Announcements for Sunday, November 24, 2013
Good Morning! Welcome to University
Congregational Church!
WE INVITE OUR VISITORS TODAY to join us in Fellowship Hall after the service for coffee, refreshments and conversation. Just follow the crowd down the hallway (west).
PLEASE SIGN THE FELLOWSHIP PAD when it comes down the pew. Members please sign and update any changes in your contact information. If you are a guest, please sign the pad so that we may thank you for worshipping with us.
TODAY
THE FLOWERS ON THE COMMUNION TABLE TODAY are given by Linda Burnside in memory of her dad whose birthday would have been today.
THE ANGEL TREE is up in Fellowship Hall. Please see the insert for information about each of the seven families.
THIS WEEK
THE CHURCH COUNCIL will meet Monday, November 25, at 6:30 in the conference room.
THE ADULT EDUCATION CLASS “LIVING WITH QUESTIONS, will not meet this Monday November 25 but will resume the following Monday, December 2, 6:30-8:00 p.m. in the conference room. See more information about the class in the bulletin insert.
YOGA CLASSES meet on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ($5.00). The Friday class is cancelled.
NEXT SUNDAY
HANGING OF THE GREENS will be at 5:00. Come join in as we decorate the church for the holidays. Wear your jeans and bring a potluck dish to share.
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY to contribute to the Christmas floral display, so if you would you can put your check for $13.00 in the offering plate. Be sure to put Christmas flowers on the memo line and let us know if your donation is in honor of or in memory of someone. The poinsettias will be in the sanctuary next Sunday.
THE REVIVER (DEFIBRILLATOR) has been moved to the library by the water cooler. Please take note and check out where it is.
WG LUNCH AND BAKE SALE is cancelled. The board is sorry to have to cancel these events but several of the board members are going to be out of town during this busy time.
2014 COMMUNION TABLE FLOWER SCHEDULE is on the PIC board in Fellowship Hall. Sign up early to get the date you want!
2014 HOLY LAND TRIP brochures are on the Welcome Table for anyone interested or if you have friends who might be interested in the trip scheduled for next March. There is also trip insurance information, as well. Please call Robin at 634-0430 or email her at revdocmom1@gmail.com with any questions.
THE REFRIGERATOR IN THE OFFICE MEETING ROOM really needs a new home. Call Cyndi at 634-0430 if you know of anyone or any agency that needs a refrigerator.
BUNK BEDS? If any of you have a set or two of bunk beds, a family with several children we met at the Hygiene Pantry are very much in need of these beds. Call Barbara McKee 687-4868 or the church office if you know of any beds.
OUTREACH
IF YOU WANT TO HELP VICTIMS OF THE PHILIPPINES TYPHOON a good website recommended by Robin is www.weekofcompassion.org.
FOOD BANK The holidays are coming up and the need will be greater. Most needed items are canned meats, tuna, spam, chicken, and ham, macaroni and cheese, canned soup, spaghetti sauce. A full list is on the collection basket in Fellowship Hall.
INTER-FAITH MINISTRIES Operation Holiday is conducting its 50th year of helping needy families in the Wichita area. They are in need of non-perishable food (cereal, canned vegetables, peanut butter
pasta, etc.). UCC has committed to provide 20 volunteers at Operation Holiday’s distribution center on Friday, December 20th from 8:30-12:30. Sign up on the PIC board and see Kim Carraway for more info.
New Class
LIVING WITH QUESTIONS
Experiencing the Bible Again for the First Time
This curriculum for adults, designed for group use is experiential in methodology, valuing the wisdom of each person and the integrity of their experience of the Sacred. This program has grown out of a hunger to know and engage the Bible at deeper levels as evidenced by the popularity of Marcus Borg’s original work, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously, but not Literally.
The classes will meet on Monday nights (except for this Monday) from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. Paul Jackson will be teaching this class as part of his program of study for Lay Ministry through the NACCC.
Advent Season at UCC
Angel Tree The tree is up in Fellowship hall and we have names of seven families given to us by Communities in Schools. Make your selection from the many paper ornaments on the tree. Gifts are due back on December 8th.
Hanging of the Greens is Sunday, December 1, 5:00 p.m. Come and help decorate the church for Christmas and share in a potluck meal.
Welcome Wagon Auction is Tuesday, December 3, in Fellowship Hall. A fun event presented by this charitable group who also supports our Head-to-Toe Hygiene Pantry.
Many Moods of Christmas will be performed Sunday, December 8, as our morning service. The gift we love that makes us appreciate the extraordinary music here at UCC even more. Bring a guest but get here early!
The UCC Christmas Party is Sunday, December 8, at 5:30 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. Great food, music by the choir members, and a chance to wear your Christmas sweater. See invitation on the back of this insert.
Christmas Vespers An organ recital by Kevin Calloway in our sanctuary at 2:30 on Sunday, December 15.
Men’s Group Christmas Lunch is Thursday, December 19, at 11:30 at The Lakeside Club. All of the men of the church are invited to join this fun group that meets each month.
Christmas Eve December 24, 5:30. A service for the family, with Christmas carols, a story from the Bible and meditations from Deitrich Bonhoeffer.
You are invited
to the UCC Christmas Party
December 8, 5:30 in
Fellowship Hall
A festive evening of food, music,
and Christmas cheer.
The Deacons will provide the
meat, sides, bread, coffee, tea,
and wine.
If you would like to bring a
dish and your las t name
starts with A-L-bring an appetizer
M-Z bring a dessert
Also bring a small pack of crayons
and a small coloring book to be
given out at the Dec. Hygiene Pantry.
Please sign up in Fellowship Hall
so we know you are coming!
Fruit Sale today and next Sunday in
Fellowship Hall!
Oranges Small- 42 per box
Medium 36 per box
Large 24-28 per box
Grapefruit 18 per box
All 20 lb. boxes $25.00
You can buy ½ & ½ oranges/grapefruit!
Elliot Pecans $15.00 per pound Smaller, sweeter, tasty, and great for baking.
Pick up date is Sunday, December 8!
THE TRADITIONAL WORD I Thessalonians 5:1-28
12-13 And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!
13-15 Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.
16-18 Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
19-22 Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.
23-24 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!
25-27 Friends, keep up your prayers for us. Greet all the followers of Jesus there with a holy embrace. And make sure this letter gets read to all the brothers and sisters. Don’t leave anyone out.
28 The amazing grace of Jesus Christ be with you!
THE CONTEMPORARY WORD-
Tom Peters: “Celebrate what you want to see more of.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
Lewis Smedes: “I learned that gratitude is the best feeling I can ever have, the ultimate joy of living. Gratitude is better than sex, better than winning the lottery, better than watching your daughter graduate from college, better and deeper than any other feeling; it is perhaps the genesis of all other really good feelings in the human repertoire.”
Albert Einstein: “There are two ways to live your life, one is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
and excerpts from Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
