STINA’S MESSAGE

“All things come of thee”

This is the old sentence that the priest said when lifting up the gifts and bread and wine at the offertory, and the people responded, “And of thine own have we given thee.” Both are still true. All that we have comes from God. Therefore, when we give anything “back” to God, we acknowledge that it is already God’s stuff that we are giving. I think about the child who brings her mother a flower that she has picked out of the mother’s garden, the mother smiles, and accepts the gift of her own flower.

Each fall, we are invited to look at the many “flowers” in our lives, and then invited to give some back. It is in that light that I hope you will read and respond to the enclosed letter from the Senior Warden.

Stina

BC HIGHLIGHTS

• Cooking Classes: are postponed until the new year.
• Website: our new web address is seikokai.org, email is seikokaisf@gmail.com, Michael McCrystal is working hard at this. We will have capability for online donations.
• The Adult Ed is a video series by Phyllis Tickle, 11/18, 12/16.
• The replacement of the exterior basement doors are still in process.
• Pews: new pads for the seat bottoms will run between $2k-$3k, Stina will get fabric samples
• Flooring: we will get a flooring contractor in to help make decisions about our best options for the church proper, the hallway, the stairs, and the upper hallway.
• The Diocesan Altar Guild is collecting items for “ditty bags” for the Episcopal Sanctuary. Please bring hotel size: soap, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, deodorant, tissue, toothbrush and paste, as well as warm socks, face cloths, wrapped candies.
• World Communion Sunday offering for API Legal Outreach was $595.
• Music Festival report: Our check to Japan is about $3000. Gordon and Carol will take it to NSKK for the sheltered workshop. This is a bit more than went to Haiti, because of a previous donation for tsunami relief.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• December 2, First Advent, after church we will make Advent wreaths for the home. Fun for all ages
• December 9 BC meeting
• Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24, 4:00 – and NO service Sunday, December 23.
• Phyllis Tickle Education Series – Nov 18, Dec 16  Phyllis Tickle isan authority on religion in America, author, historian and keen cultural observer who invites us to look at the changing face of Christianity and culture. She surveys 2000 years of Western history, identifying the great upheavals that occur in Western culture every 500 years, looking at the one going on now, and asks what the implications are of this “Great Emergence.”
• Episcopal Education – Altar Guild on November 25, for all members of SKK. Did you ever wonder how things are supposed to be put together on the altar, and what they all mean? Stina will lead a short class to explain!
• EAM @ 40 – please mark your calendars for the weekend of June 22-23, 2013. We will be hosting the Japanese Convocation, and both Stina and Connie are already very involved in the planning for this event. The main part of the conference will be held in Burlingame. The Sunday afternoon service will be at Grace Cathedral, with the Presiding Bishop.
• Asian Music Festival at Grace Cathedral, August 25, 2013

  All our calendar items are found on our online calendar. Use the subscribe tool on that page to get Sei Ko Kai events added to your own calendar automatically!

THANKS

To the Altar Guild for their faithful duty preparing the altar for our services.

FLOWERS

Thanks to all those who have signed up to donate flowers each Sunday. The “Flower Chart” for 2012 is posted in the Church hallway on the bulletin board by the Sacristy.  Please sign up or email the Vicar to donate flowers on a given Sunday.

 

THE LAST WORD

If, as a people, we want the world to see us as a place of promise and peace, then let us live by the light of our own example. Let us be welcoming to diversity, free of all prejudice, just to every person, rich or poor. Let our leaders be temperate in their speech, not adding to the anger of partisan rant, but calling our common spirit to a higher vision. Let our care for children be our measure, our lack of greed our pride, our integrity our greatest national treasure. Let the world see us practice what we preach and be blessed to do the same in their own way and manner.

Bp Steven Charleston

 

 

MESSENGER’S NOTES

The Messenger will strive to provide:

1. Information regarding events of significance to the whole congregation.
2. Information regarding the customs and practices of the Protestant Episcopal Church, USA and of our Nikkei community. 9
3. Information regarding efforts made to advance the program goals established by the Vicar, Bishop’s Committee as the goals themselves are made known.
4. Information regarding events relevant to the mission of the church.

The Messenger will not list individual monetary gifts or donations as it has no direct access to such information.   However, donors will be acknowledged as their names are provided.  Institutional grants for project goals of the Mission will be acknowledged as a part of information regarding the programs themselves.