Join us December 6 for our second Sunday of Advent, a service breaking open the word and bread, a celebration of love. This year we will be joining with others across the country on a journey to find more hope, love, joy and peace in the world even when we don’t see it! That is the concept behind this year’s Advent and Christmas season entitled “In Believe Even When…Fill the Night with Music and Light.” Especially this year, with the rise in cases of the COVID virus, when racism is running rampant in our nation, when we are more divided than ever, can we believe that there is a way forward together—all of us together? A short poem found on the cellar wall of a concentration camp shortly after the end of WWII becomes our anchor text as we journey toward Christmas. Readings for this service will include scripture from the Prophet Isaiah and the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The sermon by Pastor Lucozzi is entitled “I Believe In Love: Love Call Me Home.” Music under the direction of Peter Amidon includes excerpts from the anthem written especially for this worship series, “I Believe Even When” by Mark Miller, featuring soloist Cathy Hess. Our anthem for this Sunday is “Love Call Me Home” written by Peggy Seeger and arranged by Peter Amidon. Hymns for this Sunday include Awake, Awake to Love and Work, by Geoffrey Anketel Studdert Kennedy (1921), Soloist Tony Barrand with Patty Meyer on piano, “Young Mary Was to Be My Wife” words & music Daniel L. Bechtel and “Wonderous Love.” The children’s story for our service is the Christmas classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas read to us by Ellen Peters. Join us in raising your voices and sharing your light in ways that tell the world: do not be afraid!
Guilford Community Church, an Open and Affirming/ Just Peace congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC), continues tomorrow with worship online at 10am and on BCTV at 8am and again on Weds morning at 6:30am. The link to the livestream can be found on the church homepage at guilfordchurch.org.