November 2005 Vol. 7 No. 10 Archive of Previous Issues The Grapevine is published monthly (except for a combined July/August issue) by St. Patrick's Episcopal Church E-mail St. Patricks The Rev. Hugh Stevenson, Rector Editor: Herc Roland, 538-3134

Table of Contents for November 2005 [Vol. 7 No. 10]

I Sing A Song Of The Saints Of God November Events Turning Points The Contemporary Service Bits and Pieces Outreach

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I SING A SONG OF THE SAINTS OF GOD

Seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

November is a great month for saints. These are some in our calendar whom we remember:
Nov 1: All Saints, the day for remembering all the other saints who don't have specific days in the calendar.
Nov 2: All Souls Day. We remember loved ones who have died.
Nov 14: Samuel Seabury, the first American Bishop.
Nov 17: Hugh was Bishop of Lincoln in the 12th century. He stood up for the church like Thomas a Becket; but he was less confrontational and therefore was not martyred. Also he had a sense of humor, which Thomas seems to have lacked.
Nov 18: Hilda was Abbess of Whitby and a leader of the Celtic church at the Synod of Whitby (664) The Roman way of being a Christian prevailed. She was a peacemaker between opposing parties.
Nov 22: C.S. Lewis died on this day in 1963. He was a writer (Tales of Narnia etc) and a spokesman for the Christian faith.
Nov 28: Kamehameha & Emma, (Episcopal) monarchs of Hawaii in the mid 19th century.

Other saints have died this year:

• Pope John Paul II influenced the lives of 1000s of non-Roman Catholics
• Brother Roger of Taizé started a Protestant religious community in Eastern France which provided a beacon of hope to 1000s of disaffected young people
• Basil Pennington, with Thomas Keating, popularized Centering Prayer and enriched the prayer life of 1000s of people (many of them Episcopalian).
• Cecily Saunders built the first hospice in South London, St Christopher's, and relieved the suffering of 1000s of terminally ill patients.

In November, the veil between those who have died and ourselves grows very thin. The saints are one with us in the communion of saints. I believe that the saints (rather than guardian angels) watch out for us and sometimes protect us in times of danger.

The saints provide us with both an example and encouragement to be faithful and to follow boldly in the steps of Jesus. "I mean to be one too"; don't you?

NOVEMBER EVENTS

We celebrate All Saints on Sunday, October 30

• At the 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services, we will read the names of loved ones who have died, who are one with us in the Communion of Saints.
• At the conclusion of the 10:30 a.m. service, we will process across to the Memorial Garden, to pray for members of our families and friends who are interred there.

• On Sunday, November 6, we will bless the pledges at the 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services. If you did not receive a pledge card, you will find extras on the table in the church entrance.

• The Diocesan Convention will be held in Sacramento on November 12 and 13. Our delegates are Marcia Ronchetti, Wendy Wood, Dorothy and Vic Howard, plus the clergy.
• On Sunday, November 13, Bishop George Hunt will celebrate and preach at all services.

• On November 20, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we have an ingathering of dried and canned food, which will be distributed through F.I.S.H. Please bring non-perishable items and place them in the wagons or boxes in the church entrance. The food will be brought forward and offered at the altar in thanksgiving for all the blessings that God gives us.
• On Wednesday evening, November 23, at 7:00 p.m., there will be a Thanksgiving service here at St. Patrick's. "Come ye thankful people come!"

• December 10, three wineries in our valley will host the Festival of Lights. Wineries are decorated for the holiday season and from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. wine, food, and entertainment are offered. Tickets are available at individual wineries. It is a beautiful event.

• The musical group, Cantiamo, directed by Carol Menke, will sing Evensong at 5:30 p.m. on December 11 in Church, followed by a potluck dinner in Church. Please mark your calendar and sign up nearer the time. An inspiring event for Advent!

• The season of Advent begins on November 27. On the four Sundays we look forward to the coming of the Son of Man. This is a season of both expectation and penitence; we are exhorted to prepare our hearts to receive our Lord. The liturgical color is purple and we use Eucharistic Prayer B for Rite II.
• On the first Sunday of Advent, we will bless the Advent Wreath at the 9:00 a.m. service and light the first candle.
• At 10:30, the service of Advent carols and readings followed by the Eucharist.

• The new Bible study notes for November-January are in the rack in the church entrance. They are the church's gift to members of our congregation. Please take one per household.

TURNING POINTS

All find a welcome:
We had a number of visitors on October 16:
Bill and Shirley Ward
Sean and Lisa Salmon
Francis Geddes
And 2 couples from Newfoundland.

