DCC will be providing dinners to homeless families in SHELTER, Inc.’s Mountain View Emergency Family Shelter in Martinez for three nights during February: Tuesday – Thursday, February 4-6. Sign up at the Outreach table to provide a dinner as a group project or sign up as an individual or family to provide a dish and/or help serve the meal. See Doug Leich for more information.
Observed each year on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off,” MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities. DCC is partnering with Contra Costa Interfaith Housing to help refurbish up to three homes in the SRV area—provide replacement furniture, carpet-cleaning, yard-work, gutter-cleaning, etc. We will gather here at DCC at 9:30am on Monday, January 20 for coffee & donuts. Folks will be divided up among each team and head off to their site. We will deliver the furniture to each of the three homes that morning and haul the replaced furniture to the dump. We will also do the chores needed at each site. We should be done by lunch.
Contact Pastor Todd if you need more info.
This morning God we wake up and find there is still conflict, still war around the world:
nation against nation,
brother against brother,
neighbor against neighbor.
brother against brother,
neighbor against neighbor.
Specifically, God, we come to you because there looms yet another threat of war! In this moment of prayer, we petition you in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Christ, to:
- Quell the aspirations of war mongers who choose violence over peace, who risk the lives of mothers’ and fathers’ sons and daughters…
- Defeat their worst impulses to inflict instruments of war upon people and the earth…
- Convict the hearts of people of reason to do everything to find a peaceful solution and stop further acts of war and violence…
- Shield the young men and women who are at this moment being deployed and comfort their families.
God who sent Jesus to live among us as the Prince of Peace, protect all who face in their lives the threat of war — whether actual or metaphorical.
And make us, above all things, the peace-makers Jesus asked us to be.
We end this prayer with these words from Dr. Howard Thurman:
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.”
Oh God, in the name of Jesus,
let there be peace … right … now!
Amen
All are invited to join us at 5:00 pm in the Sanctuary for our Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship Service. This will be a festive service with carols, a special children’s moment, sermon preached by Pastor Eric, candlelight, and the singing of Silent Night.
Last year on the first Sunday of Christmas (that’s right, Christmas is a season in the church calendar, not just one day!), we celebrated Sunday worship with a Carols and Poems service. This was a festive service with carols of the season and poetry that lifted up the joy and meaning of Christmas.
This year, on Sunday, December 29, we invite you to help us in crafting this special service. Do you have a favorite carol you would like sung? Do you have a Christmas poem or short story that is particularly meaningful? If so, please email Pastor Eric no later than December 17 with your contribution. If you would like to read your poem or short story during the service, be sure to let him know, too! We look forward to celebrating Christmas with you all once again.
Calling all cookie makers and cookie lovers alike to make, bake, and decorate cookies and then assemble our freshly baked treats for delivery to our homebound members afterward. After worship and coffee hour on December 15, we’ll share a light lunch together before getting down to serious cookie making business in Kairos Hall! Contact Kim Michaud and Angie Ruhlin for more info!
Our youth group and their families are invited to celebrate Christmas together at the home of Michael and Maddie (Carol Gilliland and Jennifer O’Neal’s home) on Sunday, December 8 from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. A potluck sign-up will be sent via email. Everyone should bring a “white elephant” gift for the exchange.
Come join your DCC friends for an adult-only evening of fun, frivolity, wine, food and joyous Christmas caroling at our annual Christmas Party! We will gather Saturday, December 7, 6:00-9:00 pm in Kairos Hall. Please plan to contribute a heavy appetizer or a dessert to share, plus your beverage of choice. For those with children, childcare will be provided by the church. Please sign up in advance with Joyce Klassen so we can plan accordingly. Finally, we want to make this event accessible to all, so if you’re not comfortable driving at night, but would like to come, let Joyce know and we can figure out transportation. Please sign up during Time of Fellowship or contact Joyce Klassen directly.
Believe it or not, it’s that time again. The Christmas Pageant will be Sunday, December 22 … with a few new wrinkles. While the pageant itself will remain intergenerational and participation open to anyone who shows up that morning, we will be using a new script and adding a couple of songs that the children will sing. We will be having rehearsals of 30-40 minutes the following Sundays after worship (as close to 10:30 am as possible, after a snack, in the Sanctuary) on December 1, December 8, and December 15. Attendance is not mandatory but encouraged. These will also be the dates for our costume fittings!
If you know your child(ren) will be participating, please let us know here or email Kim and Todd. Contact Kim or Pastor Todd for more info.
The worship commission needs everyone’s help to prepare our Sanctuary and campus for the Advent and Christmas seasons! All are invited to the Greening of the Church on Sunday, November 24 at 11:00 am during the Second Hour. Come one, Come ALL!
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