The Clarendon Connection

News of Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church December 2006

Sunday Schedule

Choir rehearsal 9:45 a.m.

Worship 10:30 a.m.

Christian Education (for children) 10:45 a.m.

Refreshments and fellowship 11:30 a.m.

Communion will be celebrated on December 3rd.

December Calendar

Friday, December 1^st – Sunday, December 17^th – The December Salon [an affordable fine art sale of unique holiday gifts] at the Nave Gallery (for more info, see page 2)

Friday, December 1^st, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., opening reception for The December Salon, with music by John O’Hara (for more info, see page 2)

Orders for Equal Exchange coffee, tea and cocoa will be taken at church on November 3rd, for delivery on the 17th (for more info, see page 5)

Advent Adult Education series begins at 12:30 p.m. on December 3^rd (for more info, see page 4)

There will be a joint meeting for Session and Deacons on Wednesday, November 6^th at 7:30 p.m.

Peace, Justice and Mission committee will meet on Thursday, December 7th at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, December 7^th, 8:00 p.m.: opensound, at The Nave Gallery (for more info, see page 3)

Serenata Chamber Musicians present “A Winter Solstice Concert” on Friday, December 8^th at 7:30 p.m., with reception following; proceeds to benefit Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church (for more info, see page 5)

Sunday, December 10^th, Serenata Chamber Musicians concet at 3:00 p.m. (for more info, see page 5)

On Sunday, December 17^th, there will be an unrehearsed Christmas Pageant as part of the worship service

Book group meets on Wednesday, December 20^th, at 7:00 p.m. to read The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle (for more info, see page 6)

Collection of The Christmas Joy Offering on Sunday, December 24^th (for more info, see page 4)

Christmas Eve Service on Sunday, December 24^th at 4:30 p.m.

COMING IN JANUARY: Potluck and Program on Sunday, January 7^th

Annual Meeting, right after the service on Sunday, January 21st

Parish Notes

A note from Doris Fisher: I miss you all at CHPC. So happy to hear about all the improvements that have been made there. I am thankful for prayers, cards, visits, and calls. God is good and I am grateful for my church family.

I want to announce the birth of my great granddaughter, named Lauren MacKinnon Dennard, born on October 6, 2006, weighing 8 lbs., 20 oz. (MacKinnon was my maiden name.) The family lives in Virginia, and I can’t wait to see Lauren.

The Nave Gallery

ARTSomerville and the Nave Gallery celebrate the end of a wonderrful and creative 2006 with the return of our December Salon. This exhibit features affordably priced work by 53 local artists. This is a great opportunity to add to or start your personal art collection and/or find a unique gift for that person who just isn’t satisifed with a gift card.

We have extended our hours just for this show; see more details below:

The December Salon opens Friday, December 1, 2006!

ARTSomerville and the Nave Gallery pressent: The December Salon: And Affordable Art Sale

Salon dates: December 1 –17, 2006

Special hours: Thursdays and Fridays, 4:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Opening reception:

Friday, December 1^st , 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Music by John O’Hara

Plus a special one night craft sale!

Featuring the work of over 50 artists, proceeds from the December salon will benefit the Nave Gallery’s Guest Curator Program. This exhibit provides a unique opportunity to add to or start your own art collection while supporting one of Somerville’s most innovative art spaces.

Buy Art, Give Art, Support Local Artists!

Participating Artists:

Leika Akiyama, Susanne Bartz, Yani Batteau, Susan Berstler, Kelvy Bird, Ron Brunelle, Violet Byrd, Matt Carrano, David Columbo, Charles Daniels, Monica Delgado Chaffee, Christiane Corcelle-Lippeveld, Stan Czesniuk, Paula Ehler, Michelle Fiorenza, Meredith Fitzgerald, Jennifer Flores, Martha Friend, Frances Fusaro, Ethan Gilsdorf, Melissa Glick, Edith Green, Alice Grossman, Susan Hagner, Gina Heeren, James Herbert, Christopher Holmes, Nadia Irish, Charlotte Kaplan, Melissa Kulig, Jacob Leishman, Scott Liberatore, Lee Mandell, Milo Mellow, Karen Molloy, Liane Noddin, Dana Pearson, Christina Preher, Monica Raymond, Susan Rice, Craig Robertson, Douglas Ruuska, Margaret Ryan, Ellen Schön, Skye Schulte, Lisa Sears, Stuart Sherman, Jane Sherrill, Ursula Spont,Rachell Strutt, Margaret Tuitt, V Van Sant, James Zall

Special thanks to Michelle Fiorenza, Karl Gustafson, Melissa Glick, V Van Sant and, of course, our webmistress Jenn Harrington. None of this would happen without them.

