Gathering in Worship Offered by the People of the Church of Christ, Union

Second Sunday of Easter  April 8, 2018  10:30 am 

Meditation
“And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perhaps bewildered and embarrassed, perhaps also protesting.
But don’t give in, insist on arguments, and act in this way, attentive and persistent, every single time, and the day will come when, instead of being a destroyer, it will become one of your best workers–perhaps the most intelligent of all the ones that are building your life.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

From there to Here

Welcome & Announcements
Welcome to this service of worship!  During the service, you are invited to rise in body or in spirit, standing or sitting, at points in the service marked “ ” .”
Please sign in using the pew folder, passing it back down the row so all can greet one another by name, and place the sheet in an offering plate. We’re glad you’re here!

From there to Here

Prelude Now the Green Blade Riseth arr. Larry Sue
Pearl Marshall and Lisa Vaughn, handbells
¨  Call to Worship 
One: The doors can be shut and our minds distracted…
All: But still Jesus stands among us.
One: Fretful or frightened, faithful or fickle…
All: Christ’s peace is breathed upon us all.
One: In this Easter Season let us worship and wonder together!
¨  Opening Hymn #230 Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain St. Kevin
¨  Prayer of Approach
¨  Passing the Peace of Christ
All who come to this sanctuary are welcome companions on this day! You are invited to turn to those nearest you and greet them with words of peace and joy. 

The Living Word among us

Anthem I Believe Mark Miller
Union Church Choir; Sharona Nelson, soloist
I believe in the sun, even when it’s not shining. I believe in love, even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God, even when God is silent.
Epistle Lesson  1 John 1:1-2:2 (p. 1493)
Children’s Moment                                as the children return to their seats we sing:
May God’s presence guard, protect and guide you.  God bless you, God bless you. Our savior’s loving arms be ever ’round you.  God bless you, God bless you. 
Following the Children’s Moment, children kindergarten through 5th grade are invited to Children’s Church in Cowan Chapel. They are also welcome to stay in the service if they prefer. The Children’s Worship Center in the back of the sanctuary has toys, books, and drawing materials for children (or adults) who would like help staying present in the service. For children preschool age & under, care is available in the Nursery, downstairs in Room 104 off the playground.
Gospel Lesson John 20:19-31 (p. 1314)
Sermon What We Need to Believe Rev. Kent Gilbert

Praying it Forward

Ringing of the Peace Bell
The Union Church Peace Bell was created by Jeff Enge in honor of Union Church member Carl Eschbach (1904-1998).  A twin bell hangs in Berea’s sister province in Japan and is also rung in the hope of peace for all nations.
Silent Prayer and Prayers of the Community
Our Lord’s Prayer
One: Our Maker, our Mother, and …
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
                  and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us;
                  and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:                                 
     For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.     Amen.        

GIfts Given for Love to Flow

Our gifts help sustain this particular community of caring by sustaining the building, pastors and staff, and all the materials that make our ministry of healing, justice, and teaching available to all in need. In addition, a good portion of our contributions flows out to aid to those in need via many external agencies.
This can now be done online or by text to 859-448-3403 (Example: Text “$50.00 Offering” to contribute to the ongoing ministries, or add “youth,” or “missions” or designation of your choice to benefit one in particular.
Your contribution is love made visible. Thank you!
Offertory        Paean of Triumph Lani Smith
¨  Doxology  Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Lasst Uns Erfreuen
Praise God all creatures here below!
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise God above, ye heavenly host!
Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost. 
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

