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Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

One of the wandering sheep of the Christmas Pageant.

All youth and children are invited to participate in our annual Christmas Pageant during our Christmas Eve family service at 5:00pm on Friday, December 24th.

There is a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in the narthex where children or parents can sign up and request the role they would like to play. We cannot promise certain roles, but would like to know preferences. We need youth volunteers to fill certain roles: pageant narrator, the Angel Gabriel, Mary, and Joseph. Other roles include a star, wise men, shepherds, angels, animals (donkey, sheep, cow, etc.) The church will supply the costumes and props for the pageant.

Michelle Moody will direct the pageant this year and needs adult volunteers to help her. She will hold a rehearsal on Sunday, December 12th right after church. All the pageant actors and volunteers will be treated to a pizza lunch.

Any adults who would like to help are encouraged to join us. We are hopeful that this will be fun and educational for the children. If anyone has questions or suggestions, they may call Michelle Moody at 706-604-5627 or email her at: michellelynnmoody@gmail.com.

Regular Sunday Morning Schedule Returns

This Sunday, August 8, we will return to our regular Sunday morning schedule!

8:30am Holy Eucharist: This service is for our early-risers. Unlike many other church’s early services, though, it is a service of Holy Eucharist with music, although we will occasionally omit a hymn or two based on time. We have almost identical services at St. Nicholas to ensure unity among the members of the church. Just because you get up early doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the full worship experience!

9:15am Breakfast: Last year, we started a very successful breakfast in between the services. Under the leadership of Sheila Dixon, families can sign up to provide a continental breakfast once every few months. This gives an opportunity for people from both services to gather and catch up with one another. What better way to do so than over food? Jesus did that all the time! So either stay after the early service or come a little early before Christian Formation and the late service to get a light breakfast and some excellent fellowship.

9:45am Christian Formation classes/Choir Warm-Up: We used to call this just “Sunday School,” but then adults starting thinking it was just for kids! Christian formation is a life-long process, and we offer numerous opportunities for children, teenagers, and adults to grow in their faith and get to know one another better!

• Nursery: Infants to 3-year-olds can enjoy some play time in the nursery, tended by the wonderful Kim Stokes. There are toys, videos, and books for our youngest members, and Ms. Kim will also take children out to the playground if the weather cooperates. Kim is available to watch children from Breakfast until after the 11:00 service.

• Sunday School: 3-to-9-year-olds are invited for a fun-filled class with games, crafts, and biblical learning. They are met each week in the Sunday School room by one of many teachers who help kids know that God loves them and cares for them. The children have Sunday School until just before the 11:00 service, at which point parents can gather them to sit with them in church, or they may sit on the front row with a “Shepherd” for worship. Either way, we believe that having children in church is vitally important to their faith development, so be sure to teach your child how to worship. It’s OK to take them out if they get fussy and bring them back when they calm down. If you have questions or need some help, please contact Fr. Jeff. If you’re interested in becoming a Sunday School teacher, contact Michelle Moody. This Sunday will be our Sunday School kick-off, with special snacks for our kids!

• Teen Class: Youth who are 10-years-old and up are invited to join Terri and Kenny Townsend and Heather Roper for a class just for them. They’ll talk about issues and challenges that are pertinent to their lives as well as have fun. This semester, the Teen Class will be focusing on prayer, and why it’s important (or is it?), and what ways Christians can pray. Usually, this class meets in Fr. Jeff’s office, but this Sunday, the group will meet from 9:15 to 10:30 at the home of Fr. Jeff and Molly Jackson (323 Hill Street, Hamilton) for their own breakfast and catching-up time.

• Adult Class: Everyone else, young adults and up, are invited to meet in the left ante room (left of the altar) for biblical and theological reflection. This year, we will do a series of classes in “blocks.” The first block will be taught by Fr. Jeff and is called “Faith & Finances.” We’ll meet for 5 weeks on this topic, ranging from “What Happened to the Economy?” to “Unemployment” to “Helping Your Family Through Family Stress.” So grab a cup of coffee and come as we talk about issues that matter and how our faith can help guide us through.
• Choir Warm-Up: In the nave, our Music Director Sam Roney meets with the choir to warm up for the music at the 11:00 service. Regular choir rehearsal is on Wednesdays at 6:30pm, but even if you can’t make that rehearsal, Sam welcomes you to come and sing with the choir. This group is always laughing as well as singing because Sam keeps choir fun, and worshipful. If you’d like to learn more about singing in the choir, contact Sam.

