November Post from the Interim Rector

Dear Ones,

November will be a robust liturgical month. November 6 is the Sunday after All Saints Day, one

of the seven Principal Feasts of the Church year. All Saints is the day we recall our communion

with the “great cloud of witnesses” across time and place. As we will hear in the Proper Preface

for that day, we are invited to “rejoice in their fellowship, and run with endurance the race that

is set before us; and, together with them, receive the crown of glory that never fades away.”

November 20 (10:30 a.m.) will be Bishop Richards’s first official visitation to St. James. The

liturgy will include the confirmation or reception of eight of our fellow St. James parishioners,

plus several from St. Margaret’s in Boiling Springs who will be joining us that day. After the

liturgy, we will have a reception to celebrate the confirmands and those received followed by a

forum led by Bishop Richards.

Wednesday, November 23 is Thanksgiving Eve and at 6:30 p.m. we will hold the traditional

Thanksgiving liturgy. But this year there will be the added joyful dimension of the baptism of

Ruth Lewis, daughter of Julia (Britt) and William Lewis.

The thread that runs through all those liturgies is our common baptism. At all three we will

renew our baptismal covenant, the root of our connection to the saints, to those receiving the

laying on of hands, and to those new to the Household of God.

Finally, Sunday, November 27 is the First Sunday of Advent, the start of a new liturgical year.

Advent rightly begins our anticipation of Christmas, the celebration of the Incarnation. But

Advent holds a risk. It is to leap prematurely to Christmas and miss the call to pause and wait,

to heed the invitation to self-examination and renewal as true preparation for Christmas joy.

The first verse of probably the most familiar Advent hymn calls us to the posture of Advent’s

spiritual preparation:



"O come, O come Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lowly exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel."

Peace,

John S. Nieman