News

Church Street News (see Past Issues)
The Newsletter of St. Lawrence Episcopal Church
Issue No. 12, Volume 97
December 2005

A MESSAGE FROM OUR INTERIM RECTOR
What a pleasure and joy it has been these last few weeks to begin our ministry together. You need to know how energized and dutiful are the many leaders, staff and clergy. They respond quickly, mobilizing talents and resources and get down to the doing. My thanks for the special welcome events. I beg your patience while I learn names and faces of so many people.

A strong community life in a parish supports and encourages growth spiritually and numerically. This week someone said to me that she had considered herself a member of St. Lawrence for several years but the response of the parishioners when her husband died brought her to know that she was indeed now a member of the parish FAMILY.

With 250-300 people worshipping each week and several hundred more in and out of the building weekly for meetings, programs, day school, etc., I see a vital and healthy community dwelling together in unity as Christians of the Episcopal persuasion on Church Street and more profoundly throughout the whole area. We have a splendid future to grow towards.

I commend to you the special events and projects that are coming up in the next few weeks. We are reaching out to others in need with food and other necessities. We are opening our doors to the neighborhood for holiday events and hospitality. Our worship is enhanced by the newly donated piano, and seasonal decorations which draw us into a deeper experience of the beauty of holiness. We are worthy of your increased support for the ministry we do in God’s name.

Each of us needs “a Little Bit of Christmas” for this year has been one of great sadness over the tremendous loss of life to war, famine, terrorism and natural disasters. Life has tipped markedly towards the dark side. Therefore, we as Children of Light will proclaim even more loudly that the True Light has come and will come again.

After the holidays, we have much to accomplish as we move forward into the parish survey, profile and history phase of our search process. The transition team and I are working on these plans already.

My sincere wishes for everyone to have a wonderful holiday season and especially to draw closer to the Light of Christ as we participate in the religious observances that coincide with the winter festival activities.

Peace and Grace,
TOM+

FROM THE WARDENS
The theme of this year’s Diocesan Convention was “Come and Grow” and the concept is important not only to the Diocese, but also to each of us at St. Lawrence. The Delegates at the Diocesan Convention passed an important resolution that we recommend all take to heart. The resolution encouraged each delegate to invite at least three new people to attend an event at our parish. We encourage each of you to do likewise. Imagine how our parish life would be enriched if some of those invited become active participants in the life of our parish. In fact it was noted in debate, the resolution could have an incredible positive effect on both our budget and that of the Diocese. The monetary aspect is a positive effect of bringing the Gospel to others, something all Christians are called to do.

As announced, pledge cards and other materials for the 2006 Stewardship campaign have been sent to those parishioners on the Church’s mailing list. If you still have not receive one please notify one of us. Additional pledge cards can also be found on the table in the Narthex. We ask that you prayerfully consider your pledge for the 2006 fiscal year. We recognize that there are many worthy organizations competing for your discretionary income, but more than 90% of our annual funding comes only from our parishioners and we need your generous gifts to continue affecting the lives of many in our community and our parish through our ministry teams. Christ is counting on you.

This upcoming month is a great time to invite our friends and neighbors to our Church. We are offering all sorts of seasonal activities; “The Way of the Cradle” on November 27 - a new way to experience the season of Advent; on December 3 St. Lawrence opens the doors to the Victorian Tea hosted by MainStreet Libertyville, the ECW Christmas Bazaar; December 4th Advent Evensong and Potluck dinner. The weekend of December 10 again features the Victorian Tea as well as the Sing-a-long Messiah. These, of course are in addition to our schedule of beautiful services on Christmas Eve (at 4:00 and 10:30 PM) and two services on Christmas Day (7:30 AM and 10:00 AM). We are blessed this year to work the Waukegan Soup Kitchen on Christmas day as well.

Thanks you again for all of your generous gifts to fund our 2005 operations. We help shape the lives of so many with your investment in our ministries. Please consider increasing your financial support this upcoming year to help us do even more in the Name of God.

Senior Warden Jeanne Murphy can be reached at valentinejam@sbcglobal.net
Junior Warden Frank Top can be reached at thetops@comcast.net

CHECK THAT BOX!!
The Planned Giving Committee would like to remind you that if you are interested in discussing a gift to St Lawrence through a trust or will and need more information, please check the box on your pledge cards. One of our committee members will be happy to contact you and provide any additional information needed.

