SCARBORO UNITED CHURCH, CALGARY, ALBERTA

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sunday, December 11, 2011

SPECIAL ENVELOPES: Traditionally at Christmas Scarboro friends and members make a special offering. This special offering is one that is over and above the amount they have pledged, or over and above the amount they normally contribute. Please use the small “special” envelopes in the pews for this and use any other envelope for regular giving. You will be receipted for these donations if you provide the required information.

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TONIGHT AT SCARBORO!

SCARBORO CAFÉ: A place where we explore the creative side of popular culture in a relaxed coffee house atmosphere.

Tonight’s guests are Rev. Tim Nethercott and Christopher Emory-Moore. Rev. Tim Nethercott is Chaplain for the United and Presbyterian Churches in the Faith & Spirituality Centre at U of C. Tim enjoys conversations between people of different spiritual and religious traditions.

Christopher Emory-Moore is a Master's student in the Religious Studies Department at the U of C. Christopher is a Tibetan Buddhist from Newfoundland.

Christopher and Tim play together in the Campus Ministry's Drum
Performance group. They have been talking religion for years and will riff on the similarities between Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity.

Looks to be yet another great evening here at Scarboro Café! Hope to see you there. Bring two friends.

The Café starts at 6:30 to finishes up at 8 pm. Come on out for good coffee, good company, good stories, good songs.

Bring an instrument for the “Jam” portion of the evening.

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INCOME TAX RECEIPTS FOR 2011 GIVINGS: Canada Revenue allows no flexibility on timing - if your receipt is for 2011 income taxes (i.e. to be reported on your return due on April, 2012), the donation must be made in 2011. The Finance Committee has set 11 am on December 31, 2011 as the final cut-off for Scarboro United Church donations in order for you to receive an income tax receipt for 2011.

OUTREACH ADOPT-A-FAMILY CHRISTMAS PROJECT, 2011

Carrying on a Scarboro tradition, we have chosen to support a very worthy, local association that provides both on-going and emergency services for local families at risk and in need. It is “Closer to Home”, (offices nearby on 17 Ave SW).

We hope that many of you, as individuals, families or groups will take part. It gives us an opportunity to add our own more personal touch to giving at Christmas.

Flexibility: The best thing for us all is that adopting a family can be through a donation of one or more gifts on a family’s wish list OR we may choose one person or an entire family. And, as in the past, we can choose to add those Christmas treats of our choice. Wrapping gifts and/or supplying gift wrap are optional.

Given the increased need this year, Closer to Home is soliciting donations early to ensure that all identified children, youth and families have a wonderful Christmas.

Simply get your Donor Application Forms from Sue after church during coffee or contact her at 403-244-9410 or suebarnhill@hotmail.com or you may get one from the church office. The form has the Agency Coordinator contact number (Tina) and you can fax it in to her for a quick start.

Enjoy a happy and rewarding Christmas!

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CHRISTMAS AT THE DROP-IN-CENTRE: The ladies of the Elda Daniels Group will be making sandwiches in the church kitchen on December 18 for the clients of the Drop-In Centre. If you are able to help out with this project, please bring your homemade sandwiches to us prior to the church service and we will deliver them to the Centre along with our 40+ loaves.

We also include socks with our Christmas delivery and we invite you to join in this project as well. We call the project "Sock It to the Centre" (we give both as a group and as individuals). Adding you, the congregation, to our list of donors was definitely one of our better ideas over the years! Your response has been truly amazing; and our heartfelt thanks go out to you.

We wish each and every one of you a faith-filled Christmas and the best year yet in 2012.

to all who have generously contributed toward our recent local Outreach projects:

1. Seniors’ Fresh Start Baskets: Over $1,200 in personal household items have been delivered to this Rotary House program!

2. Underwear Project: Next week we’ll deliver over $500 worth of much-needed items to the Emergency Outreach Department, Foothills Hospital, where they are very much in need and where we are very much appreciated!

3. Christmas Adopt-A-Family Project: Many of you have donated and/or are now in the process of choosing gifts on “wish lists” for families and individuals in need and at risk.

Outreach’s Motto: “The Church Has Left the Building”

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CAUSE CANADA – GLOBAL GIFT CATALOGUE: See Outreach bulletin board downstairs for the brochure or visit www.cause.ca for creative opportunities to donate ($25 and up) toward self-help projects where CAUSE is established, including Guatemala.

