Advent and Christmas Worship
COVID-19 AND CHRISTMAS EVE WORSHIP After lots of discussions and prayer, our Administrative Council has decided that we will not be schedule Christmas Eve worship in the Sanctuary this year. As Covid-19 numbers in our community continue to increase, and we face uncertain NYS Department of Health restrictions, we have made the decision to change our Christmas Eve offering as follows:
Immanuel is offering two outdoor gatherings along with a special (full professionally recorded) online Christmas Eve worship service.
The OUTSIDE gatherings are at 6pm and 8pm at the church. The online service can be viewed on this website's Worship Online page.
Christmas Eve Outdoor services at 6pm and 8pm.
The 6:00pm time will include a Living Nativity complete with some live stable animals! The kids will love this, for sure! There will also be bell ringing and is family friendly.
There will be music at both services and all are welcome.
Dress warmly and wear your masks. (in case you’re wondering the services won’t last more than 20 minutes.)
Since the pandemic situation began, our church leadership has offered programs that are designed to keep everyone safe and healthy. We feel that this decision, although disappointing to many, follows that parameter. And we look forward to returning to our usual Christmas Eve schedules next year, when we pray this virus is behind us!
Sunday, December 27th Worship - Inside at 10 AM Only Please Note that there will be only one in-person (inside) worship service on December 27th at 10 AM. As usual, there will be an online service available for viewing.
Advent begins on Sunday, November 29th this year! Our Advent theme in 2020 is “Coming Home” and we will be looking each week at how the birth of Jesus helps God’s people to be able to really “Come Home”. In the US, Christmastime and thoughts of home just seem to go together. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” are two of the most popular holiday songs, year after year. Christmas movies and television shows regularly feature stories of people going to their family home over the holidays. But Advent and Christmas are about another kind of homecoming as well. That’s the homecoming of Christ to redeem and renew us, this earth, and all creation till “heaven and nature sing” with joy eternally. So each week’s service will invite us to “unwrap” something that leads us toward making our hearts, our lives, our families, our communities, and our world more like the home where Christ’s ultimate homecoming will make it.
Our weekly themes and scriptures are:
Sunday 11/29 “Come Down Home” Isaiah 64: 1-9
Sunday 12/6 “Home Is Where We Meet” Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13
Sunday 12/13 “Joy Is Our True Home” 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24
Sunday 12/20 “God Makes This World a Home” (part 1) Luke 1: 46-55
Christmas Eve 12/24 “God Makes This World a Home” (part 2) Luke 2: 1-20
Sunday 12/27 “Going Home Again” Luke 2: 22-40 (Inside Service at 10 AM Only)
Some of our plans needed to be changed to to adjust to the “new normal” constraints of worshipping life in these pandemic times. These will also be the themes of our on-line worship each week via our church website. However you choose to worship, be ready to make your life a home for Christ this Christmas!
Immanuel is offering two outdoor gatherings along with a special (full professionally recorded) online Christmas Eve worship service.
The OUTSIDE gatherings are at 6pm and 8pm at the church. The online service can be viewed on this website's Worship Online page.
Christmas Eve Outdoor services at 6pm and 8pm.
The 6:00pm time will include a Living Nativity complete with some live stable animals! The kids will love this, for sure! There will also be bell ringing and is family friendly.
There will be music at both services and all are welcome.
Dress warmly and wear your masks. (in case you’re wondering the services won’t last more than 20 minutes.)
Since the pandemic situation began, our church leadership has offered programs that are designed to keep everyone safe and healthy. We feel that this decision, although disappointing to many, follows that parameter. And we look forward to returning to our usual Christmas Eve schedules next year, when we pray this virus is behind us!
Sunday, December 27th Worship - Inside at 10 AM Only Please Note that there will be only one in-person (inside) worship service on December 27th at 10 AM. As usual, there will be an online service available for viewing.
Advent begins on Sunday, November 29th this year! Our Advent theme in 2020 is “Coming Home” and we will be looking each week at how the birth of Jesus helps God’s people to be able to really “Come Home”. In the US, Christmastime and thoughts of home just seem to go together. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” are two of the most popular holiday songs, year after year. Christmas movies and television shows regularly feature stories of people going to their family home over the holidays. But Advent and Christmas are about another kind of homecoming as well. That’s the homecoming of Christ to redeem and renew us, this earth, and all creation till “heaven and nature sing” with joy eternally. So each week’s service will invite us to “unwrap” something that leads us toward making our hearts, our lives, our families, our communities, and our world more like the home where Christ’s ultimate homecoming will make it.
Our weekly themes and scriptures are:
Sunday 11/29 “Come Down Home” Isaiah 64: 1-9
Sunday 12/6 “Home Is Where We Meet” Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13
Sunday 12/13 “Joy Is Our True Home” 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24
Sunday 12/20 “God Makes This World a Home” (part 1) Luke 1: 46-55
Christmas Eve 12/24 “God Makes This World a Home” (part 2) Luke 2: 1-20
Sunday 12/27 “Going Home Again” Luke 2: 22-40 (Inside Service at 10 AM Only)
Some of our plans needed to be changed to to adjust to the “new normal” constraints of worshipping life in these pandemic times. These will also be the themes of our on-line worship each week via our church website. However you choose to worship, be ready to make your life a home for Christ this Christmas!
