St. Andrew’s NET

December, 2007

 

PASTORAL LETTER by Robin Bergman

 

The other day two people confided to me that this time of year is very difficult for them.  They spoke about the early darkness that oppresses them, of how the earth’s fallow time leaves them feeling somewhat dead. I’ve heard this many times, from many people over the years and it always makes me think of Isaiah’s words: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.”  We are still the people who walk in darkness.  The church season we are about to enter, Advent, offers comforting promises.

Advent is the beginning of the church year.  It is the season of waiting; waiting for the coming of the Messiah.  I love how Godly Play (our Christian formation program used with the young children here at St. Andrew’s) presents Advent: “This is the season of Advent, the time we get ready to celebrate the mystery of Christmas, the time we are all on the way to Bethlehem.”  The stories that follow bring the messages of  “Don’t be afraid.  Be happy. God is with you.”  We adults to hear these comforting words in the Advent lectionary.  Let us pray that we “hear, mark, and inwardly digest” them and share them with others who also walk in darkness.  Let us see, share and celebrate the “great light” of Christ.

May we all have a good Advent and a glad Christmas!

 

 

 

VESTRY NOTES

 

We desperately need your generous pledges for 2008!  They make up almost 50% of our necessary income.  While we are blessed with significant income from our bequests, it is not enough to balance our budget even with a Rector half-time.  And please honor your 2007 pledges!

 

Our Discernment Team did a great job in composing a Parish Profile for St. Andrew’s.  Click on the link and take a look!

 

We will again host a spaghetti supper for First Night on December 31^st.  Dennis Keon has agreed to manage it but needs LOTS of help, including desserts and salads.  Last year it was a good parish fund raiser and the volunteers all said they had a lot of fun.  Please give Julie or Dennis your name.

 

 

 

MONTHLY PRAYER

 

Dear Jesus,

 

Though there was no room for you in the inn, grant this day that I might make abundant room for you in my heart.  Though your own did not receive you, grant this hour that I may embrace you with open arms.  Though Bethlehem overlooked you in the shuffle of the census, grant me the grace, this quiet moment, to be still and know that you are God.  You, whose only palace was a stable, whose only throne was a feeding trough, whose only robes were swaddling clothes.

 

On my knees I confess that I am too conditioned to this world’s pomp and pageantry to recognize God cooing in a manger.

 

Forgive me, please.  And help me understand at least some of what your birth has to teach; that divine power is not mediated through strength, but through weakness; that true greatness is not achieved through the assertion of rights, but through their release; and that even the most secular of things can be sacred when you are in their midst.

 

And for those times when you yearn for my fellowship and stand at the door and knock, grant me a special sensitivity to the sound of that knock so I may be quick to my feet.  Keep me from letting you stand out in the cold or from ever sending you away to some stable.  May my heart be warm and inviting, so that when you do knock, a worthy place will always be waiting.  (From “Intimate Moments with the Savior” by Ken Gire)

 

 

 

PASTORAL CARE

 

If you are looking for pastoral care please don’t hesitate to contact someone on the Pastoral Care Team: Sybil Hazen 626-8678, Marion Parks 626-7213, Jocelyn Burrell 748-5247, Lin Hill 467-3308, and Robin Bergman 633-2871. (Sybil and Marion head up this group.)

Pastoral care is the work of the congregation – this is our group of facilitators -- all of us should feel encouraged to send notes or make phone calls when we see the need, particularly at this time where we lack the spiritual guidance of a priest.  We also must remind ourselves to reach out for help when we need it.

 

 

 

ODDS AND ENDS

 

It's not yet official (it soon will be) but Meg Powden announced during the November 11th service a new addition to their family!  Her official name will be Jordin MacDonald-Powden.  She is 13 and attending Lyndon Town School with Brooke.  She enjoys swimming and basketball.  Brooke is very excited about having a big sister and Jean and Meg are thrilled to have a new daughter!

 

 

 

SPECIAL REPORT by Diane Montague

 

After giving the “Report from the Field” on Sunday, Nov. 11^th, I was asked to share parts of it with you.

