Requiem service (Nov. 2: 6:30 p.m. Evensong): National Cathedral

www.cathedral.org/

All Souls Requiem

Wednesday, November 2, 2016 | 7:30 p.m.

Join us for the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed: All Souls Requiem, remembering at this Holy Eucharist those who have passed from this world. The Choir of Men and Girls will sing the service set to the music of Maurice Duruflé’s moving Requiem. All are welcome.
3101 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20016

Bishop Gudziak (Ukrainian Catholic - Byzantine Rite Eastern) - "Ukraine, Democratic Revolution, Challenges" (lecture 11/1/2016)

Bishop Borys Gudziak, president of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, and a leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, will present the Keeley Vatican Lecture at noon Tuesday (Nov. 1, 2016) in McKenna Hall’s lower level, campus of University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN.
Sponsored by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Bishop Gudziak’s lecture, titled “Ukraine, Democratic Revolution, and the Challenges of a Catholic University,” is free and open to the public.
A. James McAdams, director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, describes Bishop Gudziak as “a major figure in the Eastern Catholic Church who has demonstrated that it is possible to create a vibrant Catholic community in a country previously ruled by a dictatorship.”
Bishop Gudziak was born in the United States to Ukrainian parents. After earning dual degrees in philosophy and biology at Syracuse University, he studied theology and ecclesiastical sciences at the Pontificia Università Urbaniana and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Slavic and Byzantine cultural history from Harvard University in 1992. He then moved permanently to Lviv, where he was ordained in 1998, joined a commission for the revival of the Lviv Theological Academy, founded a new Institute of Church History and became the rector (and later president) of the Ukrainian Catholic University.
Gudziak has been a prominent leader in higher education in Ukraine after years of communist regime. An important voice in the Orange Revolution (2004-2005), which occurred in response to a controversial election decided in favor of Viktor Yanukovych, Gudziak also played a key role in Ukraine’s peaceful demonstrations in the Maidan of Kiev in 2013.
McAdams notes that Gudziak “has presented Ukrainian citizens with a vivid image of how to live with integrity and honor in a country still struggling with the vestiges of communism. He exhibited extraordinary leadership in the founding of the Ukrainian Catholic University and has inspired a generation of Ukrainian students and scholars.”
In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Bishop Gudziak to the Paris Eparchy of Saint Volodymyr the Great, the territorial diocese for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany. The Ukrainian Catholic Church is a Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See.

What was "before Halloween / All Hallows"? Samhain (Writer's Almanac article)

from American Public Media (Garrison Keillor, host)
Today is All Hallows’ Eve, or Halloween. It’s believed to originate in the Celtic festival of Samhain, a pre-Christian festival held around November 1 to mark the end of summer and the beginning of winter. It was the biggest holiday of the Celtic year: a combination of harvest festival, New Year’s Eve, and community meeting. Animals were brought in from the pasture and made secure for the coming winter, and some of them were slaughtered to provide salted meat for the winter. It was also a time of year when the veil between living and dead was particularly porous, so the spirits of the dearly departed were more easily able to return to their earthly homes. And it meant that other otherworldly creatures — like fairies, leprechauns, and other tricksters — were more likely to be among us. But even though ghosties and ghoulies wandered among the living during Samhain, the supernatural wasn’t the main focus of the holiday the way it is for Halloween.
As the Christian Church grew, Samhain blended with a Christian holiday known as All Saints’ Day, All Hallows’ Day, or Hallowmas, which was originally observed in May but later moved to November 1. It was a time for believers to honor and remember those who had passed on to heaven. This blending was not coincidental. Early Christian leaders told their missionaries that if they wanted to convert pagans to Christianity, they shouldn’t waste time on trying to suppress their rituals and practices, but rather they should consecrate those practices to Christ and incorporate them wherever possible. This had the effect of establishing Christianity among the pagans — but it also preserved many of the pagan practices instead of quashing them. So Samhain and All Saints’ Day rituals influenced each other and eventually merged, and that is when we begin to see the traditions that we associate with Halloween today.
One such tradition was the practice of “souling,” common in Britain and Ireland in the Middle Ages. Poor people would go door to door on Hallowmas and offer to pray for the souls of the family’s dead relatives, in exchange for an offering of food. It mingled with the practice of “mumming”: dressing up in costumes and performing wacky antics in exchange for food and drink, and eventually trick-or-treating became a traditional part of Halloween.

