Holiday Food Baskets - Please Help Feed the Needy

The Outreach Committee will coordinate distribution of Holiday meals on Saturday, November 22nd (Thanksgiving baskets) and again on December 20th (Christmas baskets) from 7-11 AM. This is a great family service opportunity!

Please contact Linda Rines at Linda.Rines@comcast.net if you can help! Donations of frozen turkeys are needed as well as cash contributions to purchase the other food items for the baskets. Thanks for supporting this St. James' Parish ministry and helping to provide holiday meals to those members of our community in need.

Messiah Sing-Along - Sponsored for both Fall and Spring

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, our Messiah Sing-Along is fully funded for both fall and spring. All donations at these events will go to the Salvation Army (fall) and the Community Assistance Fund (spring). The fall Messiah Sing-Along will be held on Sunday, November 30th.

Youth Service Projects

The youth in the J2A class would like to provide a ministry of service to parishioners in need of a little help on a project at home. If you are in need of a little assistance, please contact one of the J2A mentors, Sted Wolf at cwolf@usgbc.org, Linda Dinges at ldinges@mtb.com, or Norma Dorsey at ndorsey53@gmail.com for more information.

All Hallows' Eve Celebration and Trunk or Treat, October 24th 6 - 8 PM

Children of all ages, young and old (hint: adults), are invited to dress up and enjoy fellowship in St. James' Parish Hall. Preschoolers through 5th graders will enjoy dinner at 6 PM, followed by fun and games beginning at 7 PM. All parishioners are invited to bring their cars to the parking lot for the Trunk or Treat. Decorate your trunks with your favorite All Hallows' Eve decorations and pass out treats to our young people who will visit each car starting at 7 PM.

For more information or to sign up, please contact Dawn Campbell+ at dawncampbell@stjameslothian.com.

Parish Leadership Workshops

The 2015 Annual Parish Celebration will be held in January. At that time, three members will be rotating off the Vestry and will be replaced with new parishioners.

Two Leadership Workshops have been scheduled in order to provide information to parishioners who might be interested in learning more about what it is like to serve in a leadership position on the Vestry. The workshops will be held on Saturday, November 22 (10 AM - noon) and Monday, November 24 (7-9 PM) in the Choir Room.

Please give prayerful thought to a call to serve. For additional information, or to register for one of the workshops. please contact the Rector at ticknor@stjameslothian.com.

September Community Assistance Fund

We gave $1,026.33 to help a couple of families avoid eviction and to help with an electric bill. These people were very grateful. One person stated that our kindness has given her back her faith in God. Some people we were not able to help but were able to send them in the correct direction to get the help they needed. This ministry continues to be life changing to the clients we help and the committee members helping them.

Pizza & Bible Study for Youth (grades 6-12)

Starting in October we will begin a monthly Bible study for youth grade 6 through grade 12. The Middle School youth (grades 6-8) will be meeting on the second Monday of the month; the first session will be Oct. 13th. The High School youth (grades 9-12) will be meeting on the fourth Monday of the month; the first session will be Oct. 27th.

We will meet from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. Our time together will begin with prayer, pizza and check-in time. We will then spend the next hour watching a short video on one of the Bible characters then, moving on to discussion time, encouraging "youth to see the similarities between themselves and their faith ancestors...Unlikely people called by God to do amazing things."

Please email Dawn+ at dawncampbell@stjameslothian.com if your youth would like to join the Bible study.