Reminder:  Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Administrative items:

• Diocesan staff time away: Brian Nordwick will be out of the office until Wednesday the 5th of December. Also, please make a note that the diocesan office will be closed the week between Christmas and New Years.
• Along the King’s Highway – The December issue should be in the mail, shortly. Please submit articles or comments for future editions to Edy Unthank at: editor[atecr]edecr.org
• Deployment/Position Postings – Detailed postings for jobs can be seen by clicking on the following link: http://www.edecr.org/jobs.htm .
  • Youth Director, St. Paul’s Salinas
  • Chaplain, Santa Cruz County Jail
  • Youth Coordinator, All Saints’ Episcopal Church of Palo Alto
• Bishop Mary was interviewed on NPR radio on Tuesday, November 27 for the “Talk of the Bay” segment. If you missed hearing it, be sure to go to www.KUSP.org , then click on Talk of the Bay, followed by the 27th date.
• Just a reminder that if you have not performed your annual financial church audit per canons (ECR canon 19 section 11), please make arrangements to have it completed by the December 31st deadline. Also, once your audit is completed, please send a copy to the diocesan officer per canon requirement. As a reminder, for visibility and transparency, the annual Diocesan audit is posted to the website in it’s entirely for everyone to have access to. I would encourage vestries and bishop’s committees to share their audit information with their congregations, too.
• The El Camino Real Foundation has a new website with great information on planned giving, wills awareness, and links to the Episcopal Church Foundation. You can send questions or requests via e-mail, and one of the Foundation members will contact you with a reply. Check it out at: http://www.edecr.org/foundation/ .
• Treasurers/Vestries: Please don’t forget to pass a housing resolution for clergy on your payroll before December 31, 2007 for next year. You can find an example of this in the Manual for Business Methods in Church Affairs that can be downloaded at: http://episcopalchurch.org/finance_58218_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=877
• Treasurers: It is time to make any adjustments up or down to your church’s fairshare payment to reflect actual income for year to date – in your November/December payments. Please notify the diocesan office as soon as you have those numbers available for budgeting/cash flow purposes. Also, you will need to make a final adjustment to your fairshare payments for 2007 in 2008 once you close your books.
• Parochial report booklets for 2007 vital and financial statistics have (or will shortly) been mailed to each congregation directly from the National Church Office. If you have not received it by the end of December, you can download it online in both English and Spanish at: http://episcopalchurch.org/research_62344_ENG_HTM.htm

Announcements:

• From Bev Anderson, UTO Coordinator - United Thank Offering Grant request forms are now available. Please contact Bev Anderson at bev.larry[atecr]comcast.net or call 831-899-3345. Requests must be completed by January 10, 2008 so for those interested please submit your request soon.
• VISION INTO ACTION: Small Congregations Conference – previously scheduled for December 1, 2007 at St. Paul’s, Salinas is being rescheduled for February 2008. Details on the time and place to follow. For more information, contact DiLovelace[atecr]aol.com
• CELEBRATION OF A NEW MINISTRY—Wednesday, December 5, 2007, at St. Paul’s, Salinas, 7 p.m. — Wardens, Vestry and Congregation cordially invite you to attend The Celebration of a New Ministry at which the Right Reverend Mary Gray-Reeves will institute The Reverend James V. Ezell as Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Salinas. Reception following. Your prayers and presence are requested. RSVP (831) 424-7331 or to stpauls[atecr]razzolink.com . See attached invitation <archived>.
• Trip to Camp Coast Care in Mississippi - A group (adults) from the Diocese will be going to Mississippi April 5 – 12, 2008 to continue with the relief work that is going on from Hurricane Katrina. This trip will change your life! Contact Sheila Vossler: mabear2[atecr]sbcglobal.net .
• Youth ministry:
  • There will be an initial meeting of planning for 2008 youth events/activities led by Bishop Mary in early December. Many of you who have already contacted the diocesan office will be asked to participate. The Diocese is still looking for more leaders with a passion for youth ministry who would like to become involved in future planning, and joining the Diocesan Commission for Youth Ministry. Please contact me at - brian[atecr]edecr.org so I can put you on the list for future planning.
  • Diocesan Youth Mission Trips for 2008: Next summer our youth will have the opportunity to serve Native American populations in Nevada through Sierra Service Project. http://www.sierraserviceproject.org . Our diocese has a 5-year history of teaming with SSP for our mission trips. This year we plan to send two groups to the Walker River Paiute reservation in early summer, coordinated by Leann Brooks and Robin Denney. The first trip, June 29-July 5, is for high school youth who will be entering 9th grade in the fall of 2008 through those graduating in the summer of 2008. Experienced counselors from ECR (including Bishop Mary) will accompany our youth and other church youth groups will join us at the reservation. The second trip, July 14-19, is a brand new opportunity for Middle School students and is for youth entering 6th through 8th grades in the fall. This will be a smaller group and the program is being specially crafted for the younger audience. Please begin discussing these opportunities with your youth and youth leaders.
  • Youth Katrina Relief Summer Mission Trip: June 14-20, 2008: Open to all Junior High and High School Students. Spend a week working to provide better housing for our gulf coast neighbors with Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi. There is a wide variety of jobs we might due gut a damaged home, work in the kitchen, dig a foundation, paint, clean the dorm, frame, install sheet-rock, remove debris from a home, or finish out a home. Everyone will have the opportunity to do meaningful work in restoring the beauty and dignity to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. For more information contact Katie Machemer at 408 867-3493.

