Midweek Update: 4th Sunday of Advent

Dear friends in Christ,

I hope you’re all doing well this week as we’ve experienced some of the first proper winter weather of the season. We’re getting close to Christmas now, and we’ve got a number of things going on here at MCC:

Christmas Caroling: Monday 12/19

We are going to meet at the church at 5 o’clock and then depending on how many of us there are we will carpool to our destinations. We’re making up a route of people to visit now. Please let Ellen A or me know if someone you know would appreciate a visit from some carolers! If we have a critical mass, after caroling we will meet back at the church for soup. Please let Ellen or me know if you’re planning on joining us for caroling and if you’re interested in some post caroling soup! Friends and family are welcome to join!

Christmas Flowers: Due 12/19

If you’d like to make a donation for Christmas flowers, I need to know by 12/19 so I can include the information in the Christmas Eve bulletins.

December Mission Projects

Christmas Dinner Baskets for Middlebury Families: Donations are due by Monday 12/19.

Star Tree: All the gifts have been picked up by Wellmore. A picture of all the gifts in the parlor is attached. Thank you to everyone who donated! We were able to give presents to all 60 children on our list!

Reverse Advent Calendar

Thank you for to all who have been participating in the Reverse Advent Calendar.  Donations can be brought to the church starting Christmas Eve!

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.

Christmas Pageant: Thank you!

Thank you to Valerie, our volunteers, musicians, staff, and  players for a wonderful Christmas Pageant this past Sunday! I’ve attached some pictures from me, Valerie, and Katie O of the pageant. You can also watch it again on our youtube channel: www.youtube.com/c/middleburycongregationalchurch

Troop 5 & 6 Can and bottle Drive: 1/7

 Our scout troops are having a can and bottle drive on Saturday 1/7 from 9am-1pm. The flyer is attached.

General Comments

Many of you are likely familiar with the hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel . That hymn is a paraphrase of a set of 6th century Latin prayers for Advent known as the O Antiphons. The “O” part is because all the prayers start with O (which means they’re all in the vocative case), and an antiphon is the sort of refrain response used in more liturgical traditions. Sometimes it’s the introit or a response to the readings or a congregational response. In the final 7 days of Advent, there is an O Antiphon for each day praying for the coming of Christ. The first letters of the different antiphons in Latin form an acrostic that spells out “Ero Cras” which translates to “tomorrow I will be there,” referring to Christ coming on Christmas. If any of you are interested in a very short daily prayer practice in the last days before Christmas, I’ve attached the prayers.

Not all of the O Antiphons are included in the version of O Come O Come Emmanuel in our hymnal because 7 verses would make it rather long. Verses 1 and 4 in the Pilgrim Hymnal are a loose paraphrase of the O Emmanuel  antiphon for December 23rd. Verse 2 is the O Oriens/O Dayspring antiphon for December 21st. (Sometimes you’ll see dayspring translated as morning star.) Verse 3 is the O Sapientia/O Wisdom antiphon for the 17th of December.

My favorite one is December 21st “O Oriens”

“O Dayspring, splendor of light eternal and Sun of Righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.”

Peace,

Pastor Katrina

Midweek Update: Christmas Pageant/3rd Sunday of Advent

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