Epistle

December 22, 2024

JOIN US HERE FOR ONLINE WORSHIP SERVICE and MEETINGS ~ CLICK HERE

SUNDAY WORSHIP with Holy Communion at 10 am ~ Online Zoom Service: CLICK HERE

Those serving us In-Person Sunday, December 22, 2024 are:

  • Assisting Minister: Ken Miller
  • Acolyte:
  • Advent Wreath Lighting: Hoffman’s – Bryan, Kari, Tory & Tegan
  • Reader: Ann Miller
  • Music: Stephanie Hurt
  • Usher: Jim Antinori
  • Greeter: Barb Lorenzen
  • Bread Baker: Supply
  • Altar Guild: Pam Evans set up / Barb Lorenzen clean up
  • Zoom A/V Operator/Monitor: JJ Ehlers
  • Media Slides: Heather Mugridge
  • Fellowship: Miller’s
  • Flowers: ~ Kathryn Blanken “In Memory of my mom’s birthday – she would have turned 90 years young” ~

LECTIONARY BIBLE READINGS THIS WEEK:

Lectionary Bible Readings for Sunday, December 22, 2024: Micah 5:2-5a; Mathew 1:18-25

OTHER MEETINGS / EVENTS FOR SUNDAY and Upcoming week ~ CLICK HERE

  • Sunday, December 22nd at 4:00pm A Tempo! Concert
  • Sunday, December 23rd at 6:30pm Property Meeting
  • Wednesday, December 25th – Christmas Day- Office Closed
  • Wednesday, December 25th at 7:00pm – AA (Co-ed)
  • Thursday, December 26th at 7:00pm – AA (Men Only)

SERVANT / VOLUNTEER SCHEDULE – >>CLICK HERE TO OPEN PDF<<

~ ANNOUNCEMENTS THIS WEEK … ~

BOOK CLUB MEETING: 

The next Book Club meeting will be held: Wednesday, January 22nd at 6:30pm for Socialization and 7:00pm for discussion: At this meeting we will discus the book THE SERVICEBERRY- Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The book for February is tentatively selected to be REBELLION:HOW ANTILIBERALISM IS TEARING AMERICA  APART – AGAIN  by Robert Kagan as well as select a book and date for the next meeting.

THE ZOOM LINK FOR BOOK CLUB : >>CLICK HERE<<

If you would like to join the Book Club, please contact the office HERE and we will add you to their Book Club List. Join this fun group for lively discussions and fellowship! The Book Club meets each month (dates will vary) at 6:30 pm on zoom for socialization and then at 7 pm to discuss the current book they are reading.

Other Information…

DONATE ALTAR FLOWERS

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DONATE ALTAR FLOWERS ON AN UPCOMING SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE? Our Floral supplier “Flowers by You” will create and deliver the arrangements and you can dedicate them to whatever you would like (In Memory of, In Celebration of or To the Glory of God, etc.).   Please see the sign up on the kiosk or scan the QR code to sign up for your date.  YOU CAN ALSO >>CLICK HERE<< TO SIGN UP. Cost is $50 per arrangement/vase.  Contact the office for more info.

FELLOWSHIP:

FELLOWSHIP HOUR – Join us each Sunday after Worship for Coffee, treats and visiting. We are always looking for new people to help with Fellowship. It is simply a once every other month commitment to set up cups, make coffee, set our treats and clean up. If you would like to help and volunteer for this committee, please click on the image above or >>CLICK HERE<<

SOCIAL MINISTRY: 

The “ValMobile” – Planning for January

We are looking for volunteers that are able and willing to pick up Val Thurnell from her new home at Spring Garden Senior Living in Heber City and drive her to Shepherd of the Mountains on Sundays for Worship Service Sunday, 10:00am-11:00am, and a volunteer(s) to take her back home to Heber. <<CLICK HERE>>

If you are able to help with this or have any questions please contact
Kim Fry (435) 659-1802. Thank you

Sub for Santa Party

Thanks to so many of you Sub for Santa party was a success!  

We served 21 people, ages 20-56,  and Santa was a big hit!

Thank so many of you for your generosity of food, drinks and beautiful gift packages!  

Thank you also, to Jerry, Barb, Kim, Heather, Kathy, Cheryl, Randy, Ann, Ken, Pastor Derek for their tireless efforts to pull it all together and being a part of the event!  We are thrilled to have Val lead us in singing “Silent Night” together!

Santa and wife, Sally, made it fabulous, as well!!  

Upcoming Outreach-January 2025:

Global Barnyard —  with ELCA- ongoing all month

Snacks in Backpacks — at the Christian Center (Wednesday, Jan. 29th  1-4pm) 

ALWAYS COLLECTING DONATIONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN CENTER FOOD PANTRY: We have a basket set up in the narthex to collect any non-perishable food for the Christian Center’s Food Pantry. Expired or pre-opened food will not be accepted. Most needed items include canned tuna or chicken, peanut butter, cereal, beans and rice, pasta and pasta sauce, diapers, and infant formula.

Treasurer’s Minute:


Giving through the end of November is running very close to “budget” with expenses running below budget. The result is that we are cash-flow positive YTD and if December giving matches historical averages we will be cash-flow positive for the full year!
Our “Entry Sign/Monument” campaign has seen a great response. I feel confident that we will be able to more than match the initial $10,000 donation challenge.
Thank you all for your generosity.

Yours in Christ,

Dave Vecchi, Treasurer

The RIC core team here at Shepherd of the Mountains would like to take a moment to thank all of you for your support and interest as the congregation continues to move forward in our commitment to become a visibly welcoming community to all, irrespective of gender, sexual expression or skin color.

Frequently Asked Questions for Reconciling in Christ: CLICK HERE

SUNDAY SCHOOL and YOUTH:

Greetings! We wish everyone good luck with the start of a new school year this fall.  The congregation of Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church will continue to offer Sunday School for our children. This year we are happy to announce that Sunday School classes will still be offered in person after the Children’s sermon each Sunday.  A calendar for the Sunday School year can be provided upon request; it typically is in line with the Park City School calendar.  Erin Thomas will  continue to craft and lead these classes.  These classes should last no more than 10-20 minutes each Sunday.  This year, classes could be more diverse than previous years, depending on the ages of the children attending Sunday School. Our theme this year is GROW! With great joy we again look forward to being with your children each Sunday morning.

Please encourage our children to attend Sunday School.  Encourage them to invite their friends!  Invite your friends! We look forward to seeing you on Sunday mornings this September and throughout the coming church year!

Christ’s Peace,

Erin Thomas, Children Christian Education Coordinator

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SYNOD:

The Rocky Mountain Synod has many opportunities including Adult and Young Adult education. These are also Study Guides or Meetings / Discussions on Zoom. Please see the following links if any of these interest you.

REOCCURRING MEETINGS:

AA: 7:00 pm every Wednesday (co-ed) and 7:00 pm every Thursday (men only) – In person

BOOK CLUB: 6:30 pm, the date varies each month – usually meets on Zoom

Monthly Committee Meetings:
  • Church Council – 6:00 pm, 2nd Monday of the month – (12/09/24)
  • Executive Council – 6:00 pm, 1st Monday of the month (12/02/24)
  • Finance – 5:30 pm, 4th Monday of the 1st month of the quarter (TBD)
  • Property – 6:30 pm, 4th Monday of the month (12/23/24)
  • Social Ministries and Fellowship – 12:30 pm, Thursday (TBD)
  • Worship/Music – 10:00 am, 1st Tuesday of the month (12/03/24)

CALENDAR and EVENTS:

Please view the Worship Schedule and other events happening this week on our CALENDAR  ~ Calendar is subject to change ~

ONGOING AT SHEPHERD OF THE MOUNTAINS:

SHEPHERD OF THE MOUNTAINS “GREEN TEAM” UPDATE! –

CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY AT SHEPHERD OF THE MOUNTAINS

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church Council supports good stewardship of the Earth. Our Green Team is committed to taking care of our environment and practicing sustainability. We endorse the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Creation Care Team Initiative whose focus is on changing how people treat the Earth, from being consumers to advocates, realizing that we are part of creation and what we do to the Earth we do to ourselves. Our congregation is recognized as Blue Square Level in Recycle Utah’s Green Business Program.

