Dear friends in Christ,
I hope you’re all doing well this week. We’ve got some exciting things coming up this week.
Christmas Pageant 12/11
Please join us this Sunday, December 11th for our annual Christmas pageant during the worship service. We’ll tell the Christmas story, sing some carols, and there will be special music offered. Rehearsal is Saturday, 12/10 from 10:30am-12:00pm.
Christmas Caroling: 12/19
Meet at the church at 5pm on 12/19 to go caroling around to our neighbors to spread some Christmas cheer! More details to come.
Mission Projects
- Star Tree
- Star Tree gifts are due in the Church Office by December 12th. Gift Range is between $35.00 to $50.00.
- Christmas Baskets for Middlebury Families
- Sign ups are up on the bulletin board outside the Social Hall for items for Christmas dinner baskets
Christmas & New Year’s Services
12/24@5pm: Candlelight Family Christmas Eve Service
12/24@11pm: Candlelight Communion Service
12/25@10am: Christmas Day Service: We’re planning a shorter, more casual service with opportunity to sing favorite carols, hear the Christmas story, a short meditation on Christmas, and get a chance to ask Pastor Katrina anything you’ve wanted to know about Christmas/the Christmas story.
1/1@10am: New Year’s Day Service: This will be a shorter service, but we will have a sermon, communion, and an opportunity to sing carols and hymns welcoming in the New Year.
New Conference Room Table and Chairs!
Over the past few year, the chairs in the conference room have gotten rather woebegone, and thanks to Josh H and his company, we have received a wonderful donation of a gently used conference room table and chairs! Picture is attached. Thank you Josh!
The old conference room table is actually two lovely drop leaf tables, and one is now in the back of the sanctuary. The other is in the conference room still.
Recent Books by MCC Authors
Two of our very own church members have recently published books!
Artist ShawnaLee Kwashnak has released Pandemic Portraiture: Reflections of Healing which documents the healing found in the midst of the pandemic through art by ShawnaLee and her students. You might see a familiar face or two in the book! It’s available on Amazon.
Dr. Kris Keggi written a memoir of his life, My Century: A Memoir of War, Peace, and Pioneering in the Operating Room. The book is available on Amazon. Dr. Keggi is giving a talk and doing a book signing on 12/8 at Waterbury Hospital and on December 13th at the Middlebury Library.
Congratulations to ShawnaLee and Kris!
Christmas Tablecloth Wanted
Does anyone have a Christmas themed, red or green banquet table sized tablecloth that you could donate? We cannot find one that we used to have
Social Hall Christmas Tree
We would like to develop the small tree on the side table in the social hall as our Church Family Tree. To that end, we are inviting our members to bring in a small ornament, preferably with some personal meaning or history, to put on the tree. These would become your part of the tree. (Ornaments would then stay with the tree at the church from year to year.) We could begin this on Pageant Sunday with the opportunity to bring something over the following two weeks if needed. If you have a small star or tree skirt, please check with me before bringing that in as we only need one of each of those. We will light it up during coffee hours.
General Comments
This past Sunday was the Middlebury tree lighting. Thank you to Greg and Kelly E for being our hot chocolate volunteer team leaders. Thank you to all our other volunteers who helped with the hot chocolate. We gave out somewhere around 14-15 gallons of hot chocolate! Some pictures from the night are attached.
This coming Sunday on the broader church calendar is Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice/Joy Sunday. Older versions of the church calendar had this season of Advent as a much more penitential season, closer in tone to Lent. So, in both Lent and Advent traditions developed of having a celebratory Sunday once past the halfway point of the season, Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent. These Sundays are celebratory to give people a break but also to highlight the nearness of Christ’s return/resurrection. The liturgical color for those Sunday is rose (or pink if we’re being honest), so this coming Sunday we’ll light the rose candle on the Advent wreath, and we’ll certainly have a joyful service as we hear again the great story of Christ’s birth.
Peace,
Pastor Katrina