Dear Centenary Church Family:

This Sunday at Centenary: December 20, 2009
The Fourth Sunday of Advent

9:00 AM – Adult Study – The Best Songs Come at Night (Sunshine Room)
10:15 AM – Worship & Sunday School(Pre-K through Grade 6)
An Advent Cantata: Candles & Carols: A Service of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love
by Mark Hayes & Pamela Martin
with Chancel Choir, Instrumental Ensemble, and Congregational Singing
Lectionary Readings: Micah 5:2-5a Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:46b-55 Luke 1:39-45
Celebration of Found Coins:Centenary Music Ministry
Children’s Time:Michael Savoia
11:30 AM – Fellowship Time (Room 20)
11:45 AM – Junior Choir Rehearsal(Music Room)
12:00 Noon – Confirmation Class(Youth Room)

Celebration of Found Coins for Sunday, December 20:

Centenary’s Music Ministry Program
On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, just before our Christmas celebrations, our Chancel Choir presents a special Christmas Cantata—Candles & Carols: A Service of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Your gifts to the “Barrel Offering” on Sunday will provide additional resources for our music ministry program, over and above our annual ministries budget.

CENTENARY’S CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVES JOY TO THE WORLD
Over the next few months, 21 struggling families around the world will each receive the gift of a farm animal that will help to lift them out of poverty and become more self-reliant. These animals, which include two heifers, four sheep, eight goats, four llamas, two water buffalo, and one pig, are Centenary’s Christmas gift to the world in 2009. They will be purchased with the $3,621 that you donated to the Heifer International “Joy to the World” mission fundraiser over the last nine months.
The donated animals will provide their families with milk, wool, income, and, in the case of the two water buffalo, muscle to plow their fields. Heifer International provides impoverished families all around the world with the gifts of livestock and training in their care. In addition, because of Heifer’s cornerstone principle of Passing on the Gift, each recipient family will pass on the gift of their animal’s offspring to another family in need. So the gift is multiplied!
When the Missions Committee kicked off the “Joy to the World” project last March, our goal was to raise $1,500 by the end of the year for the purchase of nine animals. When that goal was reached three months later, the congregation celebrated by singing “Joy to the World” during the worship service on the first Sunday in June. Even though the goal had been achieved, the Missions Committee decided to continue the campaign through the end of the year as originally intended. When Pastor John announced the final tally following the Children’s Pageant at the December 13 worship service, the grand total stood at $3,621, more than $2,000 over goal! The congregation celebrated the good news by again singing “Joy to the World” as the children paraded down the aisles carrying placards with pictures of the animals we will be donating.
The Missions Committee extends its heartfelt appreciation to the congregation for your outstanding support of this special mission project. Thank you for sharing your generosity and love with families in need around the world and fulfilling the Scriptures’ call to care for the hungry and the poor.

UNITED METHODIST WOMEN
PECANS AND OTHER GOODIES
The boxes with pecans, cashews, pistachios, candies, and trail mix are on a table in the hallway across from the Pastor’s Study. The prices are on the cartons and there is a blue money box on the table for you to place your cash or checks. Checks should be made payable to “Centenary United Methodist Women.” If you are not comfortable leaving cash or checks in the box, please see Sylvia Woodfield after Worship. The box is checked a couple of times a week and cash removed. The profit from the sale of these items will go to the Church Budget.

MITTEN TREE – THANK YOU!! Three boxes filled to the brim were mailed to Red Bird Mission on December 8th. Thanks to your generous gifts, we were able to send them: 47 pairs of mittens/gloves; 37 hats; 16 scarves; 4 pair of socks; 5 hat and glove sets; 1 hat and scarf set; 5 pairs of earmuffs; and 1 afghan.

ATTENTION – NEEDLEWORKERS- A friend of Sylvia Woodfield’s recently moved and generously gave Sylvia her supply of very good needlepoint yarns (Paternayan) and some plain canvas for needlepoint work. If you are interested in these things, please contact Sylvia Woodfield (732-549-9042).She also has some plastic canvas and some patterns if anyone is interested in them.

CAMPBELL SOUP LABELS and other related products- We are still collecting these labels for the Red Bird Mission. There have been BIGchanges to the Labels program. The part of the label that we need is the UPC section along with the Labels for Education symbol. Please check out the UMW bulletin board (in the area near the Men’s Room) for more information on how these labels need to be collected. There is a basket in the Church Library to receive your labels. The Red Bird Mission, in Beverly, Kentucky, is a Mission Project of the United Methodist Church.

2010 Offering Envelopes Are Available
Weekly offering envelopes for 2010 are available on a table in the Hallway below the Mission/UMW Bulletin Board. Please check the boxes and take your packet of envelopes (arranged alphabetically) home with you…and please take a packet for a neighbor or friend, if you see it still there. Mailing out these offering envelopes costs quite a bit per set, so by taking them with you, you assist us greatly in reducing mailing costs ($2.00 per box set!). If you do not find a packet of envelopes with your name on them and wish to have a set, please notify the Church Office, and Sue Brownlow, our Financial Secretary, will prepare a set for your use. We encourage everyone to use these envelopes to share their gifts with the church as it makes it much easier for our financial teams to maintain accurate giving records throughout the year. Thank you.

Have You Returned Your 2010 Financial Commitment Card?
The financial support of everyone at Centenary is imperative if we are to meet our ministry and mission goals for 2010. If you have returned your Financial Commitment Card indicating your pledge for the coming year, thank you. If you have yet to return your Commitment Card indicating your intention to share from your resources, we request that you do so as soon as possible. Additional Commitment Cards are available from the ushers during Worship each Sunday, and from the Church Office. Thank you for your faithful support of our shared ministry.

