Blue Christmas
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
7:00-8:00 PM
In the Octagon Room
The Christmas season can be challenging for those navigating an emotional season of life. If this sounds familiar, we invite you to a “Blue Christmas” themed hour.
The Still Wednesday contemplative worship team aims to create a holy safe place with the support of music, candles, prayer, and silent reflection. You may bring a journal if you like.
Please enter through the parking lot door and join us quietly in the Octagon.
Advent and Christmas at St. Paul's
Each day in the Advent season and the Christmas season offers opportunities to rejoice in the anticipation and celebration of God's greatest gift: Jesus.
ADvent & CHristmas Worship Schedule
please scroll down to find special activities.
Sunday, November 30
Fifth Sunday, One Community: Worship with Communion at 10:30 AM only.
Welcome the first Sunday of Advent! This is also te 5th Sunday in the month. When there are five Sundays in a month, we use the fifth Sunday as an opportunity to bring together all of our worshipers at one time and will hold a single Sunday service at 10:30 AM. (There will be no 9:00 AM worship service offered on Fifth Sundays.)
While the usual 9:00 and 10:30 worship formats differ somewhat and each is valuable, it is also valuable to gather all our members and friends together as one community, singing and praying together.
Fifth Sunday, One Community embraces worshipers of all ages. There is no Sunday School programming this day, and families will be together in the Sanctuary. This is a time for all to remember and live into the vows we make at baptism to help our young people grow in faith and become familiar with the rhythms of worship.
This year, Pastor Joey invites everyone to kick off Advent with our “Do One Small Thing” Campaign. Each day, do one quiet, hope-filled act — Secret-Santa style — to share Christ’s light in the world. Small acts can soften hearts, lift spirits, and help us prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth with meaning and joy. Let’s join God’s work of renewal together, one small thing at a time!
After services, visit our poinsettia coordinator, Betsy Sanford, in the Narthex to order poinsettias using check or cash, or scroll down for the online poinsettia order form to pay by credit card. Poinsettias will grace the Sanctuary at Christmas Eve and may be dedicated in honor or memory of someone special.
Sunday, December 7 - Music Sunday
Worship with Communion at 9:00 AM.
Worship with Communion and Sanctuary Choir, organ, and guest instrumentalists at 10:30 AM.
The second Sunday of Advent is our annual Music Sunday celebration at 10:30 AM. Our Sanctuary Choir will be a featured part of worship at 10:30 AM, along with our magnificent organ, and guest instrumentalists enriching worship with a new setting of The Magnificat.
The 9:00 worship service will continue to offer a smaller, more contemplative community worship experience with communion.
Our poinsettia coordinator will be available following each worship service for those who wish to order poinsettias and make dedications.
Sunday, December 14
Worship with Communion at 9:00
Worship with Sanctuary Choir at 10:30
Enjoy the continued journey through the advent season with worship in the Sanctuary. Instead of shopping this weekend, consider our Scattered for Service "alternative giving" program, and make a donation to one of our selected charities in honor of a loved one. You will receive recognition cards that can be presented to honorees.
This is the last day to place an order for a Poinsettia and make a dedication in memory or in honor of someone special.
Wednesday, December 17 - Blue Christmas
The Christmas season can be challenging for those navigating an emotional season of life. The Still Wednesday contemplative worship team invite all to a “Blue Christmas” themed hour in the Octagon. We aim to create a holy safe place with the support of music, candles, prayer, and silent reflection.
Sunday, December 21
Worship with Communion at 9:00
Worship with Sanctuary Choir at 10:30
Join us for Sunday Worship for the 4th Sunday in Advent. Our Children's Choir and Joyful Ringers bell ensemble will provide uplifting anthems during the 10:30 worship service. Representatives of the Scattered for Service program will be available for the last of the Alternative Giving program orders.
Wednesday, December 24: CHristmas Eve
This year we will hold one Christmas Eve worship service in the Sanctuary.
Tentative Worship Schedule (subject to change):
Join us at 7:30 PM for an organ prelude, then worship with communion at 8:00 PM.
This service will feature the Sanctuary choir and we will offer holy communion. It will also be family-friendly, with the option to have candlelight or flame-free glow-sticks to light the final moments of the service.
Poinsettias will decorate the Sanctuary and wreaths will brighten our doors. (Please note: poinsettia orders must be received by December 14.) A souvenir bulletin listing dedications will be available at worship. To request a copy by mail, contact the church office.
Sunday, December 28
First Sunday in Christmastide
Worship at 10:30 ONLY
(There will be no 9:00 worship this day.)
Come for a simple worship serivce and enjoy singing Christmas hymns during this Sunday morning celebration of the birth of Jesus. Please note, there will be no Sunday School and no Nursery care available on this day.
Christmas Eve Special Offering
To contribute to the 2025 Christmas Eve Special Offering, please use the Christmas envelope in the worship bulletin, mark the memo of your checks with “Christmas Special Offering,” or give online here using your credit card. Click the button to go to the secure online donation page.
Christmas Eve Special Offering 2025
As is our tradition, St. Paul’s Christmas Special Offering goes to serve those in need outside our walls.
