Archives: November 2005

According to the church calendar , November is the last full month of the year 2005. The year 2006 begins with the first Sunday of Advent on November 27.

Our last month begins with one of our greatest celebrations, All Saints' Day. All Saints' is the day we remember all the “saints” who have been a part of our lives and who have died and who are in the nearer presence of the Lord. We will celebrate this time of worship on November 1, at 7:00 p.m. and on November 5, at 4:00 p.m. and on November 6 at 8:00 and 10:30 a.m. At each of those services we will read by name all those you want us to remember.

November is also a time for us to start thinking about all the many blessings –our thanksgivings – from the past year. I suggest that each of us start a journal of blessings on November 1, and write down our blessings and bring our journals with us to the Thanksgiving service on November 24 at 11:00 a.m. We will offer up to God our thanksgivings on that day and then eat together in Sengel Hall a Thanksgiving dinner. Bring your family, friends, and those in your neighborhood or work place to eat the great feast of the Holy Eucharist and then Thanksgiving dinner.

November is also the month we will be sending out the 2006 pledge cards and will ask you to make a sacrificial gift to your church for our ongoing ministries and as a means of helping your church family pay our bills including the utilities and the salaries of those who work in this place. November is also a good time for all of us, if possible, to complete our 2005 pledges and for those who prepay some or all of their 2006 pledge to go ahead and take care of that task.

November is also the month I want everyone to stop and think about their wills and their church membership. Now that I have been here for a few months, I have come to realize how few people have Arkansas wills. (There is a difference from state to state.)

I have also come to realize that there are those among us who have not transferred your membership from your past parish or declared your wish to be a member of St. Theodore's. November would be a good month to drop by the office and request a transfer from your former parish.

November is also a time to go ahead and bite the bullet and come in and talk with me about any funeral arrangements you need to make and then leave a copy in the office. If you have already made your arrangements, please bring a copy of those arrangements into the office so that we can keep them on file for you.

November is a time of wrapping up the past and freeing our hearts, souls, and minds to journey once again with Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem and to peer once again into the manager and see the baby Jesus and to hold him close to our hearts and to walk with him day by day unencumbered by all the details of the “last things.” May you have a most blessed last month of the year.

                                                      Fr. Ken †   

Archive 11- 2005