November 29, 2020

No Education Classes This Week

Please remember that there will be no education classes this coming Sunday. Adult Education, High School Youth Group, Confirmation, and Sunday School will all resume at 10:00 am on Sunday, December 6, the Second Sunday of Advent.

Worship Connection Problems?

St. Andrew’s tech team is offering a new service on Sundays for anyone having difficulty connecting to worship. Between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm, you can simply call the church office at 503-646-0629 to get help from the pros.

Remember that Rebecca Fako Uecker also continues to offer technical help for church-related purposes. You can contact her via email.

Help with Rent, Utilities, and Childcare

The director of Family Promise has informed its host coordinators that it has funds available for people needing help paying for childcare, rent, or utilities during this time of extraordinary need. People needing assistance are welcome to call Family Promise at 971-217-8949. Please be aware that these funds need to be used by the end of this calendar year.

Table Talk: What the Voters Are Trying to Tell Us

Gathered around the table in his home, Martin Luther talked freely and openly with his colleagues and students about matters of faith, theology, and varied aspects of daily life. In an effort to cultivate this kind of spirited discussion, we have a tradition at St. Andrew of gathering for Table Talks. Though we cannot gather in person, Pastor Brocker invites you to participate in the next Table Talk via Zoom on Tuesday, December 1, 7:00-8:00 pm.

In this Table Talk we will focus on sharing reflections on the presidential election and the transition process that has followed. The voter turnout was record-setting. President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris received more votes than any ticket in U.S. history. President Trump and Vice President Pence received the second most votes ever.

In a New York Times editorial, published on November 5, two days after Election Day, when the final outcome was very much in doubt, David Brooks reflected on “What the Voters Are Trying to Tell Us”. To prepare for this Table Talk I encourage all participants to read this opinion piece. In light of the election and its aftermath, we will reflect on the political responsibility of the people of St. Andrew and the church as a whole going forward.

Giving Tree

St. Andrew will be doing a Giving Tree for needy families with children enrolled at Barnes Elementary again this year. Like all of us, these parents yearn to make the holidays joyful for their children, and we can help.

Just as we did with Thanksgiving Boxes, we’ll be providing gift cards in 2020, giving parents the opportunity to shop for their families. You can donate to the cause by sending a check made out to St. Andrew with Giving Tree in the memo line. If you prefer to give electronically, select “Give” on the menu bar of St. Andrew’s website, then “Click here to give now”. Once you’ve signed in to your account, select the green “Give” button and then choose the fund “Christmas Giving Tree.”

Questions? Please call Donna Brocker at 503-502-6156.

Family Stories from Barnes Elementary

Matt & Carolyn, both of whom lost their jobs due to the coronavirus, have eight children—two biological children, Carolyn’s sister’s four kids, and two younger foster children, one of whom has special needs. They’ve been fortunate to be able to keep their apartment, but food is their number one priority this Christmas season. Carolyn is also determined to emphasize reading in her home, so books suitable for children ages 2-10 are another wish she has for Christmas. In addition, at least a couple of the children need coats. Little bodies grow quickly.

Then there’s Chelsea, a single mom of three children, who are in 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade at Barnes. When she was asked what she needed most this holiday season, she replied that she would take less for her family if we could direct some help to her neighbor, Alicia, and her children as well. Alicia recently moved to Oregon from Georgia with her husband and three children, but she’s now parenting alone as he recently died from a heart attack at the age of 42. Alicia, who had a job in food service, is now unemployed and wanting to provide a lovely Christmas meal for her kids, who are in 1st, 2nd, and 4th grade. To conserve their very limited resources, Chelsea and Alicia and their children are planning to share an apartment. For these families, too, the most urgent need is food.

Matt & Carolyn, Chelsea, and Alicia worry about keeping their children fed and healthy, about keeping them warm and well-occupied when so much of normal life has been disrupted. If you have the wherewithal to help them bring a little joy into their Christmas this year, please donate to St. Andrew’s Giving Tree ministry.

Foundation Core Values, Part 1

Your St. Andrew Foundation adopted six core values at our recent strategic planning retreat. These are fundamental principles that guide the Foundation’s activities and decision-making. This week, we’ll highlight three of the new values.

VISIONARY: We are an active part of doing God’s will on earth. We are taking generational wealth and using it to seed bold, visionary efforts.
INTEGRITY: We are stewards of donations and a partner to grant recipients. We operate at the highest ethical standard and take responsibility for our actions.
SUSTAINABILITY & FINANCIAL STABILITY: We are proactive in growing and maintaining our finances so that they are sustainable into the future. We are investing money in ways that advance the St. Andrew Core Values.

