Pageant 2011

Christmas Song & the "W"

Here's a song that will help you see the mall differently.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OExXItDyWEY&vq=medium


And here's a little Christmas Story, sent to me (along with the link above) by a school girl friend of mine from Rockland County. Thanks, Donna!

The "W" in Christmas

Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending.

Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas. Then I attended my kindergarten son's "Winter Pageant."

My son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love" adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright caps. Those in the front row- center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song.

As the class sang "C is for Christmas," a child held up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and so on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love."

The performance was going smoothly, until we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W".

Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen.

In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.

For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"

Handicapped Access

Maybe someone should announce to the paper (or put it on our sign outside) that we are now FULLY handicapped accessible - just in time for this joyous season full of merriment.

Here we see the basement door to the lift and the newly remodeled Rest Room.

Sunday School

Let me add accolades for the "group" leaders of the Sunday School. It is a amazing and gratifying that we have wonderful goals in mind to encourage the children and help each other build a Sunday School ---sometimes as we remember events from our childhoods and sometimes to embrace exciting ideas and changes.

This "leader group"::::::Kristen, Ellen, Tara, Beverly, Ann, Mckenna, Christa Lordi::::::plan together, learn and make changes as we go, substitute for each other, call on Heidi and Katrina when we need back-up or additional help.................and are so glad parents send their children for Sunday School instruction.

Beverly and Christa will be leading Sunday School in January. The February-June schedule will be discussed soon and forwarded for the blog site. The curriculum materials and companion Bibles have arrived from Augsburg Fortress Press and a training session for leaders will be held in January. Encouragement and ideas from the congregation are always welcome--messages in the offering plate would be great--------please add name and contact information.

In January Christ our Emmanuel's Sunday School will be available for children ages 3-14 every week, 9:45 A.M.

Posted for Christa

A busy December

Don't forget to check out the Events page to see what's going on on Park Row this Christmas Season. Newly added is the POTLUCK to follow the pageant on Sunday Dec. 18.

Please bring your cameras and video cameras to church. The Sunday School is doing such a beautiful job of bringing the joy of the season to the services. E-mail your images (and videos) to me and I will post them.

Thanks so much to Christa and all the people who work with her for reviving the children's sector of our congregation.

One last thing: If you are not receiving notifications about updates to the website, please give Pastor, Beverly or me (Deb U.) your e-mail address and you will be added to our growing (Yay!) list.

Happy Advent! (It's clickable. You may need to hold down CTRL key and then click.)