Issue

DECEMBER

2016 SHAKER SALT

Twelve to 22 young girls, mostly teenagers, were dressed in white with long sil-ver garlands tied at their waists. On their heads they wore circlets of silver garlands and they carried silver scrolls and a lighted candle in their hands. They processed into our dark church sanctuary as

We all remember traditional songs sung during the winter season, traditional foods creeping into our winter diets, and traditional celebrations such as Yule logs, grandma’s fruitcake, and the ugly sweat-er. There was a long-standing traditional celebration at our Bridgeport and then Easton Covenant churches that was more than just a tradition—it was an evangelical moment in time that reoccurred for al-most 30 years every December 13th, or thereabouts. It was called our Luciafest. Let me describe it:

they softly sang, in Swedish, Sankta Lucia. (In this case, “Lucia” is pro-nounced with a soft “c.”) When they had arranged themselves in two rows up on the platform stage and continued to sing, one final young teen or woman entered, dressed in white with a red sash tied at her waist, a crown of lit candles on her head, and carrying a silver scroll. Back when Sweden was a Catholic country, before the reformation, the Catholic church felt it necessary to replace pagan celebrations with Christian celebrations of saints and martyrs. Because the Scandinavian lands celebrated the winter solstice on December 13 and built huge bon-fires by which to call back the sun and celebrate their Norse gods, with

one that remembered an Italian saint, Lucia, and her martyrdom. The tradition is that, in the 4th century or thereabouts, when Lucia was a young girl and engaged to a Roman, she accepted Christ as her Savior. She was wealthy and decided to break her engagement and give all her dowry to the poor. This enraged her fiancé. Some tradi-tions say she was burned at the stake, oth-ers say her eyes were burned out, but all say she was martyred for her faith in Jesus. So pagan celebration of the winter solstice became a Christian celebration of the faith-fulness of a young woman, possibly born or martyred on December 13, who’s life was ended by fire. Fast forward to medieval Sweden. There was a famine in one district in Sweden and the story goes that, during the worst of the famine, a ship loaded with food and other necessities crossed a major lake in Sweden

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COVENANT CHURCH OF EASTON Loving God, Growing Together, Serving Others

1 Sport Hill Road

Easton, CT 06612

203.371.8335

www.coveaston.org

program of strong Scripture choices from the Book of Revelation, wonderful hymns such as “One Day He’s Coming, O Glorious Day!” and “Day by Day, and With Each Passing Moment.” In addition to the girls in white, one girl entered dressed in dark brown. As a pilgrim, she asked questions of the maidens and they re-plied in Scripture and in song of how the pilgrim could come to know Jesus as Sav-ior. The climax of the pro-gram was that the pilgrim would give her life to Christ and two of the maidens would come to her and re-move the brown robe to re-veal a white robe beneath, and would place a silver gar-land on her head. All girls would then leave the sanctu-ary slowly, singing, with Lu-cia being the last to leave. Those of us who stood at the back to assist director Wivan, noted that there were many in tears as they left the sanctuary. Over the years there have been many who let us know they either renewed their commitment to Christ, or had heard His

call to them in a special new way and were ready to re-ceive Him as Lord. For this we were always totally hum-bled by the mighty power of our God. Luciafest is part of our rich history and tradition as a church. It brought the mes-sage of Christ in a relatable cultural form. We celebrate how God worked through us in the past, through the men and women God used to build this faith family, while looking ahead to how God will use us in new ways to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to our ever changing community. May we live out Paul’s encour-agement:

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Merry Christmas!

Linda Gustavson

ing is not part of Christmas, likewise the Luciafest is not part of Christmas, but heralds the beginning of the Christmas season for Swedes. Because our Easton church was founded by Swedish Americans in the late 1800’s, they enjoyed the same tradi-tions. But in many places, the Luciafest has devolved into just a traditional pre-season celebration, like see-ing Santa Claus arrive on a firetruck the day after Thanksgiving. However, the Luciafest at Covenant, both in Bridgeport and Easton, was a powerful evangelistic program aimed at bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ or a renewed relationship with Him. Under the extremely capable leadership of Wivan Sundman and organist Ruth Linder, our Luciafest had a script borrowed from bits and pieces of the material Wivan had brought with her out of her past as a lieuten-ant in the Salvation Army in Sweden. It was a complete

and arrived at the famine territory on December 13, just in time to save many lives. The ship’s passen-gers were young women clothed in white and their leader had a crown of lit candles on her head. Alt-hough Lucia is not Swe-den’s patron saint (Birgitta is), she is the most beloved because of this story. Fast forward again to the Reformation. Much of what was being taught in the Swedish churches was not soundly Biblical. Many Swedes refused to pay their taxes to the church because of the unsound teachings. They would even call out, “Where is it written??” Because of their desire to be taught correctly con-cerning the Savior, their lands and stock were con-fiscated, many were im-prisoned, and many ulti-mately immigrated to America and specifically to the Chicago area. Be-cause they were far from home in a new land with a new language, many of their traditions came with them. One of them was to remember and cele-brate Lucia and her “fest.” Just as Thanksgiv-

As you walk around the church, you will see praying hands on certain windows. When you see them, take the time to walk over to the window and look at the additional sheet taped next to them. Each sheet can be seen from both outside and inside the window and gives you a list of the activities that go on in the church at or near that window. The list, not only has the activities, but the names of the leaders and an appropriate Scripture passage. Life Groups, Youth activities, music, Worship, business meetings, office staff . . . you name it, they are all there. Take the time to read the list and then say a prayer for our leaders and for those that you know are in-volved in that activity. Even though you may not have all the words or be in the right frame of mind, here is was the Bible says about your prayers. . . the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit him-self intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

