December 24, 2023

Fourth Sunday of Advent Worship at 9:30 am

Presiding Minister: Pastor Tim Keyl

Assisting Minister: Blair Goodlin

Organist & Music Director: Isaac Lee

Lectors: Liz Harnett & Kari Henkelmann Keyl

Altar Guild: Sue Benbe

Ushers: Chris Lee & Marietta Meyer

Livestream: Miles Kirschner

Coffee Set-Up: Becky Lerud

Bread Baker: Lee Family

Worship Livestream

We stream Sunday worship services live on Bethesda’s YouTube Channel. Join us live at 9:30 am every Sunday or watch the recording afterward.

Click here for the bulletin.

Christmas Eve Bulletin

Christmas Day Bulletin

This Week at Bethesda

Sunday 12/24       Monday 12/25   Thursday 12/21   Sunday 12/31

9:30am   11:00 am   7:30pm   10:00am   12:00pm   9:30am   11:00am

Fourth Sunday of Advent Worship Sanctuary Coffee Hour Campanius Room Christmas Eve service Sanctuary Christmas Day Eucharist Sanctuary TLC Lunch Parish House Living Room First Sunday of Christmas Worship Sanctuary Coffee Hour Campanius Room

 

From the Pastor

December 24, 2023

Advent Week 4

Advent means “Coming”

Christmas means the “Christ Mass”

This coming Sunday it’s “two in one!”

This year’s truncated Advent means we will be worshiping with Advent 4 liturgy and readings at 9:30 am in the morning, and transition to Christmas Eve for Festive Eucharist and Candlelighting at 7:30 pm. We are trying a new time for Christmas Eve to give ample time between morning worship and the evening, and to make room for our building partners, the Connecticut Korean Presbyterian Church and their Sunday worship. 

By the time Sunday comes, the most poignant gospel stories and prophetic speech come to life and spill over into Christmas Day (December 25 with worship at 10 am) and the First Sunday of Christmas (December 31 with worship at 9:30 am). Our singing becomes even more lively, as familiar and new carols are sung over the twelve days of Christmas.

I am so very grateful for the work of our office staff Leigh Cromey (Administrator), Cynthia Jones (new Office Assistant), and our Music Director Isaac. I’m also happy to receive the gifts of worship leadership from the choir, readers, acolytes, altar guild, and assisting ministers. The church is at its best during these days of feasting.

God is doing a new thing. That’s our hope. That’s God’s promise. That’s what we look for and enact in earnest.

Pray for our Palestinian partners, where the celebration in Bethlehem among Christians is muted due to the obliteration of innocents in Gaza and on the West Bank.

Know that God is in the rubble through the violence in the Middle East and elsewhere, as God took on flesh during the Roman occupation in the form of a baby whose family was on the move.

Share love with one another and find Jesus born anew in the celebration of the Nativity Gospel and through the bread and wine of communion.

May this version of the Magnificat by for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams add to your joy:

My breath, my heart, my mind,

my whole life fills with joy

Because of God, who’s not forgotten me,

whose strength surrounds and lifts me up.

All through the centuries that have passed

God showed patience and forgiveness;

God makes the proud and pompous folk look foolish,

and cares for the simple ones who trust God.

God turns the rich and selfish into beggars.

God feeds the hungry and the poor.

All through the centuries, God is faithful

to those he promises will be his friends.

Your beauty fills the earth and sky;

the saints and angels sing to you;

God everlasting, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pastor Tim Keyl

Notice of Special Congregational Meeting on January 7th, 2024

Bethesda’s Council will call a special congregational meeting on Sunday, January 7, 2024. The only agenda item is approval of proposed updates to Bethesda’s constitution. There will also be a verbal report on the status of activity related to Bethesda’s Sustainable Future. The meeting will immediately follow the worship service.

The proposed constitutional updates were formally presented to the congregation at the December 3, 2023, special congregational meeting. Suggestions the Council received from the congregation were considered at the December 18 Council meeting. The Council approved one suggested change: lowering the age at which Council members are allowed to serve as officers from twenty-one to eighteen. The pertinent bylaw now reads: 

C11.02.02 All elected officers shall be voting members who have reached at least eighteen years of age. 

A chart of all the proposed amendments and how they change Bethesda’s current constitution is available online HERE. Printed copies are available upon request to Administrator Leigh Cromey in the church office.

Bethesda’s FEMA grant work continues!

