St. John/Norrona News
December 2020
Please have any reports or information to be included in the newsletter, please submit by the 24th of each month to stjohn.norrona@sasktel.net. Thank you.
If anyone is interested in receiving this newsletter by email, please send a message to stjohn.norrona@sasktel.net
Pastor Carlton Larsen
Parish Phone (306) 725-3113
Email – stjohn.norrona_pastor@sasktel.net
Mailing Address: Box 505
Strasbourg, Sk. S0G 4V0
Website: stjohnnorrona.com
Online Services Only
As per the guidelines put forward by the Saskatchewan Synod as of Wednesday, November 25, 2020, live services have once again been suspended until further notice. Online services will continue. All St. John and Norrona Lutheran Church services may be viewed at http://stjohnnorrona.com
Scripture Lessons
December 6, 2020:
Isaiah 40:1-11 Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a Mark 1:1-8
December 13, 2020:
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8, 19-28
December 20, 2020:
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38
December 24, 2020:
Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-20
December 25, 2020:
Isaiah 62:6-12 Psalm 97
Titus 3:4-7 Luke 2:1-20
December 27, 2020:
Isaiah 61:10-62:3 Psalm 148
Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:22-40
All Saints Day
All Saints’ Day, also called All Hallows’ Day, Hallowmas, or Feast of All Saints, in the Christian church, a day commemorating all the saints of the church, both known and unknown, who have attained heaven. It is celebrated on November 1 in the Western churches and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Eastern churches. This year we remember the saints of this parish who passed away from Nov 1, 2019 – Oct 31, 2020.
Raymond Johnson, Reta Galger, Doreen Hubick, Kay Nordal, Margaret Yeo
Community Christmas Hampers
If you or you know of a friend or family in the community that would like to receive a Christmas Food Hamper, please call the church with their name and phone number so they can be contacted to approval to receive this gift. All names must be in by December 13th.
Norrona News
Regular services for December will be recorded and there will be no live services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The new audio-visual equipment is working well and is saving a lot of time in the production of the services. Peter Frostad and Corey Nordal have installed a cell system booster in the church steeple. The signal seems to be adequate and Council hopes to offer livestreamed services soon. The church sign on Highway 322 has been badly damaged by weather. A replacement from the supplier is not available at this time, so a temporary sign will be put up for the winter. As we are not able to gather for our annual special birthday and anniversary celebration, congratulatory cards will be sent to those who are to be honoured this year. Since we had to cancel our annual Scandinavian Supper this year, Norrona has lost a significant source of income. Council has some alternatives in the works. Check out next month’s newsletter to find out how you can participate!
Have a blessed and a merry Christmas!
A thought: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”
C. S. Lewis
| St. John Lutheran Church |
| |
| Income Statement 10/01/2020 to 10/31/2020 |
| |
| REVENUE |
| |
| Regular Offering |
| |
| Benevolence | 560.00 |
|
| CLWR | .00 |
|
| Envelopes | 6,245.00 |
|
| Loose Offering | 0.00 |
|
| Total Regular Offering | 6,805.00 |
|
| Other Revenue |
| |
| Church Use | 0.00 |
|
| Dividends | 0.00 |
|
| Church Directory | 0.00 |
|
| Fund Raising Income | 0.00 |
|
| Clay Revenue | 0.00 |
|
| Faithlife Grants | 0.00 |
|
| Hospital Ministry | 0.00 |
|
| Epiphany Dessert | 0.00 |
|
| Gifts Received | 580.00 |
|
| Property Donations | 0.00 |
|
| Memorial Donations | 25.00 |
|
| Mosaic Fundraiser | 0.00 |
|
| Parsonage Rent | 850.00 |
|
| Plan 24 Interest | 2.13 |
|
| Total Other Offerings | 1,457.13 |
|
| TOTAL REVENUE | 8,262.13 |
|
| EXPENSE |
