HIS SUNDAY: The Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Fellowship, Sunday, Nov 13, 2022, Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost. On Zoom or at Rise Church,10445 SW Canterbury Ln, Tigard, OR 97224, @ 4 pm. Contact me if you need a Zoom link. If you have any questions, or are interested in a conversation, contact Pastor Brett Webb-Mitchell (919) 444-9111; brettwebbmitchell@gmail.com and visit www.communityofpilgrims.com.
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Dear Community of Pilgrims,
I am writing this newsletter on our country’s Veterans’ Day. We remember not only those who have served this nation as a veteran of one of the military services, but also in recognition that it is also Armistice Day, the end of WWI on Nov. 11, 1918. Armistice means a temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement of the warring parties. On this day, we remember not only our veterans, but also the suspension of hostilities between warring parties.
Remembering these holidays and special days of remembrance is important, because they help focus our attention on what matters in the communities in which we live. A holiday is a day set aside, either by cultural custom or is a law, in which normal activities—like business, work, school, or other public services—are suspended or reduced. With the normal activities suspended, we are free to celebrate or commemorate an event or tradition of either cultural, public, or religious importance. Holidays may be designated and designed by a government, a civil group, or a religious institution, like a church. We have started in the cycle of high holy days and holidays in the life of the Church with All Hallows’ Eve, which is followed by All Saints’ Day, and soon enough, the Reign of Christ Sunday, which is the end of the liturgical year. A new Gospel is the focus of readings for a new liturgical year, which we start reading on the first Sunday of Advent, which rolls into Christmastide, which rolls into Epiphany… you get the idea. Join us this Sunday for the last reading during the “Ordinary” schedule, in which we will read both from 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, and Luke 21:5-19.
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Events!
Nov. 13, 4 pm, Gather and Devotion on Zoom or at Rise Church.
Nov. 20, Reign of Christ Sunday, 4 pm, Gather and Devotion on Zoom or at Rise Church.
Nov. 27, 4 pm, 1st Sunday of Advent; Gather and Devotion on Zoom or at Rise Church.
Dec. 4, 4 pm, 2nd Sunday of Advent; Gather and Devotion on Zoom or Rise Church with Tom Letts.
Dec. 11, 4 pm, 3rd Sunday of Advent; Gather and Devotion on Zoom or at Rise Church.
Dec. 18, 4 pm, 4th Sunday of Advent; Gather and Devotion on Zoom or at Rise Church.
Dec. 24, 7 pm, Christmas Eve worship at Portsmouth Trinity Lutheran Church.
Dec. 25, 2022, and Jan. 1, 2023, Holy Holidays!
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Prayers of Celebration and Concern
We pray to the Creator of all creation:
Thanks be to God for:
· For present day and saints of old, who care for others and for the world;
· For rain in the PNW!
· Medicines for COVID, flu, and Monkeypox.
· Opportunity to vote
· For lives of friends who have passed, and for the time and loved shared with them.
· For persons working with charitable organizations and caring for others.
· For Roberta’s nephew, Sam, who checked into a rehab center.
· For the lives of Jim and Mary Rose.
God, hear and receive our prayers for:
· For Karen and her interview for a new job.
· For Crispin, Christian’s college friend, who died of a heart attack.
· For Linda Fuqua Anderson.
· For those with illness.
· Roxanne: continued prayers for Maureen Nightingale.
· For Chuck’s health.
· For climate change.
· For voting rights.
· For women’s reproductive rights.
· For transgender youth.
· Gun control.
· Hunger and homelessness on city streets.
· For Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, and Iran.
· For the end of white nationalism and Christofascism in this country.
God in your love, attend our prayers. Amen
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Poem
Everyone Sang, by Seigfried Sassoon (1920 in honor of Armistice Day)
Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on–on–and out of sight.
Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away … O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.
Buen Camino! Pastor Brett Webb-Mitchell and Karen Cornwell Fortlander