Click on the Nativity Lutheran Church Calendar Link below if you would like an "easy-to-read" full size view of the month.

It will open a new window featuring the calendar.

Sunday, January 1-Lessons and Carols

9:00 AM - Choir rehearsal

10:30 AM - Worship in-person and online

Assistant: Kim Murphy

Flower Arranger: Sue Ann Moore

Monday, January 2

10:00 AM Funeral for Norene Laatz

1:30 - 4:30 PM Community Group Use (FH): Monday Club

7:00 PM Men’s Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

Tuesday, January 3

9:30 - 11:00 AM Out of Office Hours: Atlantic Baking Company, Rockland

Saturday, January 7

10:00 AM Al-Anon Family Group Meeting

Sunday, January 8

9:00 AM - Choir rehearsal

10:30 AM - Worship in-person and online

Assistant: Fred Walker

Flower Arranger: Sue Ann Moore

Altar Care: Sue Ann Moore

Coffee: Ann Walker

Monday, January 9

1:30 - 4:30 PM Community Group Use (FH): Monday Club

7:00 PM Men’s Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

Tuesday, January 10

9:30 - 11:00 AM Out of Office Hours

Saturday, January 14

10:00 AM Al-Anon Family Group Meeting

Sunday, January 15

9:00 AM - Choir rehearsal

10:30 AM - Worship in-person and online

Monday, January 16 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

9:00 AM - 2:00 PM - Fill the Strand for AIO (see article below)

1:30 - 4:30 PM Community Group Use (FH): Monday Club

5:30 PM - Church Council Meeting

7:00 PM Men’s Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

Tuesday, January 17

9:30 - 11:00 AM Out of Office Hours

Saturday, January 21

10:00 AM Al-Anon Family Group Meeting

Sunday, January 22

9:00 AM - Choir rehearsal

10:30 AM - Worship in-person and online

Soup Kitchen following worship

Monday, January 23

1:30 - 4:30 PM Community Group Use (FH): Monday Club

7:00 PM Men’s Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

Tuesday, January 24

9:30 - 11:00 AM Out of Office Hours

Saturday, January 28

10:00 AM Al-Anon Family Group Meeting

Sunday, January 29

9:00 AM - Choir rehearsal

10:30 AM - Worship in-person and online

Monday, January 30

1:30 - 4:30 PM Community Group Use (FH): Monday Club

7:00 PM Men’s Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

Weekly

Monday - 7:00 PM Men’s Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

Tuesday - 9:30 - 11:00 AM - "Out of Office" hours

Thursday - 8:00 AM - Morning Prayer via Zoom

Saturday - 10:00 AM Al-Anon Family Group Meeting

For midweek prayer via zoom - there is a separate Zoom link. Email Pastor at office@nativityrockport.org if you would like the zoom link.

Please also email Pastor if you do not have the Sunday Zoom link.

Sunday January 1, Christmas Lessons and Carols

Sunday morning January 1 will be another service of lessons and carols, this time from the Christmas perspective. Join Charlie and the choir for wonderful music of the season. This service is in-person and via Zoom using the regular Sunday Zoom info.

380 million tons of plastic are made every year.

None of it is truly recyclable

There is no plastic that is truly recyclable-not even water bottles (#1) and milk jugs (#2). There is no common industry standard for recyclability, even though most plastics bear the familiar “chasing arrows” recycling symbol. Industry backed plastic products perpetuate a fiction that recycling will continue to scale up and handle the 380 million tons of plastic that companies produce every year. According to a recent Greenpeace report, the U.S. plastic recycling rate has never topped 10 percent. In fact it has fallen, this year, to just 5 percent.

Plastics bearing the #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and #2 high-density polyethylene (HDPE) meet the federal government’s definition for recyclable and can bear the chasing arrows symbol. But most recycling facilities don’t accept or recycle plastics numbered from 3-7 like polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene, and polystyrene because they are difficult to sort and often contaminated with toxic chemicals. For those people who have access to recycling facilities the actual reprocessing rate for bottles and jugs made of #1 is only 21 percent, and about 10 percent for #2.

These numbers fall short of an industry backed standard which defines a product as recyclable only if it is recycled 30 percent of the time. Many companies have signed commitments agreeing to this definition, yet they continue to feature the chasing arrows symbol on their products. Duping the public and continuing to increase the plastic recycling problem.