Romans 8:26-27, NIV So, pray for those in our church. All you need to do is walk around the church, inside or out, and say a pray that comes from your heart. We need your prayers. The church needs your prayers.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from all of us in the Discipleship Ministry! Life Group Leaders Bob Rieger, Director of Discipleship Staff

Paul Veerman, Discipleship Ministry Chair

The financial results of the General Operating Fund for the months ended October 31, 2016 were as follows:

After a small deficit in September, we (the Church) returned to a year-to-date surplus. Expenses for the month of October were just a hair under budget, so a pick-up in income was the sole reason for the change from deficit last month to a surplus in October. During the 2017 Stewardship Program presentation on Sunday, November 3, I reported that Offering Receipts through the end of September averaged $9,407 per week, compared to $10,713 projected in the 2016 Financial Plan. It was further reported that continuation of the average to date would leave us with a meaningful deficit at year-end. A deficit could be avoided by raising the average weekly amount to $9,958, which would require Offering Receipts for the last 13 weeks to average $11,609. We averaged $10,805 for October, but for the first seven weeks of the fourth quarter (including October), the average increased to $11,438. This represents a tremendously gratifying response to the need to financially support the care of our staff and the ministries of this church, and is a real testament to the generosity of the congregation. THANK YOU and we pray that the last six weeks of this year will see a continuation of the Lord’s leading this church body.

Bob Fiscus Treasurer

Treasurer’s Report Continued from Front Page

Discipleship Ministry

Our youth will be putting their faith into action by spreading Christmas cheer and singing Christmas Carols to the sick and shut-in at local senior facilities on Wednes-day, November 30th (OASIS) and Thursday, December 8th (JHAMS). Our Annual Youth Group Christmas Parties are on Thursday, December 1 (JHAMS) and Wednesday, December 7 (OASIS) and will include a special dinner prepared by some of our wonderful parents!

Please Join Us for our 3rd Annual Holiday Trip to The Brooklyn Tabernacle in Brooklyn, New York. A Chartered Bus will leave the Covenant Church building at 11:30 am sharp on Saturday morning, December 17th. The show starts at 2:00 pm, and we should return to the church building by 6:00 pm. Sign Up on the Poster in the Welcome Center. Be sure to Pack Snacks and/or a Sack Lunch for the trip! For more information, please speak with Wiley Mullins.

Thank you to the Pecego, Keegan and Adriani families and everyone else who helped with set up and clean up for Operation Christmas Child. Pictures of this year’s event can be viewed on the Welcome Center TV.

THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS

Presented By: The Brooklyn Tabernacle Saturday, December 17

SHOW TIME: 2:00 pm — 4:00 pm Bus Departs for the Show at 11:30 am from Covenant Church

COST: FREE Winter Creative Craft

Weekend December 2-4

Family Winter

Weekend February 17-20

Visit www.pilgrimpines.org for more information.

NOTE: CrossFit will NOT meet from December 11 through January 1 Youth Groups will NOT meet on December 21 & 22 and December 28 & 29

HAVE YOU REGISTERED YOUR STUDENT FOR OUR WINTER RETREAT?!

WinterFest 2017 High School Retreat is January 6-8

WinterBlast 2017 Junior High Retreat is January 20-22 Parents MUST register their student online** www.pilgrimpines.org/campsquanto/youthretreats **There are two retreat options for the Junior High Retreat—be sure to select the weekend of January 20-22. We’ll enjoy powerful worship and awesome seminars! There will also be lots of fun activities including a 40-person hot tub, three 800 foot zip lines, a climbing wall, disc golf, great food, giveaways, late night pizza party, games & prizes. These will be amazing weekends that your kids will never forget! **A separate fee of $45 will be collected in January for each student that covers the cost of rented vans, adult leaders and other administrative costs. For questions or more details about any of these events or our Youth Ministry pro-gram, contact Pastor Debbie debbie@coveaston.org or (cell) 203.668.5350.

12/2 Larry Boyle 12/3 Bob Rieger Kyle Lent 12/4 Bill Morin 12/7 Kasey Kellerman 12/8 Sadie Linnen 12/9 Lyn Wemple Mike Blair 12/10 Carol Mojcher 12/11 Randy Cobaugh 12/14 Sam Keegan Mark Hatfield Shannon Grumet ♥Dot & Helge Svenson♥ 12/17 Bob Forstrom 12/21 Carolyn Carlson 12/22 Denise Cameron 12/24 Dave Cameron Carola Perez Sara Meachen 12/28 Bobbie Morgan Elena Meachen ♥Nancy & Tom Wilber♥

The Service Ministry is offering an opportunity to give Christmas gifts for children whose families cannot afford to purchase them, in partnership with Gethsemane Assemblies of God Church in Bridgeport.

Here’s how you can help Visit the poster in the Fellowship Hall and select a child. After selecting a child and purchasing a gift, return your wrapped gift, with the child’s nametag attached to it, and place it under the Christmas tree in the Welcome Center no later than Sunday, December 18th and place them under the Welcome Center Christmas tree. Questions? Please contact Charlene Skok (crskok@gmail.com or 203.373.0547).

Christmas Toy Drive for Kids A Great Way to Show Our Love and Care

Friday, December 16

The Joyful Sisters Annual Christmas Celebration will be hosted by Adrienne Reedy at her home in Wilton on Friday, December 16th. The group will depart the church, with their faithful driver Bob Lindquist, sometime around 11:30 am.

The celebration will include a delicious meal specially prepared by Adrienne (she’s a wonderful cook!), music, games, laughter, and lots of fun! If you would like to participate, contact Mary Avila (203.259.4802) or the Church Office.