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SAVE THESE DATES!! ScarboroArts is presenting a Gospel Music Workshop with Gail Suderman, Artistic Director of the Vancouver Gospel Choir. Join us on Saturday, January 21, for this full-day event learning Gospel music in preparation for our concert on Sunday at 3 pm.

A great weekend for all who enjoy Gospel music!

Visit www.scarborounited.org for more information and digital registration. Click on the “Who We Are” tab, and then “Scarboro Arts.”

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CELEBRATE NEW YEARS DAY AT SCARBORO UNITED CHURCH:

The Pastoral Care Committee would love to have friends and family gather for the 2012 New Years Day Potluck Supper!

Event: New Year's Day Potluck Sinner Get-Together at Scarboro

United Church

Time: 5 pm Sunday, January 1, 2012

After Potluck Supper: Scarboro Café (live music, coffee and

dessert ….con’t

RSVP to Brennan Wares at bwares329@gmail.com to let us know what food you are bringing (we don't want everyone bringing vegetables!) and how many are coming.

Hope you can join the fun!

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Please consider volunteering to serve on a committee or to offer help with a project at Scarboro. Our needs are considerable and varied. You will have an opportunity to get to know new people and become part of the volunteer community at Scarboro. Keep watching this space for exciting opportunities!!

Personnel Committee: Are you a person who has human resource experience or who is interested in looking after the needs and concerns of our staff (both ministerial and lay)? Can you attend a committee meeting 8 or 9 times a year? Are you interested in being a ‘buddy’ for a staff person, occasionally meeting over coffee and serving as an advocate? Meeting times vary according to the schedule of committee members. No resumes needed!

Outreach Committee: Are you a person who is interested in looking beyond our church to help determine worthwhile projects to strengthen our ministry? Does the idea of helping other people excite you? Do you like to challenge others and be challenged yourself? Can you attend a meeting 10 times a year) first Sunday of each month at 9 am before the Worship Service)? No references required!

Pastoral Care and Communications Committee: (membership records) Are you a person who is organized and has an administrative background? This committee needs a person to keep track of the congregational members of Scarboro, assist with welcoming newcomers and to help to keep us in touch with people. An exciting computer program called ‘Power Church’ is a useful tool to assist with this. Training is provided!

If any of these opportunities ‘call’ to you please contact Lora Wyman (lorawyman@shaw.ca), Nancy Leitch (nl@bronze4.com ) or Kathleen Downing (kldowning@shaw.ca ).

PRE-AUTHORIZED REMITTANCES: A MESSAGE FROM THE STEWARDSHIP COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

If you are already giving each month by PAR, the Stewardship Communications Committee thanks you!

Together with 61 other givers, you are helping to bring in over $11,575 each month by way of electronic bank transfers.

The tracking of these donations is made easy for us by the excellent reporting we receive from the United Church PAR office, so we save paper, work and time, as well as some of the worry about church income during the summer months.

Although we usually refer to this by the acronym "PAR", we don't really want to call up images of golf. It might be better to call it "ETF" ( Electronic Transfers of Funds; better yet, Effortless Transfers of Funds!) because it is so easy, and effortless to give in this way.

PAR gifts to Scarboro United range from $20 -$ 30 per month (6 givers) to $500 per month (3 givers).

With 62 givers using PAR for a monthly total of $11,575, the average gift per year donated by PAR givers is $2,277. However as a result of the generous income tax relief on all donations, the average actual cost to the giver of donating $2,277 to the church is

only $1138.50*. The current total of our annual PAR gifts is $138,900 and the resulting income tax credit, which will be given back to givers (by the combined federal/provincial income tax credits), will be $69,450! *

PAR may be managed by credit card (MasterCard or Visa), although we would ask you to remember that the church will be charged 2.5% on any amounts donated by way of credit card.

If you would like to begin using Effortless Transfers of Funds, or if you would like to increase your monthly gift by PAR, (or to make any other change) it's very simple. Just send email to scarboro.stewardship@gmail.com with the new amount, and the date you would like it to start.

Please note that all confidential details (bank account and credit card) must be kept out of email, which is not secure and not guaranteed to be private. If you notify Claire that you wish to discuss changes, you will get a prompt telephone call or meeting time, which will allow for the necessary confidential details to be provided.

….con’t

Any questions? Call Claire McMordie at (403) 249-5502, or send email to scarboro.stewardship@gmail.com

* The combined income tax credit is 50% after the first $200.00.

For the first $200 donated in any calendar year, it is 25%.

