You're invited. St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church is holding a Kirkin of the Tartan and Evening Prayer service on Thursday November 30 at 7:00 PM. November 30 is St. Andrew’s Day. St. Andrew, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, is the Patron Saint of Scotland. The service will include a blessing of Scottish tartans and a bagpiper (Matt Kuldell).  It will be followed by a reception with Scottish foods, beverages, and more Celtic music. Please invite family, friends, and neighbors. 


“In the night in which He was betrayed ...”

Those familiar words are of course from the Prayer of Consecration on page eighty of the Book of Common Prayer. They are not merely there to mark a specific time for The Last Supper; there is more of a point to them than that. 

Jesus and His disciples are gathered together in the midst of a hostile city filled with enemies set upon His death. He knows that He will be betrayed by one of those disciples, one of those whom He has led, taught, and traveled with for many months over many miles. They have heard His words and seen His works. No one has had more prolonged or intimate contact with Him, and one of them will betray Him to condemnation, ridicule, torture, and a painful and degrading public execution. 

Human life has many pains and disappointments, but few are more damaging than betrayal. To be harmed by a trusted person or even a trusted institution is deeply traumatic. When the denomination in which I was ordained and in which I served for decades abandoned centuries of Biblical faith and tradition in order to accommodate itself to the tastes and values of secular society I felt for a very long time a personal sense of betrayal that made it difficult if not impossible to trust anything or anyone on earth beyond family and a very few close friends. And that was an institutional betrayal. How much worse must it have been for Jesus to know that He faced a personal betrayal, that one of those personally closest to Him would sell Him to his mortal enemies?

His response was to make it clear to those at table with Him that He was giving Himself to them in a way that neither betrayal, nor desertion, nor torture, nor execution could ever overcome. The gift of His Body and Blood in the bread and wine was by His words made an eternal and unbreakable bond deriving its reality not from frail human will or understanding but from divine authority. We all in many ways fail Him, but He will never fail us.

Yes, it was “in the night” in more ways than one. The powers of demonic darkness were at a peak of their strength, and Satan must have danced with glee at the miserable fate that awaited Jesus at the hands of His enemies. But it is the fate of Satan not to realize that his power, great though it may be from time to time in this world, is but a trifle compared to the power of God both in this world and beyond it.

Those same disciples would in just a few hours desert Jesus out of fear of the baneful strength of His enemies. They would all flee from those enemies, and even staunch Peter would deny knowing Him, not just once but three times. They knew the might of those who sought Jesus' life, and knew that they would triumph against Him.

What they did not yet know was that God would turn that triumph of evil into evil's greatest defeat. When the resurrected Christ appeared to them and showed that His life, the life that He had shared with them and that now lived in them, was eternally victorious over all betrayal and hatred, they were transformed into those who would share that life with all who believed in Him. They would face without flinching all of the hostility and murderous power of the world and bring light and life to millions yet unborn.

We, too, live in what is in many ways a dark time, but while that is due cause for sadness it is not a cause for despair. As Saint Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 that “ ...we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Those powers may seem greater than we can resist, but they never have been and will not eternally be great enough to overcome the power of the living and true God.

In that dark night, Jesus was betrayed and soon crucified, and His enemies rejoiced that they had removed Him from the world, but the Resurrection was His return, and He will never leave it and will, in God's good time, rule over all. We have His word for it.

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”                                                                                       --- Matthew 28:18-20

---  Father Bragg+

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

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Upcoming Services & Events

Sunday Services, 7:45 AM, 9:00 AM, & 11:15 AM (for online participation for the services go to: https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland/ )

Sunday School at 10:30 AM

Vestry Meeting, Monday November 27, 7:30 PM, Church undercroft

Wednesday at Noon – Holy Communion and anointing for healing (for online participation, check info under Sunday Services)

Kirkin of the Tartan & Evening Prayer, St. Andrew's Day, Thursday November 30, 7:00 PM,with bagpiper and presentation of tartans followed by a gala reception with Scottish and other foods, Scottish beverages and a great time of fellowship and fun. Please put this on your calendar now and invite family, friends, and neighbors. Sign up sheet to bring items for reception available on bulletin board in church undercroft.

Each month parishioners provide food for the Christ House food bank and things needed for babies and infants to the local crisis pregnancy center. Donations have really dropped off. St. Andrew & St. Margaret parish has a long history of helping others in the community.  Please take a look at the lists below and, if you can, please provide some of the needed items.  You can also help by donating money  through the secure donation button in this e-letter by selecting Charity & Mercy in the drop down menu on the donation page. Your help is needed. Thank you.  
 
Updated List of Needs for MaRIH Center (crisis pregnancy center)
MaRIH Center with its all volunteer staff provides help to mothers-to-be and mothers in need.  If you can provide some of the items that are needed, please do so. (You can leave the donations where the food for the food bank is collected on the pew in the undercorft.)

Especially Needed
 Items with  * are a critical need.

Diapers (sizes newborn, 1, 2, 3, 4*, 5*, & 6*)
Lovies
Baby wipes*
Diaper rash ointment
Fall/Winter Clothing:0-3 mo*, 3-6 mo*, 12-18 mo*, 2T*
Baby shampoo
Baby blankets*
Bibs
Formula: Simulac Advance Formula*
Formula: other but not recalled
Wash clothes
Hooded towels
Grocery gift cards*

Food Donations 
Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Christ House is very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar).  Current needs include the following:
• canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
• peanut butter
• jelly
• tuna
• canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
• individual fruit cups (low sugar)
• canned fruit (low sugar)
• cereal (low sugar)
• pasta (regular and gluten-free)
• instant potatoes
• Macaroni & cheese kits
• Coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar 
 

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St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland
1607 Dewitt Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301-1625