The Green Team has identified five categories where specific changes or upgrades have been done around the church building and grounds. The five categories are:

  • Energy Efficiency
  • Water Conservation
  • Sustainable Materials Management
  • Transportation
  • Thriving Community & Equity

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

  • Sunlight is used as the primary source of lighting during the day. Lights are turned off when not in use. Low efficiency light bulbs have been replaced with LED bulbs.
  • Keep thermostats set at 60° when the building is not occupied and 65° when occupied.
  • Solar panels provide 38% of our electricity on an annual basis, saving $1700 per year.

WATER CONSERVATION

  • Outdoor areas are cleaned with a broom instead of a hose.  No detergents are used so groundwater and stormwater systems aren’t contaminated.
  • Drip irrigation with timers is used for watering outdoor plants and Community Garden and run no more than twice a week.
  • Water usage is reported daily.

SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

  • Recycle all materials accepted at Recycle Utah, including ink/toner cartridges. 
  • Encourage tenants and building partners to recycle.
  • Encourage use of reusable materials by church committees, such as Property, Fellowship, Worship, and Social Ministries.
  • Do not purchase or offer any single-use water bottles or polystyrene/Styrofoam containers.
  • Donate equipment or other items no longer needed or used to local collection sites (Park City Christian Center, St. Lawrence Thrift Store, ReStore, Recycle Utah Warehouse) or recycled.
  • Use electronic means for all possible communication and transactions, such as meeting notification, bill paying, receiving donations, and website updates.

TRANSPORTATION

  • Instituting an Idle-Free policy according to Summit County Ordinance 786A. 
  • Encourage use of mass transit, trip chaining, and bikes as means of transportation.

THRIVING COMMUNITY AND EQUITY

  • Support the Park City Christian Center Food Pantry by holding periodic food drives. 
  • Donate excess produce from the Community Garden to the Park City Christian Center, People’s Health Clinic and to church members.
  • Annual clean-up of a two-mile section of the Mirror Lake Highway.
  • Participate in the Reconciling in Christ program.
  • A portion of our budget goes to benevolence locally, nationally, and globally. Contributions were made to North Summit, Wasatch County and Summit County food pantries in addition to Lutheran World Relief.
  • Our Congregation includes everyone:  We embrace diversity in our congregation and community, and we affirm the dignity and worth of every person created in the image of God. We honor the guiding principle that discrimination is incompatible with Christ’s message of unconditional love. We welcome into full membership and participation in all aspects of our church life persons of every race, language, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental ability, economic or marital status, and faith background, and we affirm and celebrate all loving and committed relationships. All are welcome.

Thank you for being a part of our Community. We encourage you to support our efforts by helping us be a sustainable part of Summit County. The current members of the Green Team are Mary Antinori, Wendy Johnson, Julie Cooper, and Mickey Palomaki. If you have any additional ideas for how to help please let The Green Team know. If you would like to help out, especially with weekly recycling, all are welcome.

Additional information on the Green Business program can be found at www.recycleutah.org/green-business-program.

Solar Panels at Shepherd of the Mountains

March 1, 2023 – Considering solar?

Shepherd of the Mountains was fortunate to receive a grant from Rocky Mountain Power towards our electric solar installation at the time of the Fellowship Hall & Education Wing expansion. What follows is a brief summary of the savings received and other things we have learned about a solar installation in Park City.

After nine full years of production our installation has produced 146.3 Megawatt (Mwh) hours or 146,300 Kilowatt hours (Kwh) of electricity. That translates to a savings of about $15,000 total or an average of $1,700/year.

As you can see from Figure 1, production can vary greatly from month to month. Monthly production ranges from 0 Kwh to 2,100 Kwh per month!

Figure 1: Solar production for 2022

Many factors affect the amount of electricity produced. As can be inferred from the chart above, the winter months, with their shorter days, result in significantly less solar production than the summer months.  Another challenge for our location is the amount of snow we receive.

When panels are covered with snow they produce little or no electricity. Short of manually removing the snow from the panels, there is no system, other than the sun, to remove the snow. The ideal installation would face South and have the perfect inclination and would allow the snow to slide off the panels when the sun hits it. Unfortunately for our installation, if the snow were allowed to slide off it would land on the sidewalk and anyone on the sidewalk! This year the early winter and heavy snowfall has resulted in essentially zero solar production for the period Dec ’22 – Feb ’23. Now if the church were in Phoenix or even in the SLC Valley winter production would be somewhat higher.

