January 2008 The Episcopal Church in Almaden 6581 Camden Avenue, San José, California 95120 408•268•0243 www.eca-sj.org Opportunities at ECA The Episcopal Church In Almaden December Sunday Services 7:30 am and 11:00 am Opportunities this month at ECA at a glance...... Rector Worship The Reverend Stephen Mills January 6 – Epiphany Sunday 408-802-5347 7:30 AM Holy Eucharist [email protected] 11:00 AM Holy Eucharist January 13 – Guest Celebrant: Father Stephen is on retreat with vestry Ministries 7:30 AM Holy Eucharist ACOLYTES Taylor Mills & Marc Bond 11:00 AM Holy Eucharist ALTAR GUILD Margaret Halliwell, Anna Spanjaart January 20 – 7:30 AM Holy Eucharist COFFEE HOUR Pete Mayo 11:00 AM Holy Eucharist FOLK cHOIR Andy Kerr January 27 – 7:30 AM Holy Eucharist GREETERS Sharon Mills 11:00 AM Holy Eucharist – Folk Sunday GOD sQUAD Stephen Mills GOOD sAMS Kelli Casale / Brenda McHenry Folk Sunday will be the fourth Sunday this month. Many of our Folk HANDBELL cHOIR Maryke Williams KIDS’ bREAKOUT Leslie Rousseau Sunday participants, including its leader, Andy Kerr, will be on the vestry LAY rEADERS Jenny Hoyt retreat the 2nd Sunday. We appreciate your willingness to be flexible with MONTGOMERY mEALS Amy Griffith this month’s scheduling. NURSERY Pauline Gilligan PRAYER VINE Dorothy Willard Adult Study (details within this Shape) USHERS Dave Byers Thursday Mornings at the church 10:30 AM on January 17, 24, & 31 SR HIGH YOUTH GROUP Katie Taplin Wednesday Evening, January 16 & 30, locations to be announced STEWARDSHIP George Romer JR HIGH YOUTH GROUP Katie Taplin Children and Youth Study WORSHIP Sandie Mueller WEBMASTER Kim Petruzzelli Sunday School hour begins at 10:10 AM January 6, 13, 20, & 27 YOUTH sUNDAY Jim McPherson, Bryan Bond Fellowship ECA Staff ECA & UCC Talent Show for all Ages (details within) – January 5 CHRISTIAN eD. dIRECTOR Katie Taplin JHYG (Junior High Youth) Meeting – January 6 MUSIC dIRECTOR, oRGANIST John Leslie SHYG (Senior High Youth) Meeting – January 6 TREASURER Maryke Williams Youth Groups Ski Weekend – January 18-21 YOUTH dIRECTOR Katie Taplin Men’s Breakfast, Thursday mornings, 8 AM @ Denny’s ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Dennis Elliott Vestry Retreat at Presentation Retreat Center – January 11-13 Outreach Contacting Montgomery Meals – Friday, January 11 & 25 JANUARY 2007 eDITION ISSUE nUMBER 010108 EDITOR Alex Dykes TELEPHONE nUMBER 408 268-0243 EMAIL ADDRESS [email protected] THE SHAPE IS USUALLY A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN ALMADEN 2 From Stephen o you ever feel like you are on an accel- and a fitting tribute to a devoted member of the erating roller coaster. Life just keeps go- church and this congregation. ing faster and faster and you have little Dcontrol over the speed or pace. It has felt like that The next day we had our Christmas Pageant oth- for me for the past several months. First we had erwise known as “semi-organized chaos”. It was so the 40th Anniversary Celebration. Then, before hilarious to see the children dressed in animal cos- there was even time to catch my breath, came the tumes scurrying to rejoin their parents and then bishop’s ordination, and our Harvest Potluck. deciding to rejoin the pageant. Mary (Kele Lavery) and Joseph (Will Bond) were wonderful and it December seems to be continuing the trend. It was poignant to see Mary pick up a crying Jesus began with our annual meeting on December and have him stop crying. Byron Henderson did 2nd. Sharon Mills. Andy Kerr, Kimberly Axtell, a masterful job as Narrator, and Katie Taplin’s cos- and Hank DeVoss were elected to the vestry; Ron tumes (especially the donkey and the camel) were Howie and Melinda Jennings were elected to the the highlights of the show. The only problem is JV Board; and Todd and Kimberly Axtell, Melinda that the Federal Trade Commission has banned the Jennings and Betty Wood were elected as Conven- camel from future pageants because it advertises tion Delegates. At our subsequent vestry meeting, cigarettes to children. (just kidding). Mary Leal was elected by the vestry to fill the one vacancy as a Convention Delegate. Also, the An- On Monday evening Kevin’s father died surround- nual Report for 2007 was mailed out with the ed by family and friends. Kevin will not be with us Shape. for Christmas but he and Nancy (who has been in a lot of pain herself) will be in our thoughts and As most of you know one of our dearest parishio- prayers this Christmas season. ners, Frank May died on December 8th. He had a good death; a peaceful