Sunday Announcements
The First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2006Note: Personal phone numbers are removed from the Web version of the Sunday announcements. Please consult your Parish Directory, use e-mail if an address is given, or call the parish office at 919-929-2193 to find out more about the news.
Services This Week
Mon, Tues, Wed, and Friday
5:15 pm Evening Prayer
Tuesday, December 5
5:30 pm Episcopal Campus Ministry
Wednesday, December 6
10:00 am Holy Eucharist - 1928
Mr. Elkins-Williams
Thursday, December 7
10:00 am Holy Eucharist Rite II/Healing
Ms. Lee
Sunday, December 10 (Violet)
The Second Sunday of Advent
7:30 am Holy Eucharist Rite I
Ms. Jamieson-Drake
9:00 am Holy Eucharist Rite II
Mr. Elkins-Williams
11:15 am Morning Prayer and Holy Eucharist Rite I
Mr. Elkins-Williams
4:00 pm Holy Eucharist Rite I
Ms. Jamieson-Drake
5:15 pm Holy Eucharist Rite II
Mr. Elkins-Williams
9:30 pm Sung Compline (Last of the Semester)
Readings: Baruch 5:1-9; Psalm 126; Philippians 1:1-11; Luke 3:1-6
Today
Jesse Tree and Advent Wreaths
This is an annual event for all ages on the first Sunday of Advent. You may purchase an oasis form or bring one from home. There will be plenty of fresh greens to fill it. Candle sets will also be available for purchase. Other wreath options will be offered and the popular Jesse Tree ornament making will be led by Suzanne Sauter. Advent devotional materials are on display for your choosing.
Dining Room Renovations
We are currently renovating the dining room. The room will have new flooring and fresh paint when it is finished by Dec. 8. We will be able to use the room for activities today even though it is not finished. However, due to tight scheduling and necessary set-up time, Jesse Tree and Advent Wreath making may be in a different location. Please listen for announcements and look for notices in the hallways about the location of these activities. We appreciate your patience with the inconvenience these renovations have caused.
12:30 Social Hour Today
Please come to the 12:30 pm social hour after the 11:15 am service every Sunday for a hearty welcome to the Chapel of the Cross and light refreshments. This event is managed totally by parishioners so we welcome new volunteers; please sign up in the dining room.
Alternative Gifts Table
Parishioners are urged to browse at the Alternative Gift Table in the dining room after the 9 am and 11:15 am services today and the next two Sundays. Honor a friend or family member with a gift that will make a difference. Gifts can be made to the Millennium Village Project, Freedom House or to Child Care Network. Information on each group and gift cards are available at the table. We also have small plastic bags which we hope parishioners can fill using the attached list of personal care items. These can be returned to the dining room and will go to IFC for men at the shelter.
Bishops Blend - EYC Missions
EYC will be selling Bishops Blend Coffee after the 9:00 and 11:15 services on Dec. 3, 10, and 17. Bishops Blend Coffee is 100% organic, shade grown and fair trade. It tastes great and makes a great gift for the coffee lovers you LOVE! Just $10 a bag. Proceeds will support the 2006 Youth Mission trips.
Episcopal Youth Community
EYC tonight! EYC meets most Sundays from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm in the dining room. We invite and encourage all sixth through twelfth graders to participate. Contact Caren Parker at cparker@the chapelofthecross.org with any questions.
Social Ministry Meeting
Parishioners are invited to attend the Social Ministry Committee meeting today in the parlor at 1 pm. There will be an hour program for committee members and all other interested parishioners on AIDS services in Durham and Chapel Hill, featuring presenters from our parish and from the community. If you would like to learn more about AIDS services or how you could be involved, please join us. Our business meeting will follow and those who would like to learn more about the committee workings are, as always, welcome to stay.
Next Sunday
Letters of Hope
Dec. 10 is International Human Rights Day, and at 10:15 in the library we will be part of Amnesty International's global write-a-thon, sending greeting cards to prisoners of conscience. We may also write postcards or letters appealing to the authorities on their behalf. Writing materials will be supplied, but you may bring your own pen.
Caroling to Homebound
Parishioners are invited to join others at 2:30 in the dining room for hot chocolate and hot cider and a bit of singing before we depart to visit parishioners. Please sign up on the listing on the Children and Family Ministry bulletin board in the dining room which has NOW been posted.
Announcements
Episcopal Campus Ministry
ECM is the fellowship group for undergraduates. A ministry of the Chapel of the Cross and an official UNC-CH student organization, we meet every Tuesday at 5:30 pm in the campus center for program, worship service and dinner. Undergraduates of any faith or denomination are welcome to join us. For more information visit the website at www.unc.edu/ecm.
