Holy Comforter E-Messenger for Sunday,
November 3, 2024
New This Week
Upcoming Events
Articles of Interest
Worship
Ministry Offerings
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Good Samaritan Sunday 11/3
This Sunday, November 3rd, is Good Samaritan Sunday, when the congregation brings food for the Food Pantry to the altar. Please click here for a list of items the pantry particularly needs.
Don't Forget to Set your Clocks Back!
Rector's Discretionary Fund
On the 2nd Sunday of each month, the loose plate offering (cash) and checks with "Rector DF" in the memo, go to the discretionary fund, which helps those in need. Because we have not been noting the Sunday for donations, the fund is low. You may write a check at any time for the Rector's Discretionary Fund. Thank you.
Taize Service - November 17
Thanksgiving and Memorial Contributions
Gold Chicken Friends - November 2
Gold Chicken Friends presents Spread a Little Happiness!
Join us on Saturday, November 2, 4:00 p.m. - 60+ performers of all abilities sing, dance, play music, and share contagious kindness. "A Joy to behold."
Tickets: $10 at the door (cash preferred). To Help More: To fund tickets for group home residents, ask to purchase a few extra tickets at the door.
Thank you!
What to know for the investiture of Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe - November 2
Week of Prayer - November 3
The Community of Deacons in the Diocese of Virginia invites its congregations and members to A Week of Prayer for the 2024 Election Season, from October 30, 2024 to November 5, 2024. Individuals and congregations can sign up to participate in this vigil by praying individually or in community. We invite you to sign up for a 30 minute time period to be in prayer. You may select as many time slots as you wish. Please invite friends, family, and others to join in this time of prayer as well. Congregations may wish to include prayers for the election in their Prayers of the People for Sunday, November 3, 2024.
Click here for more information.
Election Day Bake Sale - November 5
The Election Day Bake Sale has the potential to be a great fundraiser for Holy Comforter, so we need your help! Please sign up to contribute baked goods or coffee, make a sign, and/or sell the baked goods on Election Day. You can bake something, purchase, or ask a local shop for donations. A baked good consists of 1 dozen cookies/muffins/donuts/ pastries or 1 cake/pie/bread loaf. Everything except donuts should be packaged in individual servings for easy sales. This means slicing cakes, pies, and loaves of bread and wrapping the individual slices. Please deliver your item(s) to the church parish hall on Monday, November 4, during office hours (call ahead) or 5:30-7:00 pm. Donuts also may be purchased the morning of November 5 and brought to the tent outside the parish hall. Thank you!
Sign up Here!
Prayer Service following the Election - November 6
HoCo will offer post-Election prayers for whatever may be on our hearts and minds during our Wednesday 12:15pm service of the Holy Eucharist on November 6.
Fall Fest Part Two: The GALA - November 9
Holiday Grief Gathering Sunday - November 10
HOCO Holiday Grief Gathering ~ Holidays can be emotionally rough on people who have suffered the loss of a loved one. The 2024 Holiday Grief Gathering will provide a safe space for remembering, reflecting, and for gaining tools and resources to use during this holiday season. Please join us as we endeavor to remember and honor friends and family who have passed on.
Sunday, November 10th at 11:30 Church Parlor
Hoco Book Group - November 19
For our Tuesday, November 19th pick, we have taken Terry Long's recommendation and chosen I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda. An inspiring story about two lives and two families transformed by the value of friendship and the commitment to learn about a different culture and way of life.
Amazon says: "It started as an assignment. Caitlin had never even heard of Zimbabwe when everyone in her class was told to write a letter to an unknown student in a distant place. Excited for the first time about homework, she went home that night and wrote about her favorite color and what sports she played, and asked her mystery pen-pal about life in Zimbabwe.
Martin had never heard of Pennsylvania when he read Caitlin's letter. He was lucky to even receive a pen-pal letter-his class only received ten letters for fifty kids! But as the top student, he got the first one. He wrote Caitlin back, talking about his siblings and soccer and saying he hoped she wrote again.
These letters were the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives. In this compelling dual memoir, Caitlin and Martin recount how they became best friends -and better people-through their inspiring long-distance exchange."
We will meet via Zoom (details later) at 7:00pm Tuesday, November 19th. We also decided not to meet on December 17th and will resume on the third Tuesday in January (January 21st).
Contact is Peggy Hombs.
