|
|
|
|
|
|
What’s going on in the larger Church Editorials |
|
|
|
|
Editorial " Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy" Exodus 20:8 Dear Friends, The other Sunday after Church I picked up a copy of "God's Green Earth". On reading it I noticed that there was a mention of the importance of the Sabbath, stressing that once every seven years the land should lie fallow in order to recover. Keeping the Sabbath is something I have become particularly aware of recently since reading "Seeking Sabbath" by Dr. David Shepherd. In this book he relates how he and his wife re-organised their lives so that they had a proper day of rest on Sundays. This came about after realising that their present way of life, always working, always on the go had become too much and that what was missing was the Sabbath. When I stopped and examined my own life, I realised too just how hectic Sunday can sometimes be. Even if one is not working there is often the pressure to rush from one thing to another in order to "catch up" on household matters or social appointments which we didn't have time for during the week. Many of us have lost the Sabbath we once knew as a child, the time when the family came together and a leisurely Sunday lunch rolled into a leisurely Sunday tea, when silence abounded, when there were no shops open and there was virtually no entertainment to distract us from having a day of rest. Once something has been lost for a long time it is difficult to find it again, but it is possible if we try hard enough. I have now set myself a rule not to make too many appointments on a Sunday and to refrain from housework or any type of academic work in order to relax and hopefully be able to attack the next busy week with all its commitments and time limits with renewed vigour. I am very pleased to see that our Church is giving special emphasis to the Millennium Development Goal of environmental sustainability, but maybe at the same time we should strive to keep a proper Sabbath too. From the Rector Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, It is always hard to decide what to write on in the Nov/Dec issue of the Ikon. There are so many feasts (Christmas, All Saints, Advent) and usually so much going on (Stewardship, Advent disciplines, special music programs, Pageants, Carol sings and the like) that it is hard to focus on what is most important. This is probably true about life in general as we have to deal in October already with Christmas food and decorations. What time of year is it any way? However, if we stick to the Christian calendar and all the good news that it embodies from All Saints, through Advent and then the great feast of the Incarnation, God becoming human in the form of the baby Jesus, taking on our nature, we cannot go wrong. If we actually take the time to respond to the message of each of these points in the Christian story that we celebrate at this time, if we keep our piety in order, this time of year can become a wonderful blessing instead of a confusing and stressful rush to an empty conclusion, with all the goose or turkey eaten and all the presents opened and all the relatives visited and no peace in sight around December 26. What do I mean about piety being the key. What is it? Piety is the way we respond to God's love both corporately and personally. It is about regular church attendance. It is about regular prayer, together and alone in our private surroundings. It is about acting out our faith in helping others and the church community as it gives us support in our life's journey.It is about staying on track, not being sidetracked by the values of our materialistic and prideful surroundings. It is not about doing the minimum that we think God might want from us but about giving all that we are, all that we have, all that we hope, in grateful acknowledgement that God is behind all our success, all our health, all our joy, all our hope. And is also with us as we experience disappointment, stress, fear and anger, giving us comfort and the will to move on through the dark times as well as the good. The Sarmaratin Leper in the story of the 10 lepers, the one who returned to give vocal and hearty thanks to Jesus, the source of his healing, knew what it was all about. With him in mind, just let me remind us all what we need to do to strengthen our Christian piety and in so doing strengthen our relationship with the source of all that is good, our Creator God. Be faithful in corporate worship. We as a parish could do a lot better here. We have so many choices on a Sunday Pray! Pray together, in small groups or alone. Pray unceasingly. Pray for what you need or want. Pray that God's will Be bold and courageous in giving - for the ministry of the church, for those in need in our midst, for those in need in far Just three things to remember: Worship, pray and give! If we intentionally live this piety, then Christmas will not be an anticlimax as it is for so many, but a new start, for a new life, in love and hope, as we journey towards an