Remember, we do have some wonderful brochures available regarding wills, trusts and other difficult decisions concerning healthcare and final instructions. The upcoming holidays may provide an opportunity to discuss these essential decisions with family members. Careful planning means peace of mind for your family, now and in the future!

VESTRY NOMINATIONS SOUGHT
At the next Annual Meeting for St. Lawrence Episcopal Church, the members of the congregation will elect three new members to the St. Lawrence Vestry, as well as a Warden. It is important that anyone who may be interested in serving in one of these vital roles know what is entailed in the position.

The “canons” of the Episcopal Church provide the rules, laws, etc. for any Episcopal congregation. These canons specify that a vestry member must be an adult (16 years or older) and a “communicant in good standing”. The canons also elaborate on the specific areas of responsibility of vestry and wardens.

In addition to these requirements, the current St. Lawrence Vestry has expanded on the canonical definitions to provide further expectations related to supporting the life of the congregation by participating in meetings of the Vestry and the various “ministry teams” established to coordinate the programs and ministries of the parish.

Elections will be held at the Annual Meeting, Sunday, January 22, 2006. At that time, a Nominating Committee (comprised of retiring Vestry members) will present names for voting. Candidates also can be nominated from the floor.

THE GIFT THAT GIVES MORE THAN ONCE
Now that the Holidays are nearing, we would like to remind everyone about the Online Marketplace available on our web site under the "News" page.  You simply click from our Web site into the Online Marketplace, find a store and then purchase online like you would normally.  Every purchase made this way will benefit St. Lawrence in the form of a rebate back to the Church.  Here is just a small sampling of participating online stores:

1-800-Flowers.com
Hammacher Schlemmer
Apple Store
Lane Bryant
Barnes & Noble.com
Motorola
Best Buy
Orbitz
Coldwater Creek
PETsMART
CompUSA
Shutterfly
Drugstore.com
The Sharper Image
eBay
Target
Eddie Bauer
Walmart

Remember to go to the Church Web site at www.stlawrencechurch.org and click on "News."  You will see the link prominently displayed and you simply need to click the link.  You don't need to purchase anything to get an idea of the numerous online stores.  Once you locate an online vendor, your shopping experience is identical to going to the vendor directly.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact Erik Larson at larson@db3mail.com.

COME SING WITH US
Parishioners who love to sing are also invited to join St. Lawrence’s Festival Choir for the Advent and Christmas season. To join the choir for Sunday and holy day services, rehearsal attendance is expected. The choir rehearses in the Choir Room every Thursday evening from 7:30 to 9:00 pm, and 45 minutes before every service in which the choir sings. The choir alternates between 9:00 am and 10:30 am services each Sunday. Please join us!

OBSERVING THE SEASON OF ADVENT
At St. Lawrence, we’re offering a number of ways to help keep Advent as a season of preparation. During the hustle and bustle, take a break to keep your spirit on track and so remember the “reason for the season.”

PREPARE YE THE WAY
Please join us on Sunday Dec 4th at 5:00 pm for choral Evensong. This is a rich service led by Fr. Rosa and accompanied by the choir followed by our Advent Potluck. In lieu of Advent Wreaths, we will be making and decorating homemade placemats to be used at the Christ Church Waukegan Community Meal on Christmas day, which will be hosted by St. Lawrence. Please bring your family and a dish to share for a lovely evening of prayer, fellowship and celebration. Sign up sheets will be available in the Narthex.

LIFT UP YOUR VOICES
The North Suburban Symphony members and friends, under the direction of Michael Poulos will present a Sing-Along Messiah on Saturday, Dec. 10th at 4:00 pm, in the Sanctuary of St. Lawrence. There will be an on stage chorus made up of St. Gregory and St. Lawrence choir members and guests. Come sing or listen and let the joy surround you in a delightful afternoon performance. 

The suggested ticket price is $10.00 with all proceeds being donated to PADS.  Librettos (musical score) will be available at the door for purchase $10.00.   Information and reservations can be made by calling the church office at 847 362-2110. We would like to recognize the St. Lawrence orchestra members Janet Billings, Regina Fullin, and Erik Larson.

DECK THE HALLS AND CAROLING
We will be decorating the church (inside and out) for our Christmas celebrations, on Sunday Dec 18th at 12:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to join the Altar Guild in helping prepare our church for the Christmas services. All ages will be put to good use. A light lunch will be served and a Christmas carol sing-a-long. Christmas cookies are a welcome addition.

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES
Invite your friends and family to join you at one of our Christmas Eve services. The family service with a Christmas pageant will begin at 4:30 pm. This is a wonderful service in which the children of our church sing and tell us of the wonders of Christmas. This pageant is performed during the service.

