Bountiful First Baptist Church
1915 South Orchard Drive
Bountiful, Utah 84010
The Epistle
Bountiful First Baptist Church
______
It's Gospel Music Tyme
Bountiful First Baptist Church
1915 South Orchard Dr, Bountiful
invites you to join us on
Sunday October 12th at 11:00am to hear
Churches United Gospel Choir
Followed by a good ol' southern BBQ
on the east lawn
Chicken, Ribs, Potato Salad, Greens, Rolls, Beverages & Fruit Cobbler
Main meal provided by "The Point" Restaurant at Huntsman Cancer Center
More Info On Gospel Sunday
….This will be quite the event for our church and we need lots of help to get it all accomplished. As of the printing of this newsletter there are only 9 cobblers to feed 120 people.
Please sign up to make a cobbler or two for this event. If you wish to help but cant bring a cobbler please see Pastor Don or Velvet if you wish to donate monetarily to the cause.
On Sunday before the service we will need all able bodied men to help move the furniture at the front of the church and to move tables and chairs outside to the east lawn of the church. We will also need people to serve the food. Even though the food is being prepared by “The Point” restaurant we will need to serve it. There will additional sign up sheets outside the office or let Velvet know you are willing to help. (801 205-7550).
Congratulations
On Friday, September 19, 2008 Eric Lee Proctor was welcomed into this world in Alameda, California. He weighed 4 pounds 9 ounces and was 17 3/4 inches long. Pastor Don and Marge are the very proud grandparents. Their son, John and his wife, Stacy are the very happy parents. By the way, he is a beautiful baby! Just ask Marge to see the pictures!
American Baptist Women’s Ministries of Utah presents “Come to the Edge, and Beyond” Annual Conference. Saturday, October 25th. 9a-2p First Baptist Church parlor, 777 S 1300 E, Salt Lake City. Guest Speaker is Marian Stephen. Come sing, pray, and fellowship. Continental Breakfast begins at 8:30a, light lunch at 12:30p. It’s FREE but an RSVP would be welcomed. Call Karen at 801 918-5104 or 801 486-8539.
Gatherings and Musings
Besides our Gospel Sunday, the monthly meeting of committees/boards and business meeting will be Thursday the 9th. Committees/boards will meet at 6:30p followed by the general business meeting at 7:30p. American Baptist Women usually meet the 4th Thursday at 7p. Choir practice is at 7:30p each Wednesday evening. The first Sunday of the month the Deacon’s offering is taken, the last Sunday of the month we celebrate the birthdays at fellowship hour. Yom Kippur begins at sundown on the 8th, Columbus Day is the 12th, though celebrated on the 13th this year, the Full Moon is on the 14th, National Boss’ Day is the 16th, and Halloween is the 31st.
Jordan River CROP Hunger Walk
Come join us in the Jordan River CROP Hunger Walk to fight against hunger and poverty on Saturday morning October 11th. This is being held to show our love and active concern for neighbors in need near and far. The participants will be raising funds to change the world in real and measurable ways. The funds will benefit the overall work and ministry of Church World Service, working in 80 countries. 25% of what we raise will the help the Utah Food Pantry. If you can’t walk on that day or just want to broaden your horizon of sponsors, you can walk on the Web with us. Visit cropwalkonline.org to find out how. For more information please contact Rev. Handi Jo Dolloff-Holt, Trinity United Methodist Church 801 968-6891.
It’s Our Anniversary
During the months of October and November, we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary. What a special time this is for us. To look over our history and see all the special times, trials, and successes of our life here in Bountiful. The comings and goings of our lives as a community of faith. To help commemorate this auspicious occasion some of our previous pastors will be coming to preach. The tentative schedule is as follows: Oct 26th Rev. Joan Stewart, Nov 2 Rev. Frank Brougher, Nov 9 & 16 Rev. Kent Ikeda, Nov 19 Rev. Don Proctor, Nov 23 Rev. Ellis Keck, Nov 30 Rev. Kevin Miller.
Reformation Day Oct. 31st
Reformation Day is a religious holiday celebrated on October 31 in remembrance of the Reformation, particularly by Lutheran and some Reformed church communities. It is a civic holiday in Slovenia (since the Reformation contributed to its cultural development profoundly, although Slovenians are mainly Roman Catholics) and in the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. On this day in 1517, Martin Luther posted a proposal at the doors of a church in Wittenberg, Germany to debate the doctrine and practice of indulgences. This proposal is popularly known as the 95 Theses, which he nailed to the Castle Church doors. This was not an act of defiance or provocation as is sometimes thought. Since the Castle Church faced Wittenberg's main thoroughfare, the church door functioned as a public bulletin board and was therefore the logical place for posting important notices. Also, the theses were written in Latin, the language of the church, and not in the vernacular. Nonetheless, the event created a controversy between Luther and those allied with the Pope over a variety of doctrines and practices. When Luther and his supporters were excommunicated in 1520, the Lutheran tradition was born. This in turn would later ease the creation of the Reformed and Anabaptist traditions as well. The fact that Reformation Day coincides with Halloween may not be mere coincidence. Halloween, being the Eve of All Saints' Day might have been an entirely appropriate day for Luther to post his 95 Theses against indulgences since the castle church would be open on All Saints' Day specifically for people to view a large collection of relics. The viewing of these relics was said to promise a reduction in time in purgatory similar to that of the purchase of an indulgence. Dr. Luther may have been shrewd in his choice of that day to post his theses. –from wikipedia.org
Thoughts and Prayers and Life
Please keep the following people in your prayers…Cherry’s brother in law Jack, suffering with terminal lung cancer; and her niece Marlene who is experiencing heart problems. Bobby V. has bronchitis; Shirley D’s brother Dennis and family at the loss of their son, brother and grandson. Lucille B. with her continuing problems of falling, memory and being housebound and Betty Poulson. Maida’s granddaughter Victoria, was visiting and had emergency appendectomy. Charles celebrated a BIG birthday on Sunday. Mary Jo Westein’s sister, Carolyn Johnston, is visiting. Bob and Peggy came by to visit us last Sunday. Last Sunday there was a brilliance emitting from near the front of the church…..Lisa Tsujimoto is engaged to Rev. Kevin Miller. CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES TO THE HAPPY COUPLE. We would like to welcome Jeremy and Pauline Haas and their children Duke, Bailey, and Hanna. October Birthdays – Sharon Shosted – Oct 1; Charles Wiseman – Oct 2, Kip Maxwell – Oct 18, Nancy Oman – Oct 21; Gary Shearer – Oct 28. Wishing you all a wonderful year! (If we missed your birthday it’s because we don’t have it yet, please let Velvet know when it is! Thanks!)