awareness and experience of life in God's promised Kingdom. May you all have a Blessed All Saints! Give generously in this year's Pledge Campaign! Wait patiently on the Lord this Advent! Merry Christmas! Tom+ Are you having a love affair with money? How much time do you spend thinking of money, calculating how much you have, how much is left over after bills, how much to give away and how much to keep, how to save some for the future? For most of us, if not all, these and other money questions pre-occupy our minds more than we would like. Money can take such a prominence in our lives that all our relationships are damaged: how much does a friendship cost, how much does a marriage cost, how much does raising children cost? On the other side, are you having a love affair with Christ? How much time to do you spend sharing your life with Christ? How much time do you spend in prayer and daily devotion? How often do you seek God’s will for your life decision? Which preoccupies your mind more: money or God? What part does God play in your relationships with your friends, marriage, children? The reality is that we need both: God and money. We just often forget that everything comes from God, including money. One way of showing our gratitude for all God has done for us is through our offering each Sunday. We are invited to share of ourselves, share a portion of what God has freely given us to return so that God’s kingdom may become more of a reality here on earth. We give without strings attached. It is not about the church budget or one program or the other. Giving is about responding to God’s own generosity. God gave what God loved most, Jesus Christ. God gave abundantly, freely, and with unconditional love for humanity even knowing the personal cost. God has gained each of us out of this generosity to be Christ in the world. Just as God gave us Jesus Christ, so we respond with the same generosity to say this is how we value our relationship with You, to say thank you for providing for us and caring for us, to say here is some of what You have given me to use for Your purposes in the world. This is our one opportunity each week to join in our family of God here at Church of the Ascension to be counted as one of Christ’s own and to share in our abundance. I invite you to spend some time with God as you decide what portion of God’s gifts you decide to return for God’s work here on earth and especially here at Church of the Ascension. Present yourself to God, in the fullness of who you are, in gratitude for God’s generosity to you, and for being called God’s precious child. Make God part of your pledging decision this year. Step out in faith. Believe and trust. God is full of surprises, always provides with more than we can ask or imagine, and responds generously to our response of gratitude. Blessings, Clair+ What’s going on in the larger Church Transformed by Stories II By The Rev. Dorothee Hahn About 30 people gathered for a weekend in Nice to learn about transformation and to be transformed by the stories of others as well as to transform others with our own stories. And we celebrated our stories. But what actually is a story? A story is negative or positive. We deepen the understanding of ourselves when we tell a story. Stories are always reflecting our personal tradition and culture. When telling a story we share ourselves; we share joy, fear, anxiety, experience. We bring the past alive to inform the future. And we trigger the memory of the listener (don’t tell me you never thought about a story of your own when you were told a story!). These are just a few thoughts about what story is and what it can do. Stories lay everywhere. Pictures tell stories, and if we do not know the story we may think of one. The Bible is full of stories, the Church is full of stories, and our congregation, you and I are full of stories, stories that are shaped by our relationship to God. Some are stories where people become an incognito Christ to others. When told at the right time and place they become stories of God. It is not always obvious. Some things we find trivial, not worth telling. But there may be a time when it is necessary to tell. The stories in the Bible are stories about people and things – people like you and I, and ordinary things we have as well. Think about the parable of the mustard seed, the smallest of seeds becomes the greatest among the shrubs. It is a short story, yet it is a story. Jesus told many stories. He taught through his stories in giving a new meaning to the ordinary. He transformed people with his stories to bring them closer to God. We can transform others too. At the right time and the right place our stories are able to transform. So take a moment, when did you transform somebody with your story? DID YOU KNOW THAT…. the ground floor of our Parish House has new windows and that the whole of the Parish house and Parish Hall are going through an environmentally sensitive renovation (Insulation all over the place along with a new roof!)