is St. Thomas' newsletter.  It is published on or before first Sunday of every other month starting with the 
January issue and contains information and articles of interest to the parishioners and friends of St. Thomas of the Valley.
For information on "due dates" and input requirements please click here.

Below is the text of the current Scribe without any graphics.  

THE MESSAGE 
Deja Vu All Over Again

Well, we’ve gotten through Christmas—the season in which we commemorate the greatest gift ever given—our salvation and the certainty of God’s love.  Yet in spite of this joyous gift , St. Thomas has had to face stormy weather and once again we face the unknown and a new year.  Sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it.  Something similar happened around 2005 and it wasn’t easy to go through then.

Some would say things look mighty grim.  Fr. Jim has left, the church financials are uncertain, and we’ve lost a lot of members over the past year.  We continue to have to deal with internal squabbles, turf wars, finger pointing and blame laying, and wars and rumors of wars abound..  Not a pretty picture, nor unfortunately, one that pleases God.

With every new year, folks typically make resolutions to do things better.  Lose weight, eat better, stop smoking, or something else “good.”  Unfortunately, few people actually stick to their resolutions.  Given the gift we’ve just celebrated perhaps it is time to really stop and think just what we as a parish family, as Christ’s representatives on earth REALLY need to do—and then actually do it and stick to it. 

Do we want to continue in the same old ways and keep the old squabbles, finger pointing and blame laying going?  It serves no good purpose either for St. Thomas or for us as individuals.

Or, do we REALLY want to put those things aside, ask for and give forgiveness, and work together as a true Christian family, in spite of our differences, to do God’s will.  I hope and pray that this is so.

Let us all then, as both the leaders and people of St. Thomas make a New Year’s resolution to act, speak, and do all things in a manner that will please God and that will show us to truly be disciples of Christ.  We need to heal both internal and external wounds. 

We can reach out to those who have been hurt and have left and at the same time reach inward to those that we have hurt who are still here. We can work together for the glory of God, in the new year.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord make His face to shine upon
    you, and be gracious to you.

May the Lord make His countenance to
    shine upon you, and give you peace.

Wishing you all a happy, joyous, and spirit-filled new year.

John, Verger
   +

VESTRY NEWS

THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING AND THE BEGINNING

At the beginning of 2009, I was senior warden here at St Thomas.  I then resigned as of the annual meeting, ostensibly due to dealing with family financial issues, as well as going back to school part-time (in addition to my full-time job!).  I felt that I couldn’t devote as much time to St Thomas as the vestry and the church seemed to demand. 

So, most of the year went by without a senior warden, as our priest couldn’t find anyone who was either willing or suitable.  You see, the senior warden must be someone who, though serving at the behest of the rector, also can remain objective in the face of adverse situations. 

Then the financial issues that the church has been facing took a more serious turn a couple months ago.  Unfortunately, it became necessary for us to let our priest go, as of December 31.  With all this looming on our future, I was asked to return to my previous role. 

So here I am – in a situation that has thrust St. Thomas into a state of turmoil, which is admittedly unique to a church during a time of transition. 

But along with this circumstance, we are starting a new church and calendar year. Our annual meeting is just around the corner.  It is at this meeting that we can start looking forward to dealing with and making changes. 

Three vestry members will be going off, two due to their terms ending, and one due to resignation.  Fortunately, we have some new, fresh candidates who have expressed a willingness to serve. 

So I encourage you to come to the annual meeting and vote – vote for bright new approaches and ideas, because for St. Thomas to survive, we need to get out of our old way of doing business. 

In summary, I realize that I have somehow written all of this without mentioning that it is Christmas season.  I for one will try not to let the turmoil of this time at St. Thomas overrule the fact that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” 

Have a wonderful Christmas season and Happy New Year!

 Rita
Senior Warden

ECW

Okay Thanksgiving and Christmas rushes are over so it is time to focus on something fun for the church members to do.  We had a pretty successful Valentine game night last year, so maybe we should do it again, or perhaps there is something else that we can do.  Come to our meetings and help us plan.  Next meeting is January 9 at 10:00 am in the Parish Hall. 

Also, we may have something up our sleeves that all of us can get involved with, and there is hardly any work to it.  Come see what that might be.  It could help with a financial injection to our church. 

