Welcome to this service.
Welcome to the Third Sunday of Advent, December 13! This week we honor Joy with a special Family Christmas celebration. Along with readings that you will find here, we will meet by Zoom on Sunday, Dec. 13, starting at 10 am, for the Family Celebration followed by Joys and Concerns.
Click here on Sunday morning to join the worship by Zoom.
Click here if you need more detailed instructions on getting onto Zoom.
You can respond with thoughts about the service or with anything you would like to say by using the comment feature at the end of the post or by emailing us. You can also bring others into this experience by sharing the link to this service by email or social media.
Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here and in our church community.
The United Church of Strafford Council
Readings in this post
Welcome to this service.
Welcome to the Second Sunday of Advent, December 6! This week ee honor Peace. Along with readings that you will find here, we will meet by Zoom on Sunday, Dec. 6, starting at 9:45 am, for Story Time and live worship.
Click here on Sunday morning to join the worship by Zoom.
Click here if you need more detailed instructions on getting onto Zoom.
You can respond with thoughts about the service or with anything you would like to say by using the comment feature at the end of the post or by emailing us. You can also bring others into this experience by sharing the link to this service by email or social media.
Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here and in our church community.
The United Church of Strafford Council
Readings in this post
November 24, 2020
Dear Church Family,
I am writing to let you know that I will be taking a leave of absence from the church from Thursday, November 26th until Thursday, January 14th. I have requested this for personal reasons. I am very thankful for the gracious support of the church leadership in granting it.
I would not have considered taking time off during Advent and Christmas in an ordinary year, but we are approaching the season differently because of the pandemic. Annemieke McLane and Becky Bailey have been working already to design beautiful online services, and we have strong lay leadership for our Zoom gatherings and all aspects of our ministry. The church is in excellent hands, so I can take the leave I need without concern.
If you have any questions or needs, please be in touch with Deacon Becky Bailey at rbailey@sover.net or 802-765-2647.
I look forward to my return. I will miss you.
Grace and peace,
Tom
Please join us for the premiere of the NOËL CONCERT Premiere on the First Sunday of Advent, November 29, 2020 at 4:30 PM.
We will be watching this concert together with its performers at its YouTube premiere at https://youtu.be/KKduwz8JoXk. You can go there now and click the bell symbol to receive a reminder notification so you don’t miss it on Sunday the 29th.
If you have ever been to this annual Advent concert in our sanctuary, you know what a treasure it is, with four outstanding performers who blend beautifully: Julie Ness, Timothy Cummings and Annemieke and Jeremiah McLane. This excellent film by Michael Fisher makes the performance as intimate and moving as it would be if seen from the pews, if not more so.
Please share this URL https://youtu.be/KKduwz8JoXk with all your friends and family around the world and join the performers for the concert’s premiere on Sunday, November 29, 2020 at 4:30 PM Eastern Time (US) as a beautiful way to enter Advent. Thank you! See you there!
Please see the concert program listed below.
Comfort, sing, listen, dear friends,
be safe, keep singing, much love,
Annemieke, Julie, Jeremiah and Tim,
United Church of Strafford, Vermont.
Performed by Julie Ness, Soprano
Timothy Cummings, Small Pipes, Whistles
Jeremiah McLane, Accordion
Annemieke McLane, Piano Read More
We will have a Children’s (and Adults’) Story Time by Zoom, this Sunday at 9:45 AM—Please spread the word about this event. Children can attend from anywhere and adults are welcome, too!
Danette Harris and Joey Hawkins will read aloud and discuss the beautiful, meaningful book described below. (Pastor Tom Kinder will be there, too—he is the zoom host, and it’s one of his favorite activities!)
We will be offering story time whenever we have a volunteer to lead it. Please let us know if you would like to share a favorite book with the children by emailing us at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com.
This week the story is:
Here is the Zoom link (note that it is now the same as the Sunday morning Live Service and Joys and Concerns):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/110184919
You can find Zoom instructions on this website page by clicking here.
Welcome to this service. This is one of the big, pivotal Sundays in the church year. It is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, the Reign of Christ Sunday and also Thanksgiving Sunday. Next Sunday the new church year begins with the First Sunday of Advent.
We celebrate this Sunday each year by allowing ourselves to envision the realm of God on earth—society as Jesus taught us it could be if humanity would abandon its selfish, exploitive, ego-driven culture and follow the Spirit’s way of compassion, justice and love.
