{"id":2862,"date":"2025-12-05T15:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2025-12-05T15:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:41:10","slug":"friday-letter-december-5-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/?p=2862","title":{"rendered":"Friday Letter &#8211; December 5, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear Friends in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the dark descends at 4:30 in the afternoon and the morning fog makes it difficult to get out of bed, I am grateful for all the Christmas lights that push back the gloom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last Tuesday evening, we had a beautiful Advent Event at St Anne\u2019s.&nbsp;&nbsp;A dinner of soup and bread was followed by a concert by candlelight.&nbsp;&nbsp;Rhonda, Kimberly and Liz performed music inspired by the writings of the medieval abbess, Hildegard de Bingen.&nbsp;&nbsp;This music was interspersed with Advent hymns and Taize chants.&nbsp;&nbsp;We were all on our way home by 8:15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our Mystical Voices Trio will be performing one more time next Tuesday (December 9).&nbsp;&nbsp;As we did last time, we will precede the concert with a meal of soup (tomato) and bread.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please try to come.&nbsp;&nbsp;You will be blessed and inspired.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is a prayer from the Tens Stewardship Program:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Unexpected Christ, who was laid where animals feed, draw near to families whose tables are uncertain. When programs wobble and benefits pause, please cause us to be open-handed and open-hearted, so that our bodies will go to the places we say are important in our thoughts and prayers. Make us to be like &#8220;daily bread&#8221; for your little ones, as we pray, &#8220;your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.&#8221; Amen.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t forget to check your Wednesday mailings for upcoming events:&nbsp;<strong>St Lucia Day<\/strong>&nbsp;(during the 9 am service on Sunday, 12.14.25),&nbsp;<strong>The Bishop\u2019s final visitation<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>with music&nbsp;&nbsp;and coffee hour provided by the Tongan Church,&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>Las Posadas<\/strong>(Friday, 12.19.25 @ 6 pm at St Anne\u2019s),&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Outdoor Live Nativity<\/strong>&nbsp;(Saturday 12.20.25@ 10 am @ Zion),&nbsp;<strong>Christmas Eve Services&nbsp;<\/strong>(4 pm @ Zion, 9 pm @ St Anne\u2019s),&nbsp;<strong>Christmas Day Service&nbsp;<\/strong>(10 am @ Zion)&nbsp;<strong>AND an Icon painting and Tapestry Weaving Workshop for Teenagers and Adults&nbsp;<\/strong>(9am-12 pm, Monday &amp; Tuesday at St Anne\u2019s),<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>REMEMBER! No Service @ St Anne\u2019s on Sunday, December 7&nbsp;<\/strong>(this coming Sunday).&nbsp;&nbsp;Both Churches will worship together at Zion @&nbsp;<strong>9 am&nbsp;<\/strong>as we experience an Advent Lessons and Carols at&nbsp;<strong>Zion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Faithfully yours,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rebecca<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those of you who know the Rev Christian Hagan: &nbsp;He is doing much better.&nbsp; He is now on the step down unit at Dameron Hospital and welcomes visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends in Christ, As the dark descends at 4:30 in the afternoon and the morning fog makes it difficult to get out of bed, I am grateful for all the Christmas lights that push back the gloom. Last Tuesday evening, we had a beautiful Advent Event at St Anne\u2019s.&nbsp;&nbsp;A dinner of soup and bread [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2863,"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions\/2863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannestocktonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}