City View United Church Advent Newsletter

Transcription

1 Our Christmas Schedule ~ Mark Your Calendars! Sunday, November 27 th This is the First Sunday of Advent. Our 10:30 A.M. service will include the Celebration of Holy Communion. We will light our First Advent Candle the Candle of Hope. Help City View United Church get into the Christmas spirit! Immediately following our morning worship, come and decorate the Christmas tree, hang the banners and string lights in the Sanctuary, then join us for pizza in the Friendship Room. Sunday, December 4 th Second Sunday of Advent Our regular service will be at 10:30 A.M. where we will light our Second Advent Candle the Candle of Peace. Our service will also include the celebration of two Infant Baptisms. 3:00 P.M. - Blue Christmas Service - Blue Christmas is designed to be a contemplative services that explores the challenges of the Advent and Christmas season. A quiet, introspective worship, it allows time and space for participants to acknowledge the pressure of holiday expectations that sometimes create feelings of anxiety, depression, sadness and fear. Also, for those who have lost a loved one and are dealing with grief, the service recognizes loss, and yet moves toward naming the hope we find in the light of Christ. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:5) Sunday, December 11 th This is the Third Sunday of Advent and White Gift Sunday at 10:30 A.M. where we will light our Third Advent Candle the Candle of Joy. 9:00 A.M. Delivery of Christmas Hampers! Saturday, December 17 th 7:00 P.M. Nepean Concert Band ~ "Simply City View United Church: Join us Saturday, December 17 th at 7 pm for an evening of Christmas tunes, tinsel and toetapping! You ll hear such favourites as The Nutcracker Suite and Ding Dong Merrily on High and some slightly less known but sure-to-delight-you pieces, Fantasy on a 13th Century Carol and Christmas à la Big Band. And our wonderful festive Bake Sale will be back, so come, stock up on goodies for your holiday entertaining! Cost: Adult $10; free for children under 12. Buy your ticket at the door or from a band member. 1 November, 2016

2 Sunday, December 18 th This is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Our regular service will be at 10:30 A.M. where we will light our Fourth Advent Candle the Candle of Love. 7:00 P.M. Candlelight Service in the Sanctuary come and hear our terrific choir under the direction of our organist and choir leader, Jiri Hlavacek. This annual event is a highlight of the Christmas season and is guaranteed to put you in the Christmas spirit. Christmas Eve Services:- 4:30 pm ~ An interactive family service, designed especially for children. 7:00 pm ~ please join us for our traditional Christmas Eve Service, with lots of Christmas carols, music from the Senior Choir and the celebration of Holy Communion. Christmas Day, Sunday December 25 th Please join us on Christmas morning for worship at 10:30am, followed by hot apple cider and Christmas cookies in the Annex. Sunday, January 1 st, 2017 What better way to start 2017 than by coming to church! Once again our worship begins at 10:30 A.M. 2 November, 2016

3 A Note from Karen The angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Luke 2: 10 NIV Advent Greetings! Thank you for the warm welcome that I and my family have received from City View United Church. It is a rich blessing to be a part of this church family where so many are committed to joyfully celebrating, and demonstrating through their actions the good news of God s love as shown to us in the gift of Jesus. I am really looking forward to sharing the Advent and Christmas season with you. The Spirit has uplifted us so often in worship during the regular church year through the musical gifts of our choir and Jiri. Therefore, I am anticipating many Holy moments as we share the beloved music of the Advent and Christmas season together. God has blessed this congregation with so many gifts for worship, study, and service and a wonderful commitment to sharing them. Through gathering in praise and worship, and working as a community to present the Bazaar and prepare and deliver hampers and friendship baskets we will definitely be sharing the good news of great joy with all people. As you read the wonderful stories about Christmas that a number of our members have kindly prepared for this newsletter, I hope you will join me in looking forward to writing together the City View U.C. s Christmas story of From our home to yours, Wishing you a joyful, Spirit-filled Advent and Christmas, Rev. Karen, John, James and Grace 3 November, 2016