Christmas Notecards
Note cards with Christmas pictures of the Chapel of the Cross are available for purchase between the 9:00 and 11:15 am services. The cost is $5.00 per pack of 8 cards; cards are blank inside making them useful as regular Christmas cards or for thank-you notes. They are also available in the parish office during the week.
Annual Giving Campaign
Thank you to all those who have submitted pledges for 2007. To date we have received 438 pledges for $1,051,199, compared to 441 pledges for $930,480 on the same date last year. This includes 46 new pledges and 211 pledges which have increased by over 10%. If you have not completed your pledge, please do so as soon as possible to maintain this excellent momentum and to enable the vestry to adopt a fruitful and healthy budget at its December meeting. Additional pledge packets are available in the back of the church and chapel.
Showering Our Refugee Baby
We are awaiting the arrival of our first "American-born refugee" baby due on January 10. We have had offers for a baby crib. A car infant seat has also been donated. We invite you to help us assemble a large basket filled with new items for the baby. These would include crib sheets, crib blanket or quilt, receiving blankets, changing pads, baby towels, washclothes and toiletries, infant one-piece suits, bibs, infant disposable diapers. baby bottles and bottle brush, diaper bag, baby sling holder, as well as gift cards to supplement purchases. We would like to have the basket ready by December 17 to present to Say Ther and Tha Gay before the holidays. Please drop off your contributions to the basket in the dining room from now until December 17th.
Mark Your Calendar
Thompson Clothing Drive
The eighth annual Thompson Child & Family Focus winter clothing drive will be held from Dec. 3 through Jan. 7. Thompson CFF is a residential treatment program in Charlotte for neglected and abused children. Children are provided with 24-hour care that includes teaching, worship and play that is designed to start their healing process. The display table will be in the dining room. To participate, please choose one or more tags, purchase the items and return them (unwrapped) to the dining room display or parish office. Gifts received by Dec. 17 will reach the children by Christmas. If you prefer, you may write a check to the Chapel of the Cross Rector's Discretionary Fund with a notation for "Thompson Child & Family Focus" and we will shop for you. Please note that Thompson is only able to accept new clothing for children in its residential treatment programs. For more information, please contact Lorraine Belden McBride (call church office for number) or lbmcbride@aol.com or Marsha Pate (call church office for number) or map37215@bellsouth.net.
Social Ministry Meeting
Parishioners are invited to attend the Social Ministry Committee meeting on Dec. 3 in the parish parlor at 1 pm. There will be an hour program for committee members and all other interested parishioners on AIDS services in Durham and Chapel Hill. There will be presenters from our parish and from the community. If you would like to learn more about AIDS services or how you could be involved, please join us. Our business meeting will follow and those who would like to learn more about the committee workings are, as always, welcome to stay.
Global Missions
The Global Missions Committee invites interested parishioners to attend its meeting Monday night, Dec. 4, at 7:00 pm as we develop plans for a mid-May trip to Iglesia San Patricio in El Progreso, Honduras. Members of St. Matthew's, Hillsborough, will be joining us to explore a combined mission initiative in Honduras. Please email annhenley@msn.com if you plan to come so we can let the office know what space we need. We welcome your ideas and energy as we reach across boundaries of language and culture to serve and to share God's love.
Environmental Stewardship
The next regular monthly meeting of the Environmental Stewardship Committee will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 6 pm in the parish library. All are welcome. If you have questions about the committee or about the meeting, please contact Linda Rimer (call church office for number) or lbrimer@bellsouth.net.
Hospitality Guild
The Hospitality Guild will have a meeting Tuesday, Dec. 5, in the church parlor from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. The Hospitality Guild, dedicated to welcoming the stranger and caring for the parish, consists of many ministries. These are: Greeters, Ushers, Loaves and Fishes, Foyer Dinner Groups, Newcomers Committee, Shepherds to Newcomers, Bread Ministry, Funeral Reception Coordinators and Volunteers, After the 11:15 Service Fellowship, and Guild of the Christ Child. Reports from the various ministries will be given and other issues discussed. All are welcome to attend this meeting. For further information, please call Barbara Day (call church office for number) or Mary Schoenfeld (call church office for number).
