TURNING POINTS

All find a welcome:
Greg and Linda Goodwin from Oakmont. Their daughter, Lauren will marry Josh Gordon at 3:45 on 06/07/08.
The McDonalds brought their neighbor on Pythian Way, Candy Akers, to church.
Brenda Steele also of Oakmont worshipped with us.

For this, much thanks:
On Nov 11, during Diocesan Convention, the celebrant and preacher at 8 am was the Rev LA King who also led the Adult Ed class. Celebrant at 9 and 10:30 was the Rev Cliff Kent; preacher at 9 am was Charlie Buff; preacher at 10:30 was Ray Estabrook. Thanks to all.

On Nov 4, the Estabrooks gave a bottle of tawny port for communion to mark All Saints Day. On Nov 25, Minerva Haddad made bread and Clarence & Becky Jenkins and Bob Hunter gave wine from their vineyards for Harvest Festival.

Relocation:
Elinor Offill is moving back to the East Coast from CA. Some will remember her and Paul when they were members of St Patrick's. Paul died about a year ago. Her new address is 52 State Street Unit 2, Portland, ME 04101. Cell phone number is 207-318-4703. Email address is enor207@gmail.com.

John & Sarah Leech have been called to St. Alban's Episcopal Church. Their address is 21405 82nd Place, West Edmonds, WA 98026. Their telephone number is 425-778-0371. The web address is www.stalbansedmonds.org

We ask God's protection of:
those serving in the military overseas

Dan Whitwright	Dallas Casey
Mike Bennett	George Sutherland

THANKS to all who have made pledges to St. Patrick's for 2008. As of Nov 19, we had received 131 pledges for $207,000. We hope for about 40 more pledges for a total of $260,000.

May they know God's healing power:

Lolita Seguin,	Linda Belding
Hertha Brown,	James Landon
Eleanor Anderson,	Al Cook
Michael Steele, husband of Brenda	Maureen Thompson, wife of John
Beverly Daw, mother in law of Adele	John Phillips, son in law of Barbara Jones
Carolyn Harper, wife of Dave	Matt Harris, son of Ninon Cabrales
Jan, Teddy, John, Pierre, Andy, Kanaan, Steve, Jim & Connie	and 4 children: Benjamin, Alyssa, Kaitlyn and Garrett.

Blessings on:
Spencer Henry, son of Megan & Eric Wilson, grandson of Kay & Rodi Martinelli, baptized on Nov 25.

Deepest sympathy:
To Jean Rockwell on the death of her husband Jack. Jack had been a member of St Patrick's for nearly 4 years. He was a regular at the 9:00 a.m. service and at the men's lunch. He worked with world-class athletes his whole career. He was a member of the Hall of Fame for the National Athletic Trainers Association, a sports medicine physical therapist for thirty years, and was the trainer for the US Gymnastic team for many years.

OUTREACH

HEIFER PROJECT
St Patrick's will be making an annual contribution to Heifer Project on behalf of the parish. There is a line item in the parish budget for $2000. However, if you would like to give animals to your nearest and dearest as Christmas gifts, this is Heifer's phone number (800) 422-0474. Heifer's address is Heifer Project International, 1 World Avenue, Little Rock, AR/USA 72202 and their website: heifer.org. Will you let us know at the church office if you make a donation so that we may record our parish's total giving to Heifer?

OTHER CHARITABLE GIVING
There are also line items in the budget for:

Episcopal Relief and Development	$1500
United Thank Offering	$1500
Church Divinity School of the Pacific	$2000

The full list of our charitable giving will be included in the packet of reports for the Annual Meeting.

EPISCOPAL RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT
"Gifts for Life," the Episcopal Relief and Development catalogue is available in the Parish Hall. What a wonderful way to help the world and give Christmas gifts or celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, etc!

Jackie McDonald will be writing an article about the outreach committee. The next Outreach Committee meeting will be on January 30.

Christmas Flowers
Would you like to donate towards the cost of the Christmas decorations, in memory of or in thanksgiving for a loved one?
Please sign the Flower Book in the church entrance.

THE NATIVITY
B. Jonson

I sing the Birth was born to-night, The Author both of life and light; The angels so did sound it:-- And like the ravish'd shepherds said, Who saw the light, and were afraid, Yet search'd, and true they found it.