4 Sharing Christmas Stories From Around the World Christmas in England ~ I left England in August 1967, so memories of Christmas of my youth are largely post World War II. It was a time of excitement for everyone as peace brought back a more plentiful supply of consumer goods and a greater variety of food. My Mother made very delicious Christmas cakes which were baked in late November so they could age. My Grandmother took several days preparing and producing traditional Christmas puddings. As a child of about seven or eight, I helped to stir the ingredients. Meat and poultry were still in short supply, thus it was exceptional to sit down to family gatherings of twenty with a large turkey, supplied by my Father s employer. We sang carols at school, at church and at home. There were several singers in our extended family. We had bright flames in the living room fireplace, forgetting about rationed fuel for a few days. These were times of celebration! Exchange of gifts often cake, pudding, chocolate, fruit, a bottle of wine or spirits, hand-made knitted gloves, hats, scarves, cardigans and socks added to the plenty. A few decorations were found from pre-war and a few new ones purchased from local shops small supplies. The brightness of globes on the Christmas tree and festive wreaths of evergreens on the front door completed this magical season. Shared by Joan MacDonald German Christmas Traditions ~ I remember as a child growing up in a German family in Winnipeg that on Christmas Eve we would all go together to our Lutheran Church which had services in German. All the children in Sunday School would have been preparing for weeks for the special Christmas Eve service in the church beautifully decorated for the occasion, including of course a real Christmas tree which is very much a part of the German tradition. There would be Christmas hymns, music and plays to retell the story of the Christ child. A lucky few like myself, would be required by their parents to recite poems solo in front of the congregation. But all the preparation and stress would be worth it when every child would get their loot bag full of nuts and candy at the end of service. We would then get bundled up and pour out of the church into the cold Winnipeg winter air, pack into our frigid cars and head home. Excitement mounted as we approached home because it is the German tradition to open presents on Christmas Eve. Everyone would gather round the tree and we would spend a fun-filled evening opening our gifts. This would usually be followed by a long night of trying out all our new toys. After sleeping in the next morning (quite the opposite from those used to a tradition of opening their gifts in the early morning!) we would get ready to head out to the home of one of our aunts or uncles for the big Christmas dinner for the extended family (unless it was our year to host). The main meal at mid-day was a feast, usually featuring turkey and ham with lots of mashed potatoes, red cabbage, sauerkraut and other vegetables. After the meal all the cousins would get together and while away the afternoon playing board games like Monopoly and Risk, while grazing on German Christmas cookies and other treats. My mother would always bake a delicious Christmas Stollen, a sweet bread with almond slivers, raisins and marzipan. Many of the adults would find a sofa or other convenient place to have their Mittagsschlaf (afternoon nap). At supper time all the cold cuts would come out along with cheeses, breads and pickles, although it would usually be a challenge to find room to fit any more in. During the evening the games would slowly be wound up, the visitors would bundle up against another freezing winter night and head off after another wonderful holiday of family time together. Shared by Karl Tibelius 4 November, 2016

5 Likpe Bakua is a small village in Ghana where its people predominantly Catholics celebrate Christmas and consider it as a special event in their annual calendar. As a small Ghanaian village, the only formal employment opportunities in the village are staff of a small clinic and teachers of the two primary and junior high schools in the village. The rest of the village folks are either petty traders of famers. This means that all the educated folks from the village have to seek jobs in the big cities in the country. So many of the educated folks from the village live and work elsewhere in the country. Thus during Christmas many of them return to the village to celebrate Christmas with their kith and kin. At dawn the men and boys of each family get up to slaughter animals they have bought days before or pick from among those they rear. These animals normally include fowls, goats, and sheep. The women and girls also get up around the same time to sweep, go to fetch water and get ready to prepare the very first meal of the day. The men also arrange for drinks typically palm wine tapped from the oil palm. Food and drinks normally gets ready by 6:00 am. The young men then move from house to house visiting other family members in the community to eat different types of food and drinks. At the same time, food is also sent from house to house for older people who are not expected to be moving around. Anyone who does not prepare the food on time, the food is not eaten because there is so much to be eaten in the village on Christmas day and it is joy for the woman whose food gets eaten. After the meals people prepare to go to church around 9:00am in their best clothes, normally worn for the first time. The church service itself takes about three hours. During church service the residents take advantage of those who are visiting and institute various forms of collecting money done on competitive basis. In the afternoon after church there are fun football matches and in the evening till the following morning there is drumming and dancing and other forms of entertainment. Thus Christmas is the day all people from Likpe Bakua look up to. This is typical of many villages across the country. Shared by Lambert Okrah Christmas in Iceland ~ Christmas period starts 13 days before Dec 24th. People (kids mainly) put shoes behind main floor windows and "Jolasveitns, people with Santa Clause hats are putting secretly small gifts into shoes. On Dec 24th the first church services start at 5 pm, family dinners follow, the main course is roasted pork back. After dinners Christmas trees are lit with boxes of gifts. When this is over, people are going to churches again for midnight masses. After masses people go to visit friends and it runs until early morning hours. Shared by Jiri Hlavacek 5 November, 2016