Thursday, December 7, 2006, 8:00 p.m.: opensound, at The Nave Gallery

$7. James Coleman: theremin; Tim Feeney: percussion and electronics; Vic Rawlings: cello and circuitboards

Three Boston stalwarts herd electrons through the most unlikely of paths. James Coleman describes the sound as “…watching a fly, buzzing around paint drying, under a microscope.” How could you not be thrilled? Duos and trios may result in quiet explosions, thunderous silences, and the odd whine.

James Coleman is one of the most astounding living players of the Theremin, a touch-less early electronic instrument invented by Russian Emegree Leon Theremin originally intended for the performance of Classical music. Known for his work with extremely quiet sounds, James is one of the loudest voices and most consistent organizers in the Boston improvised music scene.

Tim Feeney seeks to explore and examine the timbral possibilites inherent in everyday found and built objects. He treats his percussion set-up as a friction instrument, using bows, scrapers, and rosined drumheads as implements and sympathetic resonators to capture and amplify frequencies that go unheard when an object is struck with a mallet. He supplements his acoustic console with an electronic instrument activated from a laptop or no-input mixer, which synthesizes and alters the spectral characteristics of sounds from pure sine tones to speaker pops and white noise.

Vic Rawlings (prepared/ amplified cello, circuitry) is active as an improviser and instrument builder. His performances focus on the metamusical potential of unstable sounds and silences. He has developed instruments that are specific to this compositional aesthetic. As an instrument builder he specializes in modifications of existing instruments and has developed extensive cello preparations. He also continually develops an electronic instrument from extant exposed circuitry, producing, in effect, a modular analog synthesizer with a highly unstable interface. This electronic instrument is paired with a flexible array of exposed speaker elements, chosen for their often unpredictable and idiosyncratic acoustic qualities.

To see a schedule of events, which is updated often, please look at the website: www.artsomerville.org/upcoming.html

The Nave Gallery is a project of ARTSomerville in collaboration with the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church. Run and staffed completely by volunteers, the Nave provides an important exhibition space for both local and regional artists.

Advent Adult Education class

All are invited to join an Advent study led by Gusti Nequist for the four Sundays in Advent (December 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th from 12:30-1:30pm). We will take on the roles of selected characters in the story of Jesus' birth, bringing our contemporary lives into conversation with this historical moment. On December 3, we will focus on Joseph and Zechariah; December 10 is Mary and Elizabeth; December 17 will be Herod and Emperor Augustus and December 24 brings us to John the Baptist and Jesus. Please mark your calendars now and plan to join us. All are welcome.

Christmas Joy Offering

From the Rev. Peter C. S. Sime, Vice President, Assistance, Retirement Housing and Funds Development at The Board of Pensions, Presbyterian Church (U. S.A.):

“The Christmas season will soon be upon us, with its many opportunities for worship, celebration, and joyful giving. As you plan your Advent Services, the Board of Pension urges you to participate in the Christmas Joy offering of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as a means of expressing – and experiencing-God’s love.

The offering is shared equally by the Board of Pensions Assistance Program and the Presbyterian-related Racial Ethnic Schools and Colleges. The Board’s share helps fund the financial assistance we provide to church servants throughout the year. Your gifts allow us to help active and retired ministers, as well as other church workers and their families, deal with urgent financial needs. The Racial Ethnic Schools and Colleges provide educational opportunities to young men and women who might otherwise be unable to further their education. Your congregation’s generosity enables us and the Racial Ethnic Schools and Colleges to share the light of God’s love with others.

On behalf of those who benefit from the Christmas Joy offering, we thank each member whose generosity makes it possible. Your congregation’s gifts help serve those individuals in need who have spent their lives serving others.

We join in wishing you God’s joy, peace and blessing.”

Our focus on mission during the month of December will be those whom the Christmas Joy offering has helped. Clarendon Hill will collect the Christmas Joy Offering on Sunday, December 24^th. Please be as generous as you are able!

The Presbyterian Coffee Project

Orders will be taken for Equal Exchange COFFEE (drip or whole bean) and TEA (English Breakfast, Earl Grey or Green), cocoa mix, baking cocoa, and chocolate bars at church on December rd. You can send orders to Katherine no later than Monday, December 4th, by phone (617-628-6716) or email (kgkg@gis.net).

