Blessings and warm wishes for your health and wholeness this holiday and always ---Revs. Rodger and Laurie December 8 Worship: The second Sunday in the season of Advent, including the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. FOR YOU DURING ADVENT The season of Advent, when we prepare ourselves for the coming [...]
This season of Advent, we have been pointing out, is a season of preparation for Christians. And not just preparing in the sense of decorating the house, and baking the cookies, and shopping for the presents for Christmas; but also the preparing of our selves, a look inside, a time for reflection and any needed repentance. How do we do that kind of preparation? Where do we look to find out how to prepare? Well, perhaps some guidance is available from some of the people who prepared themselves for the first coming of Jesus, so long ago. Perhaps they can in some ways serve as a model or example for us, as we seek to do our preparation now. […]
Plans are being made for the 42nd annual Advent Choral Service, to be held at 3 p.m. on December 8 in our sanctuary. Mark your calendars now! Rehearsals are scheduled for November 8, 18, and 25, and December 2 and 5. All rehearsals are at 7 p.m. If you love to sing, we always need [...]
Mary’s Song, also known as The Magnificat, could probably stand alone, it is so powerful. The Magnificat magnifies the Lord in abundant thanksgiving. Important meaning to lives of faith is embedded throughout. We, who all have enough to live on adequately or well beyond, may get a little nervous over this song’s focus on the poor and downtrodden. Mary sang this song after she went to visit her relative, Elizabeth, after the angel Gabriel came to her giving her the news that she would be impregnated with a son who would become the Messiah. Elizabeth recognized that Mary’s baby would be a very special baby. She became quite emotional as she cries out to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” […]
Monday, December 24 worship, 11 P.M.: Midnight . . . Candlelight . . . “Silent Night” . . . That’s Christmas Eve. Please don’t miss our beautiful 11 P.M. to Midnight Candlelight Christmas Eve service. We will tell the Christmas story in lessons and carols, featuring much special music and the series of Bible readings [...]