Save the Date - December 14
Saturday, December 14th
Advent of Hope Retreat led by Bishop Susan Goff in the morning followed by Caroling With a Purpose in the afternoon.
Details to follow.
HoCo Pastoral Care Team
Connection Time - An Important Part Of Growing Our Community
Spending time together after church helps us know each other better, and meet newcomers, and help them to feel welcomed and included. We plan to have Connection Time every Sunday with or without food. To make it less complicated and easier to help, we have updated the Sign-up Genius with these options and are asking that one person take one task on a Sunday:
- Drinks: making coffee, putting out a pitcher of water
- Putting snacks out that will be provided by Parish Life and will be in the kitchen
- Clean-up after Connections
Please consider signing up for one or more options.
If you have any questions, please contact Susan Boze, the vestry person for Parish Life. Thanks for taking part in this important ministry! Signup Genius
All Saints' Sunday - November 3
All Saints' Day is on November 3, but we, like many parishes, transfer the feast to the Sunday following. In addition to reading our Roll Call of the Saints, and rejoicing that we remain connected to our loved ones who have gone before us, the liturgy and the preaching will focus our hearts and minds on the eternal connection that we have with all people. During this Election season, we do well to remember that all people are beloved children of God and we are forever connected to them in the communion of the saints.
All Saints Donations
On four religious holidays each year we make a special deal about contributions to external organizations doing God's work in the world.
On November 3rd we celebrate All Saints with donations to Side by Side, a youth LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Its building, adorned with a mural by HoCo artist Emily Herr, is on Westwood Ave. It offers support groups that you can see at https://www.sidebysideva.org/support-groups.
Rowan Academy Fundraiser
Rowan Academy is participating in a diaper drive and wondered if members of the congregation would like to help out as well. We have a donation box that we can leave in church foyer (by the name tags) on Sunday.
Little Hands Virginia is hosting a diaper drive in honor of Diaper Awareness Week. Please join this community-wide drive to help bring in over 200,000 diapers in order to end diaper need in Greater Richmond. The drive goes through October 23rd.
Thanks!
Mary Rose Woo
Men At The Movies October Redux
Strange things happen while you are making other plans! In September, somehow I had a DVD of Bagdad Cafe that wasn't meant for North America, but rather for Region "B" in another part of the world! Because yours truly hadn't checked it out, we couldn't play it. So there wouldn't be a lost opportunity for film viewing, your humble(d) servant did have in his bag of tricks a DVD that I meant to show in 2025, Purple Noon, which we watched that one instead!
So, for our October 8th Men at the Movies gathering, our film will be Bagdad Cafe. Bagdad Cafe is a German-made American fairy tale with all the trimmings. One of the draws for me is that there still is a Bagdad Cafe open for business on the Mother Road, Route 66, in Texas. And, that there is a connection to November's movie Casablanca. So Tuesday, October 8th, we will gather in the Parlor at 6:00pm for fellowship; the correction version of Bagdad Cafe will roll at 6:30pm with ensuing discussion. Bring a beverage, bring a meal, bring a friend!
Here's the line-up for the coming months. In November Casablanca - in its 82nd year - the most loved American film - a World War II classic. In December, we'll decide among one of these: Love Actually, Joyeaux Noel or The Princess Bride. They are all Christmas movies. We'll watch The Leopard after the New year begins.
Join us Tuesday, October 8th; when we gather in the Parlor at 6:00pm, film rolls and discussion ensues at 6:30pm. Bring a beverage, bring your dinner, bring a friend!
Contact person: Steven Van Voorhees
Christmas Pageant 2024
Hello HoCo community! As I prepare for our Christmas Pageant this year (at the Christmas Eve service on Dec 24), I'm collecting the names (and emails) of who would like to be involved. The commitment is minimal; 1-2 rehearsals (during children's chapel or right after church) and your child doesn't need to have a speaking part (unless they want to!). If your little one wants to be involved but only if you are there with them, then great! Adults are welcome too! And if you have a bigger kid that would be interested in doing more- please let me know. I will decide what we are doing based on who is interested so please let me know asap (by mid Nov.) It will be very simple and hopefully meaningful and fun! Please email me at lianmarieholmes@gmail.com if you, or your children want to join in!
Thank you!
