Sunday, December 12 Third Sunday of Advent
- 9:30am Zoom worship (contact Anne for details on how to join)
- Message topic: Peace and Love
- 10:30am Sermon discussion
Wednesday, December 15
- 12:00pm Deadline for submissions for photo essay, Wholeness
Thursday, December 16
- 7:00pm Bible Study: Luke 1 continued and New Testament “shalom” (contact Anne for details on how to join)
Sunday, December 19 Fourth Sunday of Advent
- 9:30am Worship format yet to be decided
- 10:30am Sermon discussion
Everence—a Mennonite financial services company that works to incorporate faith and values in decisions about money—has published a new edition of the Toolkit newsletter.
This winter 2021 issue contains information about the Stewardship University coming up in March 2022, technology in the food market, and more. Take time to check it out!
Want to engage with Mennonite Church USA’s Advent at Home guide, “Dare to Imagine,” creatively this year? Watch this webinar by writer Talashia Keim Yoder and learn to slow down and connect with God in new ways from Advent through Epiphany (Jan. 6): mennoniteusa.org/advent22-webinar.
Hear exciting first-hand accounts of peacemakers from across the denomination in Mennonite Church USA’s Storyteller Series videos that premiered at #MennoCon21. View the whole series here: mennoniteusa.org/storyteller-series.
Rev. Amy S. Zimbelman and members of Mountain States Mennonite Conference attended a peace demonstration in late October. Read about why she finds this work to be important in her and her family’s lives in her blog, “Demonstrating peace for my children and me.” mennoniteusa.org/demonstrating-peace
How can Mennonites make a difference in the world around us? How can we effect change for the common good? Andre Gingerich Stoner writes about how Mennonites in St. Joseph County, Indiana, have begun to make a difference in the realm of public mental health services, in his blog, “A spirit of power, and of love and of hard work.” Read it here: mennoniteusa.org/power-love-work.
Anger. Lament. Hope. Rick Yoder, professor emeritus at Eastern Mennonite University, grieves the events that have been unfolding in Afghanistan over the past few months in his blog, “Anger, lament and hope.” Read his poetic reflection on the roles we all have to play, here: mennoniteusa.org/anger-lament-hope.
Plan a Green Meal
Challenge yourself to cook a one pot meal and buy from local farmers. Get creative and try something new– who knows, it could be a new favorite recipe!
Select Your Tree Carefully
Live trees that you can replant are kindest to the environment. A tree harvested from an organic tree farm will likely be replaced at the farm with two others that will also combat climate change. Plastic trees need to be used at least 10 years to keep their impact below that of live-tree options. Be sure to use LED lights on whichever choice works for you.
Creative Gift Wrapping
Instead of using wrapping paper you’ll have to trash, adorn your gift with a scarf (new or vintage) that can be worn or wrap in new pillowcases or with other fabric pieces that can be reused another year to make a pretty package. Look also for old maps, sheet music, the funnies from the newspaper or cut a circle from a Christmas card to decorate the lid of a canning jar that holds your gift.
A little bit of humor from actual church signs, courtesy of Jim—
Too cold to change sign. Message inside.