Katherine has coffee, tea, cocoa mix, baking cocoa and some chocolate bars on hand for anyone needing some before the delivery date of December 17^th. All these items are great for gift giving. Remember that for all products we purchase through the Presbyterian Coffee project, Equal Exchange makes a contribution to the Presbyterian Hunger Program.

What is EQUAL EXCHANGE? In 1991, Equal Exchange became the first U.S. company to adopt international fair trade standards as guiding principles on 100% of their products. By working with democratic farmer cooperatives around the world and paying a fair price, Equal Exchange supports efforts to improve local communities, putting more control and greater income in the hands of impoverished, small-scale farmers in developing nations.

We also serve freshly made Equal Exchange coffee at Clarendon Hill’s coffee hours!

Serenata Musicians concert(s)

On Friday, December 8^th, 7:30 p.m.The Serenata Chamber Musicians present “A Winter Solstice Concert”, an evening of live music – jazz, folk, rock, classical and more.

Performances by Somerville Musicians:

The Serenata Chamber Musicians

Audrey Ryan

The Grownup Noise

Ill Brutto

Willow Flute Ensemble

Join them for a wine reception following the concert and meet the musicians!

There is a $10.00 suggested donation, with all proceeds benefitting Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church.

And on Sunday, November 10^h, the Serenata Musicians will hold a concert in the sanctuary at 3:00 p.m. There is a $10 suggested donation.

Featuring: Thea Lobo, mezzo soprano; Melanie Maz, violin; Timothy Blalock, piano; Stephanie Krejcarek, violin, and Itamar Ronen, piano.

The program: Holst, Four Songs for Voice and Violin, Op. 35; Pärt, Spiegel im Spiegel, and Faure, Violin Sonata no. 1 in A Major, Op. 13.

“Adopting” a family for Christmas

As we did last year, we will be adopting a family for Christmas, and providing them with gifts for the holidays. Our family this year is from RESPOND (a shelter for battered women and their children), and is a mom and her 6 year old daughter.

Many of you have already indicated what you would like to purchase. If you haven’t had a chance yet, please get in touch with Ellen. She will have a list with her at church on December 3^rd.

Please note several changes from previous years: Please bring your gifts to the church NO LATER THAN Sunday, December 10^th. This is a firm deadline, as RESPOND asks that the gifts be delivered in mid-December.

All items MUST BE NEW AND UNWRAPPED. If you would like to purchase wrapping paper and ribbons to be included with your gift(s), that would be appreciated. As always, gift cards/certificates from major retail stores and grocery stores are an item that the family would be grateful to have. If you would like to donate a gift card/certificate, please see Ellen.

Poinsettas

If you’d like a Christmas poinsettia, please see one of the Deacons (Anne Camelio, Val Donovan, Munir Jirmanus, Mike Nickey, or Randy Winchester.)

Book Group

Book Group will meet on Wednesday, December 20^th at 7:00 p.m. to discuss “The Glorious Impossible” by Madeleine L’Engle. (See book review for more info about the book.) All are welcome to attend!

Finance News from the Session

In our never-ending quest to keep up our maintenance on the church building, the Session is considered taking out a mortgage on the manse, and using the proceeds to do some major maintenance on the church. Here is a sampling of some of the projects that could be completed:

· Complete repair of the roof

· New bathrooms, including an accessible bathroom and possibly a shower

· Updates to the kitchen

· Updates to the heating system

· Updates to electrical wiring

· Maintenance on the manse

· Painting the Sanctuary

Based upon the expected mortgage terms and a preliminary estimate of the costs, the payments on the mortgage could be made within our current budget, where we have allocated $10,000 per year for “major maintenance”. However, given the 30 year commitment required, and the overall size of the commitment, we want to proactively discuss this with the congregation.

Our priorities are to solve some long-term issues that impact the usability of the church building, as well as consider some cosmetic upgrades that could make the building more attractive to potential renters as well as our congregation.

If we proceed, we would expect to get approval at the Annual Meeting in January so that we can begin work in the Spring. If you have any questions, please feel free to email or call me or any other member of Session.

--Jeff Bray

Clean Your Desk Campaign

We received this letter from Quest for Peace:

The Clean Your Desk campaign is in its third decade. Imagine the number of students in Nicaragua who, over these past 20 years, received school supplies because of people like you!

