Advent makes innkeepers out of all of us, asking each of us to make room for the arrival of the Christ Child.  On Sunday, December 22, 2019 following the 10:30 a.m. service, the flower guild will be GREENING the Sanctuary, and they would LOVE your help!  If you can, bring a pair of gardening gloves as the sap can be sticky.  Everyone can help: tall people are needed to hang boughs up high, but so are eyes below to guide them.  Strong hands are needed to carry heavy flowers, and so are gentle hands to carefully arrange them.  

Use the Christmas Flower Dedications form to send in your Christmas flower dedications.  I’m asking that these be turned in by Monday, December 9, 2019 by placing in the collection plate, dropping off at the Parish office, sending in by mail, or sending me an email.  Forms will be in this Sunday’s leaflet, and also by the name tags.

Holly and ivy, along with pine, and fir are called evergreens because they never change color. They are ever-green, ever-alive, even in the midst of winter. Thus they can well symbolize the unchanging nature of our God.  This year, as you see the splendor of a Christmas tree or the greens around St Thomas’s, remember that it is a continuing witness to everlasting life as offered to us in Christ Jesus – and that far from a commercial enterprise, it speaks a deeply spiritual message . . . “O Christmas tree, O Christmas Tree, thy leaves are so unchanging” — Just like God’s love.  

Kind Regards,
Cana Hartman

On Sunday, December 9, we will be having our service of lessons and carols as is our tradition. The service will begin at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Come out and be a part of this Advent tradition of retelling the story of our Savior’s birth as foretold in the Old and New Testaments.