Christmas festivities

• Remember to bring a side dish to the service next week (Dec 19, 2010.) Ham will be served after the Christmas pageant; we already have plenty of sweets.
• Organist Helen will be playing our services again on Christmas Eve (service probably around 8 from the looks of the show of hands today, but the time is still not firm) and Sunday, Dec. 26 which will be a Christmas Carol Fest. Individuals or groups that would like to sing or perform on an instrument or give a reading or express the holiday spirit in any way they would like are welcome to come prepared. Let Pastor Bob know your plans (794.7769)
• By the way, the office next door is for rent for $400.
• Business: Annual Meeting: Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011. Recommended names or nominations, as well as personal volunteers, can be placed in the offering plate. Three open positions and one youth position.
  

Hendrick Hudson Male Chorus presents CHS choir

What a turn-out!

Donations requested

I think it is interesting that on page 3 of the Register Star today is an article about "It's A Wonderful Life" and on page 5 a headline: "Edith Casey fund out of toys." For the first time since Edith Casey, a "children's agent" with the County Charities office (now Social Services), began her fund in 1920, the organization does not have enough toys to give to the families who have requested them. Perhaps Jimmy Stewart can inspire us to do our part. There are drop-off points next to Peebles and at the DMV both in Hudson. Money is accepted at Key Bank, 160 Fairview Avenue, Hudson NY 12534.

Frank Capra once said he strove "to champion man, plead his causes and protest any degradation of his dignity, spirit and divinity." The article on "Wonderful Life" suggests that Seneca Falls, NY may have been the inspiration for Capra's Bedford Falls, a working, everyday small town that is not perfect but in a crunch pulls together and helps each other out.

I think Chatham also embodies this spirit-especially the Christ our Emmanuel congregation.

Council Highlights

1. Christ our Emmanuel had our December Council meeting yesterday. We are required to obtain congregation authority to contract for the heating work:
   The Congregation Council has discussed estimates for an essential "Service Contract" for the heating systems at the church. The furnaces in the main church are old and parts are no longer available for the original one. Service providers are also unwilling to offer any repair contract for this furnace. The second furnace alone is also older, inefficient and inadequate for the church. There are also come safety and repair requirements. After extended consideration it is recommended that a propane system conversion with a high efficiency boiler be undertaken. A cost outlay and approval of at least $10,000 needs to be considered by the congregation within the next several weeks.
2. LAST CALL: Doug Stalker (Tel: 392-5690) will be available one more time at his home studio: 170 Hudson Ave.,Chatham on Tuesday, December 14, 2010, 4:00-7:00 P.M. Please come and let him make you look vibrant and younger for the church directory and family gift photos.
3. JOY (and a little bit of effort) in giving and offering your own special experience-sharing::::::::::::::::Sign up for one Sunday for the "CHILDREN'S MESSAGE" and one Sunday for "SUNDAY MORNING COFFEE HOUR". /////////Many Hands
   Make Light Work//////
4. Christmas concert ticket income will be distributed in three parts: (1) The Ghent Food Pantry (2) The Chatham Food Pantry (3) The High School Chorus and the Hendrik Hudson Male Chorus. Additional donations may be placed in a labeled envelope in the offering plate.
5. Sunday, December 19, 2010---CHRISTMAS PAGEANT under the direction of Richard Tucksmith. Congregation Luncheon to follow. Please bring to share: a side dish to compliment a spiral ham main meal a dessert or holiday cookies
6. December 26, 2010----A Special Sunday to close out the season of Advent with the focus on the singing of treasured, traditional carols to organ music by Helen
   

Pastor Serena & family

Great visit! My how those babies have grown!

Choir rehearsal

Those of us who were able met last Sunday to try and figure out how to prepare for Christmas and decided that we would meet next Sunday, December 5 at 9:00 to give as much of a full hour as possible that week to prepare. Beyond that one hour we can discuss on the 5th. We have some ideas of things to sing for Christmas and Advent, too, if possible. We welcome any ideas you may have.

2010 Christmas Message from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation!" Isaiah 52:7

When Jesus was born, angelic messengers broke the still calm of a Galilean night to sing joyously and proclaim, "This very day in David's city a Savior is born for you - God's Promised One, your Lord." Glad tidings of great joy! Common shepherds were the first and heartiest heralds of the promised Savior's arrival then, and today the joy in Jesus' birth fills every corner of this season.

Admittedly sometimes in modern America the commercial clatter and cultural clutter of the season seem to overtake the angels' song and the shepherds' joyous news. But such a majestic message of God's salvation cannot be silenced. Some loudly lament that the world will not listen to the Gospel message, but in this season so many beckon. "Christians, sing with us. Bring your songs of Christmas, of Jesus." A few may shush you, just as there were those who would later attempt to silence Jesus and his message of God's remarkable, revolutionary mercy, even to the point of crucifixion.

If so, then that is all the more reason to enter into the commotion and clutter, to let go of your inhibitions, to join the angels in singing and the shepherds in exulting with unashamed joy: Jesus, the Savior is born!

"Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy." "See, your salvation comes." Isaiah 52:8; 62:11

Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America