We look forward to seeing you at our meetings. 

Barbara Evans
ECW President 

PS:  Don't forget to shop at Safeway and use your shopper’s card.  We get monetary rewards to the church through their scrip program.

CHOIR 

Hello, my name is Contessa, "Connie" for short,---I have taken over the choir in more ways than one.

Choir practice for me starts  with the other Connie taking me out for a walk to take care of necessities , so I don't have problems during practice, I don't mind going but I'm always anxious to get back.  After all, there are those who have treats, and boy, do I love those.

This week the choir started out on a very sour note, which really makes my Mama jump out of her chair, with a laugh, she knows how this bunch likes to tease her.

One day long before my arrival, I heard the entire choir showed up in P.J's and their hair up in rollers, I guess they were quite a sight.  Sorry I missed that.

Some times when we have to skip a practice due to cold bug or some illness, we have to whip up a "Quickie" as my Mom calls it.  That’s fun and proves what a great director my Mom is.

Last month when the flu was going strong, our organist came in with a fever, my Mom sent her home, this was at 8:45, bu tour ole standby Gordon took over and did a fine job,  I’m told he's pretty faithful to this choir whether singing or playing, sometimes both.

Wow! were we busy in Dec.  First, we were invited to sing with the choir at the dedication of the new Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Dec. 8.  We had to attend two, 2 hr., practices for that. The choir sits in the balcony at the rear of the church, the view is the rafters only, couldn't get me to howl in that church.  Wow! was that a long service, must have been 1800 people there I'm told----getting out of the parking lot afterwards was another story.

Then we were asked to sing in the park for the Clarkdale Christmas doings, but since nothing else was planned for the park and the weather was supposed to be bad, we declined.

For St. Thomas, we had to practice for the lessons and carols service as well as our Christmas Eve service.  After those services, we’ll go home to have Christmas with our loved ones.

Most of this I wasn't allowed to attend, only the Thurs. night practices.  Knowing my Mom, I'm sure everything went A-OK.

Come on out and join us,--- we have fun, and you'll be proud to belong to the BEST choir in Arizona.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Contessa

P.S.  In case your wondering, I'm a dog, a Laso-something or other--- Hope you had a great season.  I did!

STRENGTHENING YOUR FAITH

 IN THE LIBRARY

Thanks to Janice Doucet the book I recently talked about in the Scribe “90 Minutes in Heaven has been donated to the church library.  Anyone wanting to read it, please take the opportunity to read and enjoy. 

Anne Howard

ZINZENDORF’S ‘I BELIEVE’
From Berlin Discourse No. 16, April 1738 

• I  believe that my Savior, my King, bears His name with honor and glory
• I believe His eternal divinity
• I believe His real humanity
• I believe that I am one of His household
• I believe that I was lost.  I have known my sentence of death.  But I believe most certainly that I have been ransomed and absolved
• I believe that I am the just reward of all His labor, of all His pains and sweat
• I believe that He has won and gained me by His own sword and bow
• I believe that I am no longer compelled to sin
• I believe that I will not die
• I believe that I have mastery over the Devil
• I believe that I am redeemed not through word or work, or miracle or arbitrary decree of God, or through a new creation or through any other means than through the punishment of death which the Son of God suffered for me.  I believe that I now belong to no one but to him who has earned me
• I believe that He has the Kingdom over all
• I believe that I live under Him, where I am under His protection, under His peace, under His rule
• I am certain that I have the unalterable right, which all my fellow citizens have, to be as unchangeably holy as they, and that I am as constantly happy as they all are
• But I also believe that I am nothing without Him, and that I live only because He lives.  As long as He lives, I will live also
• And I know all this as certainly as I know that my head is on my shoulders

Via Susan Mitchell  

THE SHACK STUDY IS COMING!

What sort of images of God do you find most comfortable? 

Do you think the doctrine of the Trinity makes a difference in the spiritual life of your church or in your personal devotions? 

Just a few of the questions we will be exploring in January 2010 in an in depth study of the book “The Shack”. 

For Those of you interested in participating, lets meet after church on Sunday, January 17^th during the coffee hour to decide what day and time would be the best for everyone .  We can also decide where you want to meet and  the length of each session.   Please come with some ideas so we can get started on this very interesting and meaningful study. 

