Fillmore Christian Academy's annual Community Spaghetti Dinner/Auction will be held at the Fillmore Memorial Building, 511 Second Street, on Friday, February 27th at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale now through parents of children who attend the school and are also available in the school office located at 461 Central Avenue. The evening's festivities include a live auction and a raffle. Raffle tickets will be sold for $1 each at the event. One lucky winner, who need not be present when the winner is drawn, will take home one-half of the raffle ticket sales.

Ticket prices at $7.00 each and include a full meal to be served buffet style. Take-out will be available from 5:00-6:00 p.m.

Dayspring Anglican Church will hold an Ash Wednesday Service, including Imposition of Ashes at 12:00 noon on Wednesday February 25th. The service will be held at the
Bardsdale Methodist Church, 1498 Bardsdale Avenue. For questions please call
The Rev. Bob Hammond at 805 524-1697.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor says: 'When the heir to the throne can marry a Muslim or a Hottentot but can't marry a Catholic, that's ridiculous'

Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester

Pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth: sometimes it feels as if Britain is in the grip of the seven deadly sins. There are arrogant politicians, greedy bankers, lecherous television presenters, furious trade unionists, obese children, competitive shoppers and an underclass of people who do not work. To the doom-mongers, British society is not broken, it is shattered.

According to the Archbishop of Westminster, the economic downturn could be the very thing that brings us to our senses. “It's the end of a certain kind of selfish capitalism,” Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said. “This particular recession is a moment - a kairos - when we have to reflect as a country on what are the things that nourish the values, the virtues, we want to have ... Capitalism needs to be underpinned with regulation and a moral purpose.”

He will stand down soon as the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain, which he has been for nine years, but before he goes he wants to make one final plea to Britons to change their ways. He told The Times that he had advised Gordon Brown to complement his National Economic Council with a moral one, to “rediscover the things that make for a healthy society”. CONTINUED »

A Holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, 'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'

The Lord led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table..

In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew,

which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly.

They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with v ery long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.

But because the handle was longer than their arms, CONTINUED »

Written by a 15 yr. old School Kid in Arizona:

New Pledge of Allegiance (TOTALLY AWESOME!)
Since the Pledge of Allegiance & The Lords Prayer
Are not allowed in Schools anymore
Because the word 'God' is mentioned...
A Kid in Arizona wrote the attached...

NEW School prayer :

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.
If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.
We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks..
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such 'judgments' do not belong.
We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd. & nbsp;
It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen
If you aren't ashamed to do this,
Please pass this on.

Jesus said,
'If you are ashamed of me,
I will be ashamed of you before my Father.'

Sam Rotman

When Sam Rotman made his debut at the age of 16 with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra before an audience of 6,000 the Baldwin Keynote Magazine wrote, "Sam Rotman is a pianist with abundant potential".

Mr. Rotman received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School in N.Y.C. While a student, he was the recipient of nine awards in the form of grants, scholarships, and prizes. Subsequently, he has been among the winners in five piano competitions, both in the United States and Europe. The most prestigious award was that of Laureate Winner in the 4th International Beethoven Competition in Vienna, Austria. In 1978, Mr. Rotman participated in the 6th International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, Russia. He has given over 1900 performances in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Eastern and Western Europe, Southeast Asia, India, China, Russia, and South Africa totaling 57 countries.

Mr. Rotman has devoted a specific area of his musical life to the study and performance of the works of Beethoven. Beginning with a series of all Beethoven concerts in 1970 (the Beethoven bi-centennial), he was presented on Public Broadcast System in a special Beethoven concert. Mr. Rotman continues to perform the works of Beethoven in recital and with orchestra.

Mr. Rotman has served on the jury of international piano competitions, both in the United States and Europe. For almost twenty years he was director of the Piano Department and served as Executive Director of the D'Angelo School of Music at Mercyhurst College for ten years. CONTINUED »

I recently read something while searching for items to include in a letter that I write weekly to those in my congregation. It came from John A Stroman’s, God’s Downward Mobility, in it: “Nathan Williams told of two men who had been business partners for over twenty years. They met one Sunday morning as they were leaving a restaurant. One of them asked, "Where are you going this morning?" "I'm going to play golf. What about you?" The first man responded rather apologetically, "I'm going to church." The other man said, "Why don't you give up that church stuff?" The man asked, "What do you mean?" "Well, we have been partners for twenty years. We have worked together, attended board meetings together, and had lunch together, and all of these twenty years you have never asked me about going to church. You have never invited me to go with you. Obviously, it doesn't mean that much to you."

John A. Stroman, God's Downward Mobility, CSS Publishing Company.