Important Training / Dates to mark on your calendars:

• All ECR Clergy: December 4 ECCO sponsored Advent Quiet Day with Bishop Mary... It will be held at the St. Francis Retreat Center. Please bring the Book of Common Prayer if possible. RSVP to Mary Blessing at pastor[atecr]stphilip-sv.org 
• Mark your calendars now for these important Deanery Visioning Meetings (9AM-3PM) in January. (Bishop Mary will be leading all three sessions). These meetings are open for all members of El Camino Real. Please plan to attend one of the following:
  • Saturday, January 5 – Good Shepherd, Salinas
  • Saturday, January 12 – Trinity Cathedral, San Jose, followed by the Welcoming and Seating in the Cathedral of Bishop Mary at 4PM
  • Saturday, January 19 – St. James’, Paso Robles
• The Foundation Academy will be held at St. Mary’s in Pacific Grove on February 1-2, 2008. Bishop (elect) Mary Gray-Reeves will be the keynote speaker at Friday night’s banquet. More information to follow on the learning tracks of planned giving, capital campaigns, and annual giving.
• THE COMMISSION ON MINISTRY is preparing a “Day of Discovery” on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at St. Paul’s, Salinas. This is the third time we have offered this program which has the purpose of offering individuals a way to further explore how they might respond to their calls to ministry in our churches. The COM cordially invites members of your parish to attend this Day of Discovery. It offers the opportunity for those already doing active ministry to renew their call to a particular ministry or to explore new ways of responding to God’s call. Although this Day of Discovery is a required first step for those individuals who are discerning a call to ordained ministry, its focus is not in any way limited to these individuals. All lay persons would benefit from participating in this process. Experience has shown that participants in our “Day of Discovery” come away having shared in a process of discernment which is rejuvenating, validating, and transforming. Pre-registration (by February 1st) to Susan Altig (susan[atecr]edecr.org ) will help us in preparing enough materials and order enough lunches for the participants. Thank you.
• CLERGY CONFERENCE – April 21-23, 2008 at St. Francis, San Juan Bautista. More info to follow.
• MAGNETIC CHURCH CONFERENCE – May 16-17, 2008. This event is led by an Episcopalian, is fun, has some great practical ideas and will stimulate lots of thought about how to effectively be hospitable and welcoming to those not yet with us. It will be very accessible to all and a good way to begin our collective work of empowering our diocese for evangelism.
• Breaking Barriers Conference – Sometime in September/October 2008. Details to follow.
• 2008 Diocesan Convention – November 7-8 – Sherwood Hall in Salinas

Diocesan Office Meetings:

• Next Week:  No meetings scheduled
   

As the season of Advent is upon us, let us look for Jesus in the places that Jesus dwells – working at SMUM or your local food bank or homeless shelter, visiting a shut-in, having a Christmas caroling party to visit shut ins and those in hospitals or convalescent homes, bringing Christmas to a family that wouldn’t have one without your intervention and generosity, inviting an isolated and lonely person to dinner – add your own…share a little of God’s unconditional love with those in need…May God richly bless us as we serve the people Along (and within) El Camino Real… AMEN