Archive for January 2021

Grace and Peace to you!

What a great weekend at CEH:

• On Friday, the mission team served 180 at the Cranmer Chapel Dinner! Thank you to Louise and Graham Powers for chairing this event and to all who helped.
• Thanks also to our clean-up crew who swept the basement on Saturday morning! Your contributions to Project 2020 help us keep the cost down!

Note: Tour (sneak peek) of lower level project is rescheduled to Jan 31. You MUST sign up for this tour by calling the church office, 887-3603.

Please join us for the 9:15 Fellowship time by calling in to Zoom. Catch up with your CEH family, meet new friends, and plant the word of God in your heart with some scripture. We’ll close with prayer in time for the 10 AM Worship Premiere.

Click HERE for the 10 AM Worship @ Home premier for Jan 17.

Click HERE to join the Zoom Fellowship & Prayer call (passcode CEH).

Our theme through Ash Wednesday (only five more weeks until Lent begins!) is RESET

RESET 

As the Wiseman “Went home by a different way” to assure the safety of the child King after following a mysterious star, we too must seek different ways to continue to build that child’s Kin-dom. 

RESET: The Baptism of Jesus encourages us to consider all the new understandings that the Incarnation revealed. 

RECALL Today’s story from John 1 of Jesus calling his first disciples reminds us that God is with us wherever we are – “who can run from your presence?” as Psalm 139 says.

Still to come . . . Reclaim, Reaffirm, Restore, Reveal.

I pray our sermon and worship series will help you recognize and recommit to listening to the voice eternally calling us to love and serve the Lord in peace.

Peace in Christ,

Rev. Paula

Here is the full Zoom invite in case you need the dial-in numbers:

Topic: January Sundays Online Fellowship

Time: Jan 17, 2021 09:15 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Every week on Sun, until Jan 31, 2021, 3 occurrence(s)

Jan 17, 2021 09:15 AM

Jan 24, 2021 09:15 AM

Jan 31, 2021 09:15 AM

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89753735497?pwd=UXlDMWYwMERXOUo5Y2Y0VlJpdUJPUT09

Meeting ID: 897 5373 5497

Passcode: CEH

One tap mobile

+16699006833,,89753735497# US (San Jose)

+12532158782,,89753735497# US (Tacoma)

Dial by your location

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C)

+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

Meeting ID: 897 5373 5497

This post was emailed out on Thursday, Dec 31, but many people mentioned they did not receive it. Please check your spam box and email settings to make sure that our emails are not being sent directly to your trash or spam folder:

 

Presbyterian Church of the Eternal Hills

10 AM  Worship @ Home 

January 3, 2021

 

Preparation for Worship:

We don’t typically celebrate “New Year’s Day” together but this year has been different all around. We need a way as a people of God to mark 2020 and move forward together into 2021. We will do this with a very special Worship & Communion @ Home on Sunday, January 3, 2021.

Here is how to connect to the worship:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84906775438?pwd=V2c5S3dRMDVscTA1T0E0WHdIeHFDQT09

 Meeting ID: 849 0677 5438

Passcode: CEH

 

During Worship we will be hearing beautiful scriptures to help us into a new mind set and a new perspective! We will also share Communion. I’ve included a recipe for Beef Stew from a cookbook James and I received as a wedding gift. Sponsored by the Junior League of Wichita, the cookbook has been around as long as I can remember at all of my mother’s friends homes: “The Sunflower Sampler.”

For preparation of your heart, consider these questions for discussion and contemplation:

1. When did you most feel God’s presence through 2020?
2. When did you notice an absence of God (sometimes resulting in an empty feeling, or loss of hope)?
3. 2020 has given us many reasons to grieve over loss — loved ones, honored traditions, etc. What loss has affected you the most?
4. God challenges us to find the light in the darkness: where did you find light during 2020?
5. What is something you would like to treasure from 2020?
6. What are you leaving behind for 2021?
7. What is your goal for your own faith journey in 2021?
8. Take some time to read through these scriptures on Guideposts: Read These Scriptures . Which ones offer you the most hope? Remember just one of these verses to share as you wish on Sunday during worship. If you write it down you can type it into the chat during the service.

New Year’s Stew

Since we are having Communion together and we typically would have had a pot-luck to mark this new beginning, let’s share some New Year’s Stew. This recipe will allow you to use your Communion wine and bread for a special lunch following worship.

 

For Communion

1 Bottle Red Wine (mostly for cooking)

1 Loaf Crusty Bread (we love the roasted garlic bread you can purchase at City Market)

For the Stew

1/2 C shortening

3 Lbs chuck roast, cut bite size

3 T flour

1 1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

1/2 t thyme

1 C beef broth

1 C dry red wine,

1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced

1 yellow onion, cut into chunks

 

Before Worship: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Brown beef in shortening; add rest of ingredients except mushrooms and onions.

Bake 2 hours (if you stick this in at 9 AM, you can add the final ingredients after worship and the stew will be ready at 12:30 for Sunday Lunch).

During Worship: Share Communion with the bottle of wine you opened for the stew, and share a small portion of the delicious, crusty bread you selected for your dinner).

After Worship: Add your final ingredients (should be onions and mushrooms if you’re following the recipe) and bake for 1 1/2 hour more. James and I made this last week, and added carrots, new potatoes, turnips, parsnips for the final 1 1/2 hour cooking. If you add root vegetables, I recommend adding liquids at the same time. We chose to use an additional 1 C beef broth and 1 C wine, but you may need more or less depending on what you want in your stew.

About 15 minutes before you serve lunch, throw that crusty bread into the oven to warm it up and get it even more crusty and delicious! You won’t even need butter as the delicious stew will be flavorful enough as you soak it up with the bread.

Finally, before you share your dinner, offer a big thank you back to God for all we have; for our church family and a table full of food, for being able to worship through the year and stay in touch as best we could.

Enjoy your first Sunday Lunch of 2021, and let’s hope for a year where we will be able to gather again for fellowship and meals around the tables in our Fellowship Hall!

Peace in Christ, and Hope for the New Year,

Rev. Paula

Liturgical Time of the Year: White for Christmas

As the celebrated season of the Nativity of our Lord, Christmas is a high holy season — which indicates we use WHITE. We have also used white and gold, as we do on Easter. White is the color of divinity and purity, so it is also the perfect color for Christmas! We use white every time we share communion as well. 

 

Theme: New Year 2021

The Wise men went “Home by a different way” to avoid having to face Herod again. As 2020 came and went, we had to find new ways of doing things and new ways of being the CHURCH.

 

We have seen the light of Christ and need wait no longer to arise, SHINE! 

Thinking back over our Advent season, and our preparations for Christmas Eve, have we shined? Moving into a New Year, what do we need to do a different way?