Thank you for your recent donation of school supplies for the students of Nicaragua. Your donation is vital to many children and adults who otherwise would not have an opportunity to attend school. Last year we had an increase of more than 200 individuals and groups join the campaign. Let’s spread the word and add another 200 new folks this year! Wouldn’t that be awesome?

You, the Institute of John XXIII, and Quest for Peace form a great collaborative team of caring people. If any one of us dropped out fo this "triangle of support” the Clean Your Desk campaign could not succeed as we know it. Let each of us continue to doing our part to aid these students learn their three Rs.

I look forward to having you participate in the campaign in the future.

Blessings and Peace,

Carol L. Ries, snjm

For the Quest staff

Introduction to Yoga

Come join our small, half-hour class during coffee hour (12:00 noon, every other Sunday after June 4th) to practice mindful breathing and gentle yoga postures. Great for stress release, improved flexibility and strength. If interested, please email Liz at cavatorta1@hotmail.com for more info.

Thank you to the bakers…..

Many thanks to all of you who baked items, sold items, made coffee, sorted and priced dishes and silverware, and helped with the clean up and set up for the church’s portion of the ARTSomerville yard sale on November 11^th. We made $200.00, which was contributed to the new roof/building fund for the church.

Just say no to Black Friday

Although the author was focusing on the day after Thanksgiving in particular, his message is still a good one during Advent, too.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, Friday, November 24, 2006, by John Grogan

Good morning, shoppers.

Today is the big day. The one that sends crazed bargin hunters into a salivating frenzy. The one that sends retailers and credit card companies into a heroin-like state of bliss. The one that sends anyone still clinging to the real meaning of Christmas into the dumps.

Yes, today is the appropriately named Black Friday. A dark and gloomy and cynical day.

Around our region, tens of thousands of shoppers will work off yesterday’s big turkey dinner by rising before dawn, jostling for parking spaces, racing up and down aisles, lunging for the latest must-have toys and electronics, and waiting in long lines to pay.

Tempers will flare, heads will throb, feet will ache. But it will all be worth it because at the end of the day our cars will be filled with…stuff. Stuff to show our loved ones how much we care.

You wouldn’t think we famously materialistic Americans would need our own special day to ratchet up the spending orgy. But that’s what today is.

Actually, that’s not quite accurate. Today actually began yesterday. That is, the Black Friday shopping kickoff actually got started at many stores on Thanksgiving afternoon or evening.

Why spend the holiday at home with your family when you an get a head start on the purchases that mean so much more?

Finding balance

It’s hard, I know.

As parents, my wife and I struggle to find the right balance. In our minds, we’re giving our children a nice asortment of gifts without going overboard. Then they compare notes with their friends, and I ssee the disappointment on their faces. That Monopoly game instantly loses its luster when Tommy up the street whizzes by on his new all-terrain four-wheeler.

The new meaning of Christmas comes down to this: guilt. To avoid it, we buy like there is not tomorrow. There’s not much joy in it, but at least we’re covered.

Baby Jesus would be so proud.

May I make a modest proposal?

Just say no.

Say no to the rat race.

Say no to the hype.

Say no to the notion, carefully planted by marketers and advertisers, that good parents who really care, shower their children with obscene amounts of toys and gifts – even if they ned to max out their credit cards to do it.

Look away from the light, my friends. Block out the white noise. Ignore the “only X shopping days left” pitches.

The season is not about buying junior 26 different toys, most of which will be obselete, broken or ignored within weeks. It’s not about spending on steroids. At least it didn’t start out that way. You don’t need to be particularly religious to recognize that.

Pricey playthings

A teen in Allentown laid out $600 for the newly released and wildly hyped PlayStation 3 – and minutes later was robbed of it at gunpoint.

I’m not sure which distresses me more: people robbing one another with guns, or Sony shaking down kids for a $600 toy that, mark my words, will be out-of-date in 24 months.

Last year, I wanted to give a special gift to a special friend who did a lot for me in the previous months. I bought into the hype, thinking I needed to spend several hundred dollars to convey the proper level of appreciation. In the end, I spent zero.

Instead, I holed up in my basement night after night and slowly crafted a simple keepsake box out of a black walnut log that came from the woods behind my house.I sawed the log into planks, planed the planks into boards, fitted the boards together, then sanded and varnished and polished.

I’m no master craftman, and the final product reflected that. By my friend was touched by my efforts in a way no purchased gift could touch. The real gift, though, was to me.

I rediscovered the true joy of gift giving. A joy unburdened by guilt or pressure or competition.