Corporations insist that plastic recycling can be improved with better collection management. But according to Greenpeace this is a fallacy. Because all plastics share similar problems, such as difficulty in collecting and sorting, they release hazardous chemicals during the recycling process, and may be contaminated with toxic chemicals. So they are sent to landfills or incinerated. According to corporations, recycling is too expensive. It is cheaper to buy new plastic. Again, increasing the plastic problem.

Greenpeace is calling on companies to reduce their plastic packaging by at least 50 percent by 2030, either by eliminating it altogether or by replacing it with reusable materials and replace single-use products and packaging with reusable alternatives, like glass bottles and bottles that can be refilled. Lisa Ramsden from Greenpeace says, “Plastics recycling is absolutely not the solution” to the pollution crisis. As a first step, companies should remove the recycling symbol from plastic products, since most of them are never recycled. “The chasing arrows are deceptive to consumers who assume that the plastic packaging they’re buying can be recycled, but it cannot be”.

MORE THINGS TO CONSIDER

Be mindful of your purchases, look for glass and refillable containers

Plastic pollution is a huge crisis especially in our oceans it takes 400 years and sometimes more to decompose

Marine wildlife such as seabirds, whales, fish and turtles mistake plastic waste for prey; most then die of starvation as their stomachs become filled with plastic

The 5 biggest plastic polluters are: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble

On July 12 2021 Maine became the first state in the nation to pass an Extended Producer Responsibility Packaging law (EPR) requiring big corporations & manufacturers to help pay for recycling and wasteful packaging, much of it plastic. Please tune in next month for an article about EPR

AIO Food and Energy Assistance will host its third Fill the Strand food and funds drive on Monday, January 16 at the Strand Theater in Rockland. The goal is to fill every seat in the historic theater with bags of food and funds to support AIO’s programs. In the first two years of this event, AIO raised almost $50,000 in support, and the goal for this third event is to raise at least $25,000.

Both cash and food donations are welcome. You can donate a bag of food or sponsor a bag for $25, which will fill one seat in the theater. Donations may be made online at the AIO website, by mail, or by bringing your check to the Strand on January 16 between 9 AM and 2 PM. Nonperishable food with a current expiration date (no glass please) is also welcome, especially the following most needed items:

• Ready rice pouches

• Macaroni and cheese and pasta

• Cereal and oatmeal

• Pop-top canned foods and Chef Boyardee meals

• Single serving lunch items; kid friendly snacks

• 100% juice boxes

• Shelf-stable milk

• Snacks (granola bars, peanut butter crackers, 6-pack raisins)

Food may be brought to church or taken to food collection sites at First National Bank (Rockland branches), Allen Insurance Offices (Rockland and Camden), the Strand Theater and AIO. For more information, see the AIO website or contact event coordinator Leila Murphy (murphy.leila@gmail.com or 207-701-1666).

Ted Long, Vice-Chair

AIO Board of Directors

3 - Thomas Akeselsen

4 - Kristian Akselsen

5 - Paul O'Hara, Russ Moser

6 - Richard Scanlon, Mark Stadler

9 - Rod Harrington

11 - Ann O'Hara

21 - Jerry LiaBraaten

23 - Sue Dawson

24 - Ardys Arlin

25 - Kathie Carrigan

31 - Kevin Pavelich

During its 21-22 fiscal year, AIO once more increased and enhanced its services to people in need here in Knox County, and that trend continued in the first months of the 22-23 year. Here are some highlights:

• In 21-22, the food pantry experienced 5,896 family visits, serving a total of 15,672 individuals – a dramatic increase of 115% from the prior year – and visits early in the 22-23 year have increased once more. The pantry is now open 18 hours/week vs. 6 hours before, enrollment of families increases each week, and families may now come each week rather than once a month.

• The energy assistance program served over 300 families last year, providing over $208,000 to address their home energy, a 14% increase over the prior year. This year, more than $90,000 has been distributed just through November.

• The weekend meals program, formerly known as the “backpack program,” has also grown significantly. Last year AIO distributed 12,325 weekend meals of 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, one dinner and snacks, an increase of 51% from the prior year. In the current school year, we are now distributing meals to 490 families per week, a 35% increase from 21-22.