 

Many years ago, when I was in Bible College in England, a missionary came and talked to us about her work in a tonal language.  Since I am a musician, I was able hear the tones of the words she spoke.  I got really excited since I’d been puzzling about what I would do for a career.  So I talked to her and, soon after, applied to and was accepted by the organization she represented, Wycliffe Bible Translators.

 

The members of Wycliffe Bible Translators work in over 25 countries with people whose languages have never been written down, and so have never had the opportunity to read or write their own languages nor hear what God has to say to them in the Bible.  This story is told in a book written in about 1950 called “Ten Thousand Tongues To Go” by Ethel Wallis and appeared as a condensed book in Reader’s Digest.

 

In 1971 I left England for Mexico and Jungle Training Camp.  This 3-month training program was designed to teach us ‘rookies’ to prepare and cook local food, sterilize fresh veggies and fruit along with our dishes, handle a large, wooden canoe through rapids, swim in a river and a lake, build a temporary shelter out of available materials and whatever else we needed to live among indigenous people in remote villages.

 

From then until 2001 I lived almost entirely in Mexico. I was supported financially, and in other practical ways, by a few churches and many individuals in Great Britain and the USA who knew me well, believed in what I was doing, and wanted to have a part in giving the New Testament to people who had never heard it.

 

For the first 10 years I helped teach people in two different groups to read their own languages.  Then, in 1980, I joined Judi Lynn Anderson in her work among the Chinantec (CHEE-nan-tek) people.  Judi and her previous co-worker had already created a written form of this language and produced some books, with the co-operation and help of speakers of the language.

 

The Chinantec people live in the mist forests of Oaxaca (wa-HA-ka), Mexico.  This language group was dispersed to many different areas by the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1600’s.  The small group of them that live in the village of Comaltepec (ko-MULL-tey-pek) and in two smaller ranch areas, number about 2000 and speak a complex, tonal language.  In order for me to learn their language, I had to become like a child: to stammer and stutter and, for a large part of the time, not be understood.  It was painful and I cried a lot.  I am deeply grateful to the Chinantec people who were patient with me as I sat in their homes and stores and listened, listened, listened to and tried to speak their language.

 

Chinantec is a TONAL language.  In English we have INTONATION which operates across phrases and sentences to express things like a question, surprise, sorrow, shock etc.  In Chinantec every word has a TONE which carries meaning.  The difficulty of learning this is twofold:  the people themselves don’t hear the tone since they’ve spoken this language since birth; therefore they have a hard time teaching it to us; and we from the west have no experience in this area, so it’s the part of the language that we learn last.  Another difficulty for us was how to represent in writing this essential part of the Chinantec language!  We finally were able to create a method, which has been reasonably successful.

 

My co-worker, Judi Lynn, is a good grammarian and understood the technical aspects of the language.  She and Zeke (see later) had translated the New Testament into excellent Chinantec.  But since I had a good sense of how the language should flow, I spent 10 years working with several speakers of the language to revise the New Testament.  Wilfrido, a young Chinantec man who was a terrific worker and good friend did the major part of this work and his creativity and skill make the New Testament speak colloquial Chinantec.  He would often say as we read through our day’s work, “This is good!  It really speaks my language!” 

 

If you would like to read about this language group and see some of the written language or hear it, go to the following website: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cco.  The language sounds somewhat oriental because of the tone.  There are theories about this, but no firm evidence exists to verify a migration of people across the Bering Straits from Asia onto this continent.

 

I have many Chinantec friends:  Terry and Laura with their then small children often invited us to eat with them, to pray with them and to share God’s words with them.  Margy opened her home to us whenever we needed a place to stay, and we loved sitting round her kitchen fire and drinking hot coffee when it was cold, rainy and misty outside.  Zeke worked with us for 8 years, translating and keyboarding almost the entire New Testament. Juve and Ginny and their 9 children were our family in the village.  Judi Lynn studied with Juve in his and Ginny’s tiny kitchen house, with the laundry drying overhead and the coffee, beans and tortillas cooking on the fire.

