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04 DECEMBER 2024

Building Bridges of

Inclusion, Justice, and Spirituality

No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey,

you are welcome here!

This Sunday at Shadow Rock

9:00 am

Adult Spiritual Formation and Kindlings start in the Multipurpose Room of the Education Bldg with coffee and fellowship
Childcare is in the Blue Room
Spiritual Play is in the Lime Room
Sunday School for ages 9 and up in the Green Room
Hospitality Cart with coffee and cookies in the Multipurpose Room

10:15 am

Worship in the Sanctuary (childcare is offered in the Blue Room of the Education Bldg 10 - 11:30 am)
Christmas Lasagna Potluck after worship in Smith Hall

11:15 am

There is NO Sermon Reboot after worship.

4:00 pm

Celebration of Life Service for Dr. Rebecca Allison beginning with fellowship and viewing of table displays

5:00 pm

Formal Order of Service for Dr. Rebecca Allison

The Sunday is the

Second Sunday of Advent.

We continue our spiritual glide of waiting and hoping into Christmas.

Advent Theme

Advent is a season of endings and beginnings. As the 2024 calendar year comes to an end, a new calendar for spirituality and the church year begins. The birth of Jesus is very soon and his birth ushers us into new ways of living and loving. Advent is an invitation to receive the new ways that are coming. Despite how compelling the invitation the world in its madness continues to spin madly on. This is the way life is. Invitations to live, love, and hope confront the chaos, fear, and cruelty of the world. These are the stories of endings and beginnings. These are the stories of the Advent season.

This Sunday unpacks the story of Ruth and Naomi and connects it to the Advent story of Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem. This story is about our human tendency to isolate, reach out, and reach back. We need stories that become a path for our feet to find our way forward through the unknown, and finally to the other side of being known by the Spirit of Life and Love.

Our theme for the season is Words For The Beginning. Listen for the Advent word that is coming into your life and the Advent word that our world needs to hear.

Below is a list of dates and activities associated with our time together during Advent and Christmas.

December 8 Second Sunday in Advent

Theme: We Can’t Go Alone

Spiritual Play Kids lead We Are the Family with hand motions

This is our "Deck the Halls" Sunday. We will take time to decorate our spiritual home with the Chrismon Tree, Memory Tree, and garland. We are limiting our decorating to the narthex for this Sunday.

After worship, we are having a Lasagna Potluck! Something different from turkey sandwiches. Enjoy and enjoy each other.

December 15 Third Sunday in Advent

Theme: Do The Good That Is Yours To Do

Spiritual Play Kids program, Be the Light

“This Little Light of Mine,”
“We Are the Family,”
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

December 22 Fourth Sunday in Advent

Theme: Hope Is Worth The Risk

December 24 Christmas Eve, 5 pm Candlelight Service

Theme: Love Knows Your Name

YOUR DEVOTIONAL GUIDE FOR THE ADVENT GLIDE

Celebration of Life for Dr. Becky

We are celebrating the life, work, and spirit of Dr. Rebecca Allison on Dec. 8, 2024. This event begins with opening the doors for the sanctuary at 4 pm. Everyone is invited to engage with table displays that represent various arenas of Dr. Becky's life. It is also a time for fellowship, sharing stories, and offering each other support. The formal service with prayer, music, and speakers begins at 5 pm and a reception with refreshments will follow. Join us in celebrating this extraordinary life.

SRPS Parent Action Team

PAT is doing a food Drive starting Monday, December 10, through Wednesday, December 18. It is for the Paradise Valley Emergency Food Pantry. They need non-perishable food donations. Feel free to bring items this Sunday. More details are coming next week.

Theater Event at Shadow Rock Dec. 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22.

Showcase Community Theatre and B3 Productions are collaborating to bring you this unique spin on the classic Charles Dickens holiday story.

Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy theatre owner, is a miserable curmudgeon - mistreating his nephew Ferdinand and employee Benedick Cratchit. There is not a generous bone in his body. But why is that? And is it possible for such a man to change his ways? The ghost of Scrooge's former partner, Christopher Marlowe, arrives with a warning: "thou shalt be haunted, man. Three spirits shall come hither, unto thee".

This play seeks to reimagine the story of Ebenezer Scrooge's brush with the supernatural through a Shakespearean lens. Written mostly in iambic pentameter, this version of Charles Dickens' classic Christmas tale utilizes other characters through Shakespeare's history to re-contextualize the narrative with a unique spin: what if William Shakespeare had written A Christmas Carol?

Get Tickets here!

SPIRITUAL PLAY HAPPENINGS!

Boy Scout Troop 426 Selling Christmas Wreaths

Fresh and fragrant noble fir wreaths with a pre-tied red velvet bow and snowy pinecones will be available to you for $28.00.

Scouts will be present after our worship services on Dec. 8th and 15th. You can take them home on the day of purchase.

(The picture is not an actual presentation of the wreaths being sold. The scouts' wreaths are a lot better and made by real elves.)

Upcoming Events!

Dec. 8 Potluck! Rumor has it that lasagna is on the menu. Troop 426 Wreath sales.

Also, at 5 pm we will have our Celebration of Life Service for Dr. Becky Allison. Reception in Smith Hall afterwards.

Dec. 15 Troop 426 Wreath sales.

Save the Date:

Annual Electronic Recycling with AZStRUT

January 7-12, 2025