack; and 2020 Stock — Reduced to $8 per pack.  Sup­port the Lep­rosy Mis­sion.  Avail­able from the Par­ish Resource Centre.  Please see Stephan Gates dur­ing Morn­ing tea. 

 

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Advent Reflec­tions: Are being held on Wed­nes­days, after 10.30 a.m. Euchar­ist and Morn­ing Tea dur­ing Advent, and in the even­ing at 7.30 p.m. on those same days.

 

 

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A New sick list will com­mence on 2^nd Jan 2022:

All exist­ing names will be removed.  Please sub­mit names for the new list to the office by email or phone by Monday 20th Decem­ber.  Pas­tor­al Care Committee

 

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ST PAUL’S PANTRY des­per­ately needs food, health and clean­ing items:  A bas­ket is in the church foy­er for dona­tions.  Please remem­ber that the bags provided to the needy are taken home by hand — most don’t have a vehicle, so please keep your dona­tions to rel­at­ively small items like pack­ets of noodles, microwaved rice, small tins of baked beans etc these are the most needed.

 

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Christ­mas 2021 Services 

Sunday 19^th Decem­ber — 6pm Christ­mas Car­ols with Play – in the Carpark.

Fri­day 24^th Decem­ber — 11pm Christ­mas Eve Service.

Sat­urday 25^th Decem­ber – 9.30am Christ­mas Day Service.

 

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Lea MacNeil has jam, con­serves, pickles and vari­ous sauces to sell; please email her at lea.macneil@gmail.com to order them from her.  All pro­ceeds go to St Luke’s Parish.

 

Food for our worms –Please leave your worm food gifts at church on Sundays or drop off dur­ing the week.  (NB — no dairy, cit­rus or meat)  Fr. Jeff

 

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EVENTS IN 2022 

Mark the date: Sat­urday 12th Feb­ru­ary 2022 for a War­dens Din­ner “Under the Stars”.  Will be a catered din­ner, $20pp with tick­ets on sale in the New Year.

 

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Pray­ers for the sick: Daniel Nakhla; Ari­el Som­mer; Suz­anne Camp­ton; Noel Jeffs; Joan Dale; Maryrose Crowth­er; Angus; John Bowen; Robert & Lyn­dall Dubler; John Can Pahali; Alex Regos; Aman­da Cow­ley; Peter Knox; Barry McKay; Ruth Dodd; Andrew Strat­golda; and Phil­lip Hall.

 

Anniversar­ies of the Depar­ted: Mary Crowth­er; James Gav­in; Allan Wells; Oswald Coombs; Florence Thomas; and Sarah Kettle.

 

Saints Com­mem­or­a­tion: 13^th: Lucy, Mar­tyr and vir­gin (d.304); and 14^th: John of the Cross, mys­tic and teach­er (d. 1591).

 

Long Term Pas­tor­al Pray­er list: Ray Som­mer; Robyn Old­field; Isa­belle Djor­gjevic: Lyn Car­ring­ton; Steph­en Thur­ley; John Dick­son; John Hardy; Shir­ley, Bar­bara & Jade Allen; Kiki Chun; Beth Arm­strong; Ann Jeffs; Rhi­an­non Henry-Edwards; Marissa; Jude, Isla, Meg & Al Don­nell; Pau­line Newell; Ann Con­nolly; Day­alan Sam­inath­an; Kuwert; Grace & Han­nah Ashton; Anaisha, & her par­ents Anu & Digvi­jay; Rev Laurie McIntyre; and Loch­lan Lonesborough.

 

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Weekly Inter­ces­sions for our Com­munity:

Sunday: Brett Dav­ies & Amrit MacIntyre; Dav­id Dun­lop; Michael, Eliza­beth, Tom, Ella & Nick Flem­ing; Steph­en Gates & Andrew; Mar­ilyn Gibbs; and Kev­in Green.

Monday: Peter Gil­bert & Alfredo Narnolo; Stu­art Grigg & ‘Tri­cia Blombery.

Tues­day: Richard Hagen & Som; John, Martha & Chris­toph­er Haly.

Wed­nes­day: Selina & John Hardy; and Susan Hill, Janet Broady & Alex.

Thursday: Moya Holle; Pamela Jak­sic; Noel Jeffs; and Kit­tir­at family.

Fri­day: We pray for Fr John Bunyan’s pas­tor­al care min­istry at Bank­stown Hos­pit­al and all those he min­is­ters to.