The Son of GOD, the eternal King, That did us all salvation bring, And freed the soul from danger; He whom the whole world could not take, The Word, which heaven and earth did make, Was now laid in a manger.

What comfort by Him do we win, Who made Himself the price of sin, To make us heirs of glory! To see this Babe, all innocence, A martyr born in our defence!-- Can man forget this story?

TOP 10 REASONS TO BE AN EPISCOPALIAN

ANNUAL MEETING

The Annual Parish Meeting will take place on January 20. There will one Eucharist on that Sunday, at 9:30 a.m. The meeting will begin after refreshments at 10:30 a.m. We will elect new members of the vestry, receive the treasurer's report and the Rector's report. There will be time for questions and comments about the life of our parish.

We want to change the day of our annual meeting in 2009 onwards to the 4th Sunday of January, so that it does not clash with football or SR Symphony Day. The 2009 Annual Meeting would be held on January 25, 2009.

ANNUAL REPORTS
Could those responsible for parish programs please submit their reports as soon as possible for the packet? Will you pick up your packet after Christmas, in preparation for the meeting?

2008 VESTRY
At the Annual Meeting, we will elect 4 new vestry members. The outgoing vestry members are Wendy Wood. Judy Buff, Jean Meyer and Michael Peterson. The continuing members are Margaret Merchat, Jill Hunting, Vickie Ward, Becky Jenkins, Cathy Landon, Hutch Gibb, John Thompson and Bill Ward. A brief vestry meeting for the new vestry is held after the Annual Meeting.

VESTRY WORKSHOP
The vestry's planning workshop will be held on Feb 9, 9-3, facilitated by Mary Banks. There will be a supper the night before for the vestry and their partners.

Episcopalians
Adapted from an essay by Garrison Keillor

We make fun of Episcopalians for their blandness, their excessive calm, their fear of giving offense, their lack of speed and also for their secret fondness for macaroni and cheese.

But nobody sings like them. If you were to ask an audience in Des Moines, a relatively Episcopalian-less place, to sing along on the chorus of Michael Row the Boat Ashore, they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear. But if you do this among Episcopalians, they'd smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! And down the road!

Episcopalians believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud. Episcopalians like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.

Episcopalians believe their rectors will visit them in the hospital, even if they don't notify them they are there.

Episcopalians think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while passing the peace. Episcopalians drink coffee as if it were the third Sacrament.

Episcopalians feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the fellowship hall.

Episcopalians are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at church.

Episcopalians still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the season and Episcopalians believe that it is OK to poke fun at themselves and never take themselves too seriously.

And finally, you know you are an Episcopalian when you watch a Star Wars movie and they say, "May the Force be with you," and you respond, "And also with you."

ADVENT AMD CHRISTMAS

Nov. 30-Dec 3. Crèche Festival at the LDS Church 1780 Yulupa Ave. daily 3pm-9pm, Dan Earl will direct the choir who will sing Sat & Sun at 7:30. Website: http://www.sonic.net/crèche/

Dec. 1 Advent Quiet Day, sponsored by the Daughters of the king for everyone. Meet in the Common Room.

After each service, half price sale of hand-made items from the Holiday Bazaar. There are still some lovely items left.

Santa comes to the 9:00 a.m. service, bearing gifts for children and the young at heart.

Dec 6 Hope for the Holidays. A panel discussion at the Berger Center in Oakmont, 1-3pm. Christmas can be a lonely time, lets discuss our different options.

Dec 8-10. Santa Rosa Symphony performs the Verdi Requiem. Jackie Senter, Max Church and Hugh Stevenson will sing in the chorus.

Dec 11. The ECW Christmas Luncheon at 11:00 a.m. Carolyn Poggi and Ginger Bonner will speak about being Chaplains for the Law Enforcement Services. Their motto is Being There, and their message is Sharing. Please sign up.

Dec 15. Wedding of Andrew Belding, son of Rick and Linda & Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of Margaret Merchat & Jim Johnson.

Dec. 19. Sing-along Messiah at Santa Rosa High School. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for seniors. This is a fundraiser to benefit the Santa Rosa Symphony's music education program. The performance will be led by the Santa Rosa Symphonic Chorus (including Jackie Senter, Max Church and Hugh Stevenson), and conducted by Dan Earl.

Dec 22. Food give-away at Star of the Valley Church, 495 White Oak Drive, in Oakmont. They need help on Saturday, 9-12, packing food parcels, and on Sunday afternoon 12-4 on Dec. 23 distributing them.