The 2010 Deluxe Christian Family Appointment Calendars
for Centenary United Methodist Church
are available in the Hallway Across from Pastor’s Study
Please pick up a copy for your use at home or work, and you may want to take an extra calendar or two to share with neighbors and friends. We are grateful to Costello-Runyon Funeral Homefor again providing these beautiful calendars to the congregation.

O Come, All Ye Faithful!

Celebrate the Birth of Jesus the Christ at Centenary
Thursday, December 24, 2009
7:00 PM — Christmas Eve Service of Carols and Candlelight
Special Children’s Message by Pastor Terrilisa Durham Bauknight
Junior Choir, Congregational Carols and Candle lighting
Preacher: John D Painter Theme: The Man Who Hated Christmas
11:00 PM — Christmas Eve Service of Carols, Candlelight and Holy Communion
Chancel Choir, Congregational Carols and Candle lighting
Preacher: John D Painter Theme: The Man Who Hated Christmas
Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 9:2-7 Titus 2:11-14
Psalm 96 Luke 2:1-20

Some Thoughts for This Week:

Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own. – Doug Larson

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. – Annie Dillard

For fast-acting relief try slowing down. – Lily Tomlin

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. – Natalie Goldberg

There is more to life than increasing, its speed. – Mohandas K. Gandhi

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. – Jennifer Yane

May I be careful to have my mind in order when I take upon myself the honor to speak to the sovereign Lord of the universe, remembering that upon the temper of my soul depends, in very great measure, my success. – Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism (1669-1742)

Wisdom is an affair of values, and of value judgments. It is intelligent conduct of human affairs. – Sydney Hook

The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.

You have to live on this 24 hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your mortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of highest urgency. – Arnold Bennett

Have your tools ready, and God will find the work. – Charles Kingsley [adapted]

Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so. – Belva Davis

It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret. – Jackie Joyner-Kersee

We should employ our passions in the service of life, not spend life in the service of our passions. – Sir Richard Steele

When it comes down to being a provider of God’s love, there is really only one provider, who sends us out with nothing at all and with everything we need: healing, forgiveness, restoration, resurrection. Those are the only things we really have to share with the world, which is just as well, since they are the only things the world really needs. – Barbara Brown Taylor, from her book Bread of Angels

I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. – Og Mandino

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all. – Anna Quindlen

Friendship is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. – C. S. Lewis

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. – Norman Vincent Peale

Next Sunday at Centenary: December 27, 2009
The First Sunday After Christmas
(Note: There will be no Sunday School classeson December 27)

10:15 AM – Worship: Christmas Carol Sing—
A Final Opportunity to Select Your Favorite Carols to Sing
Lectionary Readings: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Colossians 3:12-17
Psalm 148 Luke 2:41-52
Celebration of Found Coins:UM Bishops’ Appeal for the Philippines
Children’s Time:Pastor John Painter
11:30 AM – Fellowship Time (Room 20)

Celebration of Found Coins for Sunday, December 27
United Methodist Bishops’ Appeal for the Philippines

The United Methodist Council of Bishops has issued a Churchwide Appeal for Philippines Disasters in response to the multiple typhoons that have struck the country.
The appeal, which was announced November 19, will provide humanitarian relief and support for the ministries of The United Methodist Church in the Philippines.
In late September and October, four typhoons—Ketsana, Parma, Lupit and Mirinae—hit the Philippines, leaving more than a thousand dead and an estimated 1.3 million people displaced. Causing drowning, landslides and electrocutions, the storms also had a disastrous impact on farmlands, houses and infrastructure. The country faces a public health emergency and is struggling to fight outbreaks of infection.
In addition, the storms and flooding affected more than 200,000 United Methodists in 1,372 local churches.
“The greatest needs facing the Filipino people are rehabilitation programs for their destroyed houses, livelihood, rice and vegetable farms,” said Bishop Lito Cabacungan Tangonan of the Manila Episcopal Area. “For The United Methodist Church, there is also a need for repairs and renovation of the churches affected by the typhoon and floods.”
The United Methodist Committee on Relief has started distributing relief supplies to displaced families, working with other organizations as well as local volunteers through its UMCOR Philippines Office.
Bishops are asking the denomination’s local churches to designate a Sunday to give congregations an opportunity to participate in the churchwide appeal. Centenary will receive this special offering next Sunday, Please be generous in your response to this emergency need.

ADULT CLASS LOOKS AT THE CORE BELIEFS OF CHRISTIANITY
What is the core of Christian faith? What have most Christians in most places and times believed? Is the Christian faith reasonable for modern people? These are some of the questions that will be addressed by well-known biblical scholar and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright in the first Adult Class study of the New Year. In this five-week course, beginning Sunday, January 3, 2010, Bishop Wright offers a fresh presentation of the timeless truths of Christianity, making the case that faith is reasonable and rewarding for us today. This DVD study is based on Bishop Wright’s acclaimed book, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. Join us, starting Sunday, January 3, 2010, for this “faith refresher,” as we explore together the common beliefs we share as Christians. The class meets every Sunday morning from 9:00 to 10:00 AM in the Sunshine Room. All are welcome.

Prayer for the Week of December 20:O wondrous God of the stars, we come this week with breathless wonder to see the Babe who will change our lives. We hear the names “Wonderful Counselor,” “Mighty God,” Prince of Peace,” and we are in awe. You have touched the earth with your unconditional love. Touch us—touch our hearts and minds and souls. May we never tire of this story. May we never take it for granted. Make this week magical again.Amen.

I look forward to sharing with many of you in Study, Worship and Christian Fellowship on this Fourth and final Sunday in the season of Advent at Centenary.

In Christ’s Love, Pastor John