Wednesday, December 24th, Christmas Eve service 6:30pm

 West Tokyo Union Church Weekly

Wednesday, December 24, 2014     CHRISTMAS EVE Worship 6:30 PM

Pastor:  Rev. Teresa Thompson Sherrill     wtucrev@gmail.com

THIS WEEK:  Wednesday, the 24th – 6:30 PM WORSHIP:  O Antiphons, Lessons and Carols service

FELLOWSHIP TIME:  after the service – Christmas treats

Calling all bakers and Christmas treat finders extraordinaire – 

please bring your favourite Christmas treat to share after the worship on the 24th. Looking forward to partying with you this precious season.

Wednesday, December 24th – 

The service is in the “Seven Lessons and Carols” style, based on the Medieval Benedictine practice of chanting the “O Antiphons,” the basis for our hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”  Through this Christmas Eve Service, we proclaim once again the Good News of Jesus’ birth as we reclaim an ancient Christian worship experience and connect with the modern global Christian witness through song and prayer. The Antiphons address Jesus by one of His Old Testament titles. They are fervent prayers asking Our Lord to come to us. Many from our congregation will be sharing their gifts and talents.

This year`s Christmas Offering – will go to Asian Rural Institute, http://www.ari-edu.org/en/home-eng/  The mission of the Asian Rural Institute is to build an environmentally healthy, just and peaceful world, in which each person can live to his or her fullest potential. This mission is rooted in the love of Jesus Christ. To carry out this mission, we nurture and train rural leaders for a life of sharing. Leaders, both women and men, who live and work in grassroots rural communities primarily in Asia, Africa and the Pacific, form a community of learning each year together with staff and other residents. Through community-based learning we study the best ways for rural people to share and enhance resources and abilities for the common good. We present a challenge to ourselves and to the whole world in our approach to food and life. Motto: “That We May Live Together.”

After the worship service will be a robust fellowship time.  

Sunday, December 28th  – 11:00 AM  last WTUC worship of 2014, Pastor Teresa preaching.

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58th Annual Women’s Conference (January 30 – February 1, 2015) — Inspired by Isaiah 58:11 “You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring,” the 2015 Women’s Conference is entitled Inner Gardening with Hennie Symington as our speaker.  Here is also a link to a promotional video (on YouTube) that you can also share. It is only 1 minute 44 seconds long. http://youtu.be/egrWIelgD9E

Registration is now open. We have online registration and also a PDF that can be printed out available at our website http://wocon.net  A number of women from WTUC attend every year, and we would love to see that number swell = )

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CHRISTIAN EDUCATION CORNER (we value your prayers & involvement in this vital ministry)  Any questions, please contact Pastor Teresa at wtucrev@gmail.com, or Julie Rogers for HS; Amy Harbaugh and Steve Bennett for Upper ES and Lower MS, grades 4-7; and Carrie Bennett for Lower ES, grades K-3.

MULTIGENERATIONAL, LITTLE KIDS, ES, MS & HS YOUTH – a message from Cathy Berghahn – “Thank you all for the wonderful work today and the sharing of your gifts of music and talent and your encouragement of the children throughout the pageant. Thank you also for the beautiful flowers they add to the Christmas spirit at my house. Merry Christmas to you all!With Love and Appreciation,Cathy / “Ms B”

All classes will resume in January – everyone is welcome!

Thank you so much Cathy Berghahn for your marvelous direction of this year`s Christmas pageant.  Thank you everyone for your joyous participation!

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Upcoming Preaching Ministry and Community Time

December 24th      Christmas Eve Service from 6:30pm. Christmas cookies and          refreshments (please bring your favourite Christmas treat to share) Invite a friend!

December 28th      Pastor Teresa preaching,Year end worship service

January 4th           Epiphany Play, First Communion of 2015

January 11th          Pastor Teresa preaching, Multigenerational and Adult Sunday School begin

January 18th         Rev. Dr. Tom Hastings preaching, Communion, Steering Committee meeting

January 25th         Rev. Dr. Jim Sack preaching 

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MULTIGENERATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL!! ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL!!

We have Multigenerational Sunday School from 9:30 in the cafeteria the second and fourth Sundays of the month. Who is welcome? All ages. We will be creating, discussing, playing games, acting out bible stories and more. This Sunday School will start up again in January – 1/11 and 1/25.

The Sacks host the Adult Sunday School, also at 9:30 am in their living room. The method used is the, “Swedish Bible study method,” interacting with the texts for the service through our own life experiences. Their home is right across the Lutheran Campus from our sanctuary. Best coffee in town = ) Come and enjoy! (At times Adult Sunday School is held in the Upper Room, on the 2nd floor above the Sanctuary.) All are welcome. Need more information, contact wtucrev@gmail.com any time = ) 

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WTUC  Announcements:

  *Questions or concerns?  Feel free to email wtucrev@gmail.com anytime.

  *Please enjoy and refer our website https://wtuc.net/ and FB page (West Tokyo Union Church) to others.  Please make any suggestions for additions to the Pastor Teresa and/or Steering Committee.   

  *If you’d like to be added to the WTUC church email list, please contact Gene Witt ewitt@asij.ac.jp

  *If interested in joining the WTUC Prayer Chain, let Pastor Teresa or Prayer Chain Coordinator, Kayo Ozawa, know of your interest. Please submit prayers to wtucrev@gmail.com or Kayo Ozawa.

  *Sign up for snacks for fellowship time with Ann or on the list on the white board for next year. We appreciate your contributions to our community life! 

  *Each week we will be setting up the chairs for worship and preparing the sanctuary, anyone around at 10:30am is invited to be involved in the fun = )  Each week we will also return our sanctuary to it`s classroom style after the fellowship time.

*Interested in baptism or membership, please contact Pastor Teresa. 

*Interested in a paid position setting up and/or taking down the chairs of our sanctuary?  Contact Pastor Teresa at wtucrev@gmail.com

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Scriptures for the Lessons and Carols

John 1:1-5, 9-14 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. … 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 

Exodus 3:2: “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush.  As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed”.

The Divine Name Revealed 13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[b] the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

Exodus 6:6: “Therefore say to the Israelites: I am Yahweh. I will free you from the enforced labor of the Egyptians and will deliver you from their slavery. I will rescue you by my outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment”.

Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots.”

Isaiah 22:22 I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.

Isaiah 58:8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator[a] shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord God, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone,a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: “One who trusts will not panic.” 

Matthew 1:23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us.”

 

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