Dear friends,

A week from today is Christmas, something that surprises me every time I look at the calendar. There is a lot going on in the days ahead. Here is our schedule for the last week of this year and the first week of 2025:

The Fourth Sunday of Advent (the 22nd) — One service of Advent Lessons & Carols at 10 a.m., followed by a festive brunch. Bring a side dish to share and get in the Christmas Spirit.

Christmas Eve (the 24th) — One service at 5 p.m. Come share in the magic of the night.

First Sunday after Christmas (the 29th) — One service of Christmas Lessons & Carols at 10 a.m.

Second Sunday after Christmas (Jan. 5) Back to the usual schedule of services at 8:30 and 10:45 a.m.
      At 9:30 a.m. we will have a training for lectors and lay readers, those who are already serving and anyone interested in serving. Here’s a quick explanation of what each of these roles do. A lector reads the Old Testament or New Testament lessons. 
      The lector does not vest, but comes up from the congregation.
      A lay reader vests, carries the cross in processions, reads the prayers of the people, and helps administer communion. When the congregation is large enough to warrant two patens and chalices, a lay reader may come up from the congregation to be the second chalice. 
       Who can be a lector or layreader? Anyone! Any age! Whether you are brand new to the congregation or have been here for years, you are invited to participate in these roles. Just come to the training and we’ll put you to work.

Sometime after the first of the year we will be welcoming a family of refugees. We don’t know yet who they are or where they’re coming from. We do know that they are coming from a place where the situation is so dire and dangerous that the best option was to leave everything they’ve known, most of their possessions, friends and sometimes family members, to travel across the world to a country where they probably don’t know anyone, probably don’t know the language or the culture. Try to imagine that. I worked in a refugee camp in Thailand in the early 1980s and I can assure you no one chooses to be a refugee on a whim or to have an adventure. It is a gut-wrenching, traumatic experience.

But we’re going to help make it a little easier for this family we do not yet know, but are preparing for with love. People from St. Dunstan’s will meet them at the airport, take them to their new, furnished apartment, provide them with their first meal, and then help them in various ways during their first disorienting months here.

That work has already begun. A high school friend of mine, Kathy Berry, lives in Jasper, GA, but is on our email list. She read about our preparations and offered the furniture from her father’s apartment that he no longer needs in his assisted living facility. Last Saturday, a group from St. Dunstan’s cleared out the furniture and put it in a storage unit close to the area where the family will most likely be living. You can see the pictures below. Thank you, Kathy! And thanks to Steve, Jessica, Diego, and Elizabeth for your hard work moving the furniture.

With love, 

Tricia

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