November Calendar at St. John’s
November is a busy month at St. John’s so please make note of these upcoming events!
October 30: Outreach Committee Meeting
The St. John’s Outreach Committee meets several times a year to discuss ways for us to support area organizations and how we can be engaged in loving our neighbors. All are welcome to Outreach Committee Meetings so come and participate in our common life by reaching out beyond our parish walls.
November 6: All Saints Day Celebration
All Saints Feast Day is Nov 1 but we always celebrate it on the first Sunday of November as a major feast day on our calendar. We begin by honoring those souls who have died and continue by celebrating the lives of all the saints by renewing our baptismal vows. Because it’s the First Sunday of the month, this will be an All Ages Worship.
November 11-12: Diocesan Convention
Rev. Michelle and our parish delegate, Paula Wisneski, will travel to Tarrytown on November 11-12 to meet with all the other congregational delegates from the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Every year the larger diocese meets to discuss, discern, learn, and then vote on important aspects of our common life together. Please offer your prayers for their work this year and stay tuned for future newsletters for more information about how to view these proceedings online.
Commitment Sunday marks the official end of our Pledge Campaign so we will gather pledges and offer a special blessing. The Stewardship Committee will continue to accept pledge cards at any time.St. John’s Forum: Stephen Blauweiss– Stay after worship for brunch and our next St. John’s Forum. Local author and producer Stephen Blauweiss will come and talk about his latest work – The Story of Historic Kingston. Learn more about our amazing community and buy one of his books for a Christmas gift!
November 15: Q&A with the Bishop Candidates
The Diocese of New York is electing a new bishop this year on December 3. Come and meet the candidates in person at a Q&A Session in Newburgh at St. George’s Episcopal Church beginning at 7:00 pm. Pay attention to your email for more details from Rev. Michelle.
November 20: St. John’s Harvest Sale and Godly Play
We give thanks for the members of our St. John’s Harvest Team – Jeannette Baggot, Sara Hutton, Kathy Burdick, Barbara Johnston, and Ana Hernandez. They have cooked up some amazing things that will be available for sale after worship on Sunday, Nov. 20 in the parish hall. All proceeds go to the operating fund of St. John’s. And don’t forget! Godly Play will be offered during worship for our younger members.
November 21-23: Angel Food East Thanksgiving Meal Prep and Delivery
The clients of Angel Food East are homebound due to ongoing illness of some kind. We want to make sure they have a good Thanksgiving meal so during this week, turkey and all the fixins will be prepared, packed, and delivered for our clients. Come and help! Stay tuned to your email to learn more about days/times when more help is needed.
November 27: Advent I Guest Preacher and Advent Spirituality
On the First Sunday of Advent, we welcome guest preacher and Deacon Dr. Meg Stapleton Smith as we celebrate the beginning of our new church year on Advent I.
St. John’s Forum – Then, stay after worship for a special St. John’s Forum where we will make Advent Wreaths and discuss Advent spiritual practices.
All Souls and All Saints
As we come to the end of October, most of our culture is caught up in Halloween – and for good reason! It’s fun to be someone else for a day – not to mention the parties and the pumpkin carving and the trick-or-treating and the decorations. As you might guess, this celebration has its roots in other traditions from other times and other places.
The holiday we now know as Halloween has its origins a Celtic festival called Samhain. People in the British Isles would light bonfires and wear costumes as a way of keeping evil spirits and ghosts at bay. Then, when Pope Gregory IV designated November 1 as All Saints Day, the celebration of Samhain in the British Isles shifted so that the night before All Saints came to be known as All Hallows Eve, restricting their bonfires and costumes to this “eve.” It’s sometimes known as All Saints Eve, following the Christian tradition of celebrating the holiday with a vigil the night before (which, of course, arose from the Jewish calendar in which the day starts at sundown).
In short, in Western Christianity, All Saints is a commemoration of all Christians, past and present. We lift up the names of those who have gone before as a way of naming honoring our ancestors. It began as a day of obligation in Europe, which means that “all the faithful” were required to attend worship, as they are on other days of obligation like Christmas and Easter. Today it is celebrated in various ways, depending on local tradition.
This is easily confused with All Souls Day, celebrated on November 2, which is a commemoration of all the faithful departed. On this day, people participate in quiet vigils and prayer services, and visit cemeteries.
Both All Saints and All Souls are, of course, tied to the celebration of Halloween because all of these commemoration and celebrations are ways of honoring the dead during the time of year when, in the Northern Hemisphere, we are also watching all the green life turn to brown. It is a season of remembrance and a season of letting go – practices that are very important for us as humans.
At St. John’s, we ask for the names of those who have died so that they can be added to our All Saints Sunday bulletin. And, as we begin our celebration on November 6, we will name these people, light candles in their names, and recognize and give thanks for their lives as a part of our lives.
So, I ask that you either email me directly at michelle.stjohnskingston@gmail.com OR use the form on the bulletin board in the vestibule to make sure the names of those you would like to have spoken are in our bulletin on November 6.
And I hope you will come to celebrate with us on November 6. We will have a story and activities for all ages at worship that morning.
In God’s love and mine,
Rev. Michelle
Announcements for the Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost
October 30, 2022
THIS SUNDAY! Outreach Meeting Join us after worship for our Outreach Committee meeting. All are welcome as we discuss ways for us to be engaged in and support the larger community of Kingston and Ulster County.
NEXT WEEK! All Ages Worship We celebrate the Feast of All Saints’ on November 6 with All Ages Worship, where many elements of the worship are designed for younger worshippers.
Stewardship Campaign: October 23 – November 13
Recommitment, Renewal, and Reconciliation. These are the words on our Stewardship banner at the back of the Sanctuary. For the past year, we have been using these themes to look at our lives in the Gospel. Now, this coming year, we will be Continuing the Journey of Recommitment, Renewal, and Reconciliation by revisiting our Mission Statement and the Stewardship of our Mission. During these 4 weeks, we will listen to people talk about the Mission of St. John’s and their reasons for pledging to support it. If you’re new to St. John’s or would like information about pledging, pick up a Stewardship flyer along with your bulletin.
Page Turners Book Club At their recent meeting the book club decided to move their meetings to the first Thursday of the month at 2 p.m., in the parish hall. Upcoming books are: Nov 3-‘The Sweetness of Water’, by Nathan Harris; Dec 1-‘Horse’, by Geraldine Brooks.
St. John’s Forum – Nov 13: The Story of Historic Kingston, with Stephen Blauweiss. Join us after worship for a presentation by local author and producer Stephen Blauweiss whose passion for telling the story of Kingston led him to publish his most recent book, The Story of Historic Kingston. Stephen will be selling books at this event too!
St. John’s Harvest: Feeding people is our jam!
The cooking is done so join us for our fundraising sale dates. All proceeds go to the St. John’s operating fund. Sale dates: Nov 20 and Dec 11
Social Hour Hosting: You are invited to sign up on the bulletin board in the Vestibule to be a social hour host! Talk with our Hospitality Coordinator, Barbara Johnston for more information.
Calling all bakers! Do you like to make things in the kitchen? Our Communion Bread recipe is easy and quick. You bake one batch, deliver the bread to the church, and we keep it in the freezer until we use it. Sign up to bake for a month (or two) this year. The sign-up sheet is on the bulletin board in the Vestibule.
Ulster Deanery Youth Event – Join us for a Rock Academy Concert on December 11 from 3-6. We will be raising awareness about homelessness in Ulster County. All are invited! More to come.
Have an announcement for the bulletin?
Please send by Wednesday at noon to stjohnskingston@aol.com