“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
Matthew 2:18

S u n d a y S c h e d u l e:

9 a.m. — Worship
10 – Ministry Teams Sunday
11 – Worship

PRESIDING BISHOP TO VISIT ST. NICHOLAS

We are thrilled to announce that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, will be our celebrant and preacher on Sunday, February 3.

Bishop Katharine will be in Chicago that weekend as the chief consecrator of Jeff Lee and will join us the following day before leaving Chicago. We will have one liturgy at 9 a.m. and it will be followed by our annual meeting at 11:15 a.m.

When the presiding bishop visits in February, she will be coming into a community that is embodying the best of contemporary faith. My true delight at her visit is what it says about you and to you. You deserve the recognition her visit will bring. You have become something quite wonderful and are becoming something even more wonderful week-by-week.

Transferred feast of the Holy Innocents

This Sunday, we will be celebrating the transferred feast of the Holy Innocents, whose feast day is December 28. In the Gospel of Matthew, Herod the Great orders all the newborn male children in Bethlehem slaughtered to protect his throne from the “King of the Jews” whom the Magi had prophesied to him. To learn more about the Holy Innocents, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Innocents

Can you provide temporary housing for a young woman?

Anna K is a young woman now being treated for bulimia at Alexian Brothers Medical Center’s day hospital program. She is from West Virginia and is wondering if someone in the parish could provide her with housing during her stay here. She would be happy to pay rent during her stay. We know Anna from previous treatments at Alexian, and she is a wonderful young woman who would be a joy to have as a temporary housemate. Please let me know at 1bread1body@sbcglobal.net THANKS!

Could you help with occasional respite care for a single mom?

There is a single mom with two elementary age children who could use some occasional help in the form of taking her kids for an occasional Saturday to give her time to recharge her batteries. I would be very grateful if some parishioners could step forward. Please let me know at 1bread1body@sbcglobal.net THANKS!

Movable Feast begins soon.

It’s a four-month series of small group potlucks, offering us a chance to get know one another more deeply. Sign-up sheet is at church. Thanks to the Welcoming Team for organizing these events.

Six icons to go: choose yours today.

We soon will be adding 10 icons of women saints to the brick wall behind the statue of Mary. But we need your help. The icons are $145 apiece. Rather than take $1450 from our budget, we are hoping folks will donate an icon – or portion of one. Three specific saints already have been “spoken for” and the “last one left” is also paid in full, but we have six more to go. Checks can be placed in the collection basket, with “icon” noted on the memo line. Thanks!

The icons we have chosen are Brigid and Darlughdach (a two-for-the-price-of-one deal!), Julian of Norwich, Mary Magdalene (spoken for), the Syro-Phoenician woman, Dorothy Day, Joan of Arc (spoken for!), Edith Stein, Perpetua and Felicity (another two-for-the-price-of-one deal), Hildegaard of Bingen (spoken for!), and Teresa of Avila.

Food Pantry.

Help replenish the food pantry by bringing one or more non-perishable items each Sunday. Particularly needed right now are paper goods: toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex.

Bishop’s committee report.

There was no meeting on December 26.

Help with Yummy Hour.

The Welcoming Team is seeking volunteers to help provide snacks for the social gatherings after both the 9 and 11 a.m. liturgies. We ask that the same person(s) cover both the 10 a.m. and noon gatherings. Set up snacks, regular and decaf coffee, and a pot of hot water for tea. Sugar, creamer, cups, napkins, and stirs are in the cabinets in the Gathering Space while coffee and coffee pots are in the kitchen. Let’s all get involved!

There is a sign up sheet in the church – AND you can sign up online by picking one of the available dates and emailing your choice to Manny: vanborg@sbcglobal.net

Here’s the schedule to choose from:

• December 30
• January 6
• January 13
• January 20
• January 27

Schedule for the 10 a.m. hour

Our schedule for the 10 a.m. hour is:
First Sunday of the month – Celebration Sunday; the 10 a.m. hour will be devoted to connecting.
Second Sunday – The Celebrating our Anglicanism series will now meet on this Sunday.
Third Sunday – Ministry Teams will meet on this day instead of on the Fourth Sunday.
Fourth Sunday – The series on major figures of the Hebrew Scriptures will meet one Sunday per month instead of two.
Fifth Sunday – When we’ve got an extra Sunday, as we do this Sunday, we will decide each time how to use the 10 a.m. hour. This month, we are going to use it to connect and socialize. So come early or stay late – and celebrate the gift of God in each of us!