For this, much thanks:
To the hosts and hostesses who welcomed neighborhood groups into their homes; to the vestry members plus George Hunt and Chuck Chapman who took copious notes; and to all the people who attended.

We ask God's protection of:
Those serving in the military overseas, Daniel Pearson

We will exalt you, O God, our King:
Congratulations to Kathryn & Gordon Gary who will be great grand parents (again);
Carol Menke who will be a grandmother.

May they know God's healing power:
Dave Jarrell, Ruben Beseda
Perry Barker, Linda Belding
Hertha Brown, Joan Ingold
Glenn Hendrix, Jinx Schall
Lolita Seguin, Pierre el Rief
Sandra Hammond's son-in-law, MarkRuth & Wayne Wright's daughter, Janice.

Blessings on:
Robert, son of Nancy and John Young who married Amy.

May they rest in peace:
Pattie Gerber died on September 27. She and Fred had been members since 1971.

Deepest sympathy:
Nancy and Jim Duffy on the death of Nancy's brother, James Robert Hutchinson.

One of the recommendations coming out of the neighborhood meetings was that we set up "Middle Management" in the parish. By being members of different commissions, parishioners can take part in the decision making of the parish. We have not had commissions since 1996. If you had questions or comments about a particular aspect of church life, you could bring it to vestry member responsible.

The Rector invited vestry members to express their preferences for a particular commission. We decided to begin now and not to wait until after the Annual Meeting in January. The list will be published in the next Grapevine.

We need volunteers to serve on commissions. Which commission would you be interested in?

Outreach	Worship
Finance	Health & Wellness
Buildings	Landscape
Newcomers ministry	Fellowship
Communications	Stewardship

Michael Peterson is producing a report on the survey, which will be available in a few weeks.

80 people attended the neighborhood meetings. A great many things came up. Before the November meeting, we will identify 5 priorities to work on. We will publish these in the next Grapevine.

We are looking for five candidates to nominate for next year's vestry. If you are interested, or you know of someone who would be good, please tell a vestry member.

Next year we will elect a new Bishop for our diocese. We need six delegates to convention. Interested?
Hugh Stevenson

THE CONTEMPORARY SERVICE

They say that the average memory span of a congregation is three months; a vestry member responded, "As long as that?" There was some discussion of the contemporary service at the recent neighborhood meetings. Here is some of the background.

After much discussion, we approved a 5-year plan at the Annual Meeting in January 1997. Among other things, we said we wanted to grow in numbers and we considered the possibility of holding a less formal service.

A couple of weeks later, at the Vestry workshop, we invited Fr. Phil Rountree to tell us about his contemporary service at St. Francis, Novato.

In April 1997, we started experimental services at 10:00 a.m., on the 2nd Sunday of each month, which we called "Diversity in Worship" Sunday. A task force continued to meet to monitor our progress and we reported back to the parish via the Grapevine in December 1997.

Early in 1998, we asked for feedback from the congregation in a survey. In her report (published in March), Judy Buff said, many of the 117 respondents enjoyed the occasional variety in our worship. We floated the idea of a 9:00 am service. Thirty people said they would attend at 9:00 am, 25 said they would attend at either 9:00 or 11:00 (this was the proposed time for the 3rd service back then). Twenty-eight said that if it was offered they would try a service at 5:30 pm on Saturdays.

Beginning October 31, 1998 (on the last Sunday of the month) we held what we called "Open Air" services on the back patio at 6:00 pm (5:00 pm in the Parish Hall during the winter months). We continued doing this until July 1999. We stopped because the numbers had diminished and because those who supported the service on Saturday night also came to church on Sunday morning.

We continued holding the contemporary service at 10:00 am on the 2nd Sunday of the month. We invited various guest musicians and I rewrote some of the Lessons so that they could be read as "playlets" by several voices. Some complained that they could not hear when children read; there was no sound system back then.

Some who preferred a more traditional service did not come on the 2nd Sunday of the month and since there was no Sunday school, children (and their parents) took that Sunday off.

Each year starting in 1996, the vestry, at their annual workshop, asked themselves, "Is this the year to go to three services?" In 2002, George Hunt, our facilitator, helped us bite the bullet. There was further discussion at the Town Hall meeting in the fall of that year. We started in March 2003. That same month, we reported back to the congregation in a long article in the Grapevine about the addition of the contemporary service. In June, we surveyed people's attitudes and decided an experiment of 12 weeks was not enough.

A Grapevine article in July 2003 said that adult ed. On Sunday morning had taken off. We had trained and licensed three teenagers as Lay Eucharistic Ministers at the 9:00 am service. We were concerned that the congregation was being fragmented and we needed more time together. Four times a year, we held a single service on Sunday morning at 9:30, which we called "All Parish Worship"; but this did not take off.