Are you interested in learning more? Contact Sonja Ackman.

Stock Donation Transfer Process for 2020

Greetings from the Financial Secretaries of St. Andrew. As the end of the calendar year approaches, we want to streamline the process of donating stock to the church since we are volunteering our time remotely from our homes.

Contributions must actually be paid before the close of year to be deductible in 2020. Please allow at least 3 weeks for the completion of the transfer. Please start the process as soon as possible.

We ask you to take the necessary steps if you intend to donate stock to St. Andrew this tax year:

Download the Stock Transfer Form found on our church website or contact the church office.
Contact your brokerage firm to initiate an electronic transfer of securities (see form for instructions/details).
Complete the form including your intentions for the use of the donation and email a copy to our confidential e-mail address. You may instead send a copy to the church office marked confidential for Financial Secretaries. This form must be turned in at the beginning of the process. Without this form, we cannot complete your request.
Upon receipt of the form, one of the financial secretaries will be in contact with you regarding the progress of the electronic stock transfer to the church’s securities firm, Charles Schwab.

Thank you for your generosity to the Mission and Ministry of St. Andrew.

Tammy Piscitelli, 503-307-8837
on behalf of the Financial Secretaries and Finance Team

Leadership Training Opportunity

Plan now to attend a FREE leadership training institute through the magic of the Internet in December.

Come to learn fundamental organizing skills: Individual relational meetings, listening sessions, research and action to help obtain a concrete, winnable outcome.
Come to strengthen our institutions: Engage people systematically in a culture that is relational, action-oriented, and reflective.
Come to learn to distinguish problems from issues: From general problems to concrete, winnable issues by using relational power in the public arena to negotiate for the common good.

The eight-hour training will be held from 6:00-8:00 pm PST on:
Tuesday, December 8
Thursday, December 10
Tuesday, December 15
Thursday, December 17

Many St. Andrew members have taken this training (often more than once), and all have reported taking away important skills that strengthen our St. Andrew community, as well as skills that are useful in their lives outside of St. Andrew.

Click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the meeting.

Questions? Please contact any member of the St. Andrew MACG Core Team: Pat Christiansen, Larry Bliesner, Lynn Santelmann, Scott Taylor, Victoria Kovalenko, Bob Stadel, LuAnn Staul, or Pastor Robyn. If you have any problems with registration, e-mail Mary Nemmers.

Opportunities for Reckoning with Racism

Our St. Andrew Reckoning with Racism cohort is just completing our first quarter and preparing to start up again with 200 other people of faith on Zoom in January. If you’d like to join the 16 people in our cohort, please watch the videos of the sessions of our first quarter. The password is RwR*202021 .

Beginning in January, we’ll gather on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month (January 12 & 26, February 9 & 23, March 9 & 23, April 13 & 27, May 11 and 25, June 8 & 22). Please be in touch with Pastor Robyn if you would like more information or would like to join our cohort.

To learn more about the origins of racism in Oregon:

1. Watch the OPB Documentary: “Oregon Black Pioneers.”

2. Explore more of the history of Black Americans throughout Oregon’s history at the Oregon Black Pioneers website.

3. Read Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory, by R. Gregory Nokes, a nonfiction account of the largely forgotten story of Oregon slavery.

4. Read A Light in the Wilderness, Oregonian writer Jane Kirkpatrick’s historical novel about the lives of three women of color in early Oregon history.

Rebuilding and Recovery

It has been a couple of months now since John and Christine Core lost their home and almost everything they owned in one of the wildfires that ravaged Oregon. If you’d like to help them get reestablished, please consider donating to their Go Fund Me account, which was set up to make this season more joyful for them. If you have questions, please contact Michael & Barbara Keys at 971-219-2820.

In Need of Prayers…

Family and friends of Jim Smith (Gerald’s twin)	Peace and God’s comfort at his death	Mary Smith
Eunice Harrum	Peace and comfort in hospice care	Francine Cach
Colleen Warnes	Peace and comfort in hospice care	Suzanne Warnes
Suzanne Warnes	Comfort and strength	Staff
Bill Branch	Comfort following esophageal cancer diagnosis	Linda Fransen
Marcia Branch	Comfort and strength	Linda Fransen
Dan (brother-in-law)	Proper diagnosis and effective treatment	Judy Scholz
Joyce (sister) and husband Dan	Safety while Dan is in a hospital plagued by COVID	Judy Scholz
Bob Brown	Successful treatment for diabetic retinopathy	Mary Brown
Bob Cornie	Healing and recovery	Staff
Joe Baker	Healing and recovery from COVID-19	Joe Baker
Alvina Heidinger (mother-in-law)	Healing and recovery from COVID-19	Judy Heidinger
Joyce Larsen (grandmother)	Healing and recovery from COVID-19	Cole Petersburg
Cole Petersburg’s grandparents, Floyd & Marian	Healing and recovery from COVID-19	Cole Petersburg
Health care workers	Strength, courage, protection, and support	Staff
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (Coos Bay, OR) Faith Lutheran Church (Coquille, OR)	Serving with us in the Oregon Synod	Staff
Congregation Neveh Shalom (Portland, OR)	Blessings on our interfaith partners	Staff

