Sunday, November 25 – Last Sunday after Pentecost/Christ the King
8:00 a.m. Spoken Holy Eucharist
10:30 a.m. Choral Holy Eucharist
There will be nursery care on Sunday morning, but no Christian education or Word Alive.
The parish office will be CLOSED on Thursday and Friday, 11/22 and 11/23.
Click here for a service preview – Besides a preview of the service music and bulletin for upcoming services, this link also provides access to sermon texts, podcasts and live-stream service videos.
Thanksgiving Day service
All are welcome to a service of Holy Eucharist, with hymns, on Thanksgiving Day at 10 a.m.
Christmas gifts for children in need due on Monday
St. John’s will once again sponsor 60 children in the Nurturing Families Network with Christmas gift bags. If you picked up a tag, please shop and place unwrapped items in a large gift bag or reusable shopping bag, then return your bag (labeled with the gift tag itself or its tracking number) to St. John’s by Monday, November 26. You may deliver your bag to the office during the week or to our gift bag table on Sunday morning. Thanks in advance for your generosity! For more information, contact Jillian Puzzo at [email protected] or Leah Murchie at [email protected].
Donations and volunteers needed for Christmas Festival
It’s only 10 days until this year’s Christmas Festival. This Sunday, please pick up a lawn sign for your yard. Here’s more information about other ways you can participate — many hands are needed!
  • Jewelry & Accessories: Start cleaning out your closets—the Chic Boutique is coming! The Chic Boutique will again be selling jewelry, scarfs, hats, neckties, belts, handbags and accessories of all types. So please start looking in your closets and dressers for items to donate! These can be left in the big closet labeled Chic Boutique or in the church office. Please contact Kim Byrd with any questions 860-558-9916.
  • Art & Antiques: St. John’s loves your art and antiques…even when you have grown tired of them! Make room for something new—Donate your framed art and prints as well as “objets d’art” to the Christmas Festival. Contact Colin Gillespie at [email protected].
  • Children’s Toy Boutique: Do you have unopened toys that your son or daughter received as gifts but never used? Outgrown toys, puzzles or games in good condition? Boxes of Legos, wooden train sets, blocks, or dolls that are sitting in your house unused? Please consider donating your gently used or new toys to St. John’s Children’s Boutique at the Christmas Festival. Contact Janet Babbitt ([email protected]) or Buffy Ineson ([email protected]).
  • Attic Treasures: Donate your dishware, glassware, small appliances, household items, and other things that you no longer use that might be someone else’s “treasure.” Contact Philip Chapman at [email protected] or 860-673-8813.
  • Make quarts of soup to sell at the Festival: Contact Brooke Whittemore at  [email protected]. Plastic quart containers are available from the office.
  • Books: Contact Hope Eakins at [email protected].
  • Decorate evergreen wreaths to sell: The wreath-making night will be Thursday, November 29. All are welcome to come decorate unique and beautiful wreaths while enjoying snacks, beverages and good company. Please bring in ribbons, faux fruit and greenery, fresh greenery, small ornaments, etc. to adorn our unique and beautiful wreaths. Items may be dropped off in the office if you can’t attend the decorating night.
  • Donate baked goods or other kitchen specialties to the “Country Kitchen” sale. Bakers, cooks, chefs, everyone! Please think of the Country Kitchen as you are preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sweet and savory treats are appreciated and needed. If you wish to donate and need more information, suggestions and recipes can be provided. Also, we could use your help “behind the table” at the festival. Ginger Gillespie would love to hear from you 860.985.3697 or [email protected].
If you are bringing items to the church that are heavy and need some help unloading your car, please come between 8 and 10 a.m. next week (Monday, November 26 through Friday, November 30). Please alert the parish office (860-523-5201 or [email protected]) the day before you plan to come so we can be sure to have Dwight on hand to help.
