What's Happening?
In-Person Church Services Are Live Again!
Changes to be Aware of:
Services will be at our normal 10:30 time but there are some procedural changes we need to observe.
Services will be at our normal 10:30 time but there are some procedural changes we need to observe.
- We ask that you please enter through the front door or ring the bell for the elevator if you need it.
- Masks will be required. As you come in you will be offered a mask if you don’t have one and a squirt of hand sanitiz-er.
- I know you’d love to have a conversation with the people you haven’t been able to talk to for six months but because we need to sit six feet apart, an elder will immediately usher you to the next pew in sequence beginning with seating at the front of the sanctuary. Please don’t expect to be seated in your usual pew.
- Pastor will conduct the entire service from the chancel to maintain proper social distancing. The service will be similar to the services we have been hearing online and will last about 35 minutes.
- Ann will play hymns on the organ or piano. We will not, however, sing because singing projects exhaled droplets much farther than speaking.
- The liturgy will be projected as before so there will be no need for a bulletin.
- Communion will be served on October 4th and every first Sunday of the month thereafter. It will be served in a manner similar to the communion services held last summer serving individuals and families together.
- At the end of the service you will be ushered back outside beginning from the back of the sanctuary.
Coming Up!
Lent is here
Ash Wednesday Service will be at 5:30PM. See the calendar in the newsletter for more information.
All other Lent Services are going to be online. Please see Pastor's message in the newsletter for details.
All other Lent Services are going to be online. Please see Pastor's message in the newsletter for details.
Clothing Donations
Delores will continue to handle clothing donations for Helping Hands of Albany. Anything you have you would like to donate can be left outside the closet in the southwest corner of the fellowship hall.
Scheduled Events Available in the Calendar
Jeanne has done a great job of putting everything in the calendar in the newsletter. You can find that on the "NEWS" page.
Men's Meeting 1st Saturday Every Month
The men of Immanuel will be gathering on the first Saturday of the month at 9:00AM in the fellowship hall. The format is basically whatever comes up that people feel like talking about.
Free Books!
Well, hymnals anyway. Karen has been working hard cleaning up and organizing the library room downstairs. She says we have a large collection of the blue and old red Lutheran hymnals that we can't even seem to give away. If you want some just let Karen know.
LCMS Stewardship Article - Shared by Karen Bishopink
Karen wanted to share an article on the LCMS website discussing stewardship. Take a look and thank you, Karen!
| lcms-stewardship-newsletter-article-april-2017.pdf |
Using Cans to Help Others
Immanuel gets frequent requests from members of the community that are in need. Too often cash is not appropriate as it will only end up feeding their issues with substance abuse. What is often given are gift coupons to McDonalds or other places to eat at least providing a warm meal without handing over money.
To help fund this Immanuel is going to place a barrel in the building to collect depositable cans and bottles. Someone from the church will cash them in and the funds will be used to buy meal coupons.
Contact Linda Anderson if you have questions. (Don't forget...there's a deposit on water bottles too!)
To help fund this Immanuel is going to place a barrel in the building to collect depositable cans and bottles. Someone from the church will cash them in and the funds will be used to buy meal coupons.
Contact Linda Anderson if you have questions. (Don't forget...there's a deposit on water bottles too!)
Use smile.amazon.com to Help Immanuel
Just like the Fred Meyer Community Rewards system below, Amazon has started something called Amazon Smile.
You can go to http://smile.amazon.com and select a charity. One half of a percent of your purchase (0.5%) will go to the charity you choose. The first time you go to smile.amazon.com you can search for the charity. That's the hard part since there are hundreds of Immanuel Lutheran Churches on the list. You have to find the one in Albany, Oregon and unfortunately, they aren't listed alphabetically by city and state. When I went through the process I think our church was on page 8 or 9 of 19.
Once you find our church you can just select it and you'll be taken to a page where you have to acknowledge that you understand that you have to go to smile.amazon.com every time you want to use the feature. Once you've said you understand that you are good to go.
You can go to http://smile.amazon.com and select a charity. One half of a percent of your purchase (0.5%) will go to the charity you choose. The first time you go to smile.amazon.com you can search for the charity. That's the hard part since there are hundreds of Immanuel Lutheran Churches on the list. You have to find the one in Albany, Oregon and unfortunately, they aren't listed alphabetically by city and state. When I went through the process I think our church was on page 8 or 9 of 19.
Once you find our church you can just select it and you'll be taken to a page where you have to acknowledge that you understand that you have to go to smile.amazon.com every time you want to use the feature. Once you've said you understand that you are good to go.
Fred Meyer Community Rewards
Thanks to Jeanne Butler for announcing this great free benefit for Immanuel!
"Shopping at Fred Meyer can pay off in more ways than gas rewards. Fred Meyer has a charitable program whereby each of us can select Immanuel Lutheran Church, Albany, Oregon as the charity of our choice and they will direct money to the church based on the amount of our spending. There is no cost to the individual. In fact, if you have a rewards card, they will continue to send you your dividend coupon quarterly based on your spending."
"All it takes is a few minutes online, or in the store, to fill out your information and select the church from their list of charities. Currently we apparently have 3 families that have signed up. The money designated for the church so far is around $20. When that amount reaches $25, Fred Meyer will send a check in that amount to the church." - Jeanne Butler
"Shopping at Fred Meyer can pay off in more ways than gas rewards. Fred Meyer has a charitable program whereby each of us can select Immanuel Lutheran Church, Albany, Oregon as the charity of our choice and they will direct money to the church based on the amount of our spending. There is no cost to the individual. In fact, if you have a rewards card, they will continue to send you your dividend coupon quarterly based on your spending."
"All it takes is a few minutes online, or in the store, to fill out your information and select the church from their list of charities. Currently we apparently have 3 families that have signed up. The money designated for the church so far is around $20. When that amount reaches $25, Fred Meyer will send a check in that amount to the church." - Jeanne Butler
Here's how to set it up online assuming you already have a Fred Meyer rewards card:
- Go to http://fredmeyer.com/communityrewards to read about the details.
- From there you can create an account or just go to http://fredmeyer.com/account/create to set up an account
- Once you have created an account you can link your Fred Meyer rewards card by going to http://fredmeyer.com/account/communityrewards/enroll (you can also find this link from the fredmeyer.com/communityrewards page)
- Sign in and you will be asked to find your organization. Just enter Immanuel in the field and click the search button and our church should be about 3rd in the list. Alternately the organization number for our church is 90653 so you can just enter that and only our church will show in the results. Select it, click enroll and you are done!
Here's how the Fred Meyer organization list will look if you just enter Immanuel's number of 90653.
Click on the picture for a larger view.
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