This Week

Monday Pause and Pray

No Wednesday Bible Study 

Offices Closed for Thanksgiving Holiday

No Choir Practice

Advent- Sailing Toward Bethlehem with 5 Words and 40 Prayers

This Sunday

Hanging of the Greens Service

Worship Information and Bulletin

Reverse Advent Calendar

Last Sunday for the Christmas Offering for Women at Chino Penitentiary

Upcoming Events & Announcements

Surviving the Holidays Grief Group Seminar

Wine and Carols Community Christmas Gathering

Pastor Kim's Annual Open House

Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

We apologize to anyone who had difficulty joining us online this past Sunday. We encountered some technical difficulties that Abbott is trying to get fixed before next Sunday. However, it was a wonderful service of thanksgiving for all God is and has done for us as well as a time to consecrate ourselves and our offerings to God in the coming year.

As part of the service we brought forward our pledge cards that included the opportunity to commit ourselves to 40 Days of Prayer and to prioritize the discernment gathering the weekend of January 21-22. If you were not in worship to participate, but would still like to make a commitment of prayer, presence, or pledge you may download and return this Pledge Card

No Bible Study This Week!

Sailing Toward Bethlehem with 5 Words and 40 Prayers

We will continue of voyage of discernment during Advent and Christmas through a focus on Five Words and Forty Prayers

This year, on our Advent journey to Christmas, we will reflect on five words inspired by the Angel's announcement to Mary that she would bear the Christ child: Delight, Question, Bear, Accede, and Depart. These words will not only help us to better understand Mary's journey, but hopefully will help us understand our own call to allow God to be born into the world through us.

We will also commit ourselves to 40 Days of Prayer using the scripture-based prayer prompts from Sailboat Church by Joan Gray. Prompts are available for those who prefer or who do not have a copy of the book to use.

This Sunday!

This Sunday, November 27

A Service of Hanging of the Greens.

During worship we will delight in the meaning of our traditional Advent and Christmas decorations as we begin to put them up in the sanctuary. Following worship we invite everyone to stay and help us finish decking the halls of our church. A light lunch will be provided for those who remain to help.

We pray that these symbols of the season that signal our Christmas preparations will also remind us of our need to prepare our hearts as well.

Reverse Advent Calendar

An Advent calendar helps countdown the days until Christmas. Each day from December 1 until Christmas, a small door is opened to reveal a surprise. As kids our favorite calendars were the ones with a daily piece of candy. 

However, since it is more blessed to give than to receive, this year we invite you to flip that tradition and instead of receiving a gift each day, donate an item for the Pathways of Hope Food Bank.

Calendars in the form of reusable shopping bags will be available beginning on November 27. Each bag will have a suggested item to add for each day, but any item will do. The purpose is not to check off all the items on a list, but to prepare to welcome the birth of Christ with a small, daily act of generosity. 

Can You Help Make Christmas a Littler Merrier?

For many years two women at All Saints Episcopal in Pasadena made sure that the nearly 1000 women incarcerated in Chino Penitentiary were remembered each year at Christmas with a small Christmas bag filled with small travel size bottles of shampoo and conditioner, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, and a wrapped candy cane.

Unfortunately, one of the women died this year and the other cannot continue the work. That is when Suzanne Darwesh, a former member of our congregation, stepped in. She, and the congregation of St Mark Presbyterian, have taken on the ministry, but they are asking for help from us and other area churches.

This Sunday is the last day you may donate items. Please bring them to the church anytime between now and Sunday. A collection basket is available in the Narthex or you may drop them off in the church office during regular hours. If you are interested in helping with the bagging of the gifts at Suzanne's home and at St Mark Presbyterian, please contact Pastor Kim.

Let's make sure the the light of the world shines brightly this Christmas,

even in the darkness of a prison cell.

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Linda Newby is organizing a Christmas Gathering

on Wednesday, December 14.

All are invited to join her invited guests at 5:30 to enjoy a cup of mulled wine in the courtyard. Everyone will then move into the Sanctuary for some Christmas inspiration. Sam Miller will sing accompanied by Esther Fieldhouse on the piano, Pastor Kim will offer a short reflection on the season, and we will join in singing a few carols.



Then, those who wish may move onto Colony Wine Merchant at 6:30. Linda has reserved the whole place for an "all you can eat and drink party." If you wish to join in that portion of the evening, the cost will be $65 per person (including tax and tip) and you will need to RSVP to Linda at linda@gallerytravel.com.

We give thanks for the Life of Mary Bouas

January 17, 1925 - November 19, 2022

Mary completed her baptism and gently passed into life eternal surrounded by family in her home on Balboa Island on Saturday, November 19. Generous, deeply commitment to her church and the greater Anaheim Community, a hostess par excellence, Mary truly lived into her ordination vows to serve God with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. Well done, good and faithful servant.

A private graveside service will take place on Friday. Plans for a public Memorial Service are pending.

Please pray for those in treatment for cancer: Catherine Morris, Rosemary Ford, Bill Anderson (Bruce Anderson's Brother).

Please pray for those on hospice: Patricia Carl, Dave Maresh (Glory's brother).

Please continue to pray for the health of: Jeanine (Glory's former mother-in-law), Norma Leichtweis, Dave Maresh, Marilyn Worden, Clif Buchanan, William Thode (Ruth Dorman's brother in law), Jane Canfield (Glory's sister).

If you have a prayer request that you would like to add to our prayer list, 

please contact the church office: offices@anaheimfirstpres.org or 714.535.2176.