E:Bulletin: Dec 5, 2010: Advent II

Services this Week: Parish of St Peter, Dec 6 – Dec 13, 2010

Dec 7 Parish Bible Study Ste Anne’s Court 3:30 p.m.
Dec 8 midweek at St Peter’s 7 p.m. .
Dec. 12 Third Sunday of Advent Holy Communion 8 a.m. & 11 a.m
Dec 5, 12, 19 Sunday School and Confirmation Class 10:15 a.m.
Dec 5 Last Vestry meeting of 2010 12: 35 p.m.
Dec 12 St Peter’s to Pine Grove Nursing Home for Christmas sing-a-long 3 p.m.
Dec 19 Sunday School Christmas Program in Church & Pot luck following 11 a.m.

We welcome all who are worshipping with us this day. St Peter's is a specifically Prayer Book Parish theologically as well as liturgically. What this means is that traditional liturgy (services) are the worshipping expression of normative Anglican, (i.e., of the Anglican Communion) belief. We hope that you find your time in our midst spiritually refreshing and beneficial.

Word Scramble: - onwrth - see readings on reverse. Last week’s answer: trumpet Rev 8:7

Please pray for our Sunday school, its teachers and students and the confirmation class!

Vestry News: At Vestry on Sunday Oct. 24 Vestry found representatives to attend the Natural Church Development (NCD) conference on Nov 6 at CCPC. Our representatives were vestryman, Wilfred Alliston and synod delegate ,Sandra Gereau. NCD is the program chosen by vestry at its May meeting as the most suitable means whereby to conduct a Parish self-assessment. This assessment would identify strengths and weaknesses and suggest methods of improvement. On a much more sobering front, the Parish has outstanding commitments to the diocese (formerly called assessments and apportionments) which continue to accumulate on a monthly basis. This figure helps pay the salaries of the Bishop and all the diocesan staff for, please remember, the diocese has no significant income source other than what is collected from the parishes! The total owed by St Peter’s to the diocese by year’s end will be around 14 thousand dollars.

St Peter’s Publications (Prayer Book Church Year) Church Calendars for 2011 are now all gone!

Hall Usage: The Fredericton Rug Hooking Guild will be using the Parish Hall for their pre-Christmas meeting slated for Dec 8th. Our ACW is catering the lunch and are very grateful for the fulsome support they received last week on the sign-up sheet! Well done St Peterites!

Sat Dec 11 OPAL Fredericton will be renting the Hall for a Christmas Party from 2 to 4 p.m.
They will be decorating on Friday evening.
Air Cadets Christmas Party (maybe) Dec 18, 3-6 p.m. ( un-confirmed at press time)
Rowing Club Dec 19, AGM 3-5

Snow shovelling volunteers for parish properties required for winter season 2010/2011. A monthly sign-up sheet appears at the rear today!

Also: Sign-up sheets for Altar Guild 2011 and Church Cleaning 2011 are at the rear ! [Instruction sheets as to what your duties would be if you volunteer for either cleaning or Altar Guild are also available for perusal.]

Ho Ho Ho – now is the time to plan – who might you invite to attend Christmas eve worship with you this year? Our 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. attendance numbers have been declining in recent years due to the changing demographics of our parish. The 4 p.m. Creche service is well attended with about 60 people each year but young families are not graduating to the 7 p.m. service as they should, nor are our older members who become shut-ins being replaced at a sufficient rate. There is also the reality that, what used to be our extended family attendance at these two services, is not what it used to be. Rather than despairing, let’s make a conscious effort to stir-up better attendance this coming Christmas eve. Let this be part of our Advent resolve this December!