? We are very grateful for the Emmaus Church’s initiative in this project. recycled paper is now being used for all our Bulletins and correspondence at the Ascension? Action Not Talk is our motto. both our mission churches have taken on new names? Look in this issue to find out what they are! AMERICAN THANKSGIVING RETURNS TO THE ASCENSION Because of scheduling conflicts last year we were not able to have our traditional American Thanksgiving pot luck celebration. This year we will be able to come together, here at the Emmaus church, for a Thanksgiving celebration. Saturday, November 24, at 6.30pm in the Parish Hall. This is not related to the Stewardship Fellowship events. It is just a time for food and fun for the whole family. Watch the Sunday Bulletin for more information about this celebration. ATTENTION ALL VIOLINISTS Have you ever wanted to own a Stradivarius from Cremona, circa 1724? The Rector has been given such an instrument which clearly is identified as such. That is the good news. The bad news is that it probably is a copy made in Saxony about 120 years ago. It reportedly has a beautiful sound, but needs some repair. As they say in New York, “Make me an offer that I can not refuse”, and then the proceeds will go to the ministry of the Church. See the Rector if you have any interest in this beautiful instrument. ARE YOU ONLINE? Here is another item for Action Not Talk: Would you like to save us paper and postage? Get the ikon electronically, sent to your mailbox a week before it is distributed! (A number of people already get it that way – and if you prefer to read paper, you could still print out the articles that interest you!) Interested? Please send an e-mail to ikonmaster@ascension-munich.com. But a word of caution: if you do not have fast internet access (DSL), you might find the downloading very tiring. Why not try it out? If you're not satisfied, send another e-mail and you will be taken off the list. ADVENT BIBLE STUDY Topic: Charles Wesley’s advent hymns and relating them to the coming of Jesus anew. Place: church library When: December 8,15,22, 2007 Time: 9:30-11:30 a.m. What to bring: writing materials Leader: The Rev. Clair Ullmann The material is taken from Come, thou long expected Jesus, by Paul W. Chilcote. 2007 STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN Our annual Stewardship campaign will take place in November. Your stewardship committee has designed a simple campaign this year. Based on the good pledge results of the last few years and the recent building fund effort, the campaign will be a "simple reminder and affirmation of mature givers continuing to support our Faith Community." Those fancy words mean to me... "Don't forget to renew your pledge." We will have the opportunity for deeper understanding through some activities in November... leaflet inserts, short testimonials, a special sermon, and letters. One special activity is planned: "Community Building Gatherings". A number of people are hosting small gatherings of about 10 people for lunch, tea, or dinner. The main purpose is to get to know one another better and to celebrate the important Community that the Church of the Ascension is for all of us. Of course, we will have short discussion of Stewardship as part of the gathering. But the main purpose is to get to know other people in the community. Please join a gathering that is in a convenient time or location for you. So enjoy the low key pledge campaign, reflect on why you give back to God, and respond by giving a new or renewed pledge to support God's ministry at the Church of the Ascension. ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER ? Talking to God seems to be the prayer mode which our chatty culture makes us most at home in. But if we keep doing all the talking, we’re missing what prayer really is about: purposefully letting God be God in us. Silence, letting go of one’s preoccupations and making oneself available for God coming to us (what the monastic tradition has called contemplative prayer) is the living water of Christian life. I’m sure we all have experienced these very sacred, life-giving moments in our prayer lives, when all our being seems to be attuned to God’s presence and love for us. These moments are God’s special gifts to us. However, even when we don’t ‘feel’ anything special, time spent in silence with God is time when His love is at work in the depths of our being, renewing and transforming us. This is why a discipline of contemplative prayer makes sense: sitting in silence and/or chanting short sentences from the Bible or the Church fathers and letting go of everything before God on a regular basis does not always take us to the seventh heaven, but it does change us in the long run. The purpose of the monthly Taizé meditation is to offer a pattern of contemplative prayer in which we can make room for God and let God be God in us. We mostly use chants from the ecumenical community of Taizé to help us enter the inner silence we need to hear God’s voice. Are you curious? We meet on the third Thursday