First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley - Paideia

ADVENT 2011

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Thanksgiving Eve
Please join us at 7 pm on November 23 for a time of worship and gratitude in the Sanctuary. Children of all ages are welcome to attend. In addition, childcare is available for children birth through pre-K by request to Bobbi Zechar.
Advent Workshop
Invite your friends and join us November 27 in Mears from 1-3 pm. Enjoy cookie decorating, Christmas crafts, and fun for the whole family. Purchase Advent Wreath materials at the door for $15. Rendezvous lunch will be served in the Gym.

Hanging of the Greens
Join First Pres choirs of all ages in ringing in the Christmas season on December 4 at 7 pm. Childcare is available for children birth through age 3 by request to Bobbi Zechar.

Christmas Eve Pageant
December 24 at 5 pm. Participate in this congregational Christmas pageant as Mary, Joseph, or even a sheep! Wear your own costume or borrow one from the First Pres costume collection.

Worship on Christmas Day and New Year's Day
There will be one worship service at 11 am on both Christmas and New Year's Day. This service will be Family Worship; there will be no Godly Play or childcare.

Sunday Program
Nursery and Childcare
Godly Play
Family Worship
Children's Choirs

A Season of Tempered Joy

Summer Family WorshipThe holidays loom, or so it seems to me. I can just feel them coming now that we've lost our Daylight Savings. The days are shorter, school is no longer new and fresh, and fall sports and activities are drawing to a close. For some of us, the holidays (and Christmas especially) are a time for family and friends, traditions and treats, presence and presents. For us it's a joyful time filled with anticipation.

For others, the upcoming season is a gloomy one. The darkness of the days mirrors our own sense of loss and triggers sad memories. The slick marketing and cheerful decorations serve as a mere veneer, unable to mask the loneliness and hurt that the holidays can dredge up for us.

Both reactions are valid; the tension between joy and sadness is real. In fact, the Scriptures remind us both of the gloom, and of the light. Romans 8:20 reminds us that all creation has been groaning from the first day until now; yet, God's Word also shouts out that "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5)

Wherever you are personally on the holiday gloom-to-light continuum, let me encourage you to spend a little time on the other side. Are you so sure the holidays are a festive time of joy? Look around. See the deep and anguishing need. Trust that God sees it, too, but don't gloss over it too quickly. There is still real pain and need very near to us that require us to live out the Light of Jesus with gentleness and compassion.

Or do you know the upcoming season only as one of gloom and disappointment? Step back and look. See how Jesus and his people are carefully (and haltingly and slowly!) but inexorably kneading redemption into the hurts of the world. God inaugurated that work with the gift of Jesus, God incarnate in our midst. There is a living Savior who sees what you see and is not absent. He is Immanuel, God with us

I will be praying for us all, that we all may live with tempered joy and readiness for the work of Jesus Christ this season.
Erik Signature Signature
Erik Hanson
Associate Pastor, Children's and Youth Ministries


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2407 Dana Street, Berkeley, CA 94704 U.S.A.
phone: (510) 848-6242 fax: (510) 848-3118 email: children@fpcberkeley.org