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SUNDAY SCHOOL: We are looking for Animators and Shepherds (a 3 to 4 Sundays commitment) to help with Sunday School in the new year. An animator leads an activity and a shepherd guides the children from activity to activity. If you are able to help, please contact Lee Spice at 403-244-0120 or email her at lspice@scarborounited.ab.ca

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PATHWAYS, a group led by youth and young adults will meet at

St. Andrew’s United Church (924 Heritage Dr SW), Friday, December 16.

The them is Silent Night- Holy Gift. This month we’ll look at ‘the Gift’ of Jesus coming into the world- his was an unseen, obscure birth that continues to offer us new life. A light dinner is served from 6-7 pm by donation (suggested $5/person $10/family- but if it’s your first time, we want to feed you for nothing!!) Worship and learning, singing, dancing and prayer all happen from 7-9 ish. Our Break-Out-Groups this month:

1. Our guest, Natalie St. Denis, Community Outreach

Specialist with Acadia Place, will share the Good News

story of the Acadia Place Housing Project.

2. Christmas crafting for all ages- crafts for kids- crafts for adults… come and enjoy crafting together!!

3. Carol Sing-Along!! The annual favourite!!

4. For Youth Only!! Youth are invited to stay and play

following Pathways till midnight.

If you have young children, please come for dinner and as much of the evening as the little ones can handle.

THE YOUNG OFFENDER CENTRE is in need of some winter jackets to hand out to kids who are being released. The Centre is in need of adult sizes - medium, large and X-large; the Centre needs to have about a dozen on hand at any one time. They can be dropped off at CYOC at 12626 85 Street NW

the attention of Tracy Robertson, Chaplain, Calgary

Young Offender Centre (403-662-3612),

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MUSIC FOR A WINTER EVENING: Legacy Kitchens Presents the Corpus Christi Male Chorale featuring Tom Jackson and the Foothills Brass Quintet in a spectacular Christmas performance with all proceeds going to the Calgary Dream Centre.

The concert is Monday, December 19 at 7:30 pm in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at the Epcor Centre.

Plan on arriving at the concert a bit early to hear the world-class Foothills Brass Quintet playing in the lobby starting at 7:10 pm.

All proceeds, including ticket sales, from the Music for a Winter Evening Concert will support the Calgary Dream Centre's Save A Life Campaign.

Tickets: Adult, $25; Students and Children, $10

Visit www.legacykitchens.com for more information.

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HILLHURST UNITED CHURCH presents “The Gifts of the Magi”.

Join us for a heart-warming, captivating musical treat, drawn from two short stories by the immortal O. Henry. “It's Christmas in New York, but Jim and Della are out of work and penniless. In the desire to give each other something meaningful, they give away more than expected.”

The evening performance is Friday, December 16 at 7pm. Matinees on Saturday, December 17and Sunday, December 18 at 2 pm.

Reserve tickets at: office @hillhurstunited.com

Adults $15, Students/Seniors $10, Family $40 (includes dessert)

INN FROM THE COLD CHRISTMAS GIFT BAGS FOR DECEMBER 17: Hillhurst United Church puts together gift bags for the December Inn From the Cold. Parkdale and Scarboro United Churches are assisting Hillhurst this year.

It's a small way for us to give something a little extra special at Christmas. The bags are filled with sundry items, scarves, gloves, treats, things like that. A team will be put together to "stuff the bags". Darcie Greggs has kindly offered to head up the gift bag process this year (Thanks so much!).

If you are interested in either contributing something to the bags (20 bags) or helping to stuff the bags on Saturday afternoon, December 17 at Hillhurst for an hour, (looking for about 6 people),

please contact Darcie Greggs at greggsd@telus.net

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PARKING ON SCARBORO AVENUE: Our neighbours on the 100 block of Scarboro Avenue are having concerns with people taking up parking spaces in front of their homes. While most of this occurs during the week days, the residents are requesting parking restrictions, from the City, which will eventually affect church parking. Whenever possible, please use the parking lot behind the church or park on the west side hill. Also consider using the community parking lot by the tennis courts. If you need to park on Scarboro Avenue due to mobility problems, please try to park near the church or on the side of the street without houses. This would include attending events at the church in the evenings as well.

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THE CHURCH’S WEST SIDE HILL is one of the City of Calgary’s designated “Snow Routes”. Parking will be temporarily restricted for up to 72 hours during ‘snow events’. Snow events will be declared when 5 cm or more of snow has accumulated on city streets.