Here’s the secret: It’s about giving of yourself.

Today I plan to observe Black Friday by sititng home in front of the fire with a good book. The mad march on the mall can be sombody else’s crusade. Care to join me?

War, religion and gay rights

From the November 13^th issue of The Boston Globe, written by James Carroll.

In Jerusalem, Muslims and Jews have found common cause: attacking gay people.

A gay pride parade was scheduled for Friday. In Palestinian areas, Muslim leaders vigorously condemned homosexuality as criminal, and in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, Jewish demonostrators staged raucus protests. As a result, organizers cancelled the parade. One of them said, “Now we are being dragged back into the dark world of religion.”

In US elections last week, while a wave of change was reversing the nation’s conservative direction, a counterwave crested, and it, too, attacked gays.

On the ballot in eight states were amendements defining marriage as between a man and a woman, a direct repudiation of the right of homosexual couples to marry. In seven of those states, the amendment passed. One of those was Colorado, where a leader of the anti-gay-marriage movement, Pastor Ted Haggard, had, the week before, been forced out of his position as head of New Life Church in Colorado Springs because of an alleged relationship with a gay prostitute. In his resignation letter, Haggard confessed, “I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life.”

In Massachusetts, ahead of last week’s constitutional convention, the Commonwealth’s four Catholic bishops took a rare politicial initiatife, calling on Catholics to pressure legislators to support an anti-gay-marriage amendment here. The convention recessed without taking action, but the bishops had demonstrated the absolute priority of rolling back the right of gays to marry. When public crises are defined by an immoral American war, universal cuts in social servcies, violence among young people, resurgent nuclear aresenals, rising global inequality, unprecedented jeopardy of the earth itself, why are the bishops obsessed with this particular question?

Same-sex erotic love is not the issue. Humans, including Catholic bishops, have long accomodated it. But that accomodation assume denial and shame. What brings demonstrators into streets across cultures, and what shows up in the United States as “values” politics, mobilizing bishops, is the movement to bring homosexuality out of the dark.

When gay people openly assert their identities as such, whether through parades or through the demand for full and equal social recognition, reactionaries cannot stand it. Why?

Two answers, one personal and one political. The open affirmation of gay identity can pose a mortal threat to people whose own sexual identity is insecure. The Haggard story is a cautionary tale. As it happens, I was present last year to hear Pastor Ted preach a sermon in his mega-church, and it included a digressive attack on homosexuals that was venomous as it was gratuitous. He equated gay sex with bestiality.

Even at the time, I wondered about the dark energy of his hatred. That it is revealed now as self-hatred comes as no surprise. One needn’t draw a direct line from Haggard’s behavior to the private morality of Catholic bishops to sense that church’s own deepening insecurity on all matters of sexuality, especially those surfaced by the still unresolved crisis of priestly sexual abuse of children, informs its exceptional opposition to gay rights.

And so in Jerusalem. The insecurities of male establishments, whose dominance over women is threatened, readily expolde in contempt for any expression of gay pride. Patriarchy is at issue.

There is a deflection here, and that points to the political use of gay bashing. At the end of the Cold War, when the Pentagon defined itself as the world’s largest closet by decreeing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the issue of gays in the military was being used to deflect attnetion from the military’s problem: how to maintain Cold War levels of spending, and a Cold War nuclear arsenal, without a Cold War enemy?

The real “don’t ask, don’t tell” was “Don’t ask us about our budgets and nukes, and we won’t tell you about the future wars they will enable.” The Sturm und Drang about gays in the military deflected American attention from th ereal issue of the moment, and it worked. The American Cold War ethos is still with us.

The human race is undergoing a massive cultural mutation. The meaning of sexuality is being transformed as biology revolutionizes reproduction. Women are demanding equality across the globe. Men are being forced to reimagine their familial and social roles. Gays and lesbians are at the center of these changes. Their refusal to be silent and invisible is one of the era’s great resources, a magnificent sign of hope.

Book Review

The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle

ISBN: 0671686909

Annotation

Describes the life of Jesus Christ and presents twenty-four paintings showing scenes from the life of Christ by the fourteenth-century Italian artist Giotto.

From the Publisher

The birth of Jesus was a Glorious Impossible. Like love, it cannot be explained, it can only be rejoiced in. And that is what master storyteller Madeleine L'Engle does in this compellingly written narrative, inspired by Giotto's glorious frescoes from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. With a simple clarity that illuminates the life of Christ, Madeleine L'Engle give eloquent voice to the miracle of God's love.