From Here to There

Introduction and Invitation to Membership
Union Church is a vital and growing family of faith, a home to those committed to the way of Christ’s sacrificial love and service. All who feel led to join will be received in joy, and are welcome to come forward during the Closing Hymn. Thanks be to God for these ministers among us.
¨  Closing Hymn #292 Breathe on Me, Breath of God Trentham
¨  Questions of the Congregation and New Members
¨  Covenant of Welcome
And we, the members of this church, renewing our own covenant to God and to each other, do now heartily welcome you to our fellowship, promising to watch over you in love, and praying that  you, and we, may be true witnesses for Christ, a light in the world, and continue to increase in usefulness and joy in his service.
 Postlude Allegro Moderato
Especially in our prayers
Each week we join millions of Christians who pray for one another through the ecumenical prayer cycle and, locally, the Berea Ministerial Association’s prayer cycle.  Let us hold the people of Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovenia and our brothers and sisters at Hays Fork Baptist Church in our hearts, and pray for them. Please hold these concerns in your prayers, today and throughout the week.
Prayer requests to be printed may be sent to the office anytime before 10:00 am Fridays.
¨ Our church family members in nursing homes, or who are homebound:  Ruth Butwell, Edith Hansen, Nancy Hindman, Loyal Jones, Mary Miller, Alva Peloquin
¨ Dan Rohrer, who is suffering from a severe liver disorder.
¨ Dave Wellinghurst, diagnosed with glioblastoma after surgery for a brain tumor, whose cancer is responding to treatment better than expected.
¨ Gary Dillon, significant other of Betty Sarafin, critically ill with cancer.
¨ For Luke Woodie, recovering from bile duct cancer surgery at home.
¨ Barb Smith, ill at home.
¨ Lauri McVicker’s mother, recovering from hip surgery, in New Jersey
¨ Jennie Kiteck, at home after successful colon cancer surgery.
¨ In thanksgiving for those students, teachers, parents, lawmakers, and citizens who are witnessing and working to end gun violence in our society. May laws that help be passed; may hearts that are broken be healed; may all who are in danger be kept safe.
¨ Alejandra Sanchez’s sister in El Salvador, Marco Amalia Sanchez, suffering the final stages of cancer, and her family.
¨ Loyal Jones, recovering at Arcadian Cove.
¨ Tennant Kirk, recovering at home from extensive ankle surgery.
¨ The Groth family, at the death of Ben’s aunt.
¨ The Stolte family, at the death of Bill’s sister, Mabel Stolte, at nearly 92.
Announcements
You Matter! Please Sign the Register, Check in on Facebook/Twitter and try a nametag! It’s hard to get to know people elsewhere, but we don’t want it that way at church.  Let’s all try to get to know each other better.
About today’s anthem. Today’s choir anthem is sung in recognition of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, April 12. The lyrics are from an anonymous Jewish prisoner who scratched a short, three lined poem on a cellar wall in the Cologne concentration camp during World War II.
We Want to Join YOU! Membership Sunday Next Week! As a family of faith committed to boldly and creatively embodying the life and ministry of Jesus, we would like to join YOU. We’d like to be a context and inspiration for your own spiritual path, and work with you to make your heart, your world, your life more peace-filled and joy-full. Next Sunday there will be an opportunity to covenant together. No prior action on your part is required, but if you have any questions at all, we’d like to help. Working together, we want to make God’s love visible and real to all. Please let us join with you!
Many, many thanks to the volunteers, choirs, office staff, guest musicians, readers, decorators, cleaner-uppers and all who contributed in every way to making Holy Week and Easter services so moving, worshipful and wonderful for everyone!
Union Church invited to Carnegie Hall! Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) have announced that the Union Church Chancel Choir has been invited to participate in a performance of “The Music of Mark Hayes,” November 26th, at Carnegie Hall in New York City. They will join other choristers to form a single ensemble led by renowned conductor and composer Mark Hayes, many of whose anthems have been sung for worship at Union Church. 
Many choirs audition to achieve an invitation, but Union’s invitation was different. It was the result of an internet search and the wealth of material recorded and put on the web by our media team! In searching the internet for choirs who might have performed pieces by Mark Hayes, the Union Church YouTube channel came to the fore. After listening to several Sunday morning songs, the organizers of DCINY issued an invitation based on “the high quality and high level of musicianship demonstrated by the singers.”
Rev. Kent will be out of town April 13-18. Church member Rev. Betsy Whaley has agreed to be our preacher! Rev. Carla Gilbert will be on call for any pastoral care needs.
The office door code will change April 9. If you need it, please call or email the office.
Moms Demand Action will meet in the Community Room April 10, 6:30 pm. Moms Demand Action is a non-partisan movement of Americans demanding reasonable solutions to address our nation’s culture of gun violence. This will be MDA’s first meeting in Berea. Please join Kentucky’s State Chapter Leader, Connie Coartney, and State Membership Team Leader, Betsy Roup, to learn about Moms Demand Action and how you can get involved. We will discuss the history of MDA, what actions we are currently working on, local group leadership roles, and how you can be a part of MDA whether you have 5 minutes a week or 5 hours. 
Board Orientation April 22. After worship on April 22, all new and continuing Board Members and Officers are invited to an orientation session in the Community Room. A light lunch will be served. We’ll get acquainted, tour the building (you’ll be surprised at all the nooks & crannies!), review our church mission statement and discuss how to:

• Read a budget
• Pay for things
• Distribute minutes and documents AND how to retrieve them
• Schedule rooms and heating/cooling

If you use a laptop, bring it with you and we can help with Google docs if you’d like. If your Board has set a recurring meeting date , please let us know in the office. Thanks!
The Berea Food Bank reports that it is very low on food supplies. The address is 108 Parkway. OR if it’s easier to bring food to church, we’ll get it to the Food Bank. Particular needs are:

• Cereal
• Peanut Butter
• Tuna
• Potatoes (boxed or canned)

Sustainable Berea Victory Garden Blitz April 28 needs volunteers! 8-2 at the Berea Municipal Utilities building. Help needed to construct beds, deliver and install beds, haul dirt. Trucks needed too. Potluck at 1 pm!
Older iPad Needed: Do you have an older generation iPad you no longer use? The AV system we use in the Community Room would benefit from a dedicated iPad  for church and rental use. It must have the older, wider power connection to work, but other than that, any iPad  will be more than enough to power the system. Contact the office or Rev. Kent if you can help!
Official Record Book Still Missing :(. Have you seen the sign-in book we use to record new members’ joining dates and attendance at meetings? Did you look in your car? What about at home? It’s been missing since November and maybe some-one accidentally took it home or tucked it somewhere for safe keeping? It’s black padded leather, about 8 1/2 x 11. Help!
Please Sign up to Read Scripture or to Help Greet and Usher!  Please use our electronic sign up system, http://signup.com/go/xkdVtB, where you can pick a date that works for you and get reminders!  OR you can also call the office and we’ll get you on the lists.
Berea Leadership Experience for Youth, July 16-20. Registration opens April 15. Berea Leadership Experience will hold its camp for kids to learn skills of conflict resolution, media literacy, mindfulness, and appreciation of nature the week of July 16th -20th, 9 am – 2 pm for kids in incoming grades 2-8. We are also seeking sponsors for scholarships and other financial donations to make this camp possible for as many people as possible. Sponsorships are $60 to cover one student. Checks can be made or online donations can be designated to Union Church, memo line “Berea Leadership Experience.” Thank you!
Music, Music, Music!
Today, 3:00 pm – Sean Lee, piano and Michael Ortega, tenor. At Gray Auditorium
April 10, 7:00 pm  – Madison Singers’ Spring Concert “How Sweet the Sound” at First Presbyterian Church, 330 W. Main St., Richmond. This concert consists of sacred choral music and folk music. Instrumental selections will also be played by Gabriel Evans, director. The group is accompanied by Laura Allnut. Admission $10
April 13, 7:30 pm – Berea Classic Chorale Concert here at Union Church. “The Feminine Voice,” will featuremusic by North American Women. Our special guest performers will be the Berea College Women’s Choir, under the direction of Dr. Mark Calkins. The women of the Chorale and the Berea College women will combine to sing “Nada te turbe” by California composer Joan Szymko. The college choir will also perform a set of three pieces. Clarinetist Adria Sutherland and cellist Mariah Gorney  will provide instrumental support. Other composers represented include Elizabeth Alexander, Eleanor Dailey, and Emma Lou Diemer. Admission to the concert is $5.00 per adult, while children and students may attend free. Tickets are available from Chorale members and at the door. 
April 13, 7:30 pm – Folk Roots Ensemble’s Ballad Night at the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center
April 15, 3:00 pm –  Berea College Concert Choir & Chamber Singers Annual Spring Concert, Gray Auditorium, Stephen Bolster conductor. The public is invited to attend, no charge for admission.  The choirs will be accompanied by Lindsay Clavere on the piano. 
The concert will feature much of the repertoire that the choirs will perform on their May international concert tour to the Balkans.  The first half of the program presents sacred music of a variety of composers mostly from the twentieth century, including psalm settings and two settings of O salutaris hostia.  The second half of the program consists of folk song arrangements, a group of love songs performed by the Chamber Singers, and arrangements of African-American spirituals.  Please come and enjoy an afternoon with wonderful singing!