Liturgical Calendars for 2004 are on sale in Bott Hall for $2.50. Our custom-made “Blessed to be an Episcopalian” bumper stickers are $1.00. Show your colors!

My dear friends,

I want to share with you the accolades I received on your behalf at council. The cookies you baked were so warmly received and I reaped all the gratitude for them. I wish you could have been there to share their gratitude with me. I pray for and give thanks for you as “the cookie bakers.”

I know it is dangerous to mention names, but I must try. Thank you not only to all the cookie bakers, but to Will Manders, who helped transport cookies; to Carolyn Pierce, who fleeced local stores, baked hundreds of cookies and helped at council; and my Calvin (without whom I could do nothing). He is the rock I lean on and the wings that lift me.

God’s peace and my appreciation to all of you for your loving gift.

Please add to your directory as we welcome:

Stephanie Allen

1416 Wadley Ave.

East Point, GA 30344

404-209-0803

We also welcome our brothers in Christ baptized on All Saints’ Sunday: Oliver Atchel Kosar (son of John and Karla Kosar, and Chigozie Obinna Okonya, son of Romanus and Paatricia Okonya.

Christmas Eve: 7:00 p.m. (with children’s Christmas Pageant) and 10:30 p.m.

Christmas Day: 10:30 a.m.

On Saturday, December 20 from 11:00-2:00 in the Parish Hall, come learn to make bunraku puppets (and learn what they are!), make props for a Christmas Eve children’s procession, hear stories, sing songs, make musical instruments, and share lunch. No skill needed, just a childlike joy for creating. Objects made at the workshop will be used in the Christmas Pageant at the 7:00 Christmas Eve service.

The workshop is open to ages 2^1/2 to adult, but children under five should be accompanied by a teen or adult.

For registration information call Martha Spring at 770/996-0573.

The Statement of Purpose for this event says it all: The emphasis for these and other Performance/Visual Art Workshops at St. John’s is to reach children in the surrounding communities who, because of financial cutbacks in the public school system, are losing experiential opportunities with the fine arts during their childhood. These workshops will be ecumenical. The hope is that as the community becomes aware of these outreach events the children of other faiths and no faiths will find a welcoming environment that values the creative spirit of the child without judging their parents’ beliefs. The instructors are motivated by their love of Christ and His directive to allow the child to come to Him. We do not intend to convert or proselytize but to let the Joy of our Creator so shine thought our love of the arts and of children that the Holy Spirit will reach those who come in His time and in His way.

Our youth are spearheading an effort to make Christmas stockings for Emmaus House, a ministry to the poor operated by the Diocese of Atlanta in the neighborhood behind Turner Field. Items needed were in last month’s Eagle Notes, and our youth have been handing out flyers. Remember to get your contribution (in money or goods) to the church on or before November 7. On behalf of the kids you will help, Thanks!

You can help fight hunger by going to <www.chunky.com/click_for_cans.asp> and clicking on your favorite NFL team.

Please send in your donations for Christmas decorations and let us know whether they will be a thank offering or a memorial. Thank you.

Mark your calendars for December 14^th! We will worship at 9:30, followed by our Annual Parish Meeting (a flyer about the candidates for vestry is included with this edition). It’s also a Second Sunday, so we’ll have our potluck brunch (bring a dish to share and food for Family Life). We’ll also make stockings for Emmaus House, and the Cathedral Bookstore will be here to sell you great Christmas gifts. What a day! Don’t miss it!

Let me begin by thanking you, on behalf of Charlotte and myself, for your prayers and support during her recent illness. As you know, she suffered a mild heart attack on November 2 (in church, after the sermon. Should we issue warnings?). The doctor is optimistic about her condition. For that, we are deeply grateful. We are, of course, concerned about her health, but we are also very much appreciate your outpouring of love.

I also want you to know how proud I was of St. John’s and the Convocation of Southwest Atlanta at the Annual Council of the Diocese of Atlanta on November 7-8. Gwen and the cookie-bakers were phenomenal. A number of clergy from all over the convocation helped with lots of tasks and did a great job. Lay people helped in many ways. I received lots and lots of compliments about how well Council went and how wonderful the new Georgia International Convention Center is. I accepted them on behalf of the entire convocation.

Council also had its agonizing time as we debated resolutions about sexuality. My perception was that, although those who wanted us to repudiate the actions of General Convention (a meaningless gesture) were disappointed, the council was characterized by a willingness to listen and deep concern for one another, regardless of which side of the issue one was on. I was proud to be an Episcopalian.

And now is the time of the year when we Episcopalians are most counter-cultural. Our culture is already in full swing celebrating Christmas, a holiday that, culturally, is a commercial orgy with no religious significance. In 1984, the United States Supreme Court held that the display of a nativity scene in a government building does not violate the First Amendment prohibition against government sponsored religion as long as the nativity scene is mixed in with symbols of other faiths or seasonal symbols such as snowmen. In the Court’s view, putting Frosty near the manger was sufficient to make the scene of Jesus’ birth no longer “religious.”

The Religious Right was delighted. I am (and have been) appalled. Not as a matter of law (I’ll leave that to those toiling in the vineyard I left), but appalled as a Christian because I’m afraid that the Court may be right that such a sacred scene has been so acculturated that it is a mere snowman away from being religiously meaningless.

I wish that instead of Christians being delighted with that ruling, or arguing that the display of the Ten Commandments is legal, we would say, “Hold it! These symbols of our faith certainly do have religious significance, and it would be a terrible commentary for the government to be able to display them as if they don’t.”

As we go through the counter-cultural season of Advent, may we use this period of waiting, of anticipation, to prepare for the Nativity so that it will always have profound significance in our hearts.