We had help envisioning this transformation from four members of our community over the past two weeks, and today’s sermon will draw upon their reflections. You can find them by clicking on their names here:
Gus Speth
Mark Kutolowski
Rachel Guaraldi
Deadra Ashton
You can respond with thoughts about the service or with anything you would like to say by using the comment feature at the end of the post or by emailing us. You can also bring others into this experience by sharing the link to this service by email or social media.
Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here and in our church community.
Pastor Tom Kinder
Today’s Order of Worship
I Will Save My Flock: They Shall No Longer Be Ravaged
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
United Church of Strafford, Vermont
November 22 2020 Twenty-fifth and Last Sunday after Pentecost,
Reign of Christ Sunday
Psalm 95:1-7a; Ezekiel 34:11-12, 14-16, 20-22; Matthew 25:31-46
[You can watch a video recording of this sermon at the end of this text and you can see the entire On Line Service by clicking here. Here is a pdf of this text: 11-22-20 sermon pdf
This is the last Sunday in Pentecost, the season celebrating the Holy Spirit moving through human hearts and hands and the fruit of all creation. Next Sunday we begin again in the darkness of Advent, waiting and watching for the rebirth of the light, but today the wisdom of the church year turns us toward the gleaming vision of the Spirit’s approaching fruition in a fully mature humanity.
Scriptures describe how the Spirit works in nature and human history, and of how the unevolved human ego departs from that sacred way.
Sages, saints and shamans in all cultures and spiritual traditions have recognized ethical laws that the Spirit follows. They all teach some form of the Golden Rule or love of neighbor as our self. They urge compassion for the most vulnerable, hurting and oppressed. They work to keep greed and violence in check because a society cannot survive for long if it is ruled by cruel selfishness instead of kindness and justice.
Jesus insists again and again that this ideal society, the realm of God, is near at hand, and our calling is to establish it on earth.
Today we look at what that means in the year 2020. We not only envision human society as God’s realm, we allow ourselves to long for it, to want it so badly that we are willing to lay down our lives as Jesus did to make it happen, because if we are willing, it truly can happen, and if we want life on earth to survive it truly must happen—now—the ancient dream fulfilled in our generation. Read More
We invited the Rev. Deadra Bachorik Ashton to reflect on what we as a people need right now, after all we have been through in 2020, in order to nurture our spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical health.
Deadre is a Presbyterian minister, spiritual director, and chaplain currently serving at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s Aging Resource Center and General Internal Medicine clinic.
Deadra’s reflection is timely, insightful and grounded in both ancient wisdom and her own current experience. You can read the text of her video message below, or you can download the text as a pdf here: 11-19-20 Deadra Ashton Reflection pdf.
“I’m tired.” I hear this every day. I hear it from family caregivers who miss the opportunities for the much needed breaks they once had in the “Before Times” when people could come into their home to relieve them for a few hours. I hear it from the newly bereaved whose grief is complicated by pandemic-induced social distancing mandates at a time when they need to be physically close to those they love. I hear it from front line health care workers and teachers and therapists and pastors and activists. I hear it from parents who are desperately trying to balance their work with the needs of their families. Our collective weariness is palpable.
It’s not hard to see why. We’ve all been through a lot these past few months – actually, in these past few years. No wonder we’re tired. And yet, there’s still so much to be done on so many fronts. It would seem that we don’t have time to cope with fatigue. Something in us tries to keep pushing on. Where does that energy come from? Is it a sort of shared adrenaline rush? Is burnout right around the corner?
Perhaps. But what is also right around the corner is Advent, the season of ritualized waiting and preparing. In the weeks and now months before Christmas that our consumerist culture has trained us to view as a year-end buying frenzy and social whirlwind, Christians enter into a communal introspective pause. Observing Advent is a radical act that flies in the face of cultural norms. The social and economic sirens scream, “Hurry, you’ll miss the sale; you won’t find that in-demand toy that guarantees happiness. Try to fit as many parties as possible into your schedule.”
But the voice of Advent whispers, “Slow down. Look within. Take stock of where you’ve been and where you’re going. Ask yourself who you are and whose you are.”
One of the most beloved biblical Advent texts is Isaiah 40. Read More