Announcements: Week of Sunday, November 4th 2018
Aquia's Annual Fruit Sale
Ends Sunday November 11th. Please come out and order fruit for Christmas gifts and just good eating. Besides citrus you can also order a Cheese Spread Variety Pack, Cheese and Sausage Combo, Sweet Potatoes, Apples and Pears, Tropical Fruit and Apples, Fudge and Nuts. All proceeds benefit the mission and ministry of Aquia Church. You can also order by contacting the office at office@aquiachurch.org sue.selz@aquiachurch.org or Jean Golas at bjgolas@yahoo.com
UTO
United Thank Offering (UTO) Fall Ingathering is Sunday, November 11th. Look for the blue and white boxes or the envelopes in the pews. "UTO is a ministry of the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of Virginia for the mission of the whole church." Your loose change, cash and checks are used in missionary work, training, pension funds, building loans, scholarships and overseas development. UTO is based on the "theological premise that it is good to give thanks to God."
Youth Group
The youth group for teenagers in grades 6-12 will hold its next evening meeting on Sunday, Nov. 4. Teenagers will meet in the youth room (lower level of the Christian formation and fellowship building), starting at 4:00 p.m., with dinner served by 5:30 p.m., and teens can be picked up at 6:00 p.m. after the great hall and kitchen have been cleaned from the meal. (Parents who wish to remain on campus while waiting for their teenagers are welcomed to do so away from the youth room.) In order to reserve your place for dinner, please notify Father Morris (morris@aquiachurch.org) that you will attend, and let him know if you have any food allergies. Upcoming events: Sunday, Nov. 18: family & friends bowling at Splitsville behind Spotsylvania Towne Centre (tentative time 12:00 noon till 2:00 p.m., and RSVP to Father Morris if you are coming). Sunday, Dec. 2: shopping and wrapping presents for Christmas adopt-a-family. Sunday, Dec. 16: leading Christmas caroling with family & friends, followed by Christmas party (afternoon time TBA).
Evensong: Aquia Church will offer the service of Choral Evensong on November 11th at 5 PM. This service is held at 5 PM on the second Sunday of each month during the program year. This particular Evensong will be dedicated to both Veterans day and Remembrance (Armistice) Day, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of the First World War. Musical selections will feature composers who served in the First World War or reflected on it.
Morning Call: Father Morris will continue a new Morning Call series on the Creeds, with focus on the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, as we explore some of the key beliefs in the Christian faith. This series is an excellent opportunity for you to grow deeper in the faith, whether you are a fairly new Christian or whether you have been attending church for years. Morning Call is our Sunday morning forum for adult formation and discussion, starting at 9:00 a.m. in the great hall of the new building. There will be a one-week break in this Morning Call series on Nov. 11, when Father Morris will be representing Aquia Church at a military promotion ceremony, but otherwise the series will continue through Sunday, Dec. 9.
Wednesday Bible Studies: Father Rickenbaker continues his survey of the Old and New Testaments on Wednesday mornings, 10:30 a.m. till 12:00 noon, in the conference room downstairs in the new building. Please let him know if you need a copy of the very helpful workbook to use during this series or for reading on your own. Father Morris’s Wednesday evening series on the parables of Jesus will resume this Wednesday, Nov. 7 (7:00—8:30pm in the conference room downstairs) and will meet every Wednesday in November EXCEPT for Wednesday, Nov. 21 (when our annual Thanksgiving Eve service will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the historic church).
Matching Challenge Opportunity: Earlier this year, Aquia Church received a matching challenge in the amount of $100,000 for our fundraising toward paying off the construction loan for the Christian Formation and Fellowship Building. Our opportunity is simple: for every dollar contributed toward the new building between the end of the second capital campaign (which concluded on 14 April 2018) and the end of the 2018 calendar year, our gifts will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000. This generous challenge from an anonymous source provides an excellent chance for us to begin the upcoming third capital campaign next year with a big boost. Gifts of any size will be welcomed and can be counted toward the match, with “New Building” marked on your envelope or on the memo line of your check. For information about transferring gifts of stock or mutual funds in the most tax-advantageous way (whether to avoid capital-gains taxes in cases of appreciated value or in order to sell for a loss), please speak with our treasurer, Chris Arey.
Baked Potato Bar: Sunday November 18th - Aquia’s Pantry will be having a fully loaded Baked Potato Bar with all the fixings after both morning services. Enjoy your potatoes at the Great Hall or take them home with you -- or maybe both! $7.00 with anything your heart desires on a baked potato. Thank you for all of your help in supporting Aquia’s Pantry, so that we can share the abundance of God’s providence with our neighbors.
Thanksgiving Eve Service: Please plan to attend our annual Thanksgiving Eve service on Wednesday, Nov. 21, at 7:00 p.m., in the historic church. Please bring relatives, friends, and neighbors to join in this worship, with music chosen specifically for this occasion.
Shoe Box Time: Outreach's annual shoe box collection for Operation Christmas Child has begun. The mission of Operation Christmas Child is "to demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ." Please fill a regular shoe box (wrapped or unwrapped), or a plastic one, or one of the pre-printed boxes we have available, with items such as school supplies, hygiene items, or items such as t-shirts, small toys, caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, or flashlights (with extra batteries). One of the suggestions made is to deflate a soccer ball and put it in your shoe box along with a small inflation kit. Please do not pack used or damaged items; toothpaste; tooth brushes; candy, chocolate or food; liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snow globes or glass containers; aerosol cans; or war-related items such as toy guns, knives, or military figures. The boy/girl labels are available in the folders in the Operation Christmas Child box on the picnic table in front of the Church, in the back pew, or in the foyer of the new building. To defray overseas shipping costs, please include a donation of $9 per box either in cash or by check (payable to Samaritan's Purse with "Operation Christmas Child" in the memo line). The donation envelopes are included with the folders. If you do not want to pack a shoe box, but would like to help with shipping costs, please put your check or cash in one of the envelopes provided with the donation folders. Please return your filled shoe box (with the appropriate boy/girl label attached) and/or donation envelope, to the Church by November 11.
Expressions of Thanksgiving: As we have done on Mothers’ Day and some other past occasions, we have decided that Thanksgiving week is a great time for an encore! For the Sunday before Thanksgiving (November 18), the flower guild invites individuals, families, Sunday school classes, and ministry groups at Aquia Church to decorate the church windows with expression of thanksgiving. Whether in memory of loved ones, gratitude for God’s grace in our lives, the blessings of friendship, or the countless ways that thankfulness can be expressed, your participation in this event will bless our church family.
To facilitate this, a map of the church with each of the windows that can be decorated will be placed together with a sign-up sheet near the entrance of the church. The numbers assigned to the windows will correspond to the numbers on the sign-up sheet. (For example: to decorate window #1, insert your name and contact information on line #1 on the sign-in sheet.) If you would like to share something about your window, a memory, a poem, or a story, please do so! You can forward it to the church office (sue.selz@aquiachurch.org) or email it to Sheryl Colliver (drreilly11@aol.com or sreilly@tsgusa.com) at least one week before the event in order to allow time for preparing it for your display.
The flower guild will have some seasonal flowers available if you would like to use them, or you can bring your own. You can include pictures and memorabilia, colorful leaves, baskets of apples or gourds, or anything else that you wish to include in your expressions of Thanksgiving. Any arrangements that can remain through our special worship service on Thanksgiving Eve (Wednesday, November 21) will be welcomed.
Please contact Betsy Husser (lbhusser@verizon.net) or Sheryl Colliver (e-mail addresses above) if you have any questions