I thought the story would have an impact on those in the parish. I hoped that it would raise the question, if we believe we have something important to share, are we sharing it. Christ says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And time seems to be one of our greatest treasures. We work hard so we can have the things we want and the time to enjoy them. We hurry home after work so that we’ll have more time. We wait for the last minute to leave for work, and then drive like maniacs, so we have more time at home. We hit the snooze button on the alarm so we can have just a little more time in bed. We rush on weekends and on vacation so we can get where we are going and have more time there. Time indeed seems to be something we treasure.
Attending Church takes time and because time is so valuable, it sends a message to all those we know, just how important Church must be to us if we spend our time there. And if it is that important to us, think of the message that an invitation to attend Church could be to the person we invited. CONTINUED »

A nation of Christians and Muslims

The Inaugural Speech was thankfully sober and unsoaring, but it contained one phrase that disturbs.

That phrase is this:

"The United States is a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers."

The traditional formulation has always paired "Christians" with "Jews" -- "Christians and Jews." Such a blatant change, then, in that traditional formulation is sure to attract notice. It invites inspection. It disturbs. The order in which these adherents of different faiths are named, and which is paired with the obviously, and rightly, dominant “Christians” (this country was both founded on Christian or, to include the Old Testament, Judeo-Christian principles, and owes its development right up to the present day to those same ideas, enshrined in our political and legal institutions which are, after all, the best thing America has to offer) both count.

Now it may be that the written version of his speech reveals commas unrevealed by the text when spoken: a comma after "Christians," for example, which would yield “nation of Christians, and Muslims,” and then, presumably, another after “Jews,” so that the same list, each set of believers set off by commas, would continue: “Jews, and Hindus, and unbelievers.” But on what basis did Obama make the decision to move up “Muslims” in the ranking, right after, or even possibly paired with, Christians, leaving the Jews demoted, in a sense? It cannot be on the basis of population, for there are twice as many Jews in the United States as there are Muslims (and of the approximately 3 million Muslims, 2 million are unorthodox Black Muslims). And if he did not wish, after the word “Christians,” to give any pride of place, why not mix it up still more: “Christians, and Buddhists, and Jews, and Hindus, and people of other faiths, and people of no faith at all, nonbelievers of every level of doubt”? Was this one more attempt to impress on the public the notion that we must appease Muslims, we must make of them something they are not in this country, in order to hold onto their loyalty that otherwise is in danger of being lost? What exactly is the justification for putting "Muslims" right after, or even paired with, “Christians”? CONTINUED »

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. CONTINUED »

By Jan Markell

For those who are ecumenically minded, they should be happy that nearly all faiths are a part of all the inaugural activities this week. It was tough to accept the role of Bishop V. Gene Robinson on Sunday praying to "the god of our many understandings." But now it gets worse.

At the Cathedral service on Wednesday, Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), will have a role. As Brigitte Gabriel's organization, Act for America says, "It is sufficiently problematic that ISNA, the organization of which Ingrid Mattson is president, was designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial (which produced guilty verdicts on 108 counts)."

Act for America continues by saying, "Mattson's words and views beg the question: When there are Muslims in America who have publicly spoken out against jihad, against Shariah Law, and against ISNA, why was Ingrid Mattson chosen for this interfaith prayer service?"

The organization known as Campus Watch further documents that "In 2007 and as recently as July, federal prosecutors in Dallas filed court documents linking the Hartford, Connecticut-based Islamic Society to the group Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization."

Mattson will likely whitewash her society as a legitimate organization in this nation's democracy while, in fact, it has terrorist alliances that are especially frightening for our country's safety. Additionally, she places loyalty to Islam before loyalty to the United States of America; she denies the existence of terrorist cells in the United States; she defends Wahhabism; she equates Christian critics of violent jihad with Osama bin Laden. CONTINUED »

Fillmore Church of Christ is planning a special day of encouragement for Jeanie Allred in support of her recent diagnosis of Breast Cancer. Jeanie is preparing to undergo treatment this month and we would like to invite you to a special event in her honor. Please join us for worship services followed by a potluck to share your love and encouragement for Jeanie. Some of us are even sporting pink for the occasion!

