Sunday, April 24th – Easter Sunday

West Tokyo Union Church

Sunday, April 24, 2011 – Easter Sunday

A reminder: April 22nd – Good Friday service, 7:30 p.m. at Malcolm and Mio Foster’s home.

Please come to our SUNDAY EASTER BRUNCH, starting with our EASTER EGG HUNT at 9:30. Any high school or middle school kids who would like to help hide the eggs should come at 9:00.

Please bring a BREAKFAST DISH to serve your family and up to 6 others; also a BEVERAGE to share, if possible. You can start delivering food to the cafeteria at 9:00. Bring your own place settings and some flowers to help brighten up our EASTER DAY, too!

Most of all, invite a friend and enjoy the fellowship at WTUC!

Parking will be limited so please park next door at the Tokyo Union Theological Seminary’s parking lot or park in the back parking lot.

Sunday School – No Sunday School this week.

Worship: 10:55

Gospel: Matthew 28 : 1-10

Sermon:  “Easter People Raise Our Voices as One” – Rev. Claudia

Easter, the day that we observe the resurrection of Jesus Christ, corresponds to the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. In 325 A.D., Constantine, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, convened the Council of Nicea. Among the business before the council was to establish a uniform date for this festival. One difference of opinion about the celebration of Easter had concerned whether to commemorate the day in conjunction with Passover (held on the 14th-15th of the Jewish month of Nisan, which could fall on any day of the week) or on the first Sunday after the Passover. For many Christians who were not of Jewish descent this Sunday would have corresponded with their ordinary day of worship. For many, it was called “the Day of the Lord” because Jesus was raised on “the first day of the week,” according to the Gospels. Though nobody knows just how big a controversy this was, most scholars believe that the number of people opting for the observation of Easter in conjunction with Nisan 14/15 (called “Quartodecimans”) were relatively few and limited primarily to Asia Minor. This was not an “East vs. West” issue, nor was it centered on the spirituality associated with the Passover vs. secular feasts. The major issue regarding the celebration of Easter that led to different practices taken up by the council centered on whose system to use to ascertain the vernal equinox and the 14th/15th day of the month of Nisan. The issue was whether to use a Jewish system relying on a traditional cycle that added months periodically (leading to years when Easter would either be celebrated twice or occur before the vernal equinox) or to go with an independent calculation. The council did not decree what sort of calculation be used in every case, but dating of Easter to the Julian calendar did win out, in the end. Things were complicated by the extended use of the Julian calendar over the centuries and the introduction of a new Gregorian calendar, at the time of the Reformation, was intended to streamline and simplify the solar year even more. Though the Gregorian calendar is in place in most churches and secular institutions today, many Orthodox retain the Julian calendar or some reworking of it. That accounts for the different dates used to celebrate Easter now. To this day, we who are descendents of the Western line of Christendom, use a different calendar than the Eastern Orthodox churches. Sometimes our celebration of Easter falls on the same day, and sometimes it varies by as much as five weeks! This year and Orthodox and Western Easter fall on the same date, April 24. The World Council of Churches is in discussion with the Orthodox Church on officially establishing the same date to celebrate Easter.

Service to our congregation and community

Church Directory – Updated published directory is now available. Please get a copy from Toshi Sasao.

WTUC supports Second Harvest Japan where WTUC member, Ruby Sakuma, works as the Food Pantry Coordinator. Second Harvest Japan welcomes volunteers on Fridays and Saturdays to help with the preparation and distribution of food to the homeless.  Those who are interested may see Ruby  or go to the Second Harvest Japan website (2hj.org) to sign up.

Music at WTUC:  If you have favorite songs that you would like to sing, please send Carrie Bennett your requests.  bennettinkuwait@hotmail.com

Carrie is going to help coordinate music at WTUC.  Anyone interested in committing their vocal and musical talents TWICE a month email or see Carrie.

Interested in being a liturgist? Contact Betsy Terada.

Interested in joining the prayer chain? See Pastor Claudia or Kayo Ozawa, prayer chain coordinator.

Interested in becoming a Lay Eucharistic Minister? Contact Pastor Claudia.

Other

Prayer requests – send to Pastor Claudia or Prayer Chain Coordinator Kayo Ozawa; kayo@ta2.so-net.ne.jp

Website – www.wtuc.net

Church contacts:

Pastor:  Rev. Claudia Genung-Yamamoto; RevClaudia@aol.com

Steering Committee chairperson: Karen Seevers; kseevers@asij.ac.jp

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