| |
| Pastor Payroll Expenses |
| |
| Pastors Salary | 4,195.75 |
|
| CPP | 210.63 |
|
| EI | 56.90 |
|
| Mileage | 0.00 |
|
| Health & Dental | 334.50 |
|
| Church Pension | 451.27 |
|
| Continuing Education Plan | 50.00 |
|
| Long term Disability | 169.23 |
|
| Total Pastor Costs | 5,468.28 |
|
| Missions of the Church |
| |
| Benevolence | 560.00 |
|
| CLWR | 0.00 |
|
| Hospital Ministry | 0.00 |
|
| Total Sask Synod | 560.00 |
|
| Fundraising Expenses | 0.00 |
|
| Strasbourg District Foodgrains Bank | 0.00 |
|
| Clay Expenses | 0.00 |
|
| Parish Youth | 0.00 |
|
| Total Missions | 560.00 |
|
| Worship & Services |
| |
| Supply Travel Time | 0.00 |
|
| Parish Secretary | 225.00 |
|
| Employer share of EI | 4.98 |
|
| Employer share of CPP | 0.33 |
|
| Organist & Choir | 200.00 |
|
| Postage | 0.00 |
|
| Worship Supplies | 1,250.00 |
|
| Designated Fees | 125.00 |
|
| Copyright Licensing Fees | 0.00 |
|
| Copier Lease, Paper, Insurance | 293.94 |
|
| Office Equipment | .00 |
|
| Total Worship & Services | 2,099.25 |
|
| Church Properties |
| |
| Church Maintenance | 170.56 |
|
| Church Energy | 50.43 |
|
| Church Power | 0.00 |
|
| Website Hosting | 178.99 |
|
| Internet Service | 0.00 |
|
| Church Telephone | 98.94 |
|
| Church Water & Sewer | 183.00 |
|
| Total Church Costs | 681.92 |
|
| Parsonage Energy | 0.00 |
|
| Parsonage Power | 0.00 |
|
| Parsonage Water & Sewer | 0.00 |
|
| Parsonage Maintenance | 0.00 |
|
| Total Parsonage Expenses | 0.00 |
|
| Insurance | 0.00 |
|
| Audit | 0.00 |
|
| Payroll Management | 37.98 |
|
| Service Charges | .00 |
|
| Line of Credit | 1.50 |
|
| Church Directory | 0.00 |
|
| Elevator Maintenance | 0.00 |
|
| Miscellaneous | 34.94 |
|
| Groceries Purchased | 0.00 |
|
| Total Church Properties Expenses | 756.34 | |
| TOTAL EXPENSE | 8,883.87 | |
| NET INCOME | (-621.74) |
| St. John Lutheran Church |
| |
| Balance Sheet As at 10/31/2020 |
| |
| ASSET |
| |
| Current Assets |
| |
| Affinity Credit Union Chequing | -229.71 |
|
| Youth Savings Bank Account | 5,057.16 |
|
| St. John Youth Savings | 1,661.91 |
|
| Memorial Account | 5,868.53 |
|
| Property Account | 8,891.08 |
|
| Insurance/Taxes Account | 1,252.16 |
|
| Total Current Assets | 22,501.13 |
|
| Investments |
| |
| Flex Term | 50,364.77 |
|
| Escalator GIC 60 month | 85,971.57 |
|
| Total Investments | 136,336.34 |
|
| Receivable Accounts |
| |
| Norrona Receivable | 3,187.43 |
|
| Total Norrona Receivable | 3,187.43 |
|
| 50 % GST Receivable | -5.83 |
|
| Total Receivables | 3,181.60 |
|
| Capital Assets |
| |
| Church & Property | 675,339.00 |
|
| Office Furniture & Equipment | 116,800.00 |
|
| Net-Church Building & Equipment | 792,139.00 |
|
| Parsonage | 228,500.00 |
|
| Total Capital Assets | 1,020,639.00 |
|
| TOTAL ASSET | 1,182,658.07 |
|
| LIABILITY |
| |
| Current Liabilities |
|
|
| Damage Deposit | 850.00 |
|
| Total Current Liabilities | 850.00 |
|
| TOTAL LIABILITY | 850.00 |
|
| EQUITY |
| |
| Member’s Equity |
| |
| Equity – Previous Year | 1,190,277.20 | |
| Current Earnings | -8,469.13 | |
| Total Retained Earnings | 1,181,808.07 | |
| TOTAL EQUITY | 1,181,808.07 | |
| LIABILITIES AND EQUITY | 1,182,658.07 |
Pastor’s Report
A blessed and sacred Advent to all! Once again we enter this season that is so out of step with the world around us. But this year, it is different. COVID numbers are on the rise and the intensive care units of our hospitals near their capacity. We are not sure what will happen at Christmas. It feels like uncertainty is the only thing that is certain.
This year Advent is strangely appropriate in its attitude of sober and eager anticipation. Most years this season is dominated by the world of commerce and profit and balance sheets. Most years the headlong plunge towards Christmas begins before American Thanksgiving. it seems to start earlier every time it comes around. The bells and candy canes and snowmen begin to invade Canadian Tire just after the back-to-school sales. They don’t even wait for Halloween anymore.
