Elim Extra for Sunday, November 19, 2023

With our wonderful fall dinner this week, and Thanksgiving Sunday coming up in worship this Sunday, not to mention Advent coming up next week (we’re starting one week early, on Christ the King Sunday, so we have enough Sundays to light all four Advent candles before Christmas Eve, which falls on a Sunday this year)…. well, it definitely feels like the holidays are upon us. For some, this time of year is anticipated with excitement, but for others this time of year is anticipated with dread because of loss and grief. In Thanksgiving worship we will find that God is big enough to hold both experiences.

As you plan how you will embrace or get through this season, I would like to offer two online events – flyers are posted on our church Facebook page. Grief and the Holidays: How the Light Comes is being offered by the University of Utah TONIGHT (November 14) at 7 PM; and A Night to Illuminate Grief: Love in Grief Held Together (LIGHT) is being offered by First Plymouth Congregational Church in Colorado (UCC) on December 21 at 7 PM. Understanding our grief can help us get through the holidays and know we are not alone.

Please plan to stay after church this Sunday to decorate the sanctuary! We will also be collecting non-perishable foods at the altar to contribute to a local food pantry’s Thanksgiving collection. Plan to grab extra of something on your grocery run this week…. for this is how we show our thanks.

love, Pastor Chelsea