of each month in the chapel at 19:45 h. Contact the Curch. A NEW HOME FOR OUR PARISH Our working and Ministry space has changed a lot in the last months... from a small dingy office with as many as 4 people working at the same time to a real office, a chapel, a library, classroom space, 2 kitchens, and a Rector's office. Wow! It is already hard to picture how we operated before. In answer to lots of prayers for a long time, the apartment in our building became available for rent. And thanks to the Emmauskirche and the generosity of lots of current and former members, we are now fully moved into the new space and our old space is renovated. The moving and renovation took lots of work by lots of people... moving, sorting, storing, painting, sanding floors, installing lights, shopping, making curtains, assembling cabinets, visits to the Wertstoffhof, and lots more. It would be necessary to publish a whole supplement to the IKON to list all the people who helped. A special thanks goes to all who have been patient with transition. We have a new phrase that has joined prayers and songs in the things one hears a lot at Church of the Ascension, "Do you know where ... is?" Most things are settling down into our new patterns. But it is never easy to change patterns established for many years. As we entered the transition we estimated it would cost us about 6,000 EUR to renovate and furnish the new Ministry space. We took the opportunity to make a few upgrades in cabinets and shelves, provide comfortable and professional working and ministry areas, and set ourselves up to use the space for a variety of activities. We will finish all the activities in the next couple weeks and it looks like it will cost us just over 6,000 EUR - pretty close to our plan, thanks to lots of careful shopping, tons of craftsman labor donated, and some good sales. Our fundraising for the move raised around 15,000 EUR in pledges. Extra funds will be used for our new sustained rent and for a couple other building and office infrastructure topics. Our Junior Warden has assembled a Building Committee to look after our new space. Our master car- penters are joining with our master shopper to keep the space organized, maintained, and stocked with things needed for ministry. Using the new space requires establishing some new patterns and "How to" instructions... Hausordnungen?? Here are a few hints for using the new space smoothly: Scheduling and room reservations... Simply let the office or one of the clergy know if you need a room. Elpinah keeps a book of who is using the rooms. It looks as if the Library is emerging as the most popular room. So be sure to schedule it if you need it for a meeting or gathering. Clean-up... of course, please clean up after yourself. There are no magic kitchen fairies to wash up or put things away. The doors... we have new keys. Your old key no longer works, so you need to get a new one from Fr. Tom. The new key works on the front door, the office, and the upstairs apartment. Be sure to lock up when you are finished. Do not leave the office unlocked if you are upstairs. Typical of most apartments in Munich, there is a bell on the outside door for the apartment, and another on the fence by the gate. A blue button on the phone behind the apartment door opens the front door. So you do not need to run downstairs. Storage... We have a wonderful new storage area in the basement. The big room is shared with Emmauskirche, so keep our stuff on the right. So far, their side is empty and it is tempting to fill it. Don't. Storage areas tend to accumulate junk. If something is trash, please just trash it. Wendy will occasionally host a storage clean-up time. Be ready to help her if you place things in the basement. Please avoid storing things in the ministry spaces. Supplies... If you find something that is needed, like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, etc., there is a list in the upstairs kitchen Just add to the list and the Building Committee will restock. Wow! Welcome to the new space - a long time dream and prayers come true. Thanks to all of you for work, money, and patience in the transition. We can now use it for Ministry, programs, community building. Enjoy! A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF THE NEW PARISH HOUSE As most of you know we are now well established in our new space in the Parish house. How are we living into this new situation? How are we using the space? Here is a room by room, day by day diary of our parish house. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
