The West Tokyo Union Church community welcomes all to join us via Zoom for our service on Sunday, November 7th at 10:00 am. We will be continuing to meet online until it is safe to meet in person. We will keep you informed via email and updated website posts.

WTUC Youth please note: The deadline for the Nov. 20-21 ARI trip is fast approaching. Please see details below.

This Sunday, we’ll be looking at the story of Elijah and the widow from Zarephath, a gentile woman who lived outside of Israel. This might seem like an obscure story at first but actually there are some wonderful lessons here. And Jesus even refers to this widow in the book of Luke to make some interesting points. Please join us to learn together about trusting God, his big heart for all peoples and how he is the Lord of the rain who gives life and doesn’t disappoint. Malcolm will be preaching, Esther will be liturgist, Kazuko will be playing the organ, as always. 

Scripture passages: I Kings 17: 7-16 and Luke 4: 22-27

We are very thankful that our little community church can keep on going even in the midst of another Covid shut-down. Many friends keep contributing to our worship services and to our parishioner connections. We appreciate everyone’s prayers, financial support and weekly acts of service as we support each other in doing the work of the Kingdom.

Gather your family and some friends together to join us in our Zoom worship service. We hope to see many of you on Sunday! You are welcome to stay on after the service to chat for awhile and to catch up with old friends and new news.

Youth Group Activities with Tokyo Union Church:

Message from Audrey Thorne regarding the upcoming Youth Retreat:

I am excited to announce that the TUC Youth Group will be taking its first trip/retreat in over two years! We will travel to ARI (learn more about them here) from November 20-21. Our group will be limited to 15 attendees, so please sign up soon if you would like your youth to attend. 
TUC and ARI have a long history of friendship and mutual support, so our trip will strengthen that connection and we will learn more about their mission of food justice and sustainable farming. The youth will get to serve as emissaries, collecting information to bring back to share with the TUC family. We will also enjoy fellowship, free-time in nature, and rest. 

Because safety is our highest priority, we will drive to avoid public transit. Proof of vaccination or a negative antigen test taken within 24 hours must be shown before departure. Masks will be worn at all times indoors and when in close proximity to others. Eating will take place either outdoors or with plexiglass screens. Rooms will sleep two, with sufficient space for distancing. 
The cost of this trip is 15,000 yen per youth which will cover lodging, transportation, food and all incidentals. We have funds set aside to support youth who would like to attend. If you would like to avail yourself of a portion of these funds, please let me know soon. A detailed schedule for the trip is on it’s way. Please register here by Nov. 12th:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVDYFVNz4yZTsjxQsYQ2xkJ_fjze9jQeGhrIUEHXeLYx7iLg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Let me know if you have any questions about the trip. I’m so excited for our youth group to experience a retreat to the farm together!