Stewardship
As we celebrate this Advent season, please take notice of our Stewardship goal as you enter the Sanctuary. Your prayers are appreciated in helping us reach our goal so that St. James’ can continue to shine our light through our community.
The work on St. James’ 2020 Budget has begun and, at the Vestry meetings in December 2019 and January 2020, the budget will be finalized for presentation to parishioners at the Annual Parish Meeting on January 26th.
We are grateful to be at 70% of the $210,000 Stewardship Pledge Goal and have received pledges from 48 parish families to date. The Vestry’s wish is to have all pledges received by our meeting on December 17th since having a firm commitment of income for 2020 greatly helps with the expense discussion and decision process.
For those still considering and praying about their 2020 Pledge, you may bring your completed pledge sheet to any Sunday service to put in the collection plate or drop off/mail to the church office. Pledge sheets are available in the Narthex and can be sent electronically upon request.
Thank you for your generous gifts which allow our many programs to continue and provide a sound financial future for St. James’.
Formation
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Greetings from Sunday School! On November 24th, the children made beautiful sun-catchers and sensory bottles for the residents of Pleasant View nursing home. Be sure to check out the pictures on the St. James Facebook page- they were so colorful- sure to bring joy! We love making gifts for those who are lonely or less fortunate- such a lovely way to be reminded of all we have!
Advent is upon us, and on December 8, the Kindergarten – 2nd grade class will create Advent Kindness Calendars. We will count down to Christmas with random acts of kindness. What a wonderful way to prepare for Jesus’ birthday!! These acts can be as small as giving Mom a hug, or as big as cleaning up a mess we didn’t make- it’s all about being kind! Feel free to join us in our acts of kindness!! Stop by our classroom before or after Sunday School if you’d like some kindness prompts!
Stay tuned for details about the Christmas pageant service at 4:30 on Christmas Eve. A lovely way to celebrate the birth of our Jesus!
As has been mentioned in previous articles, the teachers always appreciate a helping hand from parents and other members of the parish. If you are willing to teach a class or fill in as a substitute, please let us know.
St. James’ Sunday School Team
Yvette Allen, Bible Stories for Preschoolers
Betsy Davis, Kindergarten-2nd Grades
Natalie DelRegno, 3rd-5th Grades
Joan Fader, Middle-High Grades
Nancy Nanavaty, 4th Sunday Fun Activities
Mara Snyder, Children’s Music
ADULT FORMATION
The O Antiphons: An Advent Exploration of the Names of Jesus This Sunday gather over lunch after the 10:30 am service to explore the ancient O Antiphons, a series of seven short sentences (antiphons) that are recited in the days leading up to Christmas. They are familiar to most of us as paraphrased in the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and each one references one of the titles for Jesus taken from the Book of Isaiah. Take some time to reflect on how you desire Jesus to come to you in this holy season of Advent, and in this season of your life.
Choir/Music
The choir and I are very much looking forward to singing our annual Choral Christmas Prelude at 8:00p on December 24th. This year’s program will include some Latin, as we sing Donald Moore’s “Carol of the Star” and Larry Schackly’s arrangement of “Ding Dong! Merrily on High.”
We sing a lot of Latin during the Advent and Christmas season. A good number of our hymns were original written in Latin: O Come, O Come Emmanuel or Veni, Veni Emmanuel, O Come, All Ye Faithful or “Adeste Fideles”, and many more.
“Gloria In Excelsis Deo,” translated to “Glory to God in the Highest”, is used in many hymns, but most noteably in Felix Mendelssohn’s “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Latin, once it stopped being spoken and used regularly (which is why it’s now considered a “dead” language), split into many different pronunciations across different European regions. And today, we run into a big issue as we sing: how should we pronounce these words?
James Harbeck does a great job explaining this here, where you can hear him pronounce the sometimes subtle differences between different Latin pronunciations:
The lyrics were written by an 1860 English composer and lyricist James Chadwick, and the English pronunciation of “In Excelsis” would have sounded something like “in ex-sell-sis.”
If you had to study Classical Latin in school, you probably would’ve learned to pronounce it as “in ex-skell-sis.”
Liturgical or Vulgate Latin is most commonly used in the church, and pronounced like modern Italian, and when you see a “c” before an “e” or an “i”, it becomes a “ch” sound (think “fettucini”), and thus would be pronounced “in ex-chell-sis.” or, if you allow “s” sound to blend, “in eg-shell-sis.”
French, from whom Chadwick originally borrowed it, would have sang “in eg-sell-sis.”
Medieval Germans would’ve pronounced it even differently, “in eg-stell-sis.”
So which is correct? Well, that’s really a matter of interpretation, but most professional choirs and scholars prefer a pronunciation of “in eg-shell-sis” (which our choir at St. James’ will use) or “in ex-sell-sis”. Here’s one of my favorite recordings of the piece, a much more acoustically-styled version:
Warmest wishes to each and every one of you during this Advent and Christmas season, and thanks for all of your support of the music at St. James’!
Richard Drehoff Jr.
music@stjamesmtairy.org
WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Parish Administrator Hours for the week of December 8, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10-4. 
Bake Sale Donations Needed Our Youth Group will once again be hosting the bake table during Quartermania. If you can donate baked goodies please have them at the church before 6:00 pm on Friday, December 6. Your help is very much appreciated! 
High School Service Project Hi, my name is Caroline Pellicier. I am doing a service project for my high school. For my service project, I am sewing bibs and donating them to Rock Creek School in Frederick. I am asking for donations of the materials that I need to make the bibs. The materials that I need are: brand new bandannas, and brand new hand towels. I will be collecting donations until Sunday, December 22nd. There will be a labeled bin in the Narthex to put any donations in. Thank you for helping me with my project!
Scarves and Shawls For Sale Again This Year A new collection of soft and colorful handmade scarves and shawls knit by Lucy Winston will be available to buy on Sundays starting in November. They have all been made with yarn purchased from local farms and shops. Half of the proceeds will go to St. James’ which amounted to $400 last year. Think Christmas gifts!
Fellowship with Makers Several people have expressed a desire to get together with other makers while creating their goodies. Knitters, crocheters, scrapbookers, cardmakers, quilters or anyone who partakes in a hobby of making things are welcome to join us in fellowship. There will be a sign-up sheet in the narthex where you can let us know your preferred days and times as well as how often you’d like to meet. Call Cheryl Windsor for questions.THANK YOU
Prayer Rotation Please join the Daughters of the King in praying for each parishioner in rotation during 2018 by taking this notice home and by posting it where it will remind you pray to on a daily basis for the needs and blessing of:
John & Betsy Davis; Cory & Natalie DelRegno (Tyler, Kyle); Leslie Dickinson & Peter Sabonis (Jacob)A member of the Daughters of the King will be contacting you this week for special prayer requests.
This Week's Commemorations (A Great Cloud of Witnesses, 2019, Church Publishing Group)
