Blog Archives

The Secret Way Seniors Can Keep Deducting Gifts To Charities

12/11/2018

This Wall Street Journal article date December 7, 2018 explains how people 70.5 years and older with a traditional IRA can reduce taxes by making charitable donations directly from their IRA account. According to the article "...IRA owners who are 70½ and older have the best of both worlds: They can get a tax break for donations and take the higher standard deduction. In fact, the standard deduction rises to $13,600 for singles and $26,600 for couples age 65 and older."

You can learn more about this by talking to your financial advisor.

Clergy Book Recommendations December 2018

12/1/2018

Mother Susan's book recommendation:
Boundless Compassion - Creating a Way of Life by Joyce Rupp.

I recommend this book for a couple of reasons.

Starting Jan 21, Kaye Westmark has offered to facilitate a small group with COMPASSION a focus on spiritual growth and with conversation around the weekly chapters of this book. For six weeks, those interested are invited to meet for 90 minutes on Monday afternoons for prayer, discussion, silence and encouragement. I have no doubt, that those who join this group will move into Lent - having already experienced an incremental deepening of compassion and community.
Even if you cannot attend the weekly group session - get this book if you want to individually, or with one JOYCE RUPP other person, read the short daily readings. For six weeks, each day contains a quote, the reading, a reflection, a prayer and a scripture to carry with you that day. Skillfully written, these reflections and exercises, will develop our compassionate consciousness with the behaviors to embody them.

Father Nick's book recommendation:
Faithful Families: Creating Sacred Moments at Home by Traci Smith.

Happy New Year! Yes, Advent is the beginning of the church year and looking ahead, I'd like to suggest this book not just for your FAITHFUL FAMILIES personal collection but perhaps as a gift idea for someone you know. Newly revised and expanded, Faithful Families is put together much like a recipe book. So, it is not meant to be read straight through. Rather, it is designed as a resource to have on hand or to flip through, so you can pick out what is good and useful for a particular time. Broken into three parts: Traditions, Ceremonies, and Spiritual Practices, the book focuses on simple sacramental practices in conjunction with prayerful reflection. There are also hands on projects like building a red kite for Pentecost, which seeks to draw together multiple intelligences in community. Research has indicated that faithful spirituality starts in the home and hopefully, this resource could enrich, even supplement those practices already in place. Many Blessings.