death, surrounded by December also featured our Christmas Party on Genevieve and his family. It was exactly thirteen December 8th. It was light and fun and generally years to the day after his wife Dori died. We had a suitable for all ages. Special thanks to the commit- wonderful send off for Frank at ECA on December tee for putting it on. 15th. Andy Kerr led the Cursillo Community in song and we remembered and celebrated Frank’s Finally I am looking forward to our Vestry Retreat life. There were a number of touching tributes to in January to catch my breath, pray and reflect on Frank by Genevieve, Craig Stephan, Pete Mayo, where we have been and where we are going. If you Ron Howie, Diane Conrad, Tim Miller, two of have any thoughts one these topics, please talk to Frank’s grandchildren and several others. I was me or one of our vestry members. touched by the heartfelt emotion and eloquence in those tributes. Afterwards we gathered in the May god bless us richly in the year of 2008. Youth Center at a reception put on by Ellen Lu- kanc, Helen Beacher, Anna Spanjaart, and Katie Salaam, Taplin with muscle provided by Todd and Doug Stephen Lukanc. All in all it was a magnificent celebration 3 From the Editor his is the first year in that were color coordinated and trimmed the some time that it has tray in a profusion of ribbons and white LED actually felt like Christ- lights. All would have been OK if we had just Tmas for me. This isn’t because stayed on the traditional path… But this is me I had some terrible experience we are talking about. one Christmas that just ruined it for me. No, instead it was be- Mythbuster’s fans know that bleach, Viagra cause everyone in our families were getting along, and hairspray were the best ways to keep the the Christmas goose turned out golden brown and leaves on the tree. Of course, we decided to absolutely perfect, Rob and I finally put up our forge our own way ahead and try glycerin first Christmas tree in 6 years and nothing really since the floral industry uses it daily to pre- went wrong except for the tree (I guess there is a serve plants. Let me say right now, never, nev- first time for everything). er, never use glycerin in your Christmas tree water. After the first week, the formerly fresh Our first step to Christmas bliss was to acquire the tree was still sucking up water at a good clip, perfect fresh-cut tree. As anyone who has engaged but the leaves were coming off with the slight- in this search can tell you, the process is not easy. est breeze. We visited no less than 6 Christmas tree farms from Soquel to Half Moon Bay and everywhere in-be- We prayed nightly that the tree would last tween in search of the perfect Noble Fir. Of course, until the 25th. On Christmas eve my mom the more experienced shoppers know that very few inspected an ornament and the slight touch of farms here grow Noble Firs, and those that grow the branch tip left a football sized bare spot on them seem to specialize in Charlie Brown style the tree. I contemplated the dead bush sitting trees which would be OK if the living room ceiling in the corner of our living room and thought was only 3 feet above the floor. to myself what an odd thing it is to have a bush in the living room, especially since it re- After several days, hundreds of miles on the car, ally has nothing to do with “Christmas” and and hopes that were sinking with every passing odder still scholars all point to Christ actually minute, we ended up at the Christmas tree lot at being born in Spring rather than December. Lowe’s . Either way, as I sat contemplating these mys- teries, I am fairly positive it was God who told We took our lovely Oregon fir home with care me “just put water in it next time.” and trimmed the tree to open up the branches un- til they were perfect. We selected only ornaments Alex Dykes 4 News From The Pews agittarians of the world unite! There are a lot Once again Betty Consorte did a beautiful job deco- of us here at ECA. Eight ladies (not all Sagit- rating the church with a little help from her friends. tarians) celebrated Betty Consorte’s birthday Pat McGarvin, Suzanne Mayo and I provided some Swith lunch at Cinnabar. A week later, thirteen of of the manual labor, but the creativity comes mostly us feted Susie Ferguson and Ellie Mills with lunch, from Betty. Thanks also to Dennis Elliott for his again at Cinnabar. We are definitely the ladies who help. Some things required a little extra height. lunch. In fact, their servings are so large we usually get two lunches each time.