If you know someone in need of prayers, please contact the church office by phone at 503-646-0629 or email office@standrewlutheran.com Tuesday-Friday, prayerchain@standrewlutheran.com Saturday-Monday.

December Movie Night

Do you like going to the movies? And talking about them afterward? We are planning monthly St. Andrew movie nights, COVID-style. We will select some movies to stream at home and then each month, we’ll invite you to bring out the popcorn and gather around your computer screens as we talk about what we liked (and didn’t like) about that month’s movie.

Our first Movie Night will be Friday, December 11, at 7:00 pm. Since it’s December, lets watch a classic—A Christmas Carol. I counted no less than 20 versions of this movie that can be streamed. Some are old black and white classics from as far back as 1938, some are animated, some are modern interpretations, as recent as 2020. You can stream many different versions on Amazon, some for free, some for a small rental fee. Or you may have your own favorite DVD of this classic at home. It will be fun to compare highlights with each other, as well as reflect on this beautiful story of redemption. This will also be a time to make suggestions for films for future movie nights.

You’ll find the Zoom link for our first Movie Night in Carol’s “Weekly News” e-mail on Friday, December 11.

Mary Smith

Worship Plan

Looking ahead to the coming seasons of the church, the Worship Planning Committee is announcing that current worship practices will continue through Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.

To review, St. Andrew offers livestream worship via YouTube at 8:30 am on Sundays, with worship broadcast via Zoom at 11:00 am. Both services include the opportunity to share in remote Communion. Adult Education classes and gatherings for children, Confirmation students, and high school youth are all offered via Zoom, as is Wednesday Evening Prayer.

People without internet connection are able to listen to a recording of Sunday worship by calling 503-643-9416. Please see “Connecting to Worship at St. Andrew” for details.

Preparing for Next Sunday

December 6, 2020

Reading: Isaiah 40: 1-11
Gospel: Mark 1: 1-8

Go to “Preparing for Worship” for the bulletins, the complete Lectionary, and more.

Given Governor Brown’s pause in Oregon’s reopening progression for Washington County, we ask that you please limit your visits to our church building. Coronavirus numbers are surging everywhere. If it is imperative that you visit the building, please remember to make arrangements with the office first.
Thank you!

Pastoral Care

Pastor Mark Brocker
is on call Fridays & Saturdays.
office: 503-646-0629 ext. 201
cell: 503-502-8762
brockerms@standrewlutheran.com

Pastor Robyn Hartwig
is on call Sundays & Mondays.
503-646-0629 ext. 211
pastorrobyn@standrewlutheran.com

Both pastors are on call Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Highlights for the Week

Go to the church calendar for the most up-to-date information.

Sunday, November 29, First Sunday of Advent

8:30 am	Livestream Worship	YouTube
9:30 am	Virtual Coffee Time	Zoom
10:00 am	NO Sunday School (age 3 – 5^th Grade)	Zoom
10:00 am	NO Confirmation (6^th – 8^th Grade)	Zoom
10:00 am	NO High School Youth Group	Zoom
10:00 am	NO Adult Education	Zoom
11:00 am	Zoom Worship	Zoom
12:00 pm	Virtual Coffee Time	Zoom

Monday, November 30

10:00 am

Meals on Wheels/Loaves and Fishes

off site

Tuesday, December 1

10:00 am	T’ai Chi	former Bales Thriftway on Cornell Rd
10:00 am	Meals on Wheels/Loaves and Fishes	off site
10:00 am	Worship Planners Meeting	Zoom
6:00 pm	MACG Meeting	Zoom

Wednesday, December 2 – Weekly News submissions due by 4:00 pm

12:30 pm	Bonhoeffer Seminar	Zoom
6:00 pm	Handbell Ensemble Rehearsal	Sanctuary
6:30 pm	Informal Gathering Time	Zoom
7:00 pm	Advent: Holden Evening Prayer	Zoom
7:00 pm	Wednesday Night Youth Hangout	Zoom
7:30 pm	Centering Prayer	Zoom

Thursday, December 3

12:00 pm	Team Ministry Meeting	Zoom
7:00 pm	Executive Council Committee Meeting	Zoom

Friday, December 4