11:00am Holy Eucharist: This service is for our late-risers (although we hope that you’ll come for breakfast and Christian formation)! This is a full worship service, at which the Choir processes and leads the singing, our acolytes process in with crosses, torches, and other implements, children are invited to sit on the front row, and youth and adult readers read the lessons. Quite often, Fr. Jeff will gather the children together for a brief children’s sermon. After the 11:00 service, there are refreshments served for more fellowship.

So it’s a full morning of worship, education, and fellowship at St. Nicholas! Now’s a good time to jump back in if you’ve been gone, or if you haven’t visited with us before! It’s a new beginning!

VBS Was Spicy Hot!

Most of the time, a weekday at St. Nicholas is pretty quiet. Dorothy may be there a few times a week tending to the books. I’m in and out depending on what I’ve got going on. Every once in a while, if I’m sitting in my office someone will pop in and sit down and chat. I’m an extrovert (you didn’t notice?), and find that many of my days at St. Nicholas are pretty introverted, so I love having visitors. Read more

VBS Fiesta Starts Monday!

Next week, July 26-30, our church will turn into a full-fledged Fiesta! We are all excited to welcome all 3 to 9-year-olds for a week of fun, crafts, games, snacks, and lots of learning about who Jesus is! We have a cadre of fantastic adult and teen leaders for the week. There is still room to sign up, but do so today!

At the end of the week, we will meet over at Cason & Nancy Callaway’s Blue Springs home for a picnic and swimming in their pool! Parents will need to accompany their children, and we will have lifeguards present for the morning.

If you have any children in your neighborhood or family who would like to come, please sign up by clicking here.

We will be decorating for Fiesta after church on Sunday. All are welcome to join us! We’ll also be doing a brief training for the teen group leaders, so be sure to stick around for that!

Join Me At TAP!

As some of you know, I am involved with the Thompson-Pound Art Program (TAP), a program sponsored by CVEM (Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministries) for children ages 6 through 11. It brings children from different economic, social, and religious backgrounds to give them an experience of learning from those different from them in hopes to build a more peaceful future. It’s all art-related, including crafts, music, dance/movement, etc. and is a TON of fun. The groups of children rotate through various stations throughout the day and all learn a lot and have a great time.

Vacation Bible School, July 26-30

UPDATE! At our meeting on Sunday, we decided to move VBS back to the week of July 26-30, so as not to conflict with other churches who have their programs going in June. This will also give us some more time to plan.

You can now sign up for VBS by clicking here!

Vacation Bible School is approaching quickly. As this will be St. Nicholas’ first VBS, we could use your help. Our goal is to provide a fun-filled week of activities for children ages 3 through 9. Read more

The Fishing Priest

There’s a lot of stuff I like to do–read comic books, hike, draw, play guitar. But one of my occasional pastimes is fishing. I’m not quite sure how I started fishing. My parents never took us fishing when we were growing up. I guess my first experience with a rod and reel was at summer camp at Honey Creek in the Diocese of Georgia. The camp is on a tidewater creek off of the inter-coastal waterway. Honey Creek has a dock, so we used to spend a lot of time, especially when we were camp counselors, sitting on that dock and casting out into the deep water at high tide. So I cut my fishing teeth on catching mullet, catfish, toadfish, stingrays, and the occasional shark.

Read more

Contemplating Children & the Shepherd

Last weekend, a group of us from St. Nicholas went up to Atlanta for the annual Ministry Fair. The Ministry Fair is a wonderful resource to all of us in the Diocese of Atlanta. There are a host of workshops ranging from spirituality to finances, from adult education to children’s curricula.

One of the workshops I went to was on a program called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. I went primarily as a parent more than a priest, but found this program stimulated both natures. I tried to get a program like this going at my last parish, but was not successful in getting people around the vision. At the time, I also didn’t have children, so my interest level might not have been at it’s highest. Read more

Christian Formation Kick Off This Sunday!

St. Nicholas is getting fired up for our Sunday School this year! Come and join us for our kick-off Sunday, August 30! Adults, teens, and children’s Sunday School classes start at 9:45 a.m. Read more

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