Month: November 2020

Churchy Term of the Season – Advent

Advent

The first season of the church year, beginning with the fourth Sunday before Christmas and continuing through the day before Christmas. The name is derived from a Latin word for “coming.” The season is a time of preparation and expectation for the coming celebration of our Lord’s nativity, and for the final coming of Christ “in power and glory.”

From Don S. Armentrout’s An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians . Church Publishing Inc.. Kindle Edition.

A Prayer for Thanksgiving Day

Almighty and gracious Father, we give thee thanks for the
fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we beseech thee, faithful stewards of thy great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Pastoral Directives

Our bishop, Marty Stebbins, issued what is known as a pastoral directive on November 14 regarding in-person worship in the diocese. Simply put, she ordered all Episcopal Churches in Montana to cease in-person worship until at least November 29, 2020. This did not change anything for St. Stephen’s because we have been closed for some time due to much higher rates in Yellowstone County.

After this pastoral directive, the bishop went further by establishing a new metric for reopening churches for in-person worship. The new measurement is the level of active infections of COVID-19 in a county. The cut-off is 2%. As of November 18, 2020, Yellowstone County has 4,844 active infections with a population estimated to be 161,300. That means that 3% of the county currently has COVID-19.