This year St. Paul’s church leadership designated that the Christmas Special Offering will go to UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief. When a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis occurs, UMCOR works with local partners on the ground to offer immediate emergency relief, and remains in the community to assist with rebuilding efforts long after the initial crisis. 100% of tonight’s Special Offering funds will go directly to emergency response and community rebuilding work. From wildfires in California to war in Ukraine, from hurricane clean-up in North Carolina to refugee shelters in eastern Congo, UMCOR teams bring resources and relief to people in their hour of greatest need. You can read more about UMCOR at https://umcmission.org/work/humanitarian-relief
Poinsettias & Wreaths
Poinsettias in red and white grace the Sanctuary at Christmas. These plants and the wreaths on our doors are dedicated in honor and memory of loved ones and to the glory of God by members and friends of St. Paul’s.
Dedications are listed in the Poinsettia & Wreath Dedications Bulletin. Copies are available at the Christmas Eve worship service, or by clicking the button here.
You may take your plants home to enjoy following the 8:00 PM Christmas Eve worship service, or pick up your plant the Sunday after Christmas following the 10:30 AM worship service. Plants remaining after that time may be delivered to friends of St. Paul's who need a little extra cheer.
Music Sunday
December 7, 2025
10:30 AM worship
An Invitation to Music Sunday, by Tom Pedersen, Director of Music
As is our tradition, for Music Sunday, our 10:30 worship service transforms into a musical celebration of the Advent & Christmas seasons, by turns joyful and contemplative.
Advent is a time of preparation and hope, celebrating the extraordinary gift of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man. On Sunday, December 7th, at 10:30 am, the Music Department will come together with soloists, orchestra, choir, and congregation to worship as a community, preparing the way of the Lord.
During this service, Christina Griffin, the director of our children’s choir, will be the featured soprano soloist for Marvin Mills' beautiful arrangement of "Rise, Shepherds, and Follow," which is scored for strings, woodwinds, horn, and organ. Marvin's setting serves as a powerful call for us to rise and follow the star to Bethlehem. The lyrics repeatedly urge the shepherds to leave their herds and follow the star—a wonderful sentiment for this season.
We will also hear an exceptional setting of The Magnificat by composer Taylor Scott Davis—his setting, which includes a verse in English in a modern voice, will be sung by Soprano Anna Phillips Brown. Anna will be joined by the Sanctuary Choir, strings, winds, Harp, and percussion.
The text of the Magnificat highlights God's mercy, strength, and justice—lifting the lowly, filling the hungry with good things, and sending the rich away empty. It also emphasizes God's faithfulness to the promises made to Abraham and his descendants forever—powerful words for this Advent Season.
In the composer's own words;
"The Magnificat text is rich and historic, and although it seems to be an unwritten rule, each composer gets one opportunity to express what the text means to them. Is it possible to capture the transformation of Mary from a typical teenage girl to God's chosen one? Can five movements effectively convey the range of emotions this story evokes? What elements help in narrating the story, and which may come off as overly dramatic?"
I encourage you to join us for Advent Music Sunday, bring friends, share the Hope of the Shepherds, the voice of Mary, and the good news that Jesus will be among us once again this Christmas morning.
You can read more about music at St. Paul's and our year-round contributions to enlivening worship on our MUSIC page: https://stpaulsk.org/worship/music.
Advent Devotionals
Advent begins November 30, 2025 and ends on Christmas Eve. Journey meaningfully through the season using one of the free Advent resources available in the Narthex.
These resources can help guide us thoughtfully through the Advent season and on towards Christmas.
Children's Advent & Christmas Craft Workshop
Children’s Advent & Christmas Craft Workshop
Held in conjunction with the December Pancake Breakfast each year!
Saturday, December 6, 2025
Craft Station Hours: 9:00-10:00 AM
Fellowship Hall
Bring friends and enjoy all-you-care-to-eat breakfast in the Fellowship Hall with pancakes, fresh sage sausage, scrambled eggs, fruit, and other breakfast dishes. The specialty this month is gingerbread pancakes! Diners are asked to make a donation at the door (suggested amount is $20 for a family of 4).
After you enjoy the pancake breakfast, enjoy this opportunity to make a variety of Advent and Christmas-related crafts. Children, their friends and adults, and youth helpers will all be making projects together. This workshop is free of charge, but donations are welcome.
Gathered for Worship,
Scattered for Service
We are happy to offer the 2025 version of Scattered for Service Alternative Giving Program, available through December 21, 2025.
Instead of giving more “stuff” this year, you can give the gifts of help and hope in your loved one’s honor.
Click the button to be taken to our dedicated Scattered for Service page with more information!
There are local and international organizations serving in a variety of ways. Have fun matching your loved one with a charity from our list! For example, you might donate to Heifer International in honor of your aunt who is a beekeeper, donate to the Oakleaf Club at Walter Reed in honor of your cousin who served in the Army, or donate to Imagination Library in honor of your sibling who loves books!
Scattered for Service volunteers will provide personalized acknowledgement cards for each item, ready for you to send to your loved ones.
You you be able to make your selection online using a credit card, or you can order by cash or check using the Scattered for Service form found in the December edition of The Epistle newsletter.
After the order period closes, the Scattered for Service team will compile all of the receipts and send 100% of the donations we've collected to the organizations as directed.
Questions? Please contact Scattered for Service coordinator Lyn Walker directly or reach Erin Steele in the office at stpaulsunited@stpaulsk.org
