On Wednesday, November 21 at 7:30pm, we will host our 2nd Annual Spring-Ford Ecumenical Thanksgiving Eve Service. Beginning in 2011, this service was expanded from St. James UCC and our sister
church, St. James Lutheran, to include all of the Spring-Ford Ministerium churches. More than 20 congregations are invited to bring food donations, and an offering for Project Outreach will be collected.

Our goal is to meet this year’s projected shortfall for funding the heating program for low-income families. Our ecumenical service will include a meditation on Faith and Thanksgiving; stories of thanksgiving from our congregations; traditional and contemporary music, and a combined choir. We’ll gather after the service for food and fellowship. Dessert donations are welcome!

Anyone is welcome to participate in the choir by attending at  least one of our regular Thursday rehearsals by November 15, and the 6:30pm rehearsal on November 21.

This Fall, we’d like to try out a new idea specially geared toward including children in our worship and music traditions. Parents, bring your kids; grandparents, bring the grandkids. Or, if you’re a kid at heart, just bring yourself!

We will meet on a Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. to learn a simple tune that everyone will sing together as the anthem during that Sunday’s service. We’ll try it out on Sunday October 21, and we’ve tentatively set Sunday November 18 as a future date, so that our members of all ages can offer music along with canned food donations as part of our Harvest Home celebration. We hope this we be a great time for everyone as we show our  children the importance of praising God through singing, share the music we learned and loved as children, and support our growing choral program by providing vibrant music for worship.

Children will begin learning the songs in Children’s Church. We especially hope this will encourage children (and even adults) who are a bit shy about singing in front of others ~ if a parent or grandparent is singing with them, choir can go from intimidating to exciting. In this way, children will become more comfortable with singing and worship leadership, as they prepare to be the future leaders of our churches.