6 My childhood memories of the Christmas season in the Netherlands are very limited. When I was a child and till we immigrated to Canada in 1952, the biggest part of the season was Sinterklaas on Dec 5 or Dec 6. Sinterklaas was the name given to St Nicolaas, or Santa Klaas. He arrived in our town on a steamship, accompanied by his companion and helper Peter. The ship also carried his white stallion on which, after debarking from the ship, the saint would process through the town, while Peter would throw pepernoten (a dutch winter season goody) to the children. At home, on the evening of December 6 (I believe) we would celebrate St Nicolaas feast with presents. Depending on family finances this was usually for the children and not the adults. I remember with fondness the poems that were accompanying these gifts exhorting you to be a good boy or girl. If you were bad, the evening may start with you receiving a wooden shoe containing a lump of coal and a roe (small birch rod or stick). After you stopped crying, the real presents mysteriously appeared from somewhere. The later season of Kerstmis was strictly a religious occasion and no presents were given while I was growing up. I am told by my sister that she and my elder sister both attended Sunday school and as part of the Sunday school there were pageants and singing and the children all received a teenage book as a memento. I was born just before the war and this probably stopped towards the end of the war, as I never noticed anything of this when I grew up. We left Holland in 1952 and at that time Kerstmis (Christmas) was still purely a religious occasion. A few years after we left we heard that some people were exchanging gifts at Kerstmis and this trend has probably ingrained by now in the general population. Shared by Ev Zytveld Christmas in Switzerland ~ St. Nikolas, dressed in a brown cape with hood comes on December 6th. If you have been good you can tell him your wishes for Christmas and he will give you gingerbread and nuts. If you have been really bad he will take out a switch of birch twigs and uses them on your rear end. You have until Christmas Eve to redeem yourself! At dark on Christmas Eve you leave the window of your living room open a bit. The "Christkindli" (Christmas child, an angel dressed in white with golden hair) flies through the air and brings the tree and presents. "Christkindli" rings a little bell on the tree and you are allowed to go into the room. Christmas Eve is usually a quiet time for the small family unit. Christmas Day there are church Services with communion and afterwards it is a celebration with gatherings for the wider family. Shared by Liz Mitchell 6 November, 2016

7 Financial Update The table below summarizes our Operating and Building Fund income and expenditure figures for the January October period for the past three years, as well as our givings to the UCC Mission and Service fund Revenues Givings 203, , ,036 Other 64,892 66,620 73,271 Total 268, , ,307 Expenditures Operating 238, , ,100(E) Building 5,418 51,028(1) 19,840 Total 243, , ,946 Year-to-date surplus (deficit) 24,411 (50,766) (10,459) (E) Estimate (1) Includes expenditure on Epworth Entrance Project UCC Mission and Service Givings 53,125 48,311 46,705 As shown above, givings (PAR, envelope, loose, etc.) in the first ten months of 2016 continued to decline. This decline was offset by an increase in rental income and a one-time bequest of $10 thousand. Operating expenses this year also have declined, mainly due to the decision to eliminate the part-time minister position and to lower-than-budgeted utility costs, but the decline has been offset in large measure by the unbudgeted cost of the sanctuary roof repair (approximately $15 thousand). Donations to the Mission and Service Fund as of the end of October were down about 3.3 per cent, slightly less than the 4 per cent overall decline in givings. City Viewers have always given generously, especially in November and December, and if this holds true this year it should be possible to both balance the budget and achieve our mission of being a welcoming and inclusive Christian community, growing spiritually and caring for those in need. Cherry Globes Cookie Recipe 1 Cup Butter 1 tsp Salt ¼ Cup Icing Sugar 1 tsp. Vanilla 2 Cups Flour 3 doz. maraschino cherries, drained Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients, except cherries, mixing well. Flatten a small amount of dough (about 1-1/2 tsp. for each cookie) in palm of hand. Place a whole drained cherry on each circle of dough. Cover cherry by pinching dough up and around it, and then roll between hands to form a smooth ball. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 325 degree F. for minutes. While hot, roll in red or green jello. Shared by Barb Williams 7 November, 2016

8 KIDS PAGE COLOURING & UNSCRAMBLE THE LETTERS 8 November, 2016