Beecher City, IL Trick-or-Treat hours (Oct. 31, 2016) plus other nearby communities

from XFM -- 97.9 radio website

Altamont- Trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.

Beecher City- Trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.

Dieterich- Trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.


City of Effingham, IL trick-or-treat hours from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.
The Effingham Performance Center will host their 2nd annual Trunk or Treat on Monday, October 31st from 6:00p.m. until 8:00p.m. This event will take place in the south parking lot of the Effingham Performance Center located at 1325 Outer Belt W Effingham, IL 62401.

Flora- Trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.

Louisville- Trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.
Montrose- Trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 31


St. Elmo- Trick-or-treat hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.
Stewardson- Trick-or-treat hours 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.

Halloween Parade winners - Centenary UM Church Youth (Effingham, IL)

look at the winners in Sunday's Effingham Sunrise Rotary Halloween Parade:
BUSINESS:
1st--HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital
2nd--Washington Savings Bank
3rd--Heartland Family Dental

ORGANIZATION:
1st--Effingham County (IL) Right-to-Life
2nd--Effingham County Humane Society
3rd--First Presbyterian Church

YOUTH:
1st--Centenary United Methodist Church
2nd--First Church of God
3rd--St. John's Lutheran Church

JUNIOR HIGH BAND WINNER:
Newton (IL) St. Thomas (parochial school)

HIGH SCHOOL BAND WINNER:
Teutopolis (IL)

www.979xfm.com/ NEWS Section

Author Ken Corley - Library appearance - talk (new book titled THROW_OUT_THE_WATER)

Author Ken Corley of Springfield, IL at Shelbyville Public Library (IL)
Saturday, October 29, 2016 10:00 A.M. - 12:00 Noon
Shelbyville native Kevin Corley will be back in his hometown on October 29th with his new book, “Throw Out The Water.” The follow-up to his first book, “Sixteen Tons,” focuses on the Christian County, IL coal mine war from 1933 to 1937 in which there were bombings, gunfights, and unsolved murders. He’ll be at the Shelbyville Public Library to meet and greet.

http://jg-tc.com/calendar/author-ken-corley-at-shelbyville-public-library/event_c47a7e96-918c-11e6-976c-47b807c0aa3b.html

Chicago Sports Teams - IL Secretary of State License Plates can support Public Schools Statewide - October, 2016

from IL Secretary of State website:

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is encouraging Chicago Cubs fans to support their World Series-bound team and public education by purchasing Cubs license plates for their vehicles. “With the team advancing to the World Series for the first time in 71 years, this is a great time to get a Cubs license plate,” White said. “It’s a win-win situation. Chicago Cubs fans can memorialize this historic moment and public school students across the state will benefit from the purchase.” The Chicago Blackhawks were the first Chicago sports team to unveil a team license plate in October 2010, followed by the Cubs, Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox. The Chicago Sports Team Series License Plates have raised more than $4.75 million to support public schools statewide. The Cubs license plates have raised more than $700,000 dollars for public education. Twenty-five dollars from each license plate sale and renewal goes to the Professional Sports Teams Education Fund and is earmarked for the Common School Fund, which supports public schools throughout the state of Illinois.

The number of license plates sold for each team is as follows:
•Chicago Cubs 6,733
•Chicago Blackhawks 20,418
•Chicago Bears 7,409 •Chicago Bulls 2,941
•Chicago White Sox 11,642

Fans can order random number, personalized or vanity license plates. The cost to purchase random number plates for a currently titled vehicle with valid Illinois registration is $69. Pricing varies for vanity and personalized license plates. The public can order vanity and personalized plates by visiting www.cyberdriveillinois.com and clicking on the “Pick-A-Plate” icon.