Middle and high school youth: Please help with the Christmas Festival Children’s Boutique
All kids in 6th through 12th grades are invited to help organize and set up the Christmas Festival “Children’s Boutique” on Friday evening, November 30, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. A pizza dinner will be provided. Please bring a new or gently used toy, game or puzzle to donate to the boutique. Your help is also needed with selling items during the Festival on Saturday, December 1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Make an Advent wreath and help decorate the St. John’s tree on December 2
Our intergenerational Faith Forum on Sunday, December 2, will be an Advent wreath-making session. We will provide faux evergreen wreaths, decorative ribbons and ornaments, and candles. If you’ve made a wreath in previous years, feel free to bring it in to refresh the decorations and candles. One wreath per family, please. Donations are welcome to help cover the cost of supplies. Suggested amounts: $10 for a wreath and candles, $5 for candles only.
At coffee hour after the 10:30 service, all are invited to help decorate the church’s Christmas tree in Hubbard Hall.
Kids and adults: Time to sign up for the Christmas pageant!
The Christmas Pageant will take place during the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, December 23. Sign-up sheets for parts in the pageant are on the bulletin board outside the education wing.
To sign up for a part: Please write your child’s name, age/grade and parent’s name.
A mandatory rehearsal is on Saturday, December 22, 9 to 11 a.m. There will also be a rehearsal during the education hour (9:30 a.m.) on Sunday, December 16.
We need many adult helpers to make this wonderful event happen. Please sign up to help in the following ways:
  • Sort, iron and label costumes during rehearsal on Saturday 12/22
  • Help with organizing and running rehearsal on Saturday 12/22
  • Help dress children in costumes before the pageant, starting at 9:30 a.m. on 12/23
  • Provide refreshments during the pageant rehearsal.
  • Provide refreshments for coffee hour after the pageant.
Contact Buffy Ineson and David Beers for more information.
A new cycle of “Women Together” starts December 4
In December, Women Together will focus on the stories of Jesus’s birth found in Matthew and Luke. The group will meet Tuesdays, December 4th and 11th, from 2-3:15 p.m. in the Reception Room at St. John’s. Women from St. John’s and Trinity currently participate in Women Together, and women from any church are welcome to come and share in this time of study, reflection and fellowship. For more information, contact Sarah Kieffer.
Dr. Ron Casey adds a third Faith Forum to his series on mental health, December 9
Dr. Ron Casey, consulting psychologist to the Episcopal Church in CT and a practicing therapist, recently led two popular Faith Forums on prevalent mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression and suicide. These sessions generated enough interest and conversation that Dr. Casey will return to lead a third Faith Forum, specifically addressing suicide, on Sunday, December 9 at 9:30 a.m. Members of the public are welcome, so if you know someone who might benefit from these conversations, please invite them to join us.
Click on the image to see a brief video featuring Dr. Casey.
Community Garden planning meeting, December 9 after church
Even though the growing season in God’s Garden is over for now, it’s not too early to begin planning ahead for next year. All who are interested in learning more about our community garden and volunteering to help are invited to a meeting after the 10:30 service on Sunday, December 9. We need people to plan for the growing season, plant, schedule volunteers, weed and maintain, harvest, and organize weekly veggie giveaways to our neighbors.
Start reading now for Advent book discussion, December 16
P.D. James’s novel The Children of Men will be the subject of an Advent Faith Forum on December 16. The story is filled with Advent’s themes: life and death, courage in the face of destruction, how to find hope even in darkness and loss, the enduring promises of God, and the miracle of the Word become flesh and dwelling among us. The novel is set in a future world where no children have been born for 25 years. This world is dispirited, without a reason to build libraries and museums, to compose poems or write books, to do research or care for gardens. People dream only of safety from crime, a full larder, and a peaceful death. In this bleak and cheerless place, the novel provides a surprising retelling of the Christmas story. The book is readily available from online retailers or your favorite book store. It is gripping, moves along quickly, and has contemporary relevance. So get reading and come and join Hope and Bill Eakins in the Reception Room from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. on December 16. *NOTE DATE CHANGE: Book discussions were previously scheduled for two Sundays, but will now happen only on December 16, to allow for Ron Casey to return to do another Faith Forum on December 9, as explained above.*
Learn about St. John’s parishioners who served in World War I
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the cessation of World War I hostilities. More than 50 St. John’s individuals served in the military. Two of them, John Henry Reardon and Julius Adelbert Steele, did not survive the war. Learn more about them on our parish historian’s blog.