SERVING THIS SUNDAY



Coffee Hour: Ruth Ann Wrucke

Usher: Daniel Alegria

Altar Guild: Betsy Alexander

Acolyte: Louise Delafield

The Lesson: Paul Lovoi

The Epistle: Angela Hey

Intercessions: Lenore Lovoi

HAPPENING THIS WEEK



Sunday, February 18th

10 a.m. Service

Nursery

Sunday School

Monday, February 19th

Church office closed in

observance of President's Day

CELEBRATIONS THIS WEEK

Birthdays

James Coker

Anniversaries

John & Belinda Lipa

For pastoral care we invite you to reach out to The Reverend Claire Dietrich Ranna



Tel: 650-948-2151 x 203

Cell: 415-305-0593

Email: claire@ccla.us

CHRIST CHURCH PRAYS

Please join as a community in lifting up the following people to God in prayer:

Remembrance -- Doug Soffey, Francis Mack, Helen Bond, Dale Sprankle, Elisabeth Ashfield, Beth Sweet, Sally Holland



Healing -- Paul Lovoi, Carl Cheney, Chris O'Connell, George Mallinckrodt, Betsy Alexander, Kelly, Mary Jennings, Maria Chicas, Robert Redfern-West, Gabriella, Hugh Sawyer, Peggy Dubes, Richard Stinnette, Tom Schneider, Denise Pagan, Julian, Ron Larson, Don “Jake” Jacobson

BISHOP'S OFFICE UPDATES

Registration is now open for the May 4 ordination and consecration service

Register now to save your seat!

The Rev. Austin Keith Rios will be ordained and consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of California at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 4 at Grace Cathedral.

Please share this invitation (English, Español) with anyone who may want to attend in person or via live stream.

Please remind in-person attendees to register via this link: https://diocalbishopsearch.org/registration/. 

CARILLON SPRING AUCTION

Dear Christ Church Community,

The countdown has begun for the Carillon Spring Auction: Galactic Gala, a Cosmic Cause! It's time to buy your tickets and get ready to blast off to a faraway galaxy for an evening of glitter and glam and a sparkling good time! 

Come in glitter and sparkles, or as your favorite Star Wars character on Saturday, May 4th from 6:30pm to 9:30pm to Christ Church in Portola Valley!

We invite you to please purchase your tickets for this super fun event! Let's celebrate together with a night of fun, food, friends, silent auction, raffles, and dancing the night away in support of our favorite preschool!

The auction lineup includes awesome prizes at every price point, details coming soon...

Tickets are available ONLINE NOW- please click HERE to purchase tickets and/or donate! We would love for everyone to attend - there is absolutely NO expectation to bid! If you would like to attend with a donated ticket, please reach out to Anne Van der Staay or Cara O'Connell to receive a ticket donated by a community member.  

We are So excited to see you all and support our amazing preschool!

STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE

Thank you to all who have pledged or contributed to our 2024 Stewardship Campaign. These funds are the lifeblood of our parish and are vital to our existence We greatly appreciate everyone’s collective generosity! To date, we have raised $270,000 from 42 donors. Our goal (and our need) is $375K from 70 donors so we still have a ways to go!  

Please consider how you can support Christ Church in 2024 and let us know via this form  or by email or by returning your pledge card.  

OUTREACH COMMITTEE NEWS

Full-Sized Toiletries and Laundry Supplies Needed: Coast House shelter in Half Moon Bay (84 people including 15 children) and Redwood Family House (RFH) in Redwood City (a shelter for 10 families) are in urgent need of full-sized toiletries and laundry supplies. (shampoo, conditioner, body wash,TP, Kleenex and more). Laundry supplies (laundry pods, dryer sheets) are also needed. Starting Sunday February 4 until Sunday March 3rd we will be collecting toiletries in the large marked box in the breezeway. Items will be delivered as they come in. Click on the Signup Genius to see what is needed. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094FA8AE2DA13-47680865-toiletrieslaundry   A first delivery was made on Saturday February 3rd to Coast House, prior to the drive beginning; a delivery to Redwood Family house will take place early next week. Pots and pans are also needed for RFH. Questions, contact Kathy Kennedy at kennedyiti@aol.com or 650-291-9678.  