But this year the malls are strangely quiet. The Santa Claus chair by the food court will be empty. The streets are dotted with scurrying figures, many wearing masks. It all has a tinge of “zombie apocalypse” feeling to it. It is hard to get overwhelmed with Christmas excitement and spirit when we are not sure anybody is coming home this year. It could be depressing. But it does not have to be.
We as people of the Way of Jesus have an advantage. Our tradition holds riches for this year that have been over a thousand years in the making. Since before the middle ages this season has been a time of quiet contemplation and sober preparation for the coming of the Christ child. It has not been a season of shopping and decorating until very recently. What seems so normal, this over commercialization, is a novelty. It is a historic aberration. Advent is for prayer and self examination. It’s for considering what kind of world this Jesus enters. In many ways we are in a world very similar to the time of the nativity.
Rome was a stable great power. It was a relatively safe world in the first century CE. Of course there were hot spots and troubled places. It was to just such a backwater village that God came in the baby Jesus. But the empire of Rome was a perfect arena for power and riches. It was a glorious place to make money. Lots of money. Entrepreneurs were everywhere and commerce was exploding like never before. There had never been so many wealthy people in the world. The middle class was expanding explosively. Never in history had there been opportunities to rise so high in power and in riches. But there was a price to be paid for all that gold and glory. There had never been so many slaves. Never so many poor.
The provinces were the source of wealth. Little countries on the edge of the empire, far from the power and the majesty of Rome; there was the greatest opportunity. That is where the empire was growing and profiting. That was where there was cheap labor. There the resources were available to be seized and used. That is where the local economy could be squeezed for imperial taxes and where crooked deals and abusive practices would and could be overlooked.
In one of these exploited and abuse filled places a child was born to a peasant couple in questionable circumstances. The baby was born in the middle of a mass migration enforced by tax policies. The young family became refugees. A rumour reached a narcissistic and paranoid king about a potential rival born in Bethlehem. The father led his wife and child into exile in Egypt to escape death squads sent to slaughter innocent children.
This is a sober and a frightening story. It is centuries removed from the Coca Cola Santa Claus that we now see everywhere. It has nothing to do with spruce trees and glass balls reindeer and tinsel. This is the story of the birth of a new kind of king; an invasion into the world of greed and selfishness. A world in many ways familiar to Herod or Caesar if they saw it now. They would be completely comfortable with the commercialism. They would recognize and admire the power of advertising. They would understand and be excited about the commercial potential. But they would be utterly baffled by the power and the continued appeal of the Christ child. But we know more than they. We have Advent to prepare us…
| Norrona 2020 Financial Statement | |||
| October, 2020 | 2020 | Budget | |
| General Account Opening Balance | 5155.87 |
| |
| Offering Income |
|
| |
| Offering Envelops | 20565.00 |
| |
| Loose Offering | 69.00 |
| |
| Fundraising Income |
|
| |
| Scandinavian Supper |
|
| |
| Other Income |
|
| |
| GST Income | 208.18 |
| |
| Faith Life Grants |
|
| |
| Easter Breakfast |
|
| |
| Total Income | 20842.18 |
| |
| EXPENSES |
|
| |
| Parish Expenses (Paid to St. John) | |||
| Pastoral Ministry |
|
| |
| Pastor Salary | 14062.16 | 16922.76 | |
| CPP |
| 698.68 | 724.50 |
| EI |
| 312.16 | 299.72 |
| Mileage |
| 51.22 | 325.00 |
| Health and Dental | 1089.00 | 1338.00 | |
| Continuing Ed. Plan | 168.75 | 150.00 | |
| Pension |
| 1668.27 | 1353.82 |
| LTD |