Date: Sunday, January 18th
Time: Worship Service @ 10:30 & Potluck begins around Noon
Place: Church of Christ - 219 Mountain View Street, Fillmore, CA
What to Bring: Your favorite dish for the potluck

For more info, visit www.fillmorechurchofchrist.com

Written by Terence P. Jeffrey

The most telling debate Barack Obama ever had was not with John McCain but Patrick O'Malley, who served with Obama in the Illinois Senate and engaged Obama in a colloquy every American should read.
The Obama-O'Malley debate was a defining moment for Obama because it dealt with such a fundamental issue: The state's duty to protect the civil rights of the young and disabled.
Some background: Eight years ago, nurse Jill Stanek went public about the "induced-labor abortions" performed at the Illinois hospital where she worked. Often done on Down syndrome babies, the procedure involved medicating the mother to cause premature labor.
Babies who survived this, Stanek testified in the U.S. Congress, were brought to a soiled linen room and left alone to die without care or comforting.
Then-Illinois state Sen. Patrick O'Malley, whom I interviewed this week, contacted the state attorney general's office to see whether existing laws protected a newborn abortion-survivor's rights as a U.S. citizen. He was told they did not.

So, O'Malley -- a lawyer, veteran lawmaker and colleague of Obama on the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee -- drafted legislation.
In 2001, he introduced three bills. SB1093 said if a doctor performing an abortion believed there was a likelihood the baby would survive, another physician must be present "to assess the child's viability and provide medical care." SB1094 gave the parents, or a state-appointed guardian, the right to sue to protect the child's rights. SB1095 simply said a baby alive after "complete expulsion or extraction from its mother" would be considered a "'person, 'human being,' 'child' and 'individual.'"
The bills dealt exclusively with born children. "This legislation was about preventing conduct that allowed infanticide to take place in the state of Illinois," O'Malley told me.
The Judiciary Committee approved the bills with Obama in opposition. On March 31, 2001, they came up on the Illinois senate floor. Only one member spoke against them: Obama.
"Nobody else said anything," O'Malley recalls. The official transcript validates this. CONTINUED »

If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
--Jeremiah 12:5 NASB

Would you like to know what you really believe about God? I'm not talking about what you say you believe, or what you ought to believe, but what you truly do believe. Would you like to see the truth about you that God sees? Well, you can. You can actually know what's way down deep in your heart. And here is how: The next time you suffer, watch how you react. Watch what happens in your head and heart. Take an attitude check. Because nothing reveals the stuff of which your Christian beliefs are made than tough times. Maybe that's why the Bible says, "Rejoice in suffering" and "Welcome trials as friends." Maybe it's because then we can know what we're really made of.

It's what happened to the Israelites when they were in the desert. It says in Deuteronomy chapter 8 that God caused the tough times to "Test them... to see what was in their hearts." Well, the fact is, God already knows what's in your heart. He just wants you to know what's in your heart. You may be facing some keen disappointments today: loneliness, a bad medical report, financial worries, chronic pain, or an important relationship on the rocks. It's hard. But it's also strangely helpful. Because when you find out who you are and what you really believe... you're facing the truth. And remember, the truth always sets you free.

What have your recent trials or setbacks revealed to you about your faith and trust in the Father? That insight wasn't meant to crush or discourage you. It's an encouragement to set aside distractions and seek him with fresh urgency.

At the prodding o f my friends, I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Hondorf. I am a former elementary school music teacher from Des Moines , Iowa . I've always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons-something I've done for over 30 years. Over the years I found that children have many levels of musical ability.. I've never had the pleasure of having a prodigy though I have taught some talented students.

However I've also had my share of what I call 'musically challenged' pupils. One such student was Robby. Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single Mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby.

But Robby said that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student. Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm n eeded to excel but he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary pieces that I require all my students to learn.

Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he'd always say, 'My mom's going to hear me play someday.' But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled but never stopped in.

Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons.

I thought about calling him but assumed because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to pursue sometng else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several weeks later I mailed to the student's homes a flyer on the upcoming recital.. To my surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify. H e said that his mother had been sick and unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing 'Miss Hondorf, I've just got to play!' he insisted. CONTINUED »

The observance of christmas eve through naritives and hymns.
Services will begin at the church at 421 sespe avenue at 7:00 pm under the leadership of reverend chuck mabry. Service will end with traditional lighting of candles and singing of silent night. Refreshments will be served in the church fellowship hall following the service.

Confessions / Confesiones
Wednesday / Mircoles, Dec. 17, at 7 PM Penance service with several priests hearing confession. Habr varios sacerdotes confesando el Mircoles en el servicio penitencial.