Sloss Electric repaired a lamp post at the bridge and a few other lighting related upgrades. Next will be door replacements and keypad entry additions. Funding for this and other security related physical plant needs is coming from a FEMA grant awarded to Bethesda. Many thanks to Leah Snavely, Bethesda’s caretaker, who is the grant’s Project Coordinator.

Advent at Bethesda

Fourth Sunday of Advent December 24^th 9:30 am 

Since Advent is shorter this year, Advent 4 will be Sunday morning worship and Christmas Eve at 7:30 pm. Volunteers may help transition our worship space from Advent blue to Christmas white, replace banners, install candelabra, and change wreath ribbons. The Advent 4 Gospel is the Annunciation to Mary and we will be singing a few versions of The Magnificat.

Christmas and the Sundays of Christmas at Bethesda

Christmas Eve - Sunday, December 24

7:30 pm (NOTE THE NEW TIME!)

Carols, Choir song, Candlelighting, Eucharist, 

Refreshments following worship in the narthex

Christmas Day - Monday, December 25

10 am in the Sanctuary

More carols, The Prologue of John (Gospel), Eucharist

Refreshments following worship in the narthex

First Sunday of Christmas - December 31 at 9:30 am

Even more carols, The Presentation our Lord (Gospel), Eucharist

Refreshments following worship in the narthex

Bethesda Bible study

Bible Study meets every 2 weeks and is currently studying The Letter to the Romans. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. We will discuss The Letter to the Romans 8:1-18 which corresponds to N. T. Wright's Romans chapter 9. Please read the selections before the meeting.

New:  Please make a note of any question that is important to you. Rather than discuss all the questions, we will spend more time on questions that interest us, intrigue us, puzzle us, or just makes us think.

To access the call on Zoom, join from PC, Mac, Linux, IOS or Android, or Telephone

Meeting ID:  961 0888 6279

Volunteer!

There's lots to do at Bethesda, and volunteers are always needed to do it! Before, during, and after worship, and during the week, too. Step out of your pew comfort zone and sign up to help. If you're a rookie, we'll show you how. Spread the joy of participation around! Thanks to Martin and Becky for tackling teller duty.

Supporting Palestinian Christians

Special Offering for Palestinian Christians during Advent and Christmas

We are looking to raise $1,000 to support our companion church in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Jordan (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land). Donate to Bethesda with “ELCJHL” in the memo on check and online designating it as “Special Gifts.”

Crafts by Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem

Pastor Keyl has friends in Bethlehem looking for additional income during the crisis, as tourism has ground to a halt.

Order Crafts from Jack at the Christmas House on Facebook or My Christmas House on Etsy

or Elias at Touch of Grace on Facebook.

Even better will be to combine orders into one big order. See Pastor Tim and stay tuned for more details.

Pastoral Care

If you’d like to meet with Pastor Keyl, please make an appointment through Bethesda’s administrator Leigh Cromey [email protected] or by calling (203) 787-2346 most weekday mornings. Pastor Keyl can meet at your home, at Bethesda, or over a cup of coffee somewhere.

Prayer Requests

For healing and strength: Dan Cortright; Michele Meyer, daughter-in-law of Marietta Meyer; Linda Johnson; John Ferreira, nephew of Chris Couture; Sonja Krummrey; Maureen Anderson; Shirley Farm; Ann and Lee Keck; Kay Leone; Molly Dinneen; Matthew H., cousin of Tyler Fair

For our partners in the Gospel: the congregations and schools of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) and LuMin Campus Ministry; for Bethesda House and Yale Divinity School students.

For our Ecumenical Partners Worldwide: Japan, North Korea, South Korea. The Ecumenical Prayer Cycle takes us through every region of the world over the course of a year.

Pray for an end to violence in the Middle East: Donations are being received for our companion synod the ELCJHL through Bethesda, using “ELCJHL” in the memo, or “Special Gifts” on Tithely.

For Bethesda New Haven: that God continues to guide us into the future with ministries of witness, service, hospitality, and care while building up our community in all its diversity.

For those who mourn:  the family of Phil Krakowiak, synodically authorized lay minister at First Lutheran Church in West Haven. Phil’s funeral will be Wednesday, December 27, at 10:00 at First Lutheran Church, 52 George Street, in West Haven. All are invited.

For those who travel during the holidays.

For those in candidacy or seeking candidacy for rostered leadership in the ELCA: Natalie Benson, Gabrielle Brown, Tyler Fair, Calli Micale, Tim Bergeland, Jordan Baker, Eric Pitts.