From The Critics

Publishers Weekly

Illustrated with frescoes by Giotto from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, this lavishly produced picture book about the life of Christ is an interesting combination of coffee-table art book and genial sermon. Expanding upon religious views introduced in earlier books by L'Engle, her impassioned narrative is followed by A. Richard Turner's elegant afterword explaining the historical significance of the paintings. Infrequently acknowledging controversy, L'Engle authoritatively decides thorny theological issues: ``Even for Jesus, the human being, his understanding of his Godness did not come all at once,'' she says, but ``there was a glimmer when he was a boy of twelve and talked with the elders in the Temple.'' L'Engle's tale is frequently layered with advice to the young: ``Sometimes it is very important to have an older friend who is not a parent,'' she says of Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Like a parson interpreting Christ's story to her young flock, L'Engle focuses on those aspects of her faith that require belief in the ``Glorious Impossibles that . . . bring joy to our hearts, hope to our lives, songs to our lips.''

School Library Journal

Inspired Christian belief and high Christian art resonate in this beautiful volume as L'Engle retells 25 of the events of Jesus' life and ministry. Each of the Bible stories is accompanied by a full-page, full-color reproduction of one of Giotto's famed frescoes from the Scrovegni Chapel or, as it is often called, the ``Arena Chapel'' in Padua. Despite the tragic depiction of the massacre of the innocents, the dark drama of the betrayal and crucifixion, and the solemnity of Giotto's famous lamentation scene, the tone of the retelling is full of joy, the drama explained as the will of Heaven, the death of Jesus as the victory of love, and the miraculous events as the ``Glorious Impossible'' that faith accepts and knows as truth. The stories are narrated in a poetic, informal style that incorporates familiar Biblical phrasing with modern, conversational comments and explanations. The text flows, and can be read aloud without showing the illustrations. At the same time, Giotto's frescoes are reproduced with such clarity and richness of color that they can be valued as quality reproductions of Renaissance art. The frontispiece photograph of the Scrovegni Chapel (although reversed) and an afterword about Giotto's place in art history add to the potential use of the book for art history. The text and the pictures fit so well together that L'Engle's words enhance the appreciation of Giotto's art, and the magnificence of the frescoes illuminates the Christian story. The result is a beautiful devotional book that will be a valued addition to the religious shelves of a library or an art-book collection.

If you ask me to express in a phrase the formative principle of our Church of the Eighteenth Century, I would say that it is the spiritual unity, liberty and equality of Christians as set forth in the New Testament and duly ordered in the Church, under Christ, her sole Head. (Rev. Dr. Henry C. McCook, 200^th anniversary celebration at First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, April 24, 1906)

“I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” Luke 2:10

The Clarendon Connection is edited by Ellen D. Schemerhorn.

Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church

155 Powder House Boulevard

West Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1613

Telephone: 617-625-4823

www.clarendonhillchurch.org

The Rev. Karl Gustafson, Minister…………………………..John Adams, Music Director

Augustus Kwaa, Parish Associate/Evangelist……………………….. Arnie James, Sexton

Gusti Newquist, Seminarian

LECTIONARY TEXTS

Dec. 3: Jer. 33: 14-16; Ps. 25: 1-10; 1 Thess. 3: 9-13; Luke 21: 25-36

Dec. 10: Mal. 3: 1-4; Luke 1: 68-79; Phil. 1: 3-11; Luke 3: 1-6

Dec. 17: Zeph. 3; 14-20; Isa. 12: 2-6; Phil. 4: 4-7; Luke 3: 7-18

Dec. 24: Micah 5: 2-5a; Luke 1: 47-55 OR Ps. 80: 1-7; Heb. 10: 5-10; Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55); Isa. 9: 2-7; Ps. 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14 (15-20)

Dec. 31:1 Sam. 2: 18-20, 26; Ps. 148; Col. 3: 12-17; Luke 2: 41-52

Jan. 7: Isa. 43: 1-7; Ps. 29; Acts 8: 14-17; Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22

Jan. 14:Isa. 62: 1-5; Ps. 36: 5-10; 1 Cor. 12: 1-11; John 2: 1-11

Jan. 21: Neh. 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-19; Ps. 19; 1 Cor. 12: 12-31a; Luke 4: 14-21

Jan. 28: Jer. 1: 4-10; Ps. 71: 1-6; I cor. 13: 1-13; Luke 4: 21-30