Dec 23, Advent 4. Eucharist at 8:00, 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. After the 10:30 a.m. Eucharist, would you like to help decorate the Church for Christmas? We need about 6 volunteers for one hour. If you can help, contact Fran Crane (539-6909)

Dec 24, Christmas Eve. 5:00 p.m., Christmas pageant and Eucharist.
At 10:30 p.m. Festal Eucharist, with choruses from Messiah and carols.

Dec 25, Christmas Day at 10:00 a.m., a celebration of the Eucharist without music for those who seek a quieter, more reflective service.

Dec. 26, Wednesday. NO midweek Eucharist.

Dec. 30, Christmas I. Eucharist at 8:00, 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. Lessons and carols at all services.
No Sunday school on this day.

Jan 5. Ultreya, potluck supper for cursillistas (people who have attended a cursillo weekend) in the parish hall.

Jan 6. Epiphany, the festival in the Church's calendar when we welcome the Three Wise Men.

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT
Raymond Skipp our Sunday school leader is recruiting children to take part in the Christmas Pageant on Christmas Eve. If you are interested contact hi, or leave a message at the parish office (833-4228).

DIOCESAN CONVENTION

I judge conventions by how I feel afterwards. In recent years, I have returned to St Patrick's feeling discouraged and angry. Conventions have avoided facing the big issues; these were given a few minutes on Sunday morning when we all wanted to go home. Every three years we elected deputies to General Convention; but mostly they came from the Sacramento Deanery with as many as half from one congregation.

This convention was different. I returned feeling tired, but satisfied that it had been worth the journey to Redding. This was Bishop Barry's first convention. A number of things were different. We had a chaplain who led the worship. Dena Harrison is the first woman bishop in the Diocese of Texas. Her sermon at the Eucharist was funny and inspiring. Barry invited various ordained lawyers to conduct the business.

The most controversial of these called upon General Convention (meeting in 2009) "to develop and authorize same-sex union blessing rites." Remembering that our diocese has a conservative bias, I did not think that this resolution had any chance. Jim Richardson eloquently moved the resolution, pointing out that we are not going against the House of Bishops or the Windsor Report and we are not authorizing the marriage of people of the same sex. But we are "supporting same-gender relationships of mutuality and fidelity." 11 dioceses have already approved this motion.

This was the major work for Saturday afternoon. There were various attempts to derail the motion, amending it and postponing it. I found myself in accord with Bill Adams of Sutter Creek who said, we have discussed sexuality for 20 years-it was one of the first things that we talked about after my arrival in St Patrick's in 1991-now is the time for convention to vote it up or down. So after long discussion the motion was approved without amendment. My first actions were to congratulate Jim and Bill and then to seek out conservative friends for whom the passage of this resolution would prove very painful.

The first 3 (of 4) clergy to be elected to General Convention were from our Deanery, not from Sacramento (Matt Lawrence of Incarnation, Cookie Clark and Stephen Carpenter), and 2 of the first 3 lay people. We needed fewer ballots than usual to elect. My one sadness was that there were no candidates from the 2 northern deaneries.

I have been pondering what we should discuss at our Lent study groups in 2008. Barry asked us to set aside our other programs and to take time to do some visioning about what both our parish and our diocese might be. The diocese will provide materials. We will also be visioning at the clergy conference in February and in April at the Bishop's conference (which will be in Sacramento rather than Konocti).

Convention provided an opportunity for me to network and find out what is going on beyond the borders of our parish. I got some (good?) ideas. St Mary's Napa has snazzy T-shirts, tote bags etc; perhaps we can have St Patrick's T-shirts. There was information about the "Revised Common Lectionary" which is replacing the "Common Lectionary" which we are currently using. The Worship Committee is addressing this. Our own Karen Steelman gave a fine presentation for the Episcopal Foundation, who will be meeting at St Patrick's on May 10, including people who have included the church their estate plans.

A rock band played during the Eucharist. I discovered that we could sing, "Let all mortal flesh keep silence" as a canon. I wouldn't want a rock band every week, but it was a new experience. Winds of change are blowing through our diocese. I want to thank our delegates: Wendy Wood, Kathy Littman, Minerva Haddad, Karen Steelman and Doug Steelman for being our delegates. We were a harmonious team. Ask them for their impressions about convention!
Hugh Stevenson