Newsletter of The Parish of St.

Mark the Evangelist

Hood River, Oregon
December 2022

All hands on deck!

Friday Setup time 10a.m. unloading boxes and setting out merchandise.
Saturday Sale hours 9a.m. til 3p.m.
Sunday: Box up leftovers and return them to the basement.
Proceeds support outreach programs support by The Guild.
 Advent 2022
(Strings of thoughts,
tangentially related -
hopefully weaved together
by The Spirit)
*What’s with the blue?
Many of us may have grown up with purple
as the only advent color - liturgical colors
are part of our shared history with the
Roman Church, but of course influenced
by our English context. The color purple or
violet was attributed to royalty in the time
of Jesus. In the Mediterranean basin, this
color (also known as Tyrian purple) was
produced by crushing thousands upon
thousands of a variety of sea snails in a
solution and dying cloth fibers in it.
For the church in the British Isles, the
closest analog to Tyrian purple was a
variety of blue based on local practices
and materials. The cathedral in Salisbury
was known to have blue vestments and
accoutrements in the middle ages, which
now are recreated in our time as Sarum
blue. Sarum being the Latin name for
Salisbury.
As to our own context, Sue and I were
speaking about this and when the blue
frontal and vestments showed up - and
she told me it’s a good long while… I’m
curious if anyone remembers how and
when we came to have blue here? All this
is to say, blue and purple are both lovely
expressions of Advent, and your rector
doesn’t have a strong theological or design
preference for either - they’re both lovely.
*Use of the common cup…
I announced on Sunday that we are once
again offering a common cup. The church
has used a chalice or cup to distribute the
consecrated wine since literally Jesus’
time. It has been prudent and more
comfortable for us receive (still from a
common vessel the pouring chalice) but in
individual single-serve glass cups in recent
memory. Moving forward, we are going to
offer a common cup for those who want to
receive in that fashion AND our single-
serve glass cups.
Receiving from a common cup can be a
unique and holy experience - which we want
to offer once again for those who desire it.
This decision was taken at our most recent
vestry meeting after mutual
discernment. Below is a link (for those
interested) to a National Institute of Health’s
Natl. Inst. of Biotechnology Information
regarding the science of Eucharistic
practice. Thanks to Tim Sedgwick for
pointing us in right direction.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC7439816/
Moving towards things more temporal, but
rooted in the spiritual:
Pledged amount as of 11/30/22 is $136,200
- a solid amount, but not as much as the
$153K pledged in 2022. We’re not
panicking or anything, but if you are still
planning on pledging for 2023 it would be
most helpful to hear from you. Please
contact Sue Jenkins or our new Pledge
Secretary-in-training Laurie Lemieux.
We are still looking to fill a three year vestry
slot and find a bookkeeper. I believe we
have a couple of vestry hopefuls for the slate
in January at the annual meeting. We are
still looking high and low for a bookkeeper -
someone to do the week in week out check
writing and reporting to the treasurer. These
are both time and talent offerings of
course. Might you feel called to help out for
a season?
We’re also looking for Mevo operators on
Sunday January 1st and 8th. One needs to
have a smartphone or tablet to volunteer for
this. I would be happy to coach you through
it before I leave on 12/27.
Finally, we are offering a service of Lessons
and Carols on 12/17 at 7pm and Blue
Christmas on 12/21 at noon and 7pm. Both
services involve several readings and
Eucharist. If you are available to participate
as a reader (and/or a LEM at Blue
Christmas) in addition to attending we’d be
most grateful.
Advent blessings!
Rev. Kelly
 Wednesday, Dec 21 at noon and 7
p.m.
What is a Blue Christmas? Wikipedia says:
“a church service which recognizes that the
holidays are sometimes "blue" or filled with
difficult feelings around painful life events
such as death, disease, poverty, or
abuse. This worship service is traditionally
held on or around the longest night of the
year, which is the Winter Solstice. The
Worship includes an opportunity for
expressions of grief and pain.” (confidentially
one-on–one with Rev Kelly) as well as an
opportunity to focus on the promise of hope.

A service of Lessons & Carols on Saturday, December 17 at 7p.m.

Christmas Eve services, Saturday at 4:00 and 9:30 p.m.

ONE service on Sunday, Christmas Day at 10 a.m.