All Hallow’s Eve
Halloween is an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most common in the United States, Puerto Rico, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century. The term "Halloween" (or eve) before the feast of All Saints (an important day in the Christian calendar), which used to be called "All Hallows" derived from All Hallowed Souls. In Ireland, the name was Hallow Eve. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian reinterpretation. Pope Boniface IV established an anniversary dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the martyrs when he consecrated the Pantheon on May 13, 609 (or 610). Pope Gregory III moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1 in order to mark the dedication of All Saints Chapel in Rome. Although All Saints Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were at that time celebrated the same day. The feast day of All Souls Day, celebrated to commemorate those souls condemned temporarily to Purgatory, was inaugurated by St Odilo, at the time the abbott of the influential monastery at Cluny, as 2 November in 998. History of Halloween: Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. (Sow-in or alternatively “Sav-en” meaning end of summer.) The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year". Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31 the boundary separating the dead from the living became blurred. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. The Celts' survival during the cold harsh winters depended on the prophecies of their priests or Druids. They believed that the presence of spirits would aid in the priests' abilities to make future predictions. Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when the spirit world can make contact with the natural world and when magic is most potent.
SYMBOLS -The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols in America, and is commonly called a jack-o'-lantern. . In Britain and Ireland, a turnip was and sometimes still is used, but immigrants to America quickly adopted the pumpkin because it was more readily available; additionally, it is much larger and easier to carve. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after dark. The practice was originally intended to frighten away evil spirits or monsters. Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. In modern Halloween images and products, purple, green, and red are also prominent. Particularly in America, symbolism is inspired by classic horror films, which contain fictional figures like Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy. The main event of modern US-style Halloween is trick-or-treating, in which children dress up in costume disguises and go door-to-door in their neighborhood, ringing each doorbell and yelling "trick or treat!”. This is a watered-down version of the older tradition of guising in Ireland and Scotland. Typical Halloween costumes have traditionally been monsters such as vampires, ghosts, witches, and devils. In 19th-century Scotland and Ireland the reason for wearing such fearsome (and non-fearsome) costumes was the belief that since the spirits that were abroad that night were essentially intent on doing harm, the best way to avoid this was to fool the spirits into believing that you were one of them. "'Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" has become a common sight during Halloween in North America. Started by UNICEF in 1950, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than $119 million for UNICEF since its inception.
Foods - Candy apples because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, Candy Apples (also known as toffee, taffy or caramel apples) are a common treat at Halloween. A Halloween custom which has survived unchanged to this day in Ireland is the baking (or more often nowadays the purchase) of a barmbrack (Irish "báirín breac"). This is a light fruit cake into which a plain ring is placed before baking. It is said that whoever finds this ring will find his or her true love during the following year.
Religious viewpoints - In North America, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are quite diverse. The fact that All Saints Day and Halloween occur on two consecutive days has left some Christians uncertain of how they should treat this holiday. In the Anglican Church, some have chosen to emphasize the Christian traditions of All Saints Day, while some Protestants celebrate the holiday as Reformation Day. Celtic Christians may have Samhain services that focus on the cultural aspects of the holiday, in the belief that many ancient Celtic customs are "compatible with the new Christian religion. Christianity embraced the Celtic notions of family, community, the bond among all people, and respect for the dead. Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in a gallimaufry (hodgepodge) of celebrations from October 31 through November 5, all of which appear both to challenge the ascendancy of the dark and to revel in its mystery." The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks and handing out candy. The mingling of Christian and pagan traditions in the development of Halloween, and its real or assumed preoccupation with evil and the supernatural, have left many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards the holiday. Some fundamentalist and evangelical along with many Eastern Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jewish believers consider Halloween a pagan or satanic holiday, and refuse to allow their children to participate. In some areas, complaints from fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a pagan religion have led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes at Halloween. Halloween is generally frowned upon by Jews and Muslims, although moderate adherents of both faiths sometimes participate in secular elements of the holiday. Some Wiccans feel that the tradition is offensive to "real witches" for promoting stereotypical caricatures of "wicked witches". However, other Neopagans, perhaps most of them, see it as a harmless holiday in which some of the old traditions are celebrated by the mainstream culture, albeit in a different manner.