Generosity of Spirit
Sunday, December 3, 2023, 10:25 am
Online on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/738363620
Passcode: BUF
Zoom by phone, for audio only: (346) 248-7799
Meeting ID: 738 363 620
Passcode: 306220
I wonder why love is so often equated with joy when it is everything else as well. Devastation, balm, obsession, granting and receiving excessive value, and losing it again.
It is recognition, often of what you are not but might be. It sears and it heals. It is beyond pity and above law. It can seem like truth.
— Florida Scott Maxwell,
playwright and author, 1883-1979
Hospitality means primarily a creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.
Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place…It is not a method of making our God and our way the criteria of happiness, but the opening of an opportunity to others to find their God and their way.
— Martin Buber,
Austrian emigrant to Israel,1878-1965
Gathering Music Ding Dong Merrily On High, by Jeanne Cotter
Kevin Allen-Schmid, piano
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; The First Noel
Emma Kusick, violin, Lisa Kusick, recorder
Welcome Rev Paul Beckel
Prelude Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Chalice Lighting Pam Graham
Covenant
Love is the spirit of this fellowship, and service gives it life.
Celebrating our diversity, and joined by a quest for truth,
We work for peace, and honor all creation.
This is our covenant.
Singing Together In the Silence (at back of grey hymnal)
Children’s Focus Hope Machine, by the Okee Dokee Brothers
Lisa Kusick, Annie & Chris Sorich
Children’s Blessing
We hold you in our love as you go, as you go.
May your heart be at peace as you go.
To nurture the spark of your precious life,
We hold you in our love as you go.
Reading from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hahn (1926-2022)
Milestones
Reflections, Part 1
Interlude Let it Fall, by Over The Rhine
Reflections, Part 2
Sharing and Singing We Three Kings, Good King Wenceslas,
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Singing Together #221 Light One Candle
Benediction
Singing Together #155, Circle ‘Round
Circle ‘round for freedom, circle ‘round for peace.
For all of us imprisoned, circle for release.
Circle for the planet, circle for each soul.
For the children of our children, keep the circle whole.
Afterward
If you’re with us on Zoom today, please stay after the service for our online coffee hour. If you’re here in person, please join us downstairs for coffee and conversation. Visitors: you may wish to use a red cup — then we’ll know you’re open to a bit of orientation.
If you’re new, we’d be grateful to have you provide us with contact information so we can let you know what’s happening here. There are buff-colored visitor contact cards in the pew racks, and in the entryway, that you can drop in the collection basket. Or provide your contact information HERE.
Improved Hearing Assistance in the Sanctuary
If you need hearing assistance when you’re in the sanctuary, you can now listen through your phone with earbuds, or through your own hearing aids by using an app connected to our in-house sound system. Just download the Listen Everywhere app onto your phone. When you turn it on in the sanctuary, it will detect the signal from our sound system. Then you can control the volume on your phone using your own wired or wireless earbuds, or using Bluetooth to your hearing aid.
Ask an usher for assistance. Come a few minutes early to set up your phone the first time; once you’ve got it set, it will just be a matter of turning it on. We will continue to provide the self-contained hearing assistance units with wired earbuds (or you can borrow the earbuds from these to use with your own phone).
Welcoming Children
There’s space up front with materials for drawing. For the more rambunctious, there’s a nursery at the back where parents can see and hear what’s going on in the sanctuary. Most Sundays, after 10-15 minutes in the sanctuary, kids are invited to go to their classrooms.
Contributions payable to “BUF” may be sent to:
1207 Ellsworth Street, Bellingham 98225
For info about donating online (credit card or PayPal), by automatic bank transfer, or via phone apps, see the “give” button in the upper right-hand corner at buf.org or contact the office: (360) 733-3837 / admin@buf.org
Announcements
Tomorrow (December 4) at 7 pm – Taize Service
The theme for December’s Service is “Unbroken.”
In this time of change, turbulence, and brokenness, we come together for a reminder of what it means to be unbroken and resilient in community.
Taize is an evening of candlelight, prayer, meditation, and singing.
Please join us in the sanctuary or on Zoom – meeting ID 974 5697 4163, passcode BUF.
The January date for Taize has been changed to January 8.
Sundays Ahead
December 10 Holiday Music Service
“The Angels Sing Glory: Songs along the Arc of Justice”
featuring the BUF choir and soloists Walt Ellis and Joel Gabriel Johnson
December 17 Solstice – Rev Paul Beckel
December 24 Revs Barbara ten Hove and Paul Beckel
This is a traditional service with candlelight and carols
No religious education or childcare will be provided
Our Christmas Eve service takes place at 7 PM
Please note that we will not meet on the morning of Sunday Dec 24
December 31 Wholeness in Divisive Times
Music, art, poetry, and short reflections by BUF members and friends.
If you would like to share (3-5 minutes), send an email to Su Livingston (sulivingston@gmail.com) with a description of what you’d like to contribute. Please help us welcome the new year by contributing your gifts to this service.
At buf.org you can
- Find Zoom links to Sunday services, and to our Taize services, which are held at 7 pm on the first-Monday of each month (except this coming January when we’ll meet on the 8th rather than the 1st)
- Explore programs and events on the calendar—newcomers are welcome at all BUF activities
- Subscribe to our newsletter: The MidWeek Update, and to our list-serv: BUF-news
- Also online, type “Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship into a YouTube search to find recordings of recent Sunday and Taize services
- For real-person help with any of this, contact our Administrator, Michelle: 360-733-3837 / admin@buf.org