Sat­urday: Dear lov­ing Fath­er, please deliv­er us from the coronavir­us and lim­it its impact on Aus­tralia and the world. In your mercy bring a swift end to this crisis.  Please pro­tect with your lov­ing care those we love — our fam­il­ies, friends and neigh­bours.  Let your fath­erly hand guide, shel­ter and strengthen them.  Cast out all anxious fears and doubts.  Give us an increas­ing trust in you and fill our hearts and minds with your peace.  We pray for those around the world now strug­gling with vari­ous COVID stains.  Heal and com­fort those who are sick and suf­fer­ing.  Pro­tect and guide the health pro­fes­sion­als who are at the front line.  Please give wis­dom and cour­age to those who bear respons­ib­il­ity for con­front­ing this chal­lenge. We ask these things through the power­ful name of Jesus.  Amen.

 

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Read­ings for Next Sunday — Fourth Sunday of Advent: First Read­ing: Micah 5.2–5a;  Psalm: Song of Mary;  Second Read­ing: Hebrews 10.5–10; and  Gos­pel: Luke 1.39–55

 

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We appre­ci­ate things may have been fin­an­cially harder due to COVID-19, but ask that you con­sider mak­ing a dona­tion to sup­port both the Christ­mas Bowl and ABM Advent/Christmas Appeals.

The Christ­mas Bowl Appeal — annu­al appeal of the Acts of Peace, the inter­na­tion­al aid agency of the Nation­al Coun­cil of Churches.

We encour­age parish­ion­ers to donate online via actofpeace.org.au/christmasbowl (our par­ish is registered as ‘Enmore-Stan­more Anglic­an Par­ish’), or call 1800 025 101.

 

ABM 2020 Advent and Christ­mas Appeal.

We encour­age parish­ion­ers to use QR Code on the digit­al dona­tion cards or make a dona­tion online at abmission.org.au/Christmas21

Please note: There are a lim­ited num­ber of dona­tion envel­opes in the church foy­er for those who do not use mobile phones or have inter­net access.

 

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 Points for Thought and/or Dis­cus­sion from  WorkingPreacher.org

1. How, where or in whom do you see God in your midst? (Zeph 3:17)
2. What do you give thanks for this day? (Isa 12:4)
3. Is it even pos­sible to rejoice in the midst of suf­fer­ing and worry? If so, how do you? (Phil 4:6)
4. “What then shall we do?” How are you respond­ing to this Advent ques­tion? (Luke 3:10, 12, 14)

 This week’s Reflect & Con­nect ques­tions writ­ten by Julie Sevig.

 

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Why an Advent Wreath? 

The use of the wreath and candles dur­ing Advent are a long­stand­ing tra­di­tion that was ori­gin­ally adop­ted by Chris­ti­ans in the Middle Ages as part of their spir­itu­al pre­par­a­tion for Christmas.

The wreath and candles are full of sym­bol­ism tied to the Christ­mas sea­son.  The wreath itself, which is made of vari­ous ever­greens, sig­ni­fies con­tinu­ous life.  The circle of the wreath, which has no begin­ning or end, sym­bol­izes the etern­ity of God, the immor­tal­ity of the soul, and the ever­last­ing life we find in Christ.

The candles also have their own spe­cial sig­ni­fic­ance.  The four candles rep­res­ent the four weeks of Advent, and one candle is lit each Sunday.  Three of the candles are purple because the col­our viol­et is a litur­gic­al col­our that sig­ni­fies a time of pray­er, pen­ance, and sacrifice.

The first candle, which is purple, sym­bol­izes hope.  It rep­res­ents the expect­a­tion felt in anti­cip­a­tion of the com­ing Mes­si­ah.  The second candle, also purple, rep­res­ents peace.  It is a remind­er of Jesus being the Prince of Peace.

The third candle is pink and sym­bol­izes joy.  It is called the “Shepard’s Candle,” and is pink because rose is a litur­gic­al col­our for joy.  It sym­bol­ises the joy that the world exper­i­enced at the birth of Jesus, as well as the joy that the faith­ful have reached the mid­point of Advent.

On the fourth week of Advent, we light the final purple candle to mark the final week of pray­er and pen­ance as we wait for the birth of our Saviour.  This final candle is the candle of love.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that every­one who believes in him may have etern­al life.

On Christ­mas Eve/Day the white, or ‘Christ candle’ is lit to cel­eb­rate His birth.