Children participating in the Christmas Pageant need to meet in the Sunday School Classroom at 9:45 a.m. (Dec.10) to get into costumes and go to the Sanctuary to go over the Pageant. For further information contact Brittany Link:

Brittany.l@maplewoodumc.org

Welcome Winter Community Unity Dinner, Dec. 21

Calling all church cooks! We are looking for kid friendly appetizers, snacks or desserts for the December Community Unity Dinner.

Please sign up on the easels at the back of the church!



Thank you so much for your support of this ministry

WITNESSING WHITENESS BEGINS IN JANUARY!

Our Neighbors are hosting a Witnessing Whiteness group. 20 people have signed up so far. There are ten spots left!

Hi neighbors! We officially have dates for a spring YWCA facilitated Witnessing Whiteness group. We will gather in-person on Tuesday evenings, January 16 to April 30, 2024, from 6:30-8:30PM. (There are no meetings on Feb. 20 and March 19) If this works for you, please sign up here!

We are hoping to be able to meet at Maplewood United Methodist Church on the corner of Flora and Sutton. If childcare is a barrier for you, let me know and we may be able to organize it on site. 

Here are places to purchase the newest edition of the Witnessing Whiteness book and get a discount!  

To participate, the requirements are that you:

• be a white person
• plan to have no more than 3 absences to continue with the group
• use an email that connects to a drive where you can fill out paperwork and download materials
• We need your first and last name, email, phone #, and to note any existing relationships between participants so the facilitators can intentionally group people together to discuss 
• Sign up here by December 10th. This is when we have to submit names to the YWCA!

Dear Friends,

This coming Sunday is Pageant Sunday! 

For the second year in a row, the youth are producing the pageant. If you remember last year’s youth-produced pageant, you will recall the same Christmas story was told, only through the youth’s energetic and creative interpretive lens. I have been told by the Sunday school teachers to expect more energy and creativity, and to definitely place the pageant at the end of the service. Apparently, settling down for quiet reflection after the pageant is not likely to happen.

I am curious and excited to see the pageant this year. And, to be completely honest, at peace 97% of the way with not knowing all the details. I can’t decide if the last 3% is simply excitement and curiosity or maybe just plain old anxiety. I really do trust our youth and their leaders, but I did take note of the look in the Sunday school leaders’ eyes when they gave me the most recent update. Hence a 3 percent hedge on total peace.

Usually, the Christmas Pageant coincides with the Sunday we light the candle of Joy on the Advent wreath. It is easy to make the connection with Pageant Sunday and Joy. But this year, the pageant is on the second Sunday of Advent when we light the candle of Peace.

There will be more wiggling and whispering in the pews for sure. There will be a sense of the unknown as the pageant unfolds and we wait for the “embellishments,” as one of the Sunday school teachers describes them. It doesn’t sound like we will be expecting a peaceful worship service, does it?

But, as we will remember on Sunday, the peace that we have in Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is not about quiet and order. It’s much deeper than that.

We have peace because In the midst of clamor, disorder, even our sinfulness, God has come to be with us. God is with us. God is at work bringing grace, love, forgiveness, and hope. It will be good to celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace, this Sunday, with wiggles, whispers, loud singing, laughter, and the youth’s exciting “embellishments” of the Christmas story. I can’t wait to be in worship with you!

God’s grace and peace be with you,

Pastor Kim

The Men's Choir is working on a Christmas anthem to be sung in church Sunday, December 17^th. We are rehearsing on Thursdays at 6:20pm in the choir room on the 3^rd Floor - on 12/7 and 12/14, and invite the men in our congregation who enjoy singing to join the group on these practice dates and 12/17/23.