The Men's Breakfast
The Men's Breakfast Group will meet on Wed, Dec. 6, at 7:30 am in the Parish Dining Room. The speaker will be Professor James W. Lea of the UNC School of Medicine. Professor Lea's topic will be "A Civilian's Experience of Baghdad 2006." For much of his career, he has been training medical personnel on the management of clinics, most recently in Iraq. The cooks will be Larry Hart and David Hubby. Newcomers are always welcome. For further information please call Vince (Call office for number).
Preschool Bookfair
The Preschool at the Chapel of the Cross invites you to our Barnes & Noble Bookfair at New Hope Commons Dec. 8-10. A percentage of your purchases will benefit our school scholarship fund. Choose from bestsellers, children's books and toys, games, gift items, CDs, DVDs and more. Simply tell the cashier that you are shopping the Preschool Bookfair and the school will receive credit for your purchase. Don't miss this chance to get some holiday shopping done and benefit PCC at the same time!
Caroling To Homebound
On Sunday, Dec. 10, parishioners are invited to join others at 2:30 in the dining room for hot chocolate and hot cider and a bit of singing before we depart for area nursing homes and homes to visit parishioners. It helps in planning to have some idea of the number who plan to join us. Please sign up on the listing on the Children and Family Ministry bulletin board in the dining room which has NOW been posted.
Children's Pageant
Children 5th grade and below and their parents are invited to the annual "no practice" pageant Saturday, Dec. 16, at 2:30 in the church. You may secure a costume the week before or simply arrive early enough to choose and dress before the 2:30 enactment. This is a highlight of the children's programs of the parish. All parishioners are invited to come and relish the joy and mystery of the Luke 2 story.
Martin Luther King Scholarship Banquet
Tickets to the annual Martin Luther King scholarship Banquet to be held at the Friday Center on Highway 54 on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007, are now available. The cost is $25.00 per ticket and can be obtained from Barbara Pipkin (Call office for number). This popular community event is always a sell-out by December, so please order tickets now.
Stewardship
ER-D Holiday Giving
Copies of the Episcopal Relief and Development's 2006 Gifts for Life Holiday Catalog are available in the dining room. This catalog is a source for alternative gifts that reach out to others. The print catalog and online store are wonderful tools to help respond to people and communities in need. You may order alternative gifts from the catalog or through the online store at www.er-d.org.
Community Notes
Messiah Open Sing
All are welcome to the Forty First annual Messiah Open Sing, Sat., Dec. 9, at 7:00 pm at University United Methodist Church, 150 E. Franklin St. Scores are provided or bring your own. Tonu Kalam will conduct the orchestra and soloists from the community and university. For more information call office for number.
Note from Vicky Jamieson-Drake
Dear Friends,
Your prayers, words of condolence, and many expressions of loving support have meant a great deal to me and our family over the past months and since my mother's death. We are very grateful to be a part of such a caring community. Thank you very much.
With love, Vicky, David, and all the Jamieson-Drakes
What You Can Do - World AIDS Day 2007
Episcopal Relief and Development commemorates the 25th anniversary of the first reported case of AIDS. Our hearts go out to the people living with HIV worldwide, those who have died from AIDS and the millions of children left orphaned and without support. HIV/AIDS is the worst epidemic in human history:
- 40 million people are infected worldwide
- 14,000 people are newly infected every day
- 12 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have lost one or both parents to AIDS
- prevention education
- care for affected people
- support for extended families and children left behind
The Sunday Announcenments
The deadline for announcements is 10:00 am on Wednesday. Announcements should be brief. Parish related submissions are given priority. Include daytime phone and email address for contact. All submissions are subject to editing; publication of the submission is not guaranteed. E-mail information to submissions@thechapelofthecross.org or leave paper copies in the Publications Assistant's mailbox in the parish office. Email is preferred.
Adult Education This Week
Intergenerational: Jesse Tree ornaments and Advent wreath making)
Adult Education Next Week
The Annual Christmas/Advent Poetry Gathering: with Michael McFee Letters of Hope: The Micah Group (Library)
Principal Feasts
The Principal Feasts observed in this Church are the following:
Easter Day, always the first Sunday after the full moon that falls on or after March 21. It cannot occur before March 22 or after April 25.
Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter Day
The Day of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter
Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost
All Saints' Day, November 1
Christmas Day, December 25
The Epiphany, January 6
These feasts take precedence of any other day or observance. All Saints' Day may always be observed on the Sunday following November I, in addition to its observance on the fixed date.
The Environmental Stewardship Committee Green Tip :
For gift-giving this year, buy from local artists, craftsmen and farmers' markets. You will strengthen local economies and reduce fuel consumption associated with shopping farther afield.
Last updated: December 2, 2006
