Younger Children’s
Bulletin
Older Children’s
Bulletin
Good morning! This page is intended to both serve as a continuing worship option for those participating in our worship service from home, and to serve in place of print resources during our in-person worship. Following the worship service on Sunday, one or more video recordings from the service will be placed on this page, including the sermon. This may take several hours, due to the time needed to process the videos. We will email the congregation when the recordings have been posted. If you would like to be added to our congregational email list, please contact pvcob.alive@gmail.com.
Notes and Reminders
The Church Board met Sunday Evening. One joy every December is being able to distribute funds from various sources, including crop sales from fields owned by the church (with seed, labor, etc. donated by members of our congregation) and money donated to the Community Needs Fund. This year’s end of year giving includes:
- $10,000 to the Verona Food Pantry.
- $2,000 to the Bethany UMC Food Pantry.
- $4,060 to Brethren Woods, the Shenandoah District Church of the Brethren Camp.
The Board also made adjustments due to rising prevalence of Covid-19 and new state regulations to slow the spread of the virus:
- The first adjustment is that we will once again not be holding Sunday School classes in the building. The Board will re-evaluate after Covid-19 rates have fallen again.
- The second adjustment is that we will not be having a Board Retreat in January. Current regulations prohibit gatherings of more than 10 people, and while our worship services are exempt, meetings are not. Church Board Business will be conducted by email and through subgroup (Focus Team) meetings during the intervening time.
This week marks the Fourth Sunday in Advent, and we will continue to hold a Vespers Service at 5:30 PM out in the pavilion, to be a time in which we can read scripture, sing carols, and pray together. We hope you will come and join us!
This year’s Christmas Eve celebrations will include a video for you to enjoy at home. We invite you and your family to join us on our website to view and listen to the wonderful message of Christ through word and song. We will also be holding an Outdoor Christmas Eve service at 7:00 PM in the pavilion.
We are collecting items for Valley Mission during the month of December. Keep in mind the need has shifted this year. Valley Mission has seen cases of Covid-19 among its residents, so we have a new list for donations, instead of the usual coats, hats, and winter-wear. Please be praying for the Mission staff and residents also, that God would provide them with healing and protection. Desired donations include: Cleaning supplies, Toilet paper, Paper towels, Plasticware for meals, Flu meds, and Fever reducing medications (i.e., Tylenol, Advil, Motrin)
Carol of the Bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say
Throw cares away
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold
Ding-dong, ding-dong
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From everywhere (From everywhere)
Filling the air
With joyful ring
All caroling (Oh, oh, ah)
Raising their sound
O’er hill and dale
Telling their tale
Gaily they ring
While people sing songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas
On on they send
On without end
Their joyful tone
To every home
Ah, ah, ah
Ding-dong, ding-dong
Ding-dong, ding-dong
Hark how the bells (Hark how the bells)
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say (All seem to say)
Throw cares away
(We will throw cares away)
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold
Oh how they pound (Oh how they pound)
Raising their sound
O’er hill and dale
Telling their tale
Gaily they ring
While people sing songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas
On on they send
On without end
Their joyful tone
To every home
Ah, ah, ah
Throw cares away
(We will throw cares away)
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold
Advent Reflection
Do not be afraid. That was the message of the angels as they brought news of Jesus coming. That can be difficult at times. There are many things that can make us afraid. There are many things that are dangerous, painful, even life threatening. They should be handled with caution. Fear is the natural reaction.
But fear can be paralyzing. It can make us act irrationally, lead us to lash out at others. Fear is what turns crowds into trampling stampedes. Fear separates us, leads us into distrust, loneliness, and helplessness.
John gives us the counter, the vaccine, the treatment, as it was given to him by Jesus.
From 1 John 4:
Perfect Love drives out fear. … Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. … If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. …God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
Invocation
Come, Child of Bethlehem,
make your presence known to us
and dwell in our midst as we worship.
Come, servant King,
teach us the ways of your kingdom
and make our hearts your throne.
Come, Brother of all,
show us the meaning of our humanity.
Go before us and lead us to God;
bring us to the fullness of your kingdom.
Amen.
-Rebecca J. Slough, Brethren Press.
The First Noel
Verse 1
The First Noel, the Angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!
Verse 2
They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the East beyond them far
And to the earth it gave great light
And so it continued both day and night
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!
CCLI License # 1699256
Carol of the Huron
Verse 1
Twas in the moon of winter-time
when all the birds had fled,
that mighty gitchi Manitou
sent angel choirs instead;
before the light the stars grew dim,
and wondering hunters herd the hymn:
“Jesus your king is born, Jesus is born,
in excelsis Gloria.”
Verse 2
Within a lodge of broken bark
the tender babe was found,
a raged robe of rabbit skin
enwrapp’d his beauty round;
but as the hunter braves drew nigh,
the angel song rang loud and high.