St. Nicholas Feast on YouTube

A friend of mine passed along this short video of the 2007 St. Nicholas Day celebration at Canterbury Cathedral.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/bjSAn7piFIk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
It is narrated by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. You can access the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSAn7piFIk

Afterwords by Father Steve

One bread, one body: the Presiding Bishop’s visit

I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas and will continue to enjoy the season of Christmas. The Christmas Eve liturgies were lovely and they were also the best attended in my 13 Christmas Eves at St. Nicholas. Wow! The music in particular was superb. Thank you, Mary and choir! We had a great 2007 and I am absolutely certain 2008 is going to be mind-blowing – beginning February 3, if not sooner.

One mark of our very successful 2007 and ongoing growth is that our opportunities for ministry are increasing. I hope in particular that you noted the announcements above about ways you can open your arms and hearts to others, and that some of us will be in a position to respond to these real needs. Thanks.

Lots of love,
Steve

Our schedule this week

Sunday, December 30

Worship at 9 & 11 a.m.
AA meets at 7:30 p.m.

Monday

AA meets at noon

Tuesday

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
GO ILLINOIS!
AA meets at noon
AA meets at 7 p.m.

Wednesday

AA meets at noon
Choir meets at 7 p.m.
Food Pantry at 6:30

Thursday

AA meets at noon
GA meets at 7 p.m.

Friday

AA meets at noon

Saturday

AA meets at 1 p.m.
AA meets at 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, January 6

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
Worship at 9 & 11

As seen in The Lead:

The Associated Baptist Press is reporting on an architectural revival, of sorts, among Christians trying to get away from sterile, stadium-like box-shaped megachurches. Tim Blonkvist, an Episcopalian and one of the architects profiled in the piece, says that church buildings are “Gods calling card,” and, as the article continues: Almost everybody who commutes to work or school drives by one or a dozen churches every day. Those structures either grab the attention of passersby – and, like the Gothic cathedrals of old, perhaps steer their thoughts heavenward – or they blend into an increasingly nondescript urban landscape.

Christian architects like Blonkvist and Cook are passionate about their work with churches. But they are troubled by what many congregations have been building lately – “big box” churches that look like warehouses or office buildings, denominational cookie-cutter models, and prefabricated buildings built as fast and cheaply as possible.

But after 300 years of mostly plain, utilitarian buildings – capped by three decades of what Cook calls megachurch “monster barns” devoid of Christian symbols – American Christians are poised for a revival in their church architecture. The architects say there is a hunger for spiritually expressive buildings that recapture a sense of sacred space, are rooted in a congregations specific location and lifestyle, use indigenous artwork and symbolism, and are environmentally sensitive.

The architects agreed the tide is turning – both in the church and culture – toward more overt spiritual values, and the days of spiritually neutral churches may be ending.

St Nicholas isn’t a big box church, it’s more of a “band-box” church: it’s got a semicircular curve to the front wall of the sanctuary, but then it squares up at the back. The current entrance has you come in the gathering space, which is full of people and coffee hour preparations, and it also serves as the food pantry area. You continue back towards the entrance to the sanctuary, which opens out to your left. It’s kind of a squeeze when there’s a crowd of people waiting to process in, such as for the Christmas Eve 9PM liturgy, but it opens out as you get in.

We’re not large, but we rejoice in a really flexible worship space that Father Steve loves to re-organize on a regular basis along lines that are connected to the liturgical year. Currently, when you come in, all the chairs are arranged around the altar in concentric circles. During Advent, they were arranged in monastic rows, facing one another, with the altar moved to the west side and the lectern arranged at the east side, with a wide central aisle. When Lent begins, they’ll be re-arranged again, and the baptistery/fountain area will be curtained off.

In a sense, it’s musical chairs, but the rearrangements help us to experience the liturgy and each other in new and different ways. We literally re-orient ourselves to the symbolism of the Altar and the Good News as the year progresses, not unlike sunflowers in a garden, tracking the heat and light of the sun.

Someday, we hope soon, a new addition will be built that will double our space for the programs and Christian education classes we now have, and to enable us to do even more. Until then, we’ll continue worshiping outside of the box, as it were.