SpiritCare Visit to Silver Oaks: On Sunday February 18th, 1:30 Outreach will visit Silver Oaks Memory Care in Menlo Park. Singers, readers and senior hand-holders are needed. Contact Angela Hey at amhey@heymash.com or 650-796-2377 to volunteer. We will have Valentines available again on Sunday February 18th for you to sign during coffee house which we will take to the seniors.  Along with hymns and familiar prayers, we will talk about St. Valentine, the patron saint of chocolates, flowers and Hallmark cards but really his holiday is a replacement for the popular “fertility” festival Lupercalia (named after the wolf god). Lupercalia was effectively an orgy which also welcomed spring back to Italy. The feverish highlight of the three day festival was on February 15th. After Rome became Christian, 5th century Pope Gelasius I (492-496) needed a replacement for Lupercalia and chose Valentine, an early Christian martyr. Valentine illegally married Roman soldiers just prior to deployment and was conveniently beheaded on February 14, 272 AD; close enough. St. Valentine’s Day lingered in obscurity on a church calendar when, a thousand years later, Geoffrey Chaucer rediscovered it and set a laudatory poem on that date commemorating the betrothal of 15 year old King Richard II. We will tell St. Valentine’s tale, share love stories, deliver your Valentines and enjoy chocolates together. SpiritCare provides spiritual and emotional support for “forgotten” elderly and disabled residents at over 60 care centers in the Bay Area. Christ Church has partnered in this important ministry with Silver Oaks in Menlo Park which supports 46 seniors suffering from memory issues.

Dinner for 84 at Coast House on Saturday February 3.   Our thanks to Miki Anderson, Carol Wentworth and Ruth Ann Wrucke who prepared a wonderful dinner of Roast Beef with gravy, mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. A second entree of salmon, brown rice and green Chile peppers with Cole Slaw was also available for adults along with fish sticks and sweet potato fries for the children.  Everyone enjoys Carol Wentworth cookies. Ruth Ann also took 2 box loads of full-sized toiletries/laundry supplies with her for delivery. Contact Ruth Ann Wrucke at 650-851-8435 or cwrucke@mindspring.com to volunteer in the future. Coast House is one of the newest of the Life Moves shelters and houses 84 adults, couples, plus a few families (with 15 kids) in a converted Coast side motel. It is the only interim shelter with support services for those experiencing homelessness on the San Mateo Coast; those services are provided irregardless of immigration status.

Outerwear and Underwear for Coast House, Done At Last!. The last full van load of warm underwear and new underwear was delivered to Coast House Shelter on Thursday January 18th though an additional final delivery (we promise) of six boxwoods of “extra” clothes was made to the Navigation Center (formerly Maple Street Shelter) in RWC on Friday February 9th. Outreach made seven deliveries since December 15th including a special run on December 23rd (for Christmas for the children). Deliveries include Outerwear (201 pairs of new socks, 30 hats, 18 scarves, 41 pair of gloves, 79 jackets, 3 rain ponchos, 174 sweaters/sweatshirts, 265 shirts, 177 pairs of pants and more) and Underwear (195 pairs of new underpants plus 73 bras). 20 warm blankets were also delivered. Thank you so much for your generosity!!!  Thanks also to clothing folders, boxers and deliverers: Pam Kaufman, Kathy Kennedy, Dave Miller, Kelly Miller, Erin Miller, Duane Soubirous, Mary Soubirous, Carol Wentworth, Bob Wrucke and Ruth Ann Wrucke.  

During the January 13th delivery much needed toiletries (shampoo/conditioner, body wash, toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant) were included to tide them over until the February toiletries/laundry supplies drive begins. Coast House is one of the newest of the Life Moves shelters and houses 84 people including adults, couples, plus a few families (with 15 kids) in a converted Coast side motel. It is the only shelter that provides interim shelter and support services for those experiencing homelessness on the San Mateo Coast, including displaced farm workers.  

Seeking Hotel-sized Toiletries: Are you on vacation or going on one soon? If you picked up any travel size shampoo, conditioner, soap or lotion during your last hotel stay, you can donate them for use at Coast House. Bring them to the box in the breezeway. And if you have a toothbrush or toothpaste your dentist gave you on your last visit that you have no use for, they could use that too. Children’s toiletries will be delivered to Redwood Family House in Redwood City. Coast House shelter is located in Half Moon Bay and provides housing for 84 coast side homeless adults, couples and a few families, currently with 15 kids. Life Moves is also providing support for local farm workers from this site.