Verse 3
The earliest moon of winter-time is not so round and fair,
as was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there;
the chiefs from far before him knelt
with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
Verse 4
O children of the forest free,
O sons of Manitou,
The Holy Child of earth and heaven
Is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant Boy
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy
CCLI License # 1699256
Luke 1:39-45 NRSV
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
Oh Holy Night
Verse 1:
Oh Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of our dear Saviou’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.
Chorus:
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn,
Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices,
Oh night divine, oh, night when Christ was born,
Oh night divine, oh night, oh night divine.
Verse 2:
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and his gospel is peace,
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppressions shall cease.
Chorus 2:
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we
Noel, Noel, Oh night when Christ was born
Noel, Noel, Oh night, oh night divine.
CCLI License # 1699256
Luke 1:41-42
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the child leapt in her womb.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
and exclaimed with a loud cry,
‘Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb. “
The coming of a child is always a sign of love.
A sign of God’s love for us.
A sign of the love we share with each other.
A sign of love that we do not yet fully know
A sign of love that we anticipate and wait for eagerly
The coming of a child is a call to love
A call to make ready.
A summons to be patient.
An invitation to live compassion.
The coming of a child is a birth of love.
As love dwells in the potential of every human heart.
As love waits for us to recognize its presence, even suppressed.
The coming of this child is love alive for us today
For God is love.
May God’s love have life in us,
as we live as brothers, sisters, neighbors, and strangers today.
May God’s love redeem and unite us all.
A Prayer inspired by Luke 1:39-56
Great God of the prophets and truth-tellers,
Great Voice of Truth who speaks through unexpected voices,
Great Power of the Universe who works mighty deeds
from fragile possibilities,
we gather here to know Your presence and to listen for Your truth.
We listen in Your presence. We listen for You.
Let our listening reach to hear the voice of young Mary.
Let us listen for her voice,
the voice of an adolescent girl in an insignificant village
in a marginal province,
far from the centers of power.
Extend our listening to hear her where she may be speaking today:
an adolescent girl in a village in rural China
whose parents really wanted a boy;
a girl in a remote native village in Latin America
leading the singing in a small church;
a 14-year-old working for a tiny wage in a crowded factory somewhere
making our high-priced running shoes;
a 15-year-old helping her village in West Africa recover from civil war;
a high school student in a U.S. city
resisting a culture of violence daily to attend school.
Extend our listening, God,
to hear the song of truth and hope You are putting in their mouths.
Extend our listening, God,
to sense the motion of a future You are moving in their midst,
a future world put right.
Extend our listening, God,
that we may receive and affirm and listen
with the eager ears of elderly Elizabeth,
wise with years of waiting.
Let us listen fully and deeply for the hope You are preparing.
Let us greet Your hope with the Elizabeth’s joy greeting Mary.
Let us feel the future moving in us as well.
Let us listen fully and deeply for the hope You are preparing in us.
Let us listen deeply to the truth speaking in us.
Let us listen fully to the hope You place in us.
Extend our listening
to the deepest reaches of our own souls, God of Truth.
Extend our listening through the cares
that each of us brings on our hearts this morning.
Extend our listening through the financial worries
and the preoccupations with our health,
our concern for loved ones whose lives are straying out of control,
our angers and aggravations, our inundation with activity.
Extend our listening into all that we bring today
to hear there the transforming truth about our lives.
Extend our listening until we listen with all that we are, our whole beings.
Extend our listening until we hear with Your whole voice.
Extend our listening until we become the voice that speaks as Mary to say,
“My soul magnifies God and my spirit rejoices.”
May the listening of our souls enlarge Your listening
until we truly hear You from unexpected places
in the farthest reaches of the earth
and the most remote territories of our own souls.
Extend our listening that we may magnify You.
– Dr. Susan M. (Elli) Elliott.
http://ellielliott.webs.com/sermonsprayers.htm
Gesu Bambino
Verse 1:
When blossoms flowered ‘mid the snows upon a winter night
Was born the Child the Christmas Rose, The King of Love and Light
The angels sang, the shepherds sang, The grateful earth rejoiced
And at His blessed birth the stars Their exultation voiced.
Verse 2:
Again the heart with rapture glows to greet the holy night
that gave the world it’s Christmas Rose, It’s king of Love and Light
Let every voice acclaim His name, The grateful chorus swell
From paradise to earth He came that we with Him might dwell
Verse 3
Chorus:
O come let us adore him
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
Ah! O come let us adore Him
Ah! O come let us adore Him
Ah! Adore Him, Christ, the Lord.
O come, O come
O come let us adore Him
Let us adore Him
Christ, the Lord.
CCLI License # 1699256