Lian-Marie Holmes Munro
Our Fall Stewardship/Discipleship Program at HoCo
Image courtesy of parishioner Tracy Councill
From our Rector, The Rev. Dr. Hilary Borbon Smith
Dear Friends and Companions in Ministry,
We have chosen to focus on Baptism during our Fall Stewardship/Discipleship Program. The words used during baptism, as the sign of the cross is made on the forehead of the newly baptized person, "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ's own forever," have great meaning for me personally and as a church leader. Baptism is both a personal and communal experience.
Everyone is loved by God, and when we are baptized we choose, or our family chooses for us if we are young, that the Way of Jesus is the path we want to follow as children of God. An individual is sealed by the Spirit and marked as Christ's own, and the person becomes a member and minister of the Church.
Baptism is such a joyful event in our church because we rejoice for the person and their family, and we know that the community Holy Comforter has been changed, made more diverse and that each of us has been given a sacred trust to be there for this person as individuals and as a community.
Fall Stewardship/Discipleship Program - starting soon
"Sealed by the Holy Spirit and Marked as Christ's Own Forever"
Baptism - both a personal and community celebration.
Our Baptismal Covenant - the vows/promises, which
to each we answer, "I will, with God's help."
Sundays
Oct. 27 - Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
Nov. 3 - Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
Nov. 10 - Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Nov. 17 - Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Nov. 24 - Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
December 1 - the First Sunday of Advent - The Church's new year begins, and we begin again, with a celebration of God's Covenant with us personally and as a community of love, peace, hope, and justice.
This Week's Birthdays
Happy Birthday to all those who have birthdays this week!
Sam Baggett, 4th
Katherine Raymond, 4th
John Richardson, 4th
Bill Smith, 8th
Welcome to the Church of the Holy Comforter (HoCo)! Here is Some General Information
Join us at church on Sundays at 10:00 am for a service of the Holy Eucharist. We often use prayers from Enriching our Worship, which offers expansive images of God. We live stream our Sunday morning service on FaceBook and post it to be seen at your convenience on FaceBook.
Parish office hours are Mondays through Thursdays, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
If you have a pastoral emergency, at any time of day, call our Rector, Hilary (her number can be found in the parish directory ). Hilary's email is hbshococlergy@gmail.com. If you would like to schedule an appointment to talk with Hilary, or another member of our parish clergy, please email or call to schedule a time.
If you would like to make a financial offering, you may use online giving or US Mail. Thank you for supporting God's ministry to our local community and beyond through HoCo.
This Week's Worship Bulletin
Wednesday Worship At Church
Centering Prayer, 11:45 am, for 20 minutes, and then a service of the Holy Eucharist at 12:15 pm. At the next 2 Wednesday Eucharist services, October 30 and November 6, Rev. Hilary will offer prayers and reflections for our country's election.
Metro Richmond at Prayer (Richmond Hill Cycle of Prayer)
We pray for persons in financial need in Metropolitan Richmond: For the unemployed and underemployed. For suitable work, living wages, and fair benefits for all workers in this metropolitan city.
Informal Artists of HoCo announces UFOs – Un Finished Objects
We'll meet in the Conference room from 10:30 - noon (ish) on Tuesdays to work on our own personal projects. Knitting, sketching, drawing, writing... good conversation and busy hands! All are welcome - bring a friend. Contact Kipley Herr if you have any questions.
Sunday Morning Adult Class
The Sunday morning class (8:45-9:45) is currently working its way through an adaptation of the National Church's curriculum, Love God, Love God's World. You can check out the official site at https://www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/creation-care/love-god-love-gods-world-curriculum/ . Each session has been streamlined to fit in our hour-long time frame; if enough people concur, we can establish a "circle" to do the full curriculum in the new year. Please come by the parlour on Sunday and check it out. We have already considered our Oneness with Creation (week one) and our temporal and spiritual relationships with water (week two). Week three will explore the historical tension between institutional Christianity and indigenous care for creation. "Each week a preparatory reflection is sent via email prior to the day of. If you would like to be added to the list, please email ntrvrt1958@gmail.com .
Lectionary Group, Summer Schedule
Our Thursday Lectionary Group meets on Zoom at 4:00 p.m. All are welcome to drop in and see what we discuss. It is fun! We look at the Sunday readings coming up and share knowledge, ideas, and how the scripture speaks to us in our lives. Go to our website, hoco.org , and click the banner at the top for the link.
Tuesday Morning Book Group
We meet in the church parlor at 11:00 am to Noon. Currently, we are discussing Immortal Diamond by Richard Rohr. You are welcome to join our group at anytime.
The Current Messenger