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Women’s Spirituality meets on Wednesday morning from 10:00 - 11:30 remotely, on Zoom. Contact Mary Jennings at emjennings@aol.com for more information. On Wednesday February 14th we began reading Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr. “Drawing on the wisdom from time-honored myths, heroic poems, great thinkers and religious texts, the author explores the two halves of life to show that those who have fallen, failed, or “gone down” are the only ones who understand “up.”  We grow spiritually more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. A few useful quotes from the book are “Sin happens whenever we refuse to keep growing.” “The people who know God well - mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God - always meet a lover not a dictator. Intrigued? Join us. Weekly readings are assigned, then the the group discusses them during the meeting. 

In these divided times, outside of the group, some of us are also reading The Kingdom, the Power, the Glory : American Evangelism in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta. One of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year, the award winning-journalist and staff writer of The Atlantic follows up his New York Times Best Seller American Carnage with this timely, rigorously reported and deeply personal examination of the divisions that threaten to destroy the American evangelical movement. If there is interest, we anticipate doing a one week discussion (1 1/2 hours) on this book in the future.   

EVENTS IN THE COMMUNITY

Caregiver Support Group

Tuesday, February 13, 2024 6:00 p.m.

Christ Church Los Altos is offering a weekly virtual Caregiver Support Group on Tuesday evenings. The group is led by Laura Reinitz, a Los Altos based therapist who facilitated the CCLA general support group offered last year, and meets via Zoom at 6:00p.m. If you think this group could be a good fit for you, please contact Rev. Claire about joining (claire@ccla.us).

Convivium Choir Concert “Reaching for Light”

Saturday, February 17, 2024 5:00 p.m.

The chamber choir Convivium offers a unique concert program on Saturday, February 17 in Oakland and Sunday, February 18 at Christ Church Los Altos. "Reaching for Light" tells the stories of survivors who fought for the greater good during their lifetimes. This diverse concert program emphasizes the dire need for collective action against violent oppression, ranging from modern works protesting police brutality against Black women to Renaissance polyphony that artfully decries religious persecution. Many selections bring pivotal historic figures to life in a moving appeal for peace, including abolitionist Harriet Tubman, suffragist Mabel Lee, and even a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Overall, Convivium’s upcoming performance reminds us that our collective faith in a brighter future is a unifying sign of hope for humanity.

Free admission with suggested donation: $20 general, $10 student

For tickets & more info: https://conviviumchoir.org/events

Bearing Witness: Lenten Study

Wednesday, February 21, 2024 6:00 p.m.

Christ Church Los Altos is having a Lenten Study this year which centers the lives and stories of Christians living in the Holy Land. This year they'll join Episcopal congregations across the country in a five-week series called Bearing Witness created by the American Friends of the Diocese of Jerusalem. This series, produced before the war began, centers the lives of Christians and the ministry of the Anglican church in this blessed and broken corner of creation. We'll hear directly from lay and ordained leaders, learn more about the day to day life in Israel and Palestine, and come to understand more deeply the challenges and opportunities of our brothers and sisters in Christ who live and move and have their being in the same land as Jesus. Each of the five sessions focuses on a theme of Jesus’ ministry: Belonging, Healing, Teaching, Breaking Barriers, Building Hope. All are welcome! 

This Lenten Study kicks off with a potluck in the Parish Hall on Wednesday, February 21st from 6pm - 7:30pm. There is no Community Dinner that week so the whole session will take place in the Parish Hall. In the weeks that follow, we'll all gather for Community Dinner and eat from 6pm - 6:30pm, then everyone interested in the study will be invited to one of our classrooms from 6:30pm - 7:30pm. We'll provide additional childcare supervision of the Parish Hall during that hour for any parents with young children. The series runs from Wednesday, February 21st through Wednesday, March 20th. 

Spiritual Rave

Saturday, February 24, 2024 1:00 p.m.

Join Christ Church Los Altos for a unique and transformative experience at our inaugural Spiritual Rave - an afternoon designed to attune ourselves to the Divine through Scripture. We will immerse ourselves in Mark 9:2-9, alternating between seated meditation and an open period of holy work. You are invited to engage with the Scripture in a way that resonates with you, whether through journaling, poetry, art, or walking meditation.

Meditation cushions and chairs will be provided to ensure your comfort. Please bring water, snacks, and any materials you may need—a journal and pen, art supplies, etc.—to explore the profound expression of God's inspiration working within you. This Spiritual Rave seeks to create a sacred space for self-discovery and spiritual connection, allowing inspiration to unfold through various forms of self-expression. Any questions? Please contact Minister for Adult Formation Alice Kochunov at alice.j.landis@gmail.com.