December 2021

December 2021

 


In-person worship in the Church Sanctuary Sundays at 10:00am

Masks are required for all indoor services and activities.

For a full list of our guidelines for re-opening please see our Covid Protections and Guidelines

The services are also presented live on the CHANNING YOU TUBE CHANNEL  and available for viewing afterwards.


Two Part Service: December 5th and 19th

Wonderment

We begin the season of beauty and exuberance.  Rev. Bill Zelazny will present this month two sermons that explore the theme of wonderment – that state of being in amazement or having heightened curiosity.

 Sunday, December 5: Opening the Spirit to Awe 

The term awe is often used to note something frightening because of its grandeur or vastness that challenges our understanding of the world.  But having awe is not fearfully facing something but rather its being invited into greater power.  Rev. Bill will lead us into thinking about the concept of awe and how it can empower us. 

Sunday, December 19: Living into Mystery

While we may intellectually know much, ultimately, we are surrounded by mystery. Every day we live we are bringing ourselves, as the Rev. Angela Herrera writes, “before the sacred, before the holy, before what is ultimate and bigger than your lone life.  [Every day] we stand at the edge of mystery, at the edge of the deep…” On this Sunday Bill will help us think about Sophia Lyons Fahs’ call for us to “. . .gather in reverence before the wonder of life; The wonder of this moment.”


Sunday, December 12: When the Rulebook Fails

John Dante Prevedini 

In March 2020, concert halls and other music venues across the world fell silent for over a year, leaving social media as the only way for musicians to connect with the outside world. In this talk, musician John Dante Prevedini will reflect on his experiments reinventing music for social media during lockdown, the unlikely publicity that resulted, and what COVID taught him about preparing for success in a world turned upside down. 

John Dante Prevedini, DMA, MBA is a contemporary classical composer, educator, and public speaker based in New England and active around the world. Drawing upon a variety of fields of knowledge, his overall work aims to examine unconventional facets of everyday life through a multidisciplinary lens.

The second Sunday of the month is our regular non-perishable goods collection for local food pantries.


Friday, December 24, 5:00pm, Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 

Rev. William Zelazny, Janet Grant, Channing Choir & Guests

The Sanctuary will be decorated, the candles will be lit.  All’s ready for a Christmas Eve celebration together in the decorated Sanctuary with music – trumpets, keyboard and the choir — scripture and secular readings, lighting of candles and singing Silent Night in the darkened Sanctuary.  Come, bring family and friends for our very special Christmas Eve service.  (Please note, face mask protocols are in place in the Sanctuary)