This Sunday at 11: Advent 3;
Wednesdays at 6: Evening Prayer

This Sunday is Advent 3, Year A.

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The Gospel verse from Matthew this Sunday has the verse where Jesus, speaking of John the Baptist, says: “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” One commentator has noted that Jesus was saying that whatever the level of holiness one may achieve on earth, one needs to attain grace to be a member of the kingdom of heaven.

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The lector this Sunday is Kay and the altar guild is B.T. See the vestment colors, the altar colors, the Bible readings and the liturgical calendar by clicking HERE and selecting the date. Note that a date’s color is the vestment and altar color for the day.

December 24, 7 p.m.: The Festival Holy Eucharist (Christ Mass).

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December 25, 10 a.m.: Christmas Day, The Holy Eucharist.

Jan. 19, 2020: The Annual Meeting. If you are on the vestry, please do a small (one-half page or so) report of the year.

Faith congregations across California are responding to the state’s housing crisis by sharing their parking lots with people living in their cars, providing mobile showers for the homeless and joining their neighbors in calling for rent control in their communities. According to a January 2019 report from the Public Policy Institute of California, the median home price in California is $552,100. The median rent is $2,800. Read the full story HERE.

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PHOTO: An artistic rendering of the future St. Paul’s Commons in Northern California. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walnut Creek would like to open its affordable housing complex in December or January. It’s called St. Paul’s Commons, and it will be a mixed-use development with community spaces operated by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. It will include 45 affordable apartments. Credit: Resources for Community Development.

At its annual convention on Nov. 8 and 9, the Diocese of New York established a task force to examine how it can make meaningful reparations for its participation in the slave trade. It committed $1.1 million from its endowment to fund the efforts the task force recommends. It also passed four resolutions condemning slavery, which had first been introduced by John Clarkson Jay — grandson of founding father John Jay, governor of New York and first chief justice of the Supreme Court — in 1860. Back in 1860 the resolutions were met with fierce opposition from the clergy and laity, many of whom were still profiting from the slave trade, and they had been tabled indefinitely until now. Read the full story by clicking HERE.

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PHOTO: Wayne Kempton, archivist and historiographer for the Diocese of New York, displays the journal of the 1860 diocesan convention. Photo: Diocese of New York.

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The Diocese of Georgia recently committed 3 percent of the its endowment to racial reconciliation and healing. Read the full story by clicking HERE.

Almost four months after 680 people were arrested in the United States’ largest immigration raid in at least a decade, churches in central Mississippi are still caring for families who were separated when their loved ones were detained. Families have lost not only family members (detention or deportation), but paychecks. Local churches have launched various efforts, like the Morton United Methodist Church, which has collected over $100,000 to pay bills for people affected by the raid, and a Presbyterian church is collecting Christmas presents for the children. Read the full story by clicking HERE.

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PHOTO: Federal authorities conduct a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement work site enforcement operation in Canton, Miss., on Aug. 7. Credit: Immigration and Customs Enforcement.