Another article, in July 2004, said that a core group was now attending the 9:00 a.m. service every week, including four new households. It was beginning to have its own identity. People said they liked the music, which was "singable", the informality, and the brevity of the service. While the majority of attenders were adults, we were also attracting a few younger families.

That's how we got where we are today. The contemporary service is still a work in progress. At his annual visit, the Bishop encouraged us to persevere.

BIT AND PIECES

From Marcia Ronchetti,
Our sincere thanks and acknowledgement of our Bizarre Bazaar Boosters who have so generously contributed to our success in contributions to The Living Room, CARE and the Vineyard Workers Services.

$50 Boosters
Jim Duffy, Marjorie Macleod, Alice Fielder, Jackie Senter.

$100 Boosters
Heather Nicoll, John Boskovich, Cynthia Pennington, Chuck Chapman, Dorothy Pierce & Dorothy Bell, Barbara & Harry Fry, Marcia Ronchetti, Al Gilmour, Josephine Ross.

Unbeknownst to Bob Fry at the time of his contribution, I learned from Becky Jenkins that his contribution of two bottles of 1986 Phillipe Rothschild in the original box are valued at a minimum of $350.00.

Thanks for the wineries who donated wine for the wine tasting tent:
B.B. Cohn Winery
Kunde Estates Winery
St Francis Winery & Vineyards

Thanks to Artesan bakery for the bread And the Cheese Factory for award winning cheeses.

Pictures from 2005 Bizarre Bazaar

ECW DECEMBER MEETING
Women of St. Patrick's - please mark your calendars for Saturday, December 12, the day of our festive Christmas luncheon at 11:00 o'clock. We'll have a short business meeting and then a delightful music program. Please sign up to bring either a salad or a dessert and please join us for some holiday cheer!
Nina Pohl, Program Chairman.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
In the light of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a number of us have been asking, how prepared are we for any crises that may happen to us? There are a number of things we can do:

1. It would be handy to keep a supply of bottled water in our homes. Water seems to be the greatest immediate need.
2. If we store food, we should be planning for a week, not just 72 hours.
3. St. Patrick's is designated one of the emergency shelters. We have cots and medical supplies in the attic over the kitchen. We installed a hookup for the Fire Protection District's generator.
4. If our parish hall is needed as a shelter we will need volunteers offering a variety of skills to care for those who come to us.
5. At a ministerial meeting, I met the local Emergency Management chief and the local head of the Red Cross. They seemed more prepared than those in Louisiana.
6. At the end of the day, the experience of New Orleans seems to have been that we cannot count on other people to bail us out. We need to be prepared ourselves.
7. One of the most useful tools in LA was a chain saw. It took the saws of many people to open up the roads after the hurricanes.
8. It may be that we will provide a shelter for people who are not from our community. Perhaps people will come to us, evacuated from San Francisco or Sacramento. We will need to welcome them with both practical help and with loving hearts.

OUTREACH

OUTREACH COMMITTEE
The next meeting of the Outreach Committee is Wednesday, November 2 at 10:00 a.m. The committee will be recommending disbursements for our outreach program for 4th quarter. If you have ideas of whom we should support, please submit a grant request to Bill McDonald.

FOOD BASKET
Please remember to bring one item of food (canned or dried food) each week for the food basket in the church entrance. After Sunday services, a team of volunteers delivers the food to F.I.S.H. in Santa Rosa. November 23 is the Harvest Ingathering when we bless the food at the altar.

NEIGHBOR-TO-NEIGHBOR PROGRAM
This holiday season the "Neighbor-to-Neighbor program" will once again distribute Christmas baskets. Young people and adults from our congregation help assemble food parcels at Star of the Valley, White Oak Drive, in Oakmont. The baskets are then distributed on the days before Christmas.

YOUTH GENEROSITY
There was some money carried forward from the Mission to Mexico 2005 for next year. The Youth group voted to donate some of that for hurricane and earthquake relief: $250 for the Gulf Coast (ERD or Red Cross) $250 Pakistan/Kashmir (Doctors without borders)

CHILD'S VIEW

A woman was struggling to get ketchup to come out of a jar. The phone rang and she asked her 4-year-old to answer it. "It's the minister, Mommy," she said. Then the child said into the phone, "Mommy can't come to the phone right now, she's hitting the bottle."

A girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad wearing a tuxedo, she said, "Daddy, you shouldn't wear that suit. It always gives you a head ache."

SUNDAY ADULT STUDY

What Kind of Fool am I?
The November adult education class on Sunday morning will be about fools.

The class is at 9:45 am on Sundays beginning November 6, and finishes in time for the 10:30 service.