| 554.98 | 676.91 |
| Book Allowance | 25.08 | 125.00 | |
| Worship and Services |
|
| |
| Pulpit Supply |
| 500.00 | |
| Supply Mileage |
| 150.00 | |
| Supply Travel Time |
| 62.50 | |
| Supply Honourariums |
| 0.00 | |
| Supply Meetings |
| 0.00 | |
| Parish Secretary | 750.00 | 900.00 | |
| Secretary EI | 16.64 | 20.41 | |
| Secretary CPP | 1.10 | 1.28 | |
| Pastor’s Discretionary Fund |
| 125.00 | |
| Worship Supplies (audio equipment included) | 491.97 | 250.00 | |
| Confirmation/Baptism Supplies |
| 12.50 | |
| Copier lease, paper, insurance | 268.32 | 575.00 | |
| Office Supplies |
| 250.00 | |
| Advertising | 24.75 | 11.25 | |
| Copyright Licensing Fees | 36.25 | 40.00 | |
| Miscellaneous | 89.65 | 0.00 | |
|
|
|
|
|
| Parish Properties |
|
| |
| Telephone | 179.40 | 225.00 | |
| Internet Service | 148.78 | 162.50 | |
| Website Hosting |
| 150.00 | |
| Total Parish Expenses | 20637.16 | 25351.15 | |
|
|
|
|
|
| Congregational Expense |
|
| |
| Insurance |
| 1279.42 | 1300.00 |
| Office/General Administrative | 774.78 | 900.00 | |
| Organist (Designated Fees) | 930.00 | 1650.00 | |
| Treasurer (Designated Fees) | 500.00 | 600.00 | |
| Repair and Maintenance | 358.96 | 2000.00 | |
| SaskEnergy | 652.34 | 1100.00 | |
| Sask Power | 627.07 | 1200.00 | |
| Scandinavian Supper | 20.67 | 1800.00 | |
| Youth Account | 700.00 | 700.00 | |
| Supplies – Groceries | 18.49 | 400.00 | |
| Worship Supplies | 162.18 | 150.00 | |
| Conventions |
| 200.00 | |
| Miscellaneous |
| 100.00 | |
| CLWR Concert (entertainment) |
| 300.00 | |
| GST Paid on Purchases | 147.20 | 250.00 | |
| Total Congregations Expense | 6171.11 | 12650.00 | |
| Total Expenses | 26808.27 | 38001.15 | |
| Covid 19 subsidy | 366.24 |
| |
| From Memorial Acc’t for Audio Equipment | 487.69 |
| |
| Balance | 31-Oct-20 | 43.71 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Missions | 01-Jan-20 |
|
|
| Benevolence Received | 1350.00 |
| |
|
| From General account |
|
|
| Disbursed – Benevolence | Synod Benevolence | 725.00 | 1900.00 |
|
| Kinasao Bible Camp | 115.00 | 250.00 |
|
| Hospital Chaplaincy | 250.00 | 250.00 |
|
| Campus Ministry | 50.00 | 50.00 |
|
| Lutheran Seminary | 210.00 | 250.00 |
|
| Other |
|
|
| Total Disbursed | 1350.00 | 2700.00 | |
|
|
|
|
|
| CLWR | 01-Jan-20 |
|
|
| Received | (Benevolence) | 700.00 | 780.00 |
|
| From General Account |
|
|
| CLWR Raffle |
| 350.00 | |
| Fundraiser | (Equip a School & food security) | 1575.00 | 1670.00 |
| Total Disbursed | 2275.00 | 2800.00 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Memorial | January 1, 2020 | 13045.11 |
|
| Donations |
| 3580.45 |
|
| To General for audio/visual equipment | 487.69 |
| |
| Transferred to Repairs & Maintenance |
|
| |
| Balance | 31-Oct-20 | 16137.87 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Cemetery Fund – January 1, 2020 | 492.86 |
| |
| Donations |
| 900.00 |
|
| Grass Cutting |
|
| |
| Balance | 31-Oct-20 | 1392.86 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Youth Group – January 1, 2020 | 730.00 |
| |
| Donations |
|
|
|
| From General Account | 700.00 |
| |
| Balance | 31-Oct-20 | 1430.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Investor Savings – January 1, 2020 | 29111.64 |
| |
| Interest |
| 129.86 |
|
| Balance | 31-Oct-20 | 29241.50 |
|
Norrona Lutheran Church
Financial Report – October 2020
Norrona Revenue
*Regular Sunday Offering (envelopes,
benevolence/missions (including CLWR),
loose, and other Norrona regular offering) $2,220.00
*Other revenue (e.g. bank interest, Norrona
fundraising, and other Norrona-specific
revenue) $ 6.21
Total Revenue $2,226.21
Norrona Expenses
*Norrona portion of Parish Expenses (e.g.
Pastor salary, benefits, EI, mileage, Pulpit
Supply, office & worship supplies, telephone
office secretary) – paid to St. John $1,899.71
*Norrona Congregational Expenses (e.g.
maintenance, insurance, utilities, fundraising,
worship & office supplies, organist) $ 543.39
*Missions of the Church (e.g. Sask. Synod,
CLWR, and other Norrona specific mission
projects) $ 305.00
Total Expenses $2,748.10
Net Income (-$ 521.89)