Watsonville First United Methodist Church

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

Please join us in decorating the Sanctuary & Social Hall for Christmas on Sunday, November 20, 2022 after worship during coffee hour at 11:30 am. 

You are invited to the Service of Reception of New Members this Sunday, November 13 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. 

Service of Reception of New Members
Sunday, November 13, 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:      “Three Simple Rules”        by Pastor John

Special Music:   Fantasia By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart      by Marina Thomas

Message                                    FIVE PROMISES:                           Rev. John Song
 “I will faithfully participate in its ministries by
Prayer, Presence, Gifts, Service, and Witness” 

This Sunday we will be receiving new members to the church. You are invited to this joyous occasion of personally welcoming Holly Battle and Karen Baker into the church. They have been faithfully coming to worship and participating in the life of the church. You will get to learn more about who they are.

We will learn the legacy of John Wesley, why we are Methodists, what makes us unique, and what makes us similar to other Christian denominations.

A Wesleyan Way of Living:  Three Simple Rules
“Do no harm,
do good work,
and daily commune with God.”

“Only thing that matters at the end of the day is
how well I love God and others.” 
~ John Wesley, the founder of Methodism

You are invited to a special service of All Saints Sunday with Holy Communion this Sunday on November 6 at 10 am. You are invited to bring photos of your loved ones and/or someone you would like to honor to be placed on the altar. 

*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.

All Saints Sunday with Holy Communion 
Sunday, November 6, 2022, 10 am

Meaning of All Saints Sunday

All Saints Sunday is an annual reminder that Christian faith is a gift that is passed on from generation to generation. All Saints Day reminds us that we stand on the shoulders of all those faithful witnesses who have gone before us; the living and the dead.

The feast of All Saints teaches that grace is relational. We know and experience God’s love through the people God gave us in the past, God gives us in the present, and God will continue to give us in the future. God’s steadfast presence is revealed and made real through people who love God enough to allow God’s grace to flow through their lives that gives hope to the world.

Message             “Spiritual Sobriety of Everyday Saints”          Rev. John Song

Meditation for Fall Back on All Saints Sunday
By Dr. Marcia McFee
(United Methodist pastor of CA-Nev Conference)

Today we fall back.
Not just our clocks to usher in the darker days of winter.
But we fall back upon our memories of loved ones
gone from this realm.

We fall back upon the emptiness that we still sometimes feel
at their absence.
We fall back upon our gratefulness that such a cloud of witnesses
paved the way for us.

We fall back upon our faith
that just as the Holy walked with them,
so too the Holy walks with us.

And today let us also fall back into the arms of loved ones
still with us.
And remember to say how much they mean to us.

And today let us also fall back
into the ever-present arms of God.
And remember to say, “thank you, thank you, thank you.”

May your All Saints Sunday
be deeply healing, meaning-filled, and complete.

You are invited to in-person worship this All Hallow’s Eve Sunday, October 30 at 10 am for Día de los Muertos: The Day of the Dead Celebration. You are invited to bring photos of your loved ones and/or someone you would like to honor to be placed on the altar. They will be up through the All Saints Sunday, Nov. 6^th

*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. 

All Hallow’s Eve Sunday 
Día de los Muertos
The Day of the Dead Celebration 
Sunday, October 30, 2022, 10 am

Children’s Time:       “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”      by Pastor John

Special Music:             Children’s Piano Recital            by Febe, Elizabeth, Isaiah 
(Under the tutelage of Piano Teacher, Marina Thomas)

 Message:       Return of Uninvited Visitors: “A Message from Beyond”

The Veils Are Thin:
Connecting to the Other Side

Again this year we are being visited by the uninvited visitors. We are told there are new additional visitors added from the last. They tell us that this is not all doom and gloom affair. Rather, there will be a mix of seriousness with levity and fun. Don’t miss it!

Nearly every culture has celebrated this time in their own unique ways! We will be honoring and celebrating “All Hallow’s Eve”, “The Day of the Dead”. Mexican culture celebrates the Day of the Dead by gathering around the gravesite to honor and remember the dead. They acquaint themselves with the reality of death as part of the fabric of life.

We invite you to pass the veils between the worlds. In this meeting place of “between” the world where the living and the dead intersect to celebrate the mysterious and magical place of the Kingdom of God. The Christian belief in the “Communion of Saints” is an acknowledgment of the reality of the living communing with the ancestors.

“You learn more at a funeral than at a feast.
After all, that’s where we’ll end up.
We might discover something from it.”
– Ecclesiastes 7:2 (The Message)