Jacksboro Parish January Newsletter 2015

Transcription

1 Jacksboro Parish January Newsletter

2 January 2015 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sunday 9:30am Worship 10:45am 5 6 Whirlwind Cluster 11:00-1:00 7 Celebrate 7PM Youth 6PM Sunday 9:30am Worship 10:45am Celebrate 7PM Youth 6PM 15 Bible 12 Noon Sunday 9:30am Worship 10:45am Parish Council 6:30 PM 25 Sunday 9:30am Worship 10:45am Celebrate 7PM Youth 6PM Celebrate 7PM Youth 6PM Planning Retreat Fellowship 9:00 AM

3 Ho! Ho! Ho! Here Comes Santa Claus! MDO Xtreme had a special visitor!

4 DECEMBER YOUTH ACTIVITIES As always, our youth have made us proud! To wrap up our food drive, our youth have collected almost 500 pounds of non-perishable food items to benefit the local food bank. In celebration of our accomplishments we had another enormous feast before our worship service where we honored the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ with the Nativity story and several of our favorite Christmas hymns. As we close out 2014 we remain focused on things to come including: -Mid-Winter the Disciple s Crossing in Athens, TX at the end of January -our welcome back party to kick off the 2015 spring semester -even though it s fairly early -we re also looking into taking our youth to Memphis, TN for our 2015 mission trip. As always we are in need of adult sponsors. If you are interested in participating in any of our fun-filled shenanigans, please contact Jonathan or via JonHartman06@yahoo.com -GOD BLESS YOU ALL, -JON HARTMAN

5 MDO Xtreme s 2014 Christmas Program On Tuesday, December 16, MDO Xtreme s 3&4yr old and Pre-K classes preformed a Christmas Program for their family and friends. The children started the program with Silent Night, and then they sang Away In A Manger, followed by Jingle Bells and finally singing Happy Birthday to our Savior Jesus. During the Holiday Season we teach the children the true meaning of Christmas, helping them to understand that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus.

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8 What is the Liturgical Calendar? We are about to take a walk through time as we explore what our liturgical calendar is all about. The Roman Catholic Church has celebrated the liturgical year since the early church began to organize. When Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other early reformers of the Church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, the movement was known as the Protestant Reformation. Some of the Protestant Churches continued to use some of the Roman Catholic ideas, although in modified version, and the Liturgical Year was one of those. We Presbyterians, and Disciples to a little lesser degree, place emphasis on the Reformed Theology and Doctrines which came from the Reformation. Let us look at our Christian Year and explore what some of these days mean and where they originated. The Reformed Liturgical Calendar commences with the season of Advent starting 4 Sundays before Christmas Day. Our liturgical journey of celebration begins with the period of anticipation and waiting for the Messiah s birth during Advent or the season of light when we look forward to the Light of the World being born on Christmas Day. Is December 25 th the actual birthday of Jesus? We do not know the exact date of Christ s birth, but by the early to mid 4 th century, the Church celebrated December 25 as Christ s birthday. In the Council of Tours of 567, the Church declared the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany to be a unified festal cycle, which gave significance to both December 25 and January 6. Christmas is a 12-day season which culminates with Epiphany on January 6. Epiphany is the date when the infant Jesus was visited by the Magi or the Wise Men. Epiphany is the season following our Christian holiday of Christmastide. Epiphany mean feeling, and Epiphany denotes an immediate experience of sudden insight. Some Protestant traditions focus on the baptism of Jesus while others celebrate salvation in Christ. The first Sunday after Epiphany is designated as Baptism of the Lord Sunday. This is the beginning of the recording of Jesus public ministry. There is a jump of 30 years, and it begins with Jesus Baptism by John the Baptist. John felt unqualified to baptize Jesus, but Christ assured John that it was necessary to fulfill all righteousness (Matt.3 v.15). Jesus was endorsing John s ministry of baptism. Jesus was doing the same things that we do, although without sin, so He could stand in our place, therefore, showing us that our salvation would not be possible through His death alone. It foreshadows Christ s death, burial and resurrection for us. When one looks at the liturgical calendar, one will see a number of Sundays marked as ordinary time. These periods only denote that there are no major or minor festivals which the Protestant Churches celebrate. There are 4 liturgical colors which are used to signify what liturgical event we are observing. Purple or blue is used during the season of Advent and Lent, times of preparation and repentance. The feasts of Christmas Day and Christmastide, Epiphany Sunday, Baptism of Lord Sunday, Transfiguration Sunday, Easter Season, Trinity Sunday, and Christ the King Sunday (the last Sunday in the liturgical year) are represented by white. Green is the color for the periods of Ordinary Time. Red is used for Maundy Thursday and Pentecost Sunday, while black may be used on Good Friday. Thus ends our liturgical journey for this month s Parish newsletter, but we will continue to explore new dates in the months to come.