Sunday, November 23, 2025 Reign of Christ Sunday

 

Hymn             Come Now Almighty King #314

Scripture Lessons:       Colossians 1:11-20

                                     Luke 1:68-79 p.900VU

                                     Luke 23:32-43

Message

Prayer:  O God, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others;

        Open my ears that I may hear their cries; 

        Open my heart so that they need not be without succor;

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong. 

       Nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich. 

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed, and use me to bring them to those places. 

And so open my eyes and ears that I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee. Amen. (a prayer by Alan Paton printed in Richard Foster’s Prayers from the Heart). 

Hymn.         Rejoice the Lord is King #213

This Sunday’s services will be 9:30 in Ormstown and 11:00 in Howick. There will be crafts for children and families in Ormstown, in the church during the service. Also, there will be an organ concert at 2pm in St Paul’s in Ormstown. 

We hold in our thoughts and prayers the family and friends of Garth Cavers, who died last week. The memorial service for Garth will be held on Saturday, November 29th at 2pm in St Paul’s in Ormstown, with visitation beginning at 1:00. 

Next Sunday November 30th there will be a combined service in Howick United Church. Coffee will be available at 10:30 before the services, the service will begin at 11:00 and will be followed by a Soup Luncheon, to bring our campaign for the Canadian Food Grains Bank to an end for this year. (Unfortunately, our guest speaker Esther Guillien has had to cancel, so she will not be joining us on that day, hopefully early next year.)

The deadline for applying for the Holden-Templeton bursaries is fast approaching. The deadline is December 1st and bursaries are available to CEGEP, university, and vocational school students who are members or adherents of Howick United Church. Applications are available in the church or on the website. Please get your application to Marlene Stuckey, Debbi Templeton, or Scott Templeton by the deadline. We hope to present the bursaries at our Candlelight Christmas service, December 21st. 

On Saturday, December 6th Howick United Church will be holding a Book, Puzzle, and Bake Sale in the church from 11:00-1:30, leading up to the Santa Claus parade in Howick. Donations of books and puzzles can be brought in now, and the baking can be brought in earlier Saturday morning. 

Sunday, December 7th will be the White Gift service for Howick United Church. We will collect non-perishable food items for the Christmas basket program. 

The White Gift service for Ormstown will be held on Sunday, December 14th at 11:00. We are collecting non-perishable food items, for La Bouffe Additionelle along with hats, scarves, mittens etc for the Mitten Tree. 

Ormstown UCW will be holding a Christmas Turkey Dinner on Friday, December 12th at noon in the hall in Ormstown. The cost for the meal is $25, and if possible, it is requested that that would be prepaid. Meals must be reserved by Friday, December 5th by contacting Lynn Bryson, Anne Carpentier, Wendy Dennison or Shirley Vandor. We will also be collecting personal items for the residents of Residence-Elle. These are not gifts, so they do not need to be gift-wrapped.