Endings and Beginnings,

“Christ the King” Sunday is the last week of the Christian calendar.  This year it is November 24^th… and it is fitting that we will be conducting our All-Church meeting on that day after a busy weekend!  Our Church Fair is the day before and the Thrift Shop is open during the Fair, requiring a great deal of participation of all of us.  While our fiscal year will begin on January 1, we have personal decisions to make as we submit our Stewardship pledge for 2025 on November 24^th.  I hope you will enjoy a wonderful day dedicated to giving Thanks for God’s presence in our lives on Thursday, the 28^th.

When one year ends the next begins and December 1^st will be Advent 1.  As we prepare to celebrate the intricate events that surrounded the birth of our Lord, as we prepare to open our hearts wider to receive the Christ child once again, we know we will overcome the darkness of these winter days, and with Christ’s help we will move boldly into the new year with the challenges it will bring!

Because the Advent season begins before I return from a Thanksgiving trip to New Orleans, The Rev Dr. David Purdy will lead worship on December 1^st….  Our Theme this year is a journey called “On the Way to Bethlehem.”   It begins in Rome

and brings us to Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem.  It speaks to

• our experiences of being influenced by outside forces,
• our waiting with anticipation,
• the joy we find in simplicity and the
• humble beginnings of Christ the King!

Our Advent study by the same name begins on Thursday, November 21^st,  at 2:00 in the afternoon! 

Prepare for Advent by making an Advent Wreath for your dinner table!  Carl Johnson has candles [3 purple and one pink] and we have other supplies or perhaps you have an Advent wreath to bring out and share.  In the past 2 years, Pam Purdy has helped us remember persons with Memorial Ornaments and these will also be part of our Advent celebrations.

Beginnings and endings are always intertwined.  Repetition gives us the opportunity to see a place we have been before with new eyes.  Sometimes we realize we have overlooked something so obvious that we experience a whole new relationship to something, someone, somewhere we have known our whole life and we receive a gift that will change the rest of our life. 

Put on your walking shoes, take only the necessities, and come on this journey from ending to Beginnings once more!

Pastor Dianne