A candlelight service begins at 10:30 pm with singing of carols followed by the Eucharist celebrating the birth of Christ. The adult choir helps lead the congregation at this service. It is during this service we light candles as we sing Silent Night.

CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICES
Christmas Day falls on Sunday this year. We will have our regular 7:30 am service but we will combine the later services into one 10:00 am service. The 10:00 am service will be a simple service with Eucharist.

BEGIN YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS RIGHT
The first Sunday of Christmas is New Year’s Day. Begin the New Year by celebrating with God. We will continue our normal Sunday services but Sunday school will not resume until Sunday, January 8th.

CHRISTMAS BASKETS
The same story with a new twist. This year we are again participating in the Cathedral Shelter Christmas Basket program and we have agreed to supply gifts and food for 10 large families, totaling 60 people. We have a diverse group of recipients, from the very young to the elderly, with household monthly incomes as low as $500.00.

Here’s how it works. The ages and sizes, along with some suggestions have been provided for you. Please label each gift with the name and code number of the recipient. A list of food items for each family has also been posted.

The Giving Tree in the Narthex has tags to be taken by you, when shopping for stocking stuffers to add to the basket, the will become a mitten Tree, as our children bring mittens and gloves to give away at Christmas

There will be boxes in the Narthex to drop off your gifts. Please return them by Wednesday, December 8; pick-up is Friday, December 10.

“I WAS HUNGRY AND YOU FED ME…”
Our next turn at the Christ Church Waukegan Community Mael is on Christmas Day!  We have a wonderful opportunity to spread holiday cheer!  We want to put forth a beautiful Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.  There are a lot of jobs to be done ahead of time.  So even if you are going out of town or having guests that day you can be involved.  Please watch for turkeys on sale. We will be needing quite a few.  We hope to be filling "stockings" for all of the guests too.   There will be several extra want lists with our regular  Community Meal sign up.  For more information contact, Cecelia Secor 847-223-7655

A WELCOME CHANGE
As you can see, the fence around the dumpster in the back of the church has been torn down and a new, much better looking fence is in the process of being built. But in order to be fully completed, funds from the church would have to be spent for the wood, building materials, etc. If the people of the parish could donate some money (or even some physical labor), then the church would not have to take out of its budget to build the fence. All the help I can get would be great. I need to raise around $800.00 dollars, and any donation would be terrific. The attorney on the east side of our church, Terry Weppler, has already helped me through the building permit process with the village. Mr. Dowden, the architect of our church’s courtyard, has donated the plans for construction, and Rod Buss of Buss Landscaping (the same that did all of the brick walls around our church) has agreed to donate the bricks needed for the lower part of the fence. So as you can see, donations mean not just money, but offering any skills you may have also. All of these are greatly appreciated.

As the longest part of the project has been completed (meaning the village processes and the drawing of the plans) have been completed, and all we need is to actually build the fence. Special thanks to the Vestry and Mike Matson for helping me with this project. Hopefully, we will be done soon so I can get my Eagle Award.

Thanks, Matt Karnstedt

BOOK GROUP NEWS
On Monday, December 12th at 7:30 p.m. in the Fireside Room we will meet to discuss Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsely. We will have some special holiday nibbles along with our rousing discussion, so please join us!!

In January we will be reading the 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. This book is the only published novel by author J. D. Salinger and is narrated by a rebellious 17 year-old Holden Caulfield. Holden relates events that occurred during three December days in 1948--when he was sixteen. Within this part of the story, Holden frequently flashes back to experiences and people from earlier in his life. Please join us on Monday, January 9th for this discussion.

Also, please note our revised book group list for the remainder of our reading year. Due to the availability of a few of the books in paperback, we have re-arranged some of the selections.

February: Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail (non-fiction) by Malika Oufkir, Michele Fitoussi, Ros Schwartz
March: A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
April: A Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
May: The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
June: Saturday by Ian McEwen

COME AND JOIN US
We are opening our atrium doors to a local weekday Catechesis of the Good Shepard program currently scheduled for Tuesday afternoons. Any one from St. Lawrence that would like their child enrolled in the program please contact the church office for more information.

SEABURY SEMINARY LIFE
I am almost finished with my first quarter at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Whew! It has been a hectic first two months, five graduate level seminary courses, online journaling, papers, tests, and group projects, as well as other opportunities, such as chapel and worship requirements, sacristy and altar guild duties, and student government responsibilities. I have been taxed just keeping track of what needs done, but I am loving every minute of the experience.

