Sundays in Advent

• Sunday November 28th – Advent week 1 
  • Special Music Rob Miller, clarinet
  • No Sunday School
• Sunday December 5th – Advent week 2
  • Communion Sunday
  • Advent Festival Following Worship (contact Amanda Beck for more information)
  • Sunday School in session 9 am
• Sunday December 12th – Advent week 3
  • Pastor Michael Swartz Preaching
  • Pr. Michael’s Farwell Brunch Following Worship
  • Deadline to drop off Giving Tree Gifts, Last Sunday to purchase Poinsettias
  • Sunday School in session 9 am
• Sunday December 20th – Advent week 4
  • Special music from the Campanella Ringers
  • Sunday School in session 9 am
• Christmas Eve – December 24th 2021
  • 5 pm Family Service
  • 10 pm Traditional Candlelight Service

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Season of Advent 2021

We choose to love what we have.
We look in the mirror and speak kindly to our body.
We buy flowers at the market and arrange them in jelly jars.
There are a million ways to choose a home.
So like Jesus in the temple
who chose to stay,
who chose to speak,
who took up space because he knew he was home,
I invite you to do the same.
Put your body
where your soul feels alive.
Give yourself permission
to take up space there.
Stay, as long as it takes.
Return, as often as you need.
There are a million ways to choose a home.
Choose wisely. We need you here.

— From “Chosen Home” by Rev. Sarah Speed
From the Close to Home poetry collection by @sanctifiedart

Season of Advent 2021

“Is there anything more healing
than an open door?
If you’re seeking sanctuary,
if the waters are rising—
listen.
It may be hard to hear,
but God is always saying,
‘Come on home.’”

— Excerpt from “Come on Home” by Rev. Sarah Speed
From the Close to Home poetry collection by @sanctifiedart

Season of Advent 2021

“My hands cannot build you safety.
My words cannot give you time.
My heart cannot be home enough.
So until the day when you are truly at home,
I will keep marching for you.
I will keep advocating for the home you deserve—
the home in your own skin.
I will keep praying.
I will give you my second coat,
and the shirt off my back, and the food from my table.
I won’t give up on preparing the way.”

— Excerpt from “Advocating for Home” by Rev. Sarah Speed
From the Close to Home poetry collection by @sanctifiedart

Season of Advent 2021

…Advent invites us to slow down a bit – to take time to make room in the inn of our hearts for the incarnate God who wants so deeply to dwell in us…

“And you are enough, already enough.
You haven’t done anything yet.
You’ve just been here,
breathing,
sleeping,
and already, you are enough.”

— Excerpt from “Words for the Beginning” by Rev. Sarah Speed
From the Close to Home poetry collection by @sanctifiedart

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Advent begins this Sunday, November 28

Updated Monday November 22nd 2021

Dear Friends,

The season of Advent has always brought with it a few challenges.  It is the season of the now-and-not-yet, poised before Christmas liturgically but right in the middle of a larger culture already playing carols about the Christ Child, surrounded by lit Christmas trees, and incessant invitations to buy more. Yet in the middle of all the hustle of early December, Advent invites us to slow down a bit – to take time to make room in the inn of our hearts for the incarnate God who wants so deeply to dwell in us.

I am both pleased and excited to provide you with a tool for such slowing down.  Coming this week in the mail, is an Advent Devotional that is designed to help you and your family prayerfully connect more closely your everyday life with Sunday worship.  It is my hope that by using the devotional for just a few minutes every day, you will feel the presence of God with you and in you – a little more each day.  (If you have not received your booklet by December 1st, please contact the church office).

May your Advent devotion prepare your heart to welcome the incarnate God into your heart and into your life.  

Blessings to you in this season of waiting.

Pastor Becky