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

You are invited to the in-person Worship on February 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.

The Last Sunday of Epiphany
Sunday, February 19, 2023, 10 am

Children’s Time        “Let’s Build an Ark!”           Pastor John

Special Music                   If I Needed You                   Duet: Brandon & Trisha Kett

“If I Needed You” is a love song written by Townes Van Zandt, a well-known songwriter from Fort Worth Texas, who’s many songs have been recorded by dozens of well-known artists. The song has a special place in Brandon’s heart because it has to do with a love letter written by his grandfather to his grandmother in 1917. Brandon and Trisha chose this song about love because Valentine’s Day was this past week. 

Message                       Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project            Rev. John Song
Part 6) “The Ark: The New World”

We began the 6-part Sermon Series on Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project with unprecedented weeks of rain and floods in California. We have covered thus far Part 1) “The Flood”, Part 2) “The Ark: Prison”, Part 3) “The Ark: Journey”, Part 4) “The Ark: The Night of Fire”, Part 5) “The Ark: The Light”. In the final Part 6) “The New World”, Pastor John will tie and wrap up the Epiphany journey we took together with Noah’s dream of the new world and God’s vision for the “New World”.

Pastor John will take you on a tour of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky founded in 1805 with a vision of creating a utopian communal life. He will share what he learned from his visit there and conclude with the message from Richard Powers’ 2021 novel “Bewilderment” that won the Pulitzer Prize.

Throughout the world, many are experiencing the power of weather and natural forces that endanger human life and sometimes bring forth new life. As we navigate an unpredictable and fragmented world, each of us has the capacity to access our deepest sources of inner light and wisdom and cultivate engaged presence within ourselves and the outer world. May we continue to grow in awareness of how lightly we move on our Earth as we care for one another and the vulnerable species and their habitats in our fragile planet.

“No matter how far you have gone on the wrong path, turn back.”
~ Turkish Proverb

You are invited to the in-person Worship on February 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.

Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday 
Sunday, February 12, 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.

UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)
RESPONSE TO EARTHQUAKES IN TURKEY AND SYRIA

You can support relief and recovery efforts to earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey through UMCOR. This Sunday, Souper Bowl of Caring, you can donate by making a check out to “Watsonville First UMC” with the memo “UMCOR Earthquake” or cash donation in the envelope with the same memo and drop it in the offering plate or mail it to the church. All the proceeds will be sent to UMCOR.

Children’s Time     “The Story of St. Seraphim and the Bear”        Pastor John

Special Music                     Children Piano Recital              Ethan, Elizabeth, Isaiah
(Under the tutelage of the piano teacher, Marina Thomas)

Message          Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project       Rev. John Song
Part 5) “The Ark: The Light”   

The 6-part Sermon Series on Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project continues. In Part 5) The Ark: The Light”, we will begin with a tour of the Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco as a way of doing a deep dive into an understanding of the phenomenon of “Divine Light” revealed in biblical stories, the testimonies of saints and mystics, and modern-day writers. We will learn how the “Light of God” permeates in us and in all creation that has a profound implication to our deepest identity and our relationship with the world.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal is an avant-garde church that embodies “integral” Christianity. What is “integral” Christianity? I call myself an “integral” Christian. So what does that mean? Well, come and find out!

Vacillation
by William Butler Yeats(1865-1939)
My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.

Transfiguration of Inner Light
by Silja Walter, a Swiss Benedictine nun in the Fahr Abbey, Switzerland
(1919-2011) 
I have not known, what it was:
the inner light. One day it was there.
Up, in the summer mountains.
Then I saw, there exists an inner light in human beings.
It comes from the Light, the energy of God.
It gave itself to me as a gift.

“One’s whole being vibrates like strings 
brushed by an invisible wind.” 
~ Peter Russell

“Explanation separates us from astonishment.”
~ Eugène Ionesco, Découvertes

The Transfiguration of the Lord 
Mark 9:2-9

² Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³ and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no oneon earth could brighten them. ⁴ And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵ Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶ He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷ Then a radiant light-cloud enveloped them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” ⁸ Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus.