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Community Christmas Events
The annual Seward Community Christmas Service will be held on Sunday evening, December 7, at 7 pm at Resurrection Lutheran Church. Pastor Blair Rorabaugh will be the speaker, and Pastor Peter will be leading the singing. Sue McClure is leading a community choir, which will be singing Amy Grant’s Breath of Heaven. A freewill offering will support the ministerial association’s emergency assistance fund.
On December 3, our regularly scheduled First Wednesday hymn sing will be a Christmas Carol Extravaganza. Join us in the sanctuary at 6:30 pm for a very informal time of singing. Invite your friends and neighbors, as this is an ongoing community ministry of our church. In November, we had six churches represented! Truly music is a unifying way to tell the beautiful story of God in Christ!
Christmas Eve Plans
December 24th will be here before we know it… plan to spend a part of that special night at Seward Memorial UMC or Moose Pass UMC. As always, the services will include a time of candle lighting and a lot of beautiful music. Be sure and arrive early as we expect to be standing room only in both of our services.
In Seward, the service will begin at 6 pm. Special music from the bells and the choir will delight us and Pastor Peter will bring the message.
In Moose Pass, the service is at 8 pm. Again this year, the children of the community will share songs of the season, along with the Moose Pass Women’s Chorale.
Those desiring a midnight service are encouraged to attend the 11 pm service at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.
There will be no worship services at our churches on Christmas Day.
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Church Conferences Scheduled for November 30
Our annual meetings of the All-Church Conference will be held on Sunday, November 30, in Seward at 9:30 (before worship) and in Moose Pass at 4:30. The annual meeting includes a review of the state of our church’s ministries and finances, adoption of our goals for the coming year, approval of church budgets and the pastoral compensation package, and election of church lay leadership for the coming year. Please mark your calendar now and plan to attend.
One of our goals over the past year has been to reduce the amount of salary support we need from our annual conference (currently $10,000), freeing up those funds for other Alaska churches that are struggling to maintain full-time ministry. During the 2008 fiscal year we have realized a significant increase in support from Outside churches. As a result, we hope to significantly reduce our 2009 request for support from the annual conference. Depending on the results of the annual stewardship program, we may be able to eliminate the conference subsidy entirely.
We also will be replacing some key leaders who have faithfully served in important roles for many years. Please prayerfully consider saying yes if you are asked by the pastor or a member of the Nominating Committee to share your time and talent by serving in a church position beginning in January 2009.
Two Churches, One Pastor… How Does THAT Work?
In United Methodist terminology, our two churches, Seward and Moose Pass, make up one “charge.” A pastor is appointed to a charge… that’s why you will sometimes hear the annual meeting referred to as a “Charge Conference.” Some of the Seward folks have never been up to visit at Moose Pass, but you should know you are always welcome (and vice versa, of course!). The Moose Pass church usually has between 15 and 20 persons in attendance on most Sundays. Moose Pass operates as a separate church, but contributes $3000 a year to Seward toward the pastor’s salary package and also provides a transportation allowance for travel back and forth from Seward. Moose Pass has three representatives on our Pastor-Parish Relations Committee.
