You are invited to the in-person Worship on March 26 at 10 am. 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.

Fifth Sunday of Lent
Sunday, March 26, 2023, 10 am

 Personal Testimony                      “The Second Act”                           Bob Lee

Bob Lee will be sharing personal testimony this Sunday. Bob is a lay person from Los Altos UMC and a Certified Early Response Team (ERT) Leader for Cal/Nevada Conference. He has participated in Disaster Response Missions since Katrina in the late 1990s. He and the Early Response Team are staying at our Social Hall from Thursday through Monday evening while they do their early response work in Pajaro and flood affected areas.

Bob is retired from 40 years of hospitality management and worked in the public sector as a Parks & Recreation Director of Santa Cruz County Parks Department and the Assistant City Manager of Pinole.

Choir Anthem: Burdens Are lifted at Calvary
Words & Music by John M. Moore

Message                                     Rendezvous with God                           Rev. John Song
Part 4) “Sign of the Cross 4.0”

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we continue our Lenten Sermon Series: “Rendezvous with God” with Part 4) “Sign of the Cross 4.0”. We will continue to explore deeper and further in practicing the sign of the cross to get the full benefit of using it as our daily spiritual practice. It is a powerful spiritual tool to cultivate embodied prayer life that will have an indelible effect in cultivating intimate life with God.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (The Message)
“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.
But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!
We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us,
knowing him directly just as he knows us!

You are invited to the in-person Worship on March 19 at 10 am. 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.

Fourth Sunday of Lent 
Sunday, March 19, 2023, 10 am

This Sunday is 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.

This Sunday is our special offering for UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief). UMCOR envelopes will be available next to the bulletins.

About UMCOR & the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church: Founded in 1940, the United Methodist Committee on Relief is the global humanitarian relief agency of The United Methodist Church. A part of Global Ministries, UMCOR works in more than 80 countries worldwide, including the United States and its territories. The agency’s mission, grounded in the teachings of Jesus, is to alleviate human suffering with open hearts and minds to all people. Working in the areas of disaster response and recovery, sustainable development and migration, UMCOR responds to natural or civil disasters that are interruptions of such magnitude that they overwhelm a community’s ability to recover on its own. Learn more about UMCOR by visiting www.umcor.org.

Children’s Time          “Added Benefits of Doing Sign of the Cross”            Pastor John

Special Music                         The Crucifixion                   Emily Sinclair, Soprano
by Samuel Barber from The Hermit Songs

At the cry of the first bird
They began to crucify Thee, O Swan!
Never shall lament cease because of that.
It was like the parting of day from night.
Ah, sore was the suffering borne
By the body of Mary’s Son,
But sorer still to Him was the grief
Which for His sake
Came upon His Mother.

Message                                     Rendezvous with God                                     Rev. John Song
Part 3) “Sign of the Cross 3.0”

On this Fourth Sunday of Lent, we continue our Lenten Sermon Series: “Rendezvous with God” with Part 3) “Sign of the Cross 3.0”. We will go even deeper and further in practicing the sign of the cross to get the full benefit of using it as our daily spiritual practice. It is a powerful spiritual tool to cultivate embodied prayer life that will have an indelible effect in cultivating intimate life with God.

“The way we would begin in prayer is that we belong to God. And all the prayer starts and unfolds out of that knowing that we belong to God. We are trying to get past the topic of prayer to this deep experience that we belong to God. We are God’s beloved. Renewing our faith that we are sitting there in God’s presence, God is all about us and within us, closer to us than we are to ourselves.” ~ Thomas Merton

You are invited to the in-person Worship on March 12 at 10 am. 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.

Third Sunday of Lent
Sunday, March 12, 2023, 10 am

Children’s Time: “How to Do the Sign of the Cross” by Pastor John 

Children will learn the meaning of the sign of the cross and how to use it in their daily prayer. Each child will receive a cross to take home to wear when they pray and/or hang in their room.

Message: Rendezvous with God Part 3) “Sign of the Cross 3.0” by Rev. John Song

On this Third Sunday of Lent, we continue our Lenten Sermon Series: “Rendezvous with God” with Part 3) “Sign of the Cross 3.0”. We will go even deeper and further in practicing the sign of the cross to get the full benefit of using it as our daily spiritual practice. It is a powerful spiritual tool to cultivate embodied prayer life that will have an indelible effect in establishing intimate life with God.

“There’s a deeper way of knowing what it means to know, which is beyond all explanations. It’s just in this deep kind of wisdom that’s manifested in ways beyond what the thinking self thinks it can understand.” ~ James Finley

You are invited to the in-person Worship with Holy Communion on March 5 at 10 am. 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 Lent with Holy Communion 
Sunday, March 5, 2023, 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.

Message                         Rendezvous with God                 Rev. John Song
Part 2) “Sign of the Cross 2.0”

On this Second Sunday of Lent, we continue our Lenten Sermon Series: “Rendezvous with God” with Part 2) “Sign of the Cross 2.0”. We got an introduction last Sunday on how to do the “Sign of the Cross” as a spiritual practice. This week we’ll dive much deeper into the mystery of the “Sign of the Cross” that will have a profound effect on the formation of our Trinitarian spiritual life. We are familiar with the aphorism “A rising tide lifts all boats.” For our purpose, when we go deep in knowledge of one thing, it will influence and deepen all other aspects of life. That is the goal of the message this Sunday: Part 2) “Sign of the Cross 2.0”.

You are invited to the in-person Worship on February 26 at 10 am. 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 Lent
Sunday, February 26, 2023, 10 am

Children’s Time        “Why Do We Pray?”              Pastor John
Children will learn why we pray and how to pray to God.

Special Music                         The Lord’s Prayer       Dr. Emily Sinclair, Soprano
by Albert Hay Malotte, 1935

Message                          Rendezvous with God                Rev. John Song
Part 1) “Prayer”

On this First Sunday of Lent, Pastor John will kick-off the Lenten Sermon Series: “Rendezvous with God” with Part 1) “Prayer”. In addition to learning about the overall understanding of prayer, we will learn the “embodied” spiritual practice of the “Sign of the Cross.” This can be a powerful form of spiritual prayer practice of deepening relationship with God in Trinity that is felt through our bodies.

“A contemplative practice is any way
one has of penetrating illusion and touching reality.”
 ~ Parker Palmer

“We lean into the gift and mercy of our lives and what is being asked of us.
We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can –
namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us.”
~ St. Teresa of Ávila, the 16^th century Spanish mystic

“A contemplative prayer opens a space for a quiet rendezvous with God, whose presence shines a light back onto our daily life and on a new and better way to live our lives. By listening deeply, we will receive guidance and insights that can set a spiritual trajectory toward greater awakening.”                                ~ James Finley