Happy Thanksgiving!

“I thank my God on every remembrance of you. Always, with every prayer of mine for you with JOY. I have you in my heart. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement, shall approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere, being filled with the fruit of righteousness, unto the glory and praise of God.”

Philippians 1:3-11, paraphrase from John Ness Becks musical piece, “Song of Devotion.”

There are many things about you that make my heart sing with gratitude. Your dedication to our dear congregation and its ministries, makes my job not only more efficient, but also, for the most part, a delight. As you head into this Thanksgiving Day, I invite you truly think about the great opportunity we have from a national holiday, to proclaim to our world that we find our hope, our peace, our joy and our love, in God’s promises and Christ’s love.

A very special thanks to Lee Laurence, Peyton Kertson, and Minister of Music, Brandon Kertson, for their amazing presentations Sunday morning. How wonderful it is to have so many talented and willing folks in our midst. I don’t know about you, but my faith was strengthened as I saw a little of myself in all the characters we heard from. The one I think affected me the most was the character of Martha, portrayed by Lee Laurence. In case you didn’t know, I sometimes, have control issues. There are times I sense Jesus smiling down on me, trying to get me to take a breath, give up my control and bask in God’s presence. This is what I pray for everyday; to give up my control and listen more closely to the Spirit, encouraging everyone around me.

Sunday, we being Advent. Officially, the first Sunday in Advent is December 3rd. This puts Christmas Eve as the fourth Sunday of Advent. I want us to have a full advent experience, and a full Christmas Eve Worship. So everything has been pushed up a week. Thank you for accepting this change with grace. This Sunday we celebrate the foundation of everything we know as Christmas Tide, HOPE. I encourage you and your family to journey through this season with intention preparing you hearts and your homes for the blessedness of Christ’s birth. I love being your pastor.

Holding you close and lifting you high!

Pastor Greg

Advent or Christmas?

This Sunday we are celebrating the first Sunday of Advent. Traditionally, the four weeks leading up to Christmas day was considered the advent season and was used as a time to prepare one’s heart for the coming of the Christ who was, who is and who is to come. The church would then celebrate the Christmas season from Christmas day for the next 12 days until Epiphany (the celebration of the coming of the 3 magi from the East). This is where the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” comes from! This rhythm has changed as Christmas has become commercialized and we celebrate “Christmas” from Veteran’s Day until Christmas day and then put it all away for another year.

Perhaps your church grew up celebrating Christmas with one of these two rhythms. My church matched the rhythm of the culture more than of the early church. I don’t think one is necessarily wrong. I know for myself I found new meaning in the expectation of Christmas during advent and beginning to celebrate Christmas fully on Christmas day. For our musical worship this year, we will follow this pattern and do advent songs up until Christmas Eve when we will start to sing more Christmas carols. Don’t worry, you’ll recognize many of the advent songs as “Christmas” carols as well.

Take a listen to the advent songs we will be singing here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh5nxvO87Mt_kHh1NArQMngSiOVjCcLKH&si=66hNRhe07x4GLY3I



And, in expectation of Christmas as we sit in advent, let me know your favorite Christmas carols through this short survey, I’ll try to incorporate as many as I can during the Christmas season. https://forms.gle/dY6wH4CmC3JfFvJR8

Nations at War, Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine

Sharon, mother of Ryan

Mae Simone

Friends and Family of Tom, Marlene’s brother

Linda Hansen, sister of Colleen Clementson

David, friend of Rosemary

Family and Friends of Jim Siltanen, who passed

Freddie, recovering from surgery

Oscar, brother in law of Butch Young

John Savage, organizer of Ladle Fellowship

Larell, friend of Rosemary

Ivana, daughter of Anne Wallace

Dianne Florio

Joanne Jonas

Nina Melad

Our Church Leadership

Time to Deck the Halls

Saturday morning, December 2nd, we will be gathering to deck our halls for the Advent Christmas Season. We will begin at 9:00 a.m. We have found from the past, that the more folks we have, the quicker we create a beautiful result. Everyone is welcome, especially our kids.

Also, as we did last year, we are looking for those individuals who have an extra artificial tree at home. We would love to create a CCPUCC forest on the chancel. Let Pastor Greg know if you have a tree you would like to let us use. There will be food! Hope to see many of you there.

A LITTLE HEADS UP FOR CHRISTMAS EVE 2023

Well, the calendar is doing it to us again. This year, Christmas Eve happens on a Sunday. Christmas Eve morning, we will offer a very “unplugged,” intimate, worship time with Communion. This morning gathering will last only about 30 minutes. Then, at 6:00 p.m. we will gather in the sanctuary for a Christmas Eve Worship Celebration. Christmas Eve and Easter are two days when we put many of our eggs in one beautiful basket. We always have visitors who want to worship in a church on Christmas Eve, as well as your extended families. Make plans now to be here, family in tow, and invite someone you know who needs what we have in this beloved community. So … go right now to your paper calendars and iphones and log this information. It is going to be a wonderful holiday season

Greetings from the Outreach Ministry

Once again thank you so much for sharing your gifts this Thanksgiving Season. Your gifts will bring joy and fullness to our neighbors across the street. You are truly God’s hands and feet.

Well we have one more Mission before the end of the year!! That Mission is to share the joys of the Christmas Season with others. Our church is adopting one family from Solara across the street. We are adopting one Military Family and we are also adopting two seniors from Los Arcos! And of course we will be doing our Gifts to the Manger to help out the little ones from families who are a part of Interfaith Community Service’s in Escondido.

It’s so exciting to be a part of this church who shares their gifts with so many!!! Our church family and friends always come through to make life easier and bring joy to others!! You are most definitely amazing!!!

Look for our gift trees near the Basket of Hope! Take a tag or two with you to shop for that special gift. You can then wrap your gift and tape the tag on the gift you chose, so we will know what family it belongs too!!! Then bring your gift back to church and place under the tree until the special delivery.

As always, thank you in advance for sharing in these special missions!!!

God loves a cheerful giver and that cheerful giver is YOU!!

Many Blessings from the

Outreach Ministry

The JOY of FOOD!

Each week there will be a “Recipe of the Week” for the Buzz!

There will be a red basket in the Narthex where you can drop off your favorite recipes or please email them to julie@ccpucc.org. It can be any recipe from family favorites to ones recently discovered! We will be encouraging you to share your thoughts after you made the dish too. 

No new recipes this week but here is a previous one. The recipe is Oh So Easy Apple Bread.

Click Here for Oh So Easy Apple Bread Recipe!

Adult Scripture Review:

Sunday’s following worship in the fireside room!

Email Susan Gurriell

at sgurriell@gmail.com

Books & More

On Nov. 28 we'll discuss The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku.

Books & More meets on Tuesdays at 10:30 am in the Fireside Room.

All are welcome to join us.  

Centering Prayer:

Tuesdays at 6:30pm

Contact Colleen Clementson at powclem@yahoo.com or on

her cell at 858-663-6584, for the ZOOM invite

Thank you for checking out our BUZZ! Here is what you were waiting for! If you have a favorite joke or any tips to make the BUZZ even better, please send emails to julie@ccpucc.org :)

Joke of the Week:

Did you hear about the turkey prom?

It was a Butterball!

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!