The M.Div curriculum, Master of Divinity, is a three year program. One requirement for those in the ordination process is to take CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education. I will be working for a Chaplain’s office at a local hospital. This program involves working with patients and other seminary students from all traditions.

Other aspects of being at seminary are to experience many kinds of liturgy and missional work. This requires us to attend other churches, Episcopal and other denominations, as well as work with social justice issues. So if you look around and don’t see me, never fear! I am in church somewhere!

Thank you to all who keep me and my family in your prayers. It is a difficult time for all of us, as my time commitments keep me away from home a great deal. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I continue to keep St. Lawrence, and all of you, daily in my prayers.

Peace and many blessings,
Court Williams

A ROUND OF APPLAUSE AND GRATITUDE
Delicious chili was had by all at the First Annual St. Lawrence Chili Cook Off. The responses were overwhelming and there will be a spot for the Cook Off on the church calendar next year. Congratulations to Jim Hartshorne on winning the honors of Chili Master 2005. That entitles Jim to bragging rights, as well as a homemade meal prepared for him, Jan and two friends by Father Rosa at a later date. Thanks to all who participated. It was a terrific way to join in fellowship and welcome Father Rosa to St. Lawrence with open arms, willing hearts and pocketfuls of antacids!

Much thanks to those who planned the event and those who graciously volunteered to set up/clean up before and after the event. It always amazes me how many people arrive prior to events and stay afterwards to help with the “less desirable” tasks. It is yet another way to witness the work of Christ through the hands of those that believe in him. Those tasks come with every event, so please continue your graciousness by helping out in any way possible before, during and after the events you attend.

If anyone has any ideas for new events at St. Lawrence, please feel free to pass them along. HEY YOUTH…..your ideas are welcome as well.

SAVE THE DATE
Please save the date - January 15, 2006 - for the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) Annual meeting and potluck supper.  Join us at 5:00 pm for an evening of fellowship.  Watch for a signup sheet and further information.

HAVE YOU MET YET…?
This month we feature two women who are new to our parish. They both usually attend the 7:30 service.

Nancy Holmgren
Nancy Holmgren is a lifelong resident of Lake County. She was born in Waukegan and is a member of Christ Church. Since moving to Mundelein, she has been splitting her worship time between St. Lawrence and Christ Church. It is very difficult to leave a church with so many memories!

Nancy’s father’s family attended St. Lawrence in Libertyville (her maiden name is Flagg) when she was growing up. They owned a barber shop in town. So now she feels like she has come full circle by attending St. Lawrence.

Nancy’s first husband was Bill Tippett. They had four children together. Now Nancy has eleven grandchildren. Before Bill died, they purchased a second home in Venice, FL. Nancy is now married to Roy Holmgren. They were wed on March 19, 2005 at Church of the Good Shepherd in Venice. They spend four months a year in Florida starting in January.

Nancy enjoys travel with her husband and reading. Roy volunteers in the After School Homework Help Program at Christ Church, Waukegan.

Fun Fact: Nancy has known Ann Leffler since they were in kindergarten together! They are dear friends and still get together with some mutual friends on a regular basis to attend the Cultural Center in Chicago.

Shirley Skeen
Shirley Skeen was born in Presque Isle, Maine. She was baptized, confirmed and married at St. John’s Episcopal in Presque Isle. She met her husband, James, during World War II and they were married after his duty in the service. They have four children – three girls (one set of twins) and a boy. After James attended the School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK, he got a job with Northwest Air Lines. They moved a lot early on, but ended up settling in Glen Riddle, PA.

Shirley was a member of Calvary Episcopal Church in Glen Riddle for 40 years! She was active in all the church volunteer activities – everything but the Vestry. Through the years, Shirley had several jobs, one of them as the Purchasing Manager for Grocery Store Products. She has been a widow for 14 years.

Shirley recently moved to the area (Lake Bluff) to be nearer to her children. One of her twin daughters is in Lincolnshire and the other lives in NC. Her son lives west of Wheaton, IL and the other daughter is in California. Shirley has six grandchildren. Her hobbies include crochet, reading and china painting. Shirley loves to play pinochle, but hasn’t found a group locally that plays. Any takers??

Summer Schedule
Sunday Services:
7:30am - Holy Eucharist Rite I Liturgy
10 :00am - Holy Eucharist Rite II Liturgy
Thursday Service:
8:30am - Holy Eucharist