When:

March 23, 2019
9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Where:

Church of the Apostles UCC
Fellowship Hall
1850 Marietta Ave,
Lancaster, PA 17603

What:

A Parish Resource Center event led by Linda Ferich and Mary Lou Weaver Houser, with testimony from local church members and a short documentary by Natural Light Films.

View the full flyer here

Attention gardeners, groundskeepers, trustees, and leaders:

Beautify your congregation’s grounds with a certified, natural habitat that celebrates all the diversity of God’s stunning
creation. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Garden for Wildlife program, Sacred Grounds, offers congregations,
houses of worship, and faith communities concrete ways to link faith practices with caring for the environment.

In this three-hour Sacred Grounds seminar, attendees will learn simple steps your faith community can take to:

• attract and feed our diminishing bird/insect species
• reduce lawn and lawn maintenance costs
• address water quality and storm water runoff
• and many other benefits!

Local members of the NWF Habitat Stewards, in partnership with the Lancaster County Conservancy, are sponsors and consultants for this workshop. Representatives from a few other local congregations which are taking steps toward certification will also be present to talk about their process. Your congregation can benefit no matter what size property you have or its location. Every small step toward creating a native habitat matters.

To register, please visit https://parishresourcecenter.org/ and click on Events/Workshops.

Tuesday, January 29 – all evening activities are canceled due to weather conditions

Sunday, December 23, the Children’s Sunday school classes will combine in the Fellowship Hall for a Birthday Party for Jesus during the normal Sunday school time. Please come to have fun and remember the reason for the season!

The afternoon service will be a traditional service with candlelight and communion, and will feature our children’s choirs.

The evening service will be a traditional service with candlelight, and feature an orchestra plus our adult and children’s choirs. Come to remember the spirit of Christmas in word and song as we celebrate the gift of our Savior!

The Advent Workshop is Sunday, December 2 from 10:30 am-1:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall. Join us for crafts, Christmas carols, and lunch! Please bring donations of child-sized hats, gloves, or mittens  for distribution to students at Martin Elementary School.

Have breakfast with Santa on Saturday, December 8 from 8:30 am – 10:30 am. Story time begins at 9:30 am. A Children’s shopping room will also be available. Breakfast includes pancakes, sausage, juice, milk, and fruit. Adults $6. Kids 2-10 are $3. Bring your camera for a picture with Santa!

A Thanksgiving Community Service will be held on Tuesday, November 20 at 7:00 pm in our Sanctuary. Come to worship God in love and gratitude for all he has done for us. An offering will be collected to