Category: Worship

A note about our online bulletins

I realized last week that I have not communicated to you a change to the way I post our bulletins online. Because of copyright laws which allow some things, like hymns and poems, to be used for worship/one-time use and do not look favorably on providing public access to these things, I limit the amount of time the bulletins are out in the wild, so to speak! From now on, I will make the bulletin publicly available on Saturday at noon. The bulletin will automatically disappear from public view on Sunday at noon.

I’m sorry for that inconvenience. I am always happy to send you a copy of the bulletin if you need it for anything. Just let me know!

Advent / Christmas 2023

Advent is about the birth of something sacred. For something sacred needs to be born: born from the mating of what is, and what might be. It needs a manger. So let us prepare a manger in our hearts for the birth of the sacred. — Davidson Loer

The four magical weeks of Advent begin on December 3 with the lighting of the first Advent Candle, the traditional candle of hope.

On the 3rd week of Advent (December 17), our children will lead us in a St. Lucia celebration of light. Usually held on the 13th, children in Sweden, carry in light (on their heads!) and food to honor the martyr Saint Lucy who descended into the Roman catacombs to bring light and food to the Christians hiding from the Romans during the first century of the church. Please bring some food to share with the Waterbury Common Market (food shelf). Our Santa Lucias will coming bearing St. Lucia bread which we will share during worship.

The Live Nativity this year will be on December 23 at 4:30 pm in the side yard between the church and the parking lot.

On the 4th Sunday of Advent, which also Christmas Eve, we will hold two services, one at 4 pm and another 7 pm. The early service will be our children’s service complete with a story whereas our 7 pm service will be Nine Lessons and Carols. Both will include the beloved “Silent Night” to candlelight.

Musical Events

Thursday, November 30 at 6 pm — Vermont Youth Opera Concert

Sunday, December 10, 3 pm — Waterbury Community Band Holiday Concert

Friday, December 15, 7:30 pm — The Mad River Chorale Holiday Concert, “Peace on Earth”

Sunday, December 17, 3 pm — Solaris Vocal Ensemble, “Rejoice!”

Other Events

Advent Workshop — You’re invited to come downstairs after worship on December 10 and make Christmas ornaments with our church school. There will be pizza and homemade cookies and all of the materials and instructions you’ll need to make one or several of five different international Christmas ornaments.

Easter Sunrise 2023

This year, as per our usual practice, the ecumenical sunrise service will be held in the Blush Hill Country Club parking lot, overlooking the Hunger Mountain range to the East. The service is at 7 am and will be led this year by Rev. Sam Newton of the Wesley United Methodist Church.

The weather promises a beautiful early morning, albeit chilly. After the service, come down the hill to the Waterbury Center Community Church to warm up with some homemade breakfast.

The Backup Plan

Worship last week, as most of you know, had to be cancelled because I did not think through a backup plan in the event that the teleconference service we use, Zoom, stopped working, which it did.

Starting this week, I will publish a backup link along with our Zoom link. I will publish that in the Newsletter, in our bulletin, and in our church calendar. You can join a zoom meeting using the church calendar simply by clicking on the event you want to join and then clicking on the “Join Zoom Meeting” button.

The backup option will utilize Google’s new teleconferencing platform called Google Meet. The advantage to using Google Meet as a back up is that it is immediate. You do not need to have a google account, nor do you need to download anything. The worship service, and all of us, would appear in tiles in your browser window. The disadvantages are several in my opinion and so will remain only a backup option for worship.

You would join the backup meeting by clicking on the link for the backup option in the bulletin or the church calendar. I will not publish it in the newsletter.