Cloudy days also significantly reduce solar electricity production. When you combine cloudy winter days, shorter winter days and snow on the panels, we lose about 20% of our production potential.

In summary, here is what we have learned:

  • Panels should be oriented as close as possible to True South
  • Optimum tilt of the panels is also important. Steeper installations will facilitate snow sliding off panels IF the area is clear below
  • When considering actual production capability or sizing of your system, the above charted seasonal variability should be considered
  • Finding a reliable installer who has been in business for a long time and who hopefully will be around for a long time to come is important

Shepherd of the Mountains has a “Net Metering” contract with Rocky Mountain Power. That is, we get to bank excess Kwh produced during the summer to offset heavier consumption in the Fall and Winter. For several months of the year we only pay a “standby charge” of about $11/month.

Our heaviest electrical demand is in the Winter when we have higher building occupancy, are running the blowers for the furnaces a lot and we have to power a significant amount of heat tape to reduce ice dams and the leaks they cause.

The 50 solar panels in our installation produce about 38% of our electricity needs on an annual basis. Since the panels were covered 100% by a grant, all the production is cost free!

As discussed above, there are many variables that can affect electricity production for a particular location. If you are considering solar for your home and would like more details on our experience here at Shepherd of the Mountains we are able to pull up detailed production reports for any time period since the panels were installed. This information can provide additional information to assist in sizing your system (number of panels), calculating the pay-back period, or deciding if solar makes sense for you and could help you evaluate proposals from solar contractors.

One final thought: Our electricity rates here in Utah have remained quite stable during the nine years of experience with our solar system.  Our rates are substantially lower than many other parts of the country. If more coal-fired power plants are taken off line, rates can be expected to rise in the future and this would affect your “payback” period.

If you would like more information on our system and its performance feel free to contact me at: davevecchi@comcast.net or call me at 435-640-0254.

Dave Vecchi, Acting Treasurer

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church

SHEPHERD OF THE MOUNTAINS ON-LINE GIVING PLATFORM – TITHE.LY  – We now have an On-line giving button on our web page to make it more convenient for members and visitors to contribute to SOTM.   The donor has the option to cover the processing fees for the church or if they decide not to, SOTM will cover the administration fees that are processed through Tithe.ly.   

To give on line – click here:  GIVE TODAY    This is a simple way to give if you don’t have cash or a checkbook on you at one of our worship services.   Thank you for supporting Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church!

AMAZON SMILE – Help donate to Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church with every purchase you make on Amazon, click on link:  AMAZON~SMILE

LIVING LUTHERAN MAGAZINE – Starting in 2024, Living Lutheran will begin transitioning to a full online storytelling engine. We encourage you to sign up for Living Lutheran’s e-digest, a weekly email that highlights the top five most read stories on LivingLutheran.org. You can sign up here. 

EYEGLASSES FOR THE LIONS CLUB – Always in need for Prescription Glasses and Sunglasses. Please donate to the wooden box by the office or leave in the mailbox.

WENDY’S WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY WORKOUT – Every Wednesday, 7:30 am – strength, core and balance. Right here at SOTM. Just $5.00 per class.

WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY – These are postponed in our church building until further notice.  Please reach out to one another and offer prayer for each other.

~ In Our Prayers ~

We ask your continued prayers for Healing and Wholeness for:

SOTM Prayer Chain / Prayers of the People:
Let us Pray ~ We recognize the significance of including any who are in need in the Prayers of the People each Sunday. Yet sometimes we keep praying for people who no longer are in need.

To make sure our prayer list is accurate and up-to-date, we will begin keeping a new list of names on the prayer list for four weeks. Of course we want to keep anyone on the prayer list for as long as needed, so if someone needs prayer for longer, please contact the church office and we will gladly keep them on the list for another four weeks. It’s a blessing to hold one another in prayer.

Housekeeping

The date of the E-pistle is figured from “the first day of the week,” the day of Resurrection-Sunday.

The weekly E-pistle is an internet ministry of the congregation of Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church. All announcements or subscriber list additions/subtractions should be sent to the Office Administrator, at: office@shepherdofthemountains.org.

Please note our church office hours are:  Monday – Friday, 9 AM to 2 PM.  Friday’s may be a modified schedule in the office.  Thank you!