Happy New Year!
“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.” 1 Corinthians 16: 13-14
Sunday, January 3, 2021
We are excited to have Bill Floyd, RUMC’s Associate Pastor of Congregational Care, as our speaker for the next two Sundays. His subject will be the Parables of Jesus.
CUC Sunday School Class on Zoom
Thank goodness for Zoom! This Sunday will be the 39nd Sunday we have met on Zoom.
Attendance Dec. 27 was 82.
We will also be meeting in our CUC classroom for those who want to attend in person.
If the meeting doesn’t start for you by 9:30 am on Sundays, PLEASE check your emails for a new (alternate) link to the Sunday School meeting.
Online Attendance Register for SS Classes
Be sure that you register your attendance – either Zooming or on-site participation online using your personal cell phone or tablet. Class members will initially go online to: www.rumc.com/connect-card to register within Ministry Platform. After that, each time you sign-on you will just need to select the event that you are attending to register. When you choose the time that your class normally meets, the system will then automatically connect your attendance to the CUC class.
Is Christmas over? When do you take down the Christmas tree?”
While New Year’s Day may mark the end of the Christmas period, remnants of the holiday festivities still remain. For those who thought that Christmas was over, Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6, marks the final celebratory day of the Christian holiday season! So, there is still a full week before many practicing Christians complete their celebrations of the birth of Jesus Christ. It is commonly associated with the day the Three Wise Men arrived at the manger and has several different names throughout history and cultures.
Well then, when do you take down your decorations and the Christmas tree? The answer continues to be an ongoing debate. Is Tuesday 5 January or Wednesday 6 January the best day to tackle the task? And what happens if you leave them up longer? Will you have bad luck for the rest of the year as the superstition goes? One thing’s for sure, there are definitely different traditions.
In Britain, tradition has it that Christmas decorations stay up until the Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity which marks the beginning of Epiphany.
What is Epiphany?
Epiphany is a Christian feast day celebrating the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates the visit of the Three Wise Men who followed an angel to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. The day has also referred to as Three Kings Day and Little Christmas by both Irish and Amish Christians. The feast of the Epiphany concludes the twelve days of Christmastide and is the traditional end of the Christmas season.
If you count 12 days from 25 December you arrive at 5 January. According to the Church of England, this is Twelfth Day. Not everyone agrees however. Many other
Christian groups count 12 days of Christmas as starting the day after Christmas Day-making 6 January Twelfths Night.
So, which date is correct? Both. And if you forget? Most people think that it’s bad luck to leave your decorations up after the 5th. According to one superstition, Christmas decorations not taken down by Twelfth Night should be left up until Candlemas Day – 2 February.
As we enter 2021, I share these Bible verses with you, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.” 1 Corinthians 16: 13-14
God Bless,
Fred Brown
- Jim Adcock – Returning home from the hospital today as he recovers from a fall
- Dick Anthony – continuing to deal with health problems.
- Sister Backus – as she deals with continuing back problems and Parkinson’s Disease
- Jeannie Ehlers – as she anticipates surgery scheduled for January 7
- Don Macleod – having surgery for bladder cancer on January 4th
- Nancy Spence – her brother Frank in hospice care
Continuing Prayers
- Pat (Mrs.) Cooney and (Mr.) Pat as she continues to battle multiple myeloma
- Malone Dodson – as he continues his recovery from stroke
- Betty and Don Gay – at home with daily help of caregiver
- Shirley May still recovering with post-shingles neuropathy
- Mary Kay Mills – as she continues treatment of leukemia
- Edna Smith as she deals with increasing problems with Parkinson’s Disease
- Stan & Virginia Thomason – Virginia has palliative Hospice Care. Stan looks forward to calls from CUC members.
Please pray for needs expressed and unexpressed for CUC members, and for friends and relatives of CUC class members who are facing illnesses, loss of loved ones, and important decisions to be made, especially at this difficult time with the Corona virus! Special prayers for CUC members who have had severely limited outside contacts for these past few months due to Covid 19 risk. Prayers also for our nation and its people.
Birthdays
- Susan Emmons – January 3
- Gloria Stadler – January 3
- Sandy Martin – January 3
- Norma Hills – January 5
- Sue Waite – January 5
- Jill Head – January 6
- Sara Beecham – January 6
Anniversaries
- Lynne and Dave Roberts – Jan 3, 1961 –West Palm Beach, FL, 60 years!!
Missions
Support for Our Missions: Continue to save those flip tops for Ronald McDonald Houses! You can continue to contribute support to Murphy Harpst using Amazon Smile. Also register at Publix.com with M-H’s school as the one to receive a portion of your receipts at Publix.
CUC 