• The diaper program distributed over 24,000 diapers last year in response to 800 visits.

• As AIO’s services increase, so does its budget. Last year, AIO’s expenditures totaled $676,445, supported entirely by donations of food and money. The support of our community has been generous and inspiring, and AIO is deeply grateful for that.

Many thanks to all of you who volunteer and support AIO’s programs with your donations. Meeting people’s basic needs for food and energy is a great service to our community that allows all to live in dignity.

Ted Long, Vice Chair

AIO Board of Directors

Did you know...that Ilga Harrington has just published a book?

Ilga describes her journey below:

I started my book “Uncharted Journey from Riga” by Ilga Winicov Harrington quite a few years ago. It was meant as a personal record to my sons of my early experiences during WWII and becoming an immigrant in 1950. Those were years of world upheavals, population displacements, followed by an explosion in scientific and technical knowledge in which I was fortunate to participate personally.

The book tells of a composite Journey from Latvia in WWII, through war torn Europe with stops in a German Labor Camp followed by 5 years in a Displaced Persons camp in American Zone of Germany. All this as a prelude to immigrant status in the US in the early 50’s and adaptation to a new society. My initial educational steps in science (Microbiology) spanned two different eras at the University of Pennsylvania. The rest of the book travels through the joys and frustrations of becoming an independent woman scientist (Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) in academia, at a time when we first learned about Information from DNA and how it applies to all biology. This journey was further complicated by concomitant responsibilities to family, children, church and society at large as well as travel. However, the rich tapestry of life has made this journey most interesting.

The book “Uncharted Journey from Riga” Riga by Ilga Winicov Harrington is currently available from the Dorrance Publishing Co. https://bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com and will be available on Amazon and elsewhere most likely in another month.

• 2023 offering envelopes are available but are only being prepared for those who request them. If you would like envelopes, please contact Carol Brazier. Please note that your envelopes will be “repurposed” leftovers from previous years so dates will not match this year. Donations are always credited in our records the week they are counted.
• Is someone you care about missing from the prayer list? We “renew” the list each Advent. Please let Pastor know via email or phone if someone should be added
• “Christ in Our Home” daily devotional booklets for the next quarter are available on the table in the narthex.
• The last three Sundays in January along with many other weeks this year are open for flower donations on our new “flower chart” up on the closet door in the narthex. Please sign up to donate flowers for our worship services, $30 per Sunday. You may designate them to be in memory or in honor of someone or a celebration of a significant event in your life.

• The Pastor’s Discretionary Fund: Please remember that an extra $5 or $10 each month may make a huge difference to a family in need! Please indicate any additional donations as "Pastor's Discretionary" when you mail in your monthly offering.
• Don't forget: One simple way to help care for creation is to download the weekly bulletin onto your smart phone or tablet and then bring that device to worship or use it when you zoom at home saving paper and resources. Need help figuring that out? Call Pastor for Android help or Denise Stadler for Apple help.
  
• Your aluminum pop tabs can help keep families with sick children close to each other and the care and resources they need. Look for the paper bag on the Social Ministry bulletin board in the Narthex. Place your tabs in the bag and take your container home and fill it again! The tabs are donated to the Ronald McDonald House.
  

Connect with ELCA greater church

Read Bishop Eaton’s monthly article:

https://www.livinglutheran.org/

https://www.elca.org/Resources/Presiding-Bishop-Messages

A Note from your editor, Kim Murphy

Reminder - send articles and photos by the 15th of each month.

Email kmusicorama@gmail.com

Photos this month: Ilga Winicov Harrington, Kim Murphy, Internet resources, New Year Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash, Cake Photo by Deva Williamson on Unsplash, Plastics Photos by Sylwia Bartyzel , Antoine GIRET ,Naja Bertolt Jensen and Ajin K S - all on Unsplash

Sunday Worship (Sept -May) 10:30 AM

Summer Sunday Worship (June - August) 9:30 AM

Email: office@nativityrockport.org
Website: www.nativityrockport.org
Location: 179 Old County Rd, Rockport, ME, United States
Phone: 207-594-4665
Facebook: facebook.com/nativitylutheranchurch.rockport.maine