If you would like to donate a poinsettia to decorate

the sanctuary for Christmas, please bring it to
church before or on Friday, December 23 when altar
guild members will be here.
 St. Mark’s Women’s
Guild will meet for their
December luncheon at
the Columbia Gorge
Hotel on Tuesday,
December 13 at 11:30 Donations of peanut butter, oil and sugar
a.m. are always welcome and can be placed in
RSVP to DiAnn Crapper the basket in the columbarium room or
or place your name on dropped off at the FISH location at Spirit of
the signup sheet Grace Church on Tucker Road.
We could use your Rosauer’s paper bags.
Recycle them to FISH. Pet food is also
accepted.
St Mark’s turn to volunteer is December
12, 14, and 16. place your name on the
signup sheet on the bulletin board.
Church-member
directories are
available on the
table in the parish
hall.
Please help newcomers
get to know us, and we
them, by wearing your
nametag.

St Mark’s Guild
supports Equal Exchange
fairly traded coffee and will now be reading the
chocolates. All are book by Rachel Held
Evans, “Wholehearted
available for purchase Faith.” Please read the
during the coffee hour. first 75 pages, and our
next meeting will take
place on December
12th at 11 a.m.

Altar Guild members will be decorating the

sanctuary on Friday, December 23 at 10:00.
 Building Use December
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3
AA noon BAZAAR
SETUP BAZAAR
AA 8pm 9am-3pm

4 5 6 7 8 9 10
ADVENT II AA noon 10a ACIS AA noon AA 10a
8&10 HE AA noon AA 6p Book Study AA noon
Alanon 7p
AA 8p AA noon AA 8pm AA 8pm

11 12 13 AA noon 14 15 16 17
ADVENT III Book Study AA 6p 10 ACIS Book AA noon AA 10a
8&10 HE Group 11a Alanon 7p Study AA noon Lessons &
AA 8p Carols 7pm
AA noon Guild Lunch- AA noon AA 8pm
eon 11:30a AA 8pm

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 AA 10a
ADVENT IV AA noon BLUE AA noon AA noon
8 &10 HE AA noon AA 6p CHRISTMAS CHRIST-
Alanon 7p Noon & 7 ALTAR MAS EVE
AA 8p AA 8pm GUILD 4 & 9:30
10 ACIS Book 10AM
Study AA 8 pm

25 26 27 28 29 30 31
CHRIST- AA noon 10 ACIS Book AA noon
MAS AA noon AA 6p Study AA noon AA 10 am
Alanon 7p
10 HE only AA 8p AA noon AA 8pm AA 8pm

Friend us on Facebook: Current vestry minutes

www.facebook.com/ and treasurer’s report
stmarks.hoodriver can be found on the
We are also on the Web at bulletin board in the
www.stmarks-hr.org parish hall.

St Mark’s Episcopal Church

400 11th Street, Hood River, OR 97031
stmarks@gorge.net 541-386-2077
Office hours T, W, F 10am-2pm
The Rev. Kelly Mahon, Rector
revmahon@gorge.net
 Ministers of Worship for December

Dec 4 Dec 11 Dec 18 Dec 25

Celebrant Rev. Kelly Rev Kelly Rev Kelly Rev Kelly
Pam Miller: guest
preacher
Lay Eucharistic Kevin Liddiard Tim Sedgwick Vicki Kelsey Nick Kirby
Minister

Readers Amanda Tucker Dale Bricker Julie Davis _________

Kevin Tim Vicki
& Nick
Prayers Ashley Howe Martha Cathy Peck
Sedgwick
Greeters Monique Bricker Pravin & Cathy Peck
Laurie Lemieux Jasinta Ruth Tsu
Rajamoney
Flowers Jasinta

Altar Guild Barb Sigl/Joyce Monique & Ruth Tsu Sue &
Uczen Jasinta Jennifer Meisberger Lois Butler
Coffee Rajamoneys Cargills

Driver Bret Russell

Please keep in mind that we’ll be looking for volunteer chalice bearers and
readers for our service of Lessons & Carols on Saturday, Dec. 17th at 7pm
Also for A Blue Christmas on Wednesday, Dec 21 at noon and 7pm

Dec 24 LEM Readers Prayers Ushers

4:00 pm
9:30 pm

Gloria Arnold 12/4/30

Tim Sedgwick 12/6/
There are all kinds of opportunities to Rowin Rajamoney 12/9/16
volunteer here—talk to Sue and she’ll Kevin Liddiard 12/13
steer you in the right direction for Coffee Pravin Rajamoney 12/19
hours, Flowers, readers, ushering, Don/Monte Dickinson 12/22/68
chalice bearers. Duane Sigl 12/23/58
Pravin/Jasinta R 12/29/12
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
400 11th Street
Hood River, OR 97031
541-386-2077