You are invited to the in-person Worship on January 8 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 After the Epiphany
Sunday, January 8, 2023, 10 am
This Sunday is In-Person Lego Sunday!
First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music,
our Sunday School teacher, Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room.
Children’s Time “A Lesson from the Magi” Dr. Haley Feuerbacher
What did the Magi risk and might have feared when they followed the star and what gave them hope? How does God show up in unexpected places? What we can expect is that God shows up in all the spaces that are life-giving, joyful, loving, and just, and we are called to follow that truth. We will ask each other what brave thing we want to do, knowing that God is with us every step of the way? What is the star that is beckoning us to follow?
Special Music St. Ita’s Vision Dr. Emily Sinclair, Soprano
[Dr. Emily Sinclair, soprano, has performed in opera and concert across the United States, including at the Caramoor Festival, Central City Opera, and Opera Colorado. In the Bay Area, Emily has performed with the San Francisco Choral Society, West Bay Opera, and most recently as the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Cantare Chorale in Walnut Creek. Emily received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy, and holds additional degrees from Northwestern University, Manhattan School of Music and Yale University.
In Santa Cruz, she conducts Fiat Musica and the Temple Beth El choir, and teaches voice and vocal repertoire at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Upcoming performances include the MAH Common Ground Festival and Santa Cruz Chamber Players.]
Message “Floods, Birds, and Stars” Dr. Haley Feuerbacher
[Dr. Haley Feuerbacher is a storyteller, creator, adventurer, facilitator, spiritual activist, and theologian. She attended Vanderbilt Divinity School and Brite Divinity School for her Master’s in Theological Studies and completed her Ph.D. at Southern Methodist University in Religion and Culture and Women’s and Gender Studies. A recent transplant to California from Texas, Haley was a faculty member at SMU and The Seattle School for Theology & Psychology and served for several years as a youth minister and then as campus minister for a United Methodist Reconciling college ministry. Passionate about the power of joy and compassion for personal and systemic transformation, Haley is currently the founder and executive director of the Center for Courageous Compassion, which is creating a movement of fierce survivor-centeredness and transformation of trauma in which our helpers, caregivers, activists, leaders, and ministers engage in courageously compassionate work, life, and being that yields sustainable joy and resists systems and patterns that lead to vicarious trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue. Haley is also a running coach, yoga facilitator, surfing and outdoor enthusiast, partner to SB and mother to son Christian.]
What does the story of the flood have to do with the Magi and the new year? In this message, we will talk about answering the call to a wild journey and how connecting the God who is with us gives us the wisdom and courage to take risks and let go of what we know in order to follow what will grow.
Themes: Courage, following God into the unknown, God doing a new thing, letting go of or leaving what is not life-giving, God with us/God made flesh, the scandal of leaving dogma and power and privilege and comfort for the sake of life and liberation – even when the world does not understand or follow suit.
“Enter through the narrow gate,
for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction,
and there are many who take it.
For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life,
and there are few who find it.”
~ Matthew 7:13-14