Senior Advent Morning of Prayer Beginning with the 8:30AM Mass Friday Dec. 19th

General Confession / Confesiones
Friday / Viernes Dec 19 from 11AM-12Noon and 6-6:45PM
Saturday / Sabado Dec 20 from 4-4:45M
Wednesday / Miercoles Dec 24 from 9-10 AM

Christmas Eve. Mass Schedule / Misas de Noche Buena
Wednesday / Miercoles, December 24th
5PM Family Mass in English, Childrens’ Christmas Pageant and the Blessing of the Creche
7PM Misa en EspaolFillmore Y Piru
12 AM Solemn Midnight Mass Bilingual Fillmore and Piru

Christmas Day Mass / Misas el dia de Navidad
Thursday / Jueves, December 25th
7 AM y 1PM en Espanol, no habra misa de 7PM
9 & 11AM Solemn Mass in English
Christmas Day Mass at our Parish Mission, San Salvador Misas de Navidad en nuestra misin parroquial San Salvador
8:30AM Espanol - 10AM English

Christmas dinner will be served at the Assembly of God Church on December 21st. after the 10 am service. Toys will be passed out to the children during the service. Address: corner of 3rd St. & Central Ave.

The Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group, has asked Washington Governor Chris Gregoire for permission to display an anti-Christmas sign next to the nativity scene in the Capitol building. The sign, “Santa Claus Will Take You to Hell,” would also appear next to an atheist sign sponsored by the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke to this issue today:

“Gov. Gregoire is responsible for this mess. Having first acceded to the requests of atheists to attack Christmas, she is now confronted with the likes of the Westboro Baptist Church, a viciously anti-American, anti-Catholic and anti-gay group. There is a way to deal with this situation in a manner that is legally acceptable and morally defensible, but neither the Washington governor, nor her lawyers, have figured it out.

“The First Amendment right to freedom of speech has always been conditioned on time, place and manner. That is why gays who sought to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Boston and New York—for the purpose of countering the message of the parade—lost in the courts in the 1990s. In the Boston case, Justice David Souter, writing for a unanimous court, said, ‘The speaker has the right to tailor the speech’ and the law ‘is not free to interfere with speech for no better reason than promoting an approved message or discouraging a disfavored one.’

“In other words, hate groups have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech, but they have no right to set the time and place. Moreover, freedom of speech is meaningless unless it can prevail unobstructed by attempts to stifle it. To put it differently, Gov. Gregoire should have allowed the atheist group to display its sign in a different location, or at a different time, but not directly next to the nativity scene at Christmastime. Had she done so, she would be able to treat the Westboro Baptist bigots the same way.

“We have moved from censoring nativity scenes to neutering them. That the government was operative in both is particularly appalling.”

Barry Fike

Barry Fike, who has served the congregation on an interim bases for three years is now serving as the permanent senior pulpit minister. He has also served congregations in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Illinois and Simi Valley. He received his education from Freed-Hardeman University, Harding Graduate School of Religion, Valdosta State University, Logos Christian University and Pepperdine University, Malibu. He recently authored a book on the relationship of Christians and Jewish baptisms, which is currently being published. He comes from a family of ministers with his father, Don Fike, having been a minister for over 50 years. His brothers, Dr. Paul Fike and Byron Fike are ministers in Canton and Houston Texas.
He I married to the former Connie Beverly, who is from Southern Carolina. She received her education from Freed-Hardeman University, Valdosta State University, and Notre Dame University, where she majored in Psychology, Social Work, Cultural Anthropology and Sociology, and she completed her internship at Aux Chandelles. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the American Academy of Christian Counselors. The Fikes have three sons, Brandon, Jarrod, Whitney, “Whit”, a daughter Beverly and a granddaughter, Riley.
The Fillmore congregation and the Fikes welcome you and may be contacted at 524-2850 or 524-0080. There are Bible classes for all ages. Meeting times are Bible classes on Sunday morning at 9:30 am, worship service at 10:30 am. Wednesday evening’s singing begins at 6:30 and Bible study at 7:00. The youth group meets on Sunday morning at 9:30 Wednesday night at 7:00.

This Sunday, December 14, at 5 PM, the Bardsdale United Methodist Church will proudly present its 40th annual Christmas Vespers program as a gift to the greater Fillmore community.
The one-hour concert by the Bardsdale Chancel Choir will continue the tradition of offering sounds of the season with a program that includes songs and arrangements ranging from the middle ages to a little bit of today’s modern jazz.
The first Vespers program was in 1969 under the direction of John Brothers, long-time Fillmore High School music and art teacher and the yearly programs continued to flourish under the leadership of Bill Bartels.
Marsha Porter now directs the talented group of voices and musicians and promises a fun-filled evening to add to the festiveness of the Christmas season. Roberta Palmer will accompany the choir at the church’s Schoenstein organ.
After the free concert, all are invited to enjoy refreshments downstairs in LeBard Hall. Bardsdale United Methodist Church is at 1498 Bardsdale Avenue, two miles south of Fillmore.