Sunday, December 24, 2023 The Fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve

 Merry Christmas to one and all! 🎄

Hymn         O Come All Ye Faithful #60

Scripture Lessons:       Luke 1:26-38

                                     Luke 1:47-55

                                     Luke 2:1-20

Carol         Away in a Manger #69

Meditation

Prayer:  Thank you, scandalous God, for giving yourself to the world, not in the powerful and extraordinary, but in weakness and the familiar: in a baby,; and in bread and wine. 

   Thank you for offering, at journey’s end, a new beginning; for setting, in the poverty of a stable, the richest jewel of your love; for revealing, in a particular place, your light for all nations. 

   Thank you for bringing us to Bethlehem, House of Bread, where the empty are filled, and the filled are emptied; where the poor find riches and the rich recognize their poverty; where all who kneel and hold out their hands are unstintingly fed. Amen. (a prayer from the United Church’s worship resource, Celebrate God’s Presence.) 

Carol      Go Tell It on the Mountain #43

This Sunday, which is both the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve, there will be a morning service in Howick, at 11am  and an evening service at 8pm in St Paul’s in Ormstown. Both will be family services. 

The next service will be a combined service in Ormstown, at the hall, to be held Sunday, December 31st, at 11am. 

We hold the family and friends of Donald McCormick, who died this week. A service of remembrance and thanksgiving for his life will be held in the new year, Saturday, January 13th in St Paul’s United Church. 

Our sympathy and support is offered to the family and friends of Karen Jones Buchanan who died this past week from cancer. 

Happy birthday to Violet Deschamps, who celebrates her 90th birthday this week.