SUNDAY SCHOOL AND VESTRY ROOM: The third room on the upper floor is a very flexible space which now houses all supplies for the Sunday School, is used for lessons on Sunday, and is the Acolyte and LEM vesting room. KITCHEN: This has supplied support to meetings and made possible the monthly Youth Breakfasts. CELLAR AND HALLWAYS: We have gained a great deal of storage space and additional work space in the halls of the parish house and the cellar. This has been a great gift. We no longer have to do our work as if we were in the middle of a jumble sale. As you can see much is happening here at the Ascension. But more could be done with this new space. Is there interest in a Toddler/Parent group and Bible Study? Any other ideas? See the Rector or the Wardens! WE HAVE A LIBRARY!! Thanks to our new office space upstairs, we now have room for a small library. The books are mostly on religious/spiritual themes, with some fiction and other titles of more general interest. And we will be adding to our collection as time goes on. You may borrow any of the books on the shelves in the meeting room, but first please follow these directions: |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vestry Notes (Issue No. 1) Dear parish members, fellow Christians, friends: We (the Vestry, that is) intend to use this column in the IKON to let you know a bit of what is going on behind Vestry doors. Behind Vestry doors? Generally, Vestry meetings are open meetings, to which any member of the Parish is invited to attend. So if the door's ever closed on the last Wednesday of each month after 7 p.m., then only to keep the cold out (or the heat, depending on the season), but mostly not to keep information in. The Vestry Notes are not to be mistaken as minutes giving you every detail of everything that's been discussed or decided in the Vestry meetings. As always, we will use multiple channels to communicate whatever we consider important or worth spreading: The announcements before service, the church bulletin, separate articles in the IKON, circulars, flyers, and – of course – personal talk. Who are the Vestry anyway? In an Anglican/Episcopal Parish such as Church of the Ascension, the lay men and women who make up the governing Officers of the church are known, collectively, as the Vestry. The Vestry includes our Wardens and ten other Vestrymen (that includes women). While the Rector has charge of all spiritual matters of the Parish, the Vestry has responsibility for all temporal matters of the Congregation. However, in reality, Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen share many of the responsibilities in the leadership of the Parish. For example, in connection with our new premises many decisions were to be made (ranging from carpets to insurance), the results of most of which you may already have noticed. The Myers Briggs personality test (that's right) revealed that most of us like getting things done – but the rest of us seems to be strong enough to make us think things over a second or third time if necessary. That's it for this occasion. See you soon, and – be blessed! GRAND AUCTION OF UNUSUAL AND ECCENTRIC TALENTS Thank you all for helping to make this another successful FUNdraiser for the Church of the Ascension. Together we raised over 4.800€. Do I hear 5.000? Below is a listing of those Offerings and Wants which did not find winning bidders on the day of the event. Help us to reach 5.000€ by bidding on the remaining Offerings or agreeing to provide a service requested in the Wants. Please let Deirdre L. Tincker know of your interest in the following: The following are still available: OFFERINGS
WANTS The following will pay the church handsomely if you are willing to rise to the occasion and perform the service wanted.
The Church of the Ascension cannot take responsibility for any events which take place off the Church premises. All participants take personal responsibility for their actions and any consequences thereof. Unless specified otherwise, talents are provided at a mutually-agreeable time and Winning Bidders are responsible for arranging for performance within one year. After October 2008, performance is at the discretion of the Person making the Offering. St. Boniface and St. James the Less What do St. Boniface and St. James the Less have in common? Both are saints in the Anglican calendar, and both have been chosen by a mission congregation to become the name of their congregation, and both have been approved by our Bishop. So we have now St. Boniface Mission, Augsburg and St. James the Less Mission, Nürnberg. The majority of the members present at their annual Mission meeting on June 3 (Augsburg) and June 10 (Nürnberg) decided on the above names. St. Boniface was a missionary to Bavaria. The name is Latin and means ‘one, who makes it good’, something that is also one of the goals of the mission that chose his name. His feast day is June 5. The name James is found several times in the New Testament. St. James the Less however is almost universally identified with James, the son of Alphaeus, one of the twelve apostles. We do not know why he got the addition ‘the Less’ (St. James the Great is James the son of Zebedee). The congregation chose the name in thanksgiving to their host congregation the Lutheran congregation of St. Jakob which is German for St. James. Both missions hope that the new names will help them to identify more with their congregation and help them to grow. Version of this page: 11/29/2007 |