 Any questions or comments contact Anne Howard.

ACOLYTES 

On Saturday morning Dec 19 the boys got together to make Gingerbread Houses.  They joined Leif and Evan and each made their House.  Evan made a beautiful Christmas Tree. For those of you who were not at church on Sunday,  so sorry the Tree and Houses were on display. What a fun activity!  We probably will do it again next year. I think the adults had as much fun as the kids.  A call was recently put out a call for more adult acolytes and Altar Guild members.  Just want you to know Altar guild doesn't have the fun activities that the acolytes do.  I rest my case! 

Martha

INSPIRATIONAL NOTES

CLAY BALLS

A man was exploring some caves by the Seashore.    In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened  clay balls.  It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them  out in the sun to bake.

 They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag  out of the cave with him.  As he strolled along the beach, he would  throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he  could.  He  thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it  cracked open on a rock .  Inside was a beautiful, precious  stone!

Excited,  the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls.  Each  contained a similar treasure.  He found thousands of dollars worth of  jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had  left.

Then  it struck him.  He  had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the  clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves.  Instead  of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of  thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's  like that with people.  We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and  we see the external clay vessel.  It doesn't look like much from the  outside.  It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.  We  see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy.  But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There  is a treasure in each and every one of us.  If we take the time to  get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way  He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem  begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away  a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May  we see the people in our world as God sees  them.

THE HOLY ALPHABET

Although things are not perfect
Because of trial or pain
Continue in thanksgiving
Do not begin to blame
Even when the times are hard
Fierce winds are bound to blow
God is forever able
Hold on to what you know
Imagine life without His love
Joy would cease to be
Keep thanking Him for all the things
Love imparts to thee
Move out of "Camp Complaining"
No weapon that is known
On earth can yield the power
Praise can do alone
Quit looking at the future
Redeem the time at hand
Start every day with worship
To "thank" is a command
Until we see Him coming
Victorious in the sky;
We'll run the race with gratitude
Xalting God most high
Yes, there'll be good times and yes some
    will be bad, but...
Zion waits in glory... where none are ever
    sad!

"I AM too blessed to be stressed!"  The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor.  The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything.

Love and peace be with you forever, Amen. 

VERSE OF THE MONTH
The Epiphany

 “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” -- Matthew 2:6

If you have a favorite verse of scripture and would like to share it with your parish family,please either
leave it in the Scribe mailbox or E-mail it to Susan Schaefer at

SCRIBE DUE DATE

 The due date for the February Scribe
is Sunday December  24.

 DO YOU HAVE PROBLEMS READING THE SCRIBE?

Article Submission Guidelines

We encourage and welcome not only information about activities at St. Thomas but also inspirational material.  Items for the need to be submitted as early as possible, but no later than the date shown below or they most likely will not get published in that issue. 

1. Articles and news may be submitted via hard copy by leaving them in mailbox in the narthex or via email message or attached computer file, emailed to the editor, Susan Schaefer at , or left on a diskette in the mailbox. 
   

2. Please put your name and phone number on all items submitted so that you can be contacted if there are any questions. 
   

3. Any of the following file formats are acceptable: MS Word, Lotus WordPro, Word Perfect, plain ASCII text (".TXT" format) are preferred. If you have something else you can probably save your work in one of these formats.
   

4. If you only have MS WORKS please note that files from MS Works usually do not import well so if you use MS Works save them to "text", MS Word (.doc), or or "RTF" format.  Please do not use "fancy fonts or formatting as we only have to strip them out.  
   

5. The same goes for printed submission copies. Printed submissions should be typed or NEATLY hand written on plain white paper without fancy formatting.
   

6. Submissions via email (just put the text of your article in the body of the message) are the easiest to work with.
   

7. If you wish to submit pictures or artwork they can be submitted as hard copy which can be scanned and returned to you or in "gif" or "jpg" file format.  Submitting as a computer file allows us to "tweak" the picture for best reproduction.  However, if you plan on submitting hard copy artwork or pictures please allow additional time for them to be scanned.  If you have any questions regarding formats acceptable, or need any help with your submission call or email John Schaefer by clicking here. 
   

Updated 2010-01-14