You are invited to the Second Sunday of Advent with Holy Communion this Sunday, December 4 at 10 am. *Masks are optional. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE. 

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing. 

Second Sunday of Advent with Holy Communion
Sunday, December 4, 2022, 10 am

Children’s Time    “Christmas Story of the First Family”      Pastor John

Special Music           Carol from an Irish Cabin           Brandon & Trisha Kett 
An old Christmas carol of Irish origin with an unknown author

Message         Part 2) “Facing Darkness Before Light”            Rev. John Song

This is a continuation of a story of a man who was forced to confront his personal darkness and what his moment of reckoning can teach us about spiritual sobriety.

“Don’t fight the darkness —
stay connected to Christ, the bringer of light,
and darkness will disappear.”
~ John Song

“I have come into the world as a light,
so that no one who believes in me stay in darkness.”
~ John 12:46

So the darkness shall be the light,
and the stillness the dancing.
~ T.S. Eliot, FOUR QUARTETS

You are invited to the First Sunday of Advent with the Hanging of the Greens Service this Sunday, November 27 at 10 am. We welcome children to take part in the service. *Masks are optional. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE. 

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing

First Sunday of Advent
Hanging of the Greens Service 
Sunday, November 27, 2022, 10 am

HANGING OF THE GREENS
While children and youth help decorate the Christmas tree,
the congregation will sing a medley of carols.

Sing-Along Medley of Favorite Christmas Songs
O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)
I Saw Three Ships
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Deck the Halls
Jingle Bells
Joy to the World
Feliz Navidad (Song by José Feliciano)
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Choir Anthem     Watchman Tell Us of the Night 

Words: John Bowring, Music: Lowell Mason
Incorporating Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Words: Charles Wesley, Music: Rowland Hugh Prichard, Arr. by C.D. Abenoja

Children’s Time       Advent Calendar: “Countdown for Christmas”        Pastor John 
*All children will receive the Advent Calendar for counting down for Christmas.

[Arising from a 19th century German tradition, advent calendars count the 24 days leading up to Christmas day. Advent, from the Latin “adventus” for arrival, has been in the Christian spiritual tradition dating back at least to the 4th century CE, and marks a time of preparation for the birth of Christ. In contemporary usage, an advent calendar has become a fun and meaningful ritual to count down wintry December days towards Christmas, a season to reflect on the year gone by, love and be loved with friends and family.]

Message “Facing Darkness Before Light” Rev. John Song

Psalm 139:11-12
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Isaiah 9:2
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness
on them light has shined.”

You are invited to the Thanksgiving Celebration this Sunday, November 20 at 10 am. *Masks are optional. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE. 

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing. 

Thanksgiving Sunday 
Sunday, November 20, 2022, 10 am

This Sunday is the In-Person Lego Sunday!
First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music,
the teacher, Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room.

Children’s Time      “Healing of Ten Men with Leprosy”        Pastor John

Choir Anthem      Praise Ye the Lord (based on Psalm 106:1)
Words : Elsie Duncan Yale & Henry Downton, Music: Stewart Landon
Introducing the tune “Posen” by George C. Strattner

Message            “Healing of Ten Lepers”                   Rev. John Song

Luke 17:11-19
Healing of Ten Men with Leprosy

¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, ¹³ they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. ¹⁶ He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

“Ingratitude is part and parcel of pride and self-centeredness,
a deep denial of how dependent we are on God and one another.
If we aren’t thankful, it’s because we don’t think we owe anyone anything.” 
~ Tim Keller, the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City