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Sunday, December 18

Holy Eucharist, 8:30 a.m., Church
Formation for Children and Youth, 9:45 a.m.
Annual Meeting, 9:45 a.m., Church
Choral Holy Eucharist, 11:00 a.m., Church and Livestream
Coffee Hour, 12:15 p.m., Lobby

Annual Meeting and Vestry Elections. The Annual Meeting of the Parish will take place this Sunday, December 18 at 9:45 a.m. in the Church. Please join us to celebrate the year that is past and to hear from staff and ministry leaders about plans for 2023. On Sunday, parishioners may vote in the Parish House Lobby between 9:00 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. This year’s nominees are Steve Bentley, Ginny Brien, Elsie Erneston, Aubrey Gilleran, Paul Keller, Denise LaForce, Peter Morgan, and Julie Warner. Learn more about the candidates: st-peters.org/vestry-nominees.

Water Intrusion Update. Thank you for bearing with us last weekend as staff and lay leaders worked to stabilize the damage to our basement following a water main burst on 7th Street. Cleanup is continuing to the affected areas in the basement; however, we’ve been advised that repairs to the elevator may take longer. We will resume our full Sunday schedule on December 18, with volunteers available to overcome accessibility challenges. While the elevator is offline, we are actively working on additional accommodations for Christmas Eve and beyond.

St. Peter’s Café On Hiatus. While the elevator is being repaired from the recent water damage, the Community Room and main kitchen are no longer accessible to those who struggle with mobility. In the meantime, coffee will be served in the Lobby from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. in addition to Coffee Hour after the 11:00 a.m. service.

Christmas Memorials and Honoraria. If you would like to make a Christmas memorial or honor a friend or loved one, this donation helps to fund the cost of special floral arrangements and music for Christmas Eve. You may make your donation online (https://onrealm.org/StPetersEpiscop93/give/Christmas) or directly to the Business Office with Leigh Dixon (ldixon@st-peters.org). Be sure to include the name of the honorees exactly as you wish them to be printed in the Christmas service leaflets. The deadline for contributing is Tuesday, December 20 at Noon.

Greening of the Church for Christmas. On Friday, December 23 at 10:00 a.m., volunteers will gather to clean, polish, and decorate the church for Christmas. Donations of greenery, especially magnolia, are welcome. A light lunch will be provided. If you are interested in joining this fun and festive annual event for all ages, please contact Mary Virginia Woodall (mava823@gmail.com).

Christmas Worship Schedule.
Christmas Eve
4:00 p.m. Holy Eucharist, Pageant Service
7:00 p.m. Sung Holy Eucharist with choir
10:30 p.m. Choral Holy Eucharist, “Midnight Mass” with incense
Choral Preludes at 6:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.
Christmas Day: 10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite II
The Feast of the Holy Name (January 1): 10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite II

The Parish Offices will be closed between December 26 and December 30 for the Christmas break. During this time, if you need pastoral assistance, please call the Clergy On Call number, 704-749-6175.

Learn about this week’s and coming weeks’ activities at St. Peter’s. If you want more detailed information.

O Come, O Come

Advent is preparation. Christmas is joy and celebration. But both in their essence are ultimately about giving. Giving ourselves up to stillness and contemplation, and to a re ordering of our daily “busy-ness” (with the perennial hope that this will carry over to the rest of the year). Giving to others, out of love, and as the purest way of honoring God’s greatest gift to us, the Christ child. But the other most wondrous thing she has provided us is this good green earth, with all its abundance of life and sustenance. It, too, deserves—and need—our giving as one of our Beloved.

Giving, of course, can take many forms. Our planet is languishing, at once drying up and drowning; and what we owe it and its creator, is our giving back. Giving back the care that she has given us for millenia, and that she has long deserved, but yet has scarcely received.

Helping her renew the waters and trees, the land and the air and the wildlife—and ultimately, us, as her chosen dwellers.

In this season of gratitude and reflection, our wish and our prayer for the St. Peter’s family is that we give not only our voice, but our action to creation care, and to do so passionately and with a new boldness. O come, let us engage with one another in this commitment and mission. O come, let us love our earth.

We give thanks to you, Our Creator, for the unfathomable wonder of this earth home you have provided us. And we confess and lament that we have not honored it with the respect and stewardship that it needs, and that you ask of us. But we now seek, with your guidance and strength, to live in the hope that we can mend our ways—and this planet. May all of us in this church, in this community and in this world come together as one, looking ahead rather than behind, to rebuild the earth in your image—a beautiful, bountiful place in which to carry on your work. Amen.

Chris Lakin on behalf of the EcoJustice Ministry at St. Peter’s