Solstice & Christmas Eve this Week!
Hello Friends,
First of all, Happy Hanukkah tonight for all our members, friends, and families who will be lighting candles this evening!
Second–If you haven’t heard by now–it is a great joy to welcome into the world Ryder Pikramenos–born early in the morning on Sunday, December 18. Ryder joins his big sister Ember and his proud parents Heather Findlay and Tony Pikramenos. Congratulations to the whole FIndlay-Pikramenos clan! I’m sure we’ll all get to meet Ryder in church soon!
And now on to the regular news of this very holy week!
A reminder that our annual Solstice celebration and bonfire will take place tomorrow night–Wednesday December 21 at 7:00 pm. I know that the weather forecast is looking a little wet for tomorrow evening, but just like the return of the sun that we’re celebrating, we’re on rain or shine! I hope to see you there!
And then, on Saturday evening, we’ll celebrate Christmas Eve with our TWO candlelight services, one at 7 pm and one at 9 pm. Both services will be relatively similar in format, so don’t feel you need to come to both–unless you want to!
If you or your child has agreed to read one of the Bible lessons for Christmas Eve, thank you! I will send it to you soon.
And if you’re interested, there are still just a couple of opportunities to help out with the Christmas Eve services. There are openings for:
7:00 service
– a family to light the Advent candle and do the reading for that
– one adult reader for part of the Bible story
9:00 service
– a family to light the Advent candle and do the reading for that
– two readers of any age for parts of the Bible story
If you’d be willing to help out with any of these, let me know as soon as possible–the first ones to be in touch get the parts!
And finally, just a big thank-you to everyone who has helped and who is helping make this holiday season such a special time in our community. There’s a partial list below–and I’m sure that there are some of you that I’ve missed as well.
- Dick & Lydia Johnson--for donating our 17-foot tree! Bruce Locke and Clyde Jenne for making ceramic ornaments for and with our RE children Tamara Ross--for the amazing drawing on the chalkboard in the Fellowship Hall Jill Lloyd and the RE children for decorating the Fellowship Hall and making the Gingerbread Church John Osborne & Becky Howe for helping set up the tree and donating a beefy tree stand John Osborne for creating beautiful drawings for the Christmas Eve order of service Nada Pierce for helping organize music for Christmas Eve and for leading the children's choir John Keramis and Bayley Day for being willing to sing on Christmas Eve Patty Talbot for all she does all the time! Phyllis Tucker for being willing to be our musician at the 9:00 Christmas Eve service Michael Theroux and Bill Fenn and Chris Ortiz for helping with the tree, and for catching the tree when it fell! The Lloyd family and Ira Torrey for setting the tree back up after it fell, and decorating it anew Sue Buckholz and Katy Sawyer for leading the Solstice service Wendy James and Nancy Walker for organizing food and drink for the Solstice service Gary Band for leading our dancing procession to the fire at the Solstice service Beth Rice for helping organize the Hartland Christmas Project Sue and Dave Taylor and Jill Lloyd, and probably others I don't know about for helping with the Christmas Project And all of you who bought gifts or made donations to the Christmas Project Bineke Oort who does so much, but in particular who is coordinating our celebration of the International Hour of Peace on December 31 Abraham Oort who will be leading our morning meditation for peace on December 31 All of our readers for Christmas Eve--Jack Morin, Jenny Talbot, Remy Lambert, Emma Sawyer, Ember Pikramenos, Doug Hart, at least two Lloyds, and more!
There’s more, I know–and so many of you that I’ve mentioned and that I haven’t have done so much more to keep our church alive, meaningful, and full of spirit. And all of you are finding ways to do what you can to enliven your spirit and our congregation! You make this an amazing community, and I feel blessed to be with you in this holy season.
Happy Hanukkah, Snappy Solstice, Joyous Yule, and Merry Christmas to you all!
In Faith and Love,
Paul
The Rev. Paul S. Sawyer
Minister
First Universalist Society of Hartland, VT
www.hartlanduu.org