 

I have had a truly amazing life with opportunities and challenges beyond imagination.  I thank the Lord God for allowing me this privilege.

 

 

 

HUMOR

 

An atheist was walking through the woods.  "What majestic trees"!  “What powerful rivers"!  "What beautiful animals"!  He said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards him.  He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him.  He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. He tripped and fell on the ground.  He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.  At that instant the Atheist cried out, "Oh my God!"  Time Stopped.  The bear froze. The forest was silent.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky.  "You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don't exist and even credit creation to cosmic accident."  "Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament?  Am I to count you as a believer"?   The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps you could make the BEAR a Christian"?

"Very Well," said the voice.  The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. The bear dropped his right paw, bringing both paws together, bowed his head and spoke:

"Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen."

   

KEEPING ADVENT by Lin Hill

“…and a time to every season under heaven”.  It seems that everywhere we look, the world is celebrating Christmas.  Carols and Christmas songs are all over the radio, people are having Christmas parties, and colored lights went up all over on Thanksgiving.  So why are we Episcopalians waiting to celebrate on December 24th?  Why don’t we sing carols or decorate the church for Christmas at this time?  

Last week we celebrated the feast day of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Liturgical year.  This Sunday, December 2, we begin a brand new year with the start of Advent.  The liturgical year has seasons of sorrow and joy, or work and rest and of hope and anticipation.  The true meaning of Christmas, beyond the spirit of good will, is to celebrate the Light of Christ coming into the world.  We can best appreciate the importance of this great gift if we have spent Advent preparing - reflecting on the darkness and our need for The True Light.  Advent gives us this time to think about the coming of the Messiah into the world.  During the four weeks of Advent we are expectantly waiting to celebrate the Nativity of Christ. 

 

The word Advent means “coming” - we are awaiting the coming of Emmanuel (Christ with us).  Advent serves as a dual reminder of the waiting of the Hebrews for the birth of the promised messiah as well as the waiting of Christians today for the promised second coming of Jesus.  (In this sense, imagine if you gave a party without waiting for the arrival of the Guest of honor?)  During Advent our worship together helps us share the sense of mystery and coming joy.  Advent is not only a season of waiting; it is a season of preparing. We prepare by reflection, prayer, meditation, perhaps journaling.  And yes we prepare for the Festival of the Nativity by making or buying gifts to give to our loved ones or by preparing special Holiday foods (and putting them away to feast on Christmas!)  

 

During Advent we have special prayers and Hymns and we have the Advent wreath.  The wreath is a ring symbolizing the eternity of God and God’s unending love.  There are four candles - one for each Sunday in Advent.  Three are blue for hope and one is pink for our coming joy.  There is a white candle, the color of celebration, in the center, to be lighted on Christmas Eve and during the Christmas Season - which lasts from Dec. 24th until the Baptism of our Lord in January.  

 

When I was a child I loved my family’s crèche - or nativity figures.  At the start of Advent we set up the manger and the shepherds.  Mary and Joseph were placed at a distance and moved a little closer each day, to symbolize their journey to Bethlehem.  (The figures of the magi were placed even farther away and only approached the manger as we neared the day of Epiphany.)  The baby Jesus was placed in the stable before we went to sleep on December 24th.  I clearly remember the year that I was first old enough to attend the midnight Christmas Eve service at our church.  I was so excited that I was never sleepy.  When we arrived home in the wee hours of the morning I was startled to discover that Santa Claus had been there in our absence!  Nevertheless, the first thing I did was place the tiny figure of the baby Jesus in the stable beside Mary, as I had been waiting to do for so long.  Only then was it Christmas.  So let’s save the Carols for the Christmas Season - we will have many opportunities to sing them.  

 

On December 30th our Sunday service will be a Festival of Lessons and Carols - and a sharing of holiday treats at coffee hour. Until then, we wait in quiet hopefulness and anticipation of joy as we keep the season.   May you have a holy and blessed Advent!

 

 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

 

Vestry Meeting, December 13th, 5:30pm

 

We will worship at St. Peter’s in Lyndonville on December 23rd.  They have also invited us to their Christmas Eve Service at 7pm.