Links to Prior
Month’s GOOD NEWS: SEPTEMBER 2008
The Pastor’s Perspective …
Praise God from
whom all blessing flow. Praise God all
creatures here below. Praise God above
the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. Amen.
The
familiar words of the Doxology echo through the sanctuary every Sunday morning
as we gather our morning offering and present it to God. As we enter into the month of November our
thoughts most likely turn to the annual celebration of Thanksgiving. (Of course, for some of us, we are thinking
about Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.
But that is for another newsletter.)
Is there any better season than Thanksgiving to focus our hearts and
minds upon the words and sentiment of the Doxology?
As
we make our preparations for family gatherings … deciding who will host dinner
this year, planning the menus, making the shopping lists, cleaning and
decorating our homes … we pause to give thanks. We give thanks to God for the gift of family and friends with
whom we share our joys, and can turn to during times of difficulty. We give thanks to God for the ability to set
a beautiful table and prepare a glorious meal with all the fixings. We give thanks to God for health and
happiness, and for lives rich with blessings.
We give thanks and we praise God through words spoken and spirits
uplifted – we praise God from whom ALL blessing flow.
However,
as we gather around our family dinner tables, let us pause for a moment to
remember that there are those who do not have a hand to hold. There are those who do not sit before a
table full of the bountiful fall harvest.
There are those whose homes and apartments are cold, whose cupboards are
bare, and whose lives are empty.
And
let us do more than simply remember them as we speak our table grace. Let us remember them with concrete acts of
mission service. On Sunday, November 2,
let us give more generously than ever to the Deacon’s Fund offering so that we
might be able to help our neighbors in need heat their homes, or pay for much
needed prescription medicines. On
Sunday, November 23, Thanksgiving Sunday, let us fill to overflowing our food
pantry collection basket in the vestry so that no one goes hungry. Each and every day in between, let us seek
out and reach out to those in our neighborhood - those in our community - that
may be experiencing the devastating hardship of loneliness or the loss of a
loved one.
Let
these also be our acts of praise. Happy
Giving Thanks
!
COME ON OUT TO SING CHRISTMAS
MUSIC WITH PRAISE & WORSHIP!
Each Monday evening at 8:00 PM,
beginning on Monday November 10, Praise & Worship will be learning new
Christmas music for the 11:00 PM service on Christmas Eve, as well as music for
our all-choir Christmas service in mid December. Join us to lift your spirits, and to help us share the spirit
through music this Christmas. Sharing
the music and the fellowship of our time together is a great way to get into
the Christmas spirit. We welcome all
vocalists and instrumentalists to give us a try!
THANKSGIVING DINNER
WITH YOUR CHURCH FAMILY
Thanksgiving is around the corner and with it
thoughts of good food and family. We would
like to invite you to a Thanksgiving Dinner with your church family on Sunday,
November 30th directly after church. Come and join us for a delicious meal. The meal will be free, but a free will offering will be
taken.
School is back in session and with that comes a
challenging situation in the church parking lot. During the school week I would like to remind people to PLEASE USE PARKING SPACES. Do not park
up against the building even if you are running in for a few minutes to drop
something off. With so many vehicles in
and out, and small bodies walking around we just like to keep everyone
safe. Thank you.
HAPPY FALL! The leaves are changing, the air is cool,
and the FCON family is busy Welcoming, Serving and Seeking Christ together!
Deacon’s Fund
A few updates from
the Deacon’s: With your generosity we were able to provide $300 of assistance
in the last month. As Winter approaches the needs increase and we pray blessings
on all those in need, all those who were able to give, and those who wished to
give, but could not.
Name Tags
The Deacon’s will be
collecting names and deposits of $5.00 for professionally made magnetic name
tags to replace our current paper/plastic name tags. These will be more
comfortable, easier to use, and more gentle on your clothing. Please check in
with Sarah Holt and place your order!
Communion
Pastor Scott will
continue to offer communion for Christian Education Teachers and volunteers @
9:30 on Communion Sundays. All are welcome to join our CE volunteers for
this important sacrament.
Deacon’s Of The Month
November will be Sarah Holt and Rob Shaw;
December will be Jim Lehan and Emily Ellen; January will be Jim Lehan and
Laura Carr.
Thanksgiving
Please mark you
calendars for Tuesday the 25th at 7:30 PM, as we will celebrate an
Ecumenical Service with several area churches celebrating the season of
Thanksgiving!
CONFIRMATION
We are approaching
the start of the confirmation season – please include our confirmation
candidates and mentors in your prayers.
Hat’s Off…
A monthly feature of
the Deacon’s…. This month we want to tip our hats to the Parsonage Study Committee. The entire congregation
appreciates their time and energy to research and present the important
information needed to help discern God’s will as we make a decision regarding
the Parsonage.
Interested in
learning the role of the Financial Secretary? Have a couple of hours a week you
can donate? The Finance Committee is seeking an individual who would be willing
to share the responsibilities of the Financial Secretary position. Karen
Perkuhn is doing a wonderful job, but she would certainly appreciate having an
additional person to share the workload and serve as a backup for this
important function. If you are interested, please contact Finance Chair
Gail Bernardo.
We have now reviewed all of
the balances and earnings for the fiscal year that ended as of June 30,
2008.
Current balances as of that
date for our three major accounts are:
Scholarship Funds - $128,577.02
Endowment Funds - $211,438.14
Memorial and Gifts Fund - $8,461.50
Each year, per the church bylaws,
we review the earnings of the Endowment Fund for the prior 12 months and
provide a distribution to other church funds if there are positive
earnings. Unfortunately, with the poor
performance of the markets earlier this year, the net earnings for the
Endowment Fund were negative $(8,793.46), so there will not be a
distribution this year.
A summary of all of the
current balances for the three accounts as of June 30, 2008 and earnings for
the prior twelve months are on the summary that follows