Natalie's Grace Notes

  Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church   A warm welcome to each worshipper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.   As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.   943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkwayumc.com                                     Welcome to Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church December 24, 2021 Christmas Eve 7:00pm *You are invited to stand in body or in spirit   Prelude                        Resonet in laudibus               John Leavitt, arr.                 

  Service of Worship Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church December 12, 2021 Third Sunday of Advent Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor   Prelude Greeting and Announcements   Mission Statement: We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.   Lighting of the Advent Candle Words by Derek Weber   Reader One:  It’s a reunion, every time we go home, every time we embrace those we love, no matter how long it has been. It feels like sunrise, like the clouds are parting and the rain has ended. It is joy, nothing less than pure joy to grab hold of those who are home for us, who make home for us. Whether we wake up to them every day, or travel many miles to see them again, it is joy to go home. Reader Two:  The prophet Zephaniah tells us to rejoice at the thought of going home. The prophet tells us to imagine being set free, being unburdened, being released to live, to fully live in the grace and wonder of life itsel