The four weeks leading up to Christmas Day are called Advent—meaning coming or arrival. It’s a season of waiting and preparing before the birth of Jesus, a time to prepare our hearts and our homes for the arrival of the baby Jesus. This time of waiting invites us to take time to slow down and reflect. To help facilitate that waiting, preparing, and reflecting, we’re offering Holden Evening Prayer at 6:30pm on Wednesdays—the 2nd, 9th, and 16thon Zoom (Meeting ID: 4159243782). This is in addition to our regular Sunday morning worship on Zoom at 9:30am, our YouTube Worship Videos and twice weekly Devotions. Please Join Us! And to celebrate the Birth of Our Savior—Christmas, we are offering two services: o 12/24 at 4 pm—Christmas Eve Family Service—joining together with Elim Lutheran Church in Petaluma and led by Pastor Tom Gable and Pastor Kathryn Gulbranson. This will be live, on Zoom—Meeting ID: 4159243782. o 12/24 at 6 pm—Christmas Eve Service of Lessons and Carols. This worship will be televised on our local community access cable stations: Channel 26 (Comcast) and Channel 99 (AT&T U-verse), livestreamed at www.marintv.org and shown on our Marin Lutheran YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClEvlmnS72YKEIgw6laMRwA. Please make every effort to invite you neighbors, friends and relatives in the area and around the country to join us for one or both of these services. They will be special times to celebrate the birth of our Savior who brings hope and joy into our world! I close with a prayer: As we wait for the birth of Jesus, we pause and think about what we want this season to be: a season of hope, a season of peace, a season of joy, a season of love, a season of family togetherness, a season of reflection. Amen. Peace, Pastor Tom Social Action MLC donations – final trip! A big thank you to all the supporters of our recent SF/Marin Food Bank Drive. Your generosity was much appreciated by the food bank volunteers and recipients alike. My car was filled to the brim with MLC donations multiple times (please note picture). The need for food support has skyrocketed during the epidemic and is especially acute during the holidays so, Thank you!! Because of the restrictions guiding group work and gatherings, the Social Action Team needed to make a change to our usual Annual Shelter Renovation Project (aka Brown House). We contacted Homeward Bound, the administrators of the Family shelter and learned that it has been a very stressful time for them. The usual supplies and equipment used to serve multiple families with children have markedly been depleted. Given the many needs, Social Action decided sponsoring a Kitchen/Household/ Food SHOWER would be a good way to help them resupply their extensive wish list. With Bev's amazing help, we have emailed everyone an invitation to participate in the shower by donating lightly used or new items on the list. Your items can be brought to the bins in the narthex or the office. If you would prefer a pick up at your home, please let Bev know or email Sandy Seeger at [email protected]. It won't be the same as working together to do our usual spectacular fix up, repair, paint, landscape renovation effort but we hope you agree this is a good alternative to meet the great needs of the shelter while remaining safe and healthy. Brown House Shower “Registry” KITCHEN ITEMS HOUSEHOLD ITEMS Dozen [tableware] forks Bath towels (New) Dozen [tableware] spoons Bathroom rugs Cooking utensils Twin sheet sets (e.g. spatulas, ladles, nonstick Twin blankets stirring spoons, whisks, wooden Queen sheet sets spoons, tongs, knives, meat forks) Queen blankets Kitchen rugs Pillows for beds (New) FOOD ITEMS Warm hats/beenies & gloves for men, women & children Canned soups Sturdy umbrellas Coffee, teas & hot chocolate Diapers (size 6 months to size 6) Baby wipes Ritter Center also needs to revise the usual Angel Tree project at Christmas time because of the pandemic. They are holding a fund raiser, Hope for the Holidays. Their goal is to raise $150,000 in donations to ensure they will still be able to meet the needs of local families and individuals living in poverty, equitably and safely. Please make donations directly to Ritter Center at www.rittercenter.org. Sandy Seeger Christmas Eve NOTEBOOK Congratulations! This year Christmas Eve will be very different for us as we are not gathering together in our Katharine & Will beautiful sanctuary to celebrate Christ’s birth. Peck welcomed Donovan Given the circumstances we hope the worship Kilpatrick to their family! experiences we have will be meaningful and He was born on November celebratory as we welcome the Christ child. th 9 late in the evening and 4:00pm Family Service on Zoom weighed 8lbs. 4oz. All We will join together (on Zoom) with Elim, in members of the family are Petaluma. Pastor Tom & Pastor Kathryn will doing well, save for some lead this service together. The format will be lack of sleep for mom and similar to our regular 4:00pm Christmas Eve dad. God’s continued blessings for service – Carols, readings, prayers and an Donovan and his parents. interactive message for the children. Holy Communion will be celebrated as it is on Seth Kamphoefner Sunday mornings. Although this is publicized as a family service, everyone is welcome to & Mandy Lomnicky attend. were married on November 13th in Zoom Meeting ID: 4159243782 San Diego. Needing to drastically scale 6:00pm Service of Lessons & Carols back their plans, the Our service of Lessons & Carols will be ceremony was a broadcast at 6:00pm online. It can be beautiful small accessed on: affair held outside Channel 26 – Comcast in a park. Jim had Channel 99 – AT&T U-verse the honor of officiating the wedding. Livestreaming at Wishing them love, laughter and many http://www.marintv.org adventures in the years to come! It will also be available on Marin Lutheran Church YouTube. The taping for this service was done on Moved November 21st by Community Media Center of Marin, The readers, instrumentalists and This fall the Meisel family – Karl, Lauren, Pastor Tom came to church to be taped. Our Greta & Elsa moved back to Michigan. choir members, bell ringers and congregation We enjoyed having them as part of our members have submitted their music to church family while they lived here, and Andrei who is hard at work mixing it all now wish them all the best as they settle together. in to their new home and new routines in The service we watch at 6:00pm promises to the Mid-West. be wonderful, filled with carols, readings and anthems. We will celebrate Holy Communion and can sing Silent Night with candlelight in our homes. Marin Lutheran Church Women Women’s December Devotional Thursday, December 3rd at 10:00am on Zoom (Mtg ID: 4159243782). ALL sisters & brothers are invited to attend. The topic for this month is: Advent rituals for uncertain times. It’s a wonderful devotional involving singing, writing, moving, connecting. The devotion was sent via email. If you need it resent, please get in touch with the church office. Our devoted quilters continue to work from home, sewing quilt tops and putting quilts together. If you are able to help, please get in touch with Jane at [email protected]. MLCW members will be finalizing their benevolence Christmas gift list for distribution this year. I wish you all a blessed Christmas! Jane McKenzie Council Highlights, November 9th Meeting: o MLC will have 2 Christmas Eve Services: 4:00pm – Family Service on Zoom 6:00pm – Service of Lessons & Carols broadcast on community TV channels, as well as livestreamed and available on YouTube o SOH will worship in person on Sundays for the remainder of the year. o Another series of small group gatherings of up to 10 people will be offered. Details will be sent via email. o Property issues: Accepted proposal to install ADA automatic door opener on front door. We are getting bids from electricians for the wiring necessary prior to installation. Council voted to increase the threshold required above which multiple bids are required for improvements/repair work: < $10K, 1 bid // $10-25K, 2 bids // > $25K, 3 bids. In all cases, if possible, multiple bids are still desired. o Council is working to develop a policy to help decrease our carbon foot print. Discussion is ongoing. We thank Dale Miller for his input and guidance. o Upcoming meeting dates: Dec 6th at 10:30am on Zoom – Election Meeting to approve slate of candidates for leadership positions and to do final approval of constitutional changes. Annual Congregational Meeting tentatively scheduled for 1/31/2021. Denise Halloran Adult Education on Sunday Mornings We conclude our study of the book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race, by Robin DiAngelo this month. While this is a book study, you don’t necessarily need to have read the entire book. Each session we’ll review the main points of the chapter on which we’re focused. Then we’ll respond to a few questions from the facilitator. Everyone is welcome to join in the conversation. The goal is to learn about the concepts the author presents in the book and grow in our Christian understanding of personal and systemic racism and white supremacy. Each session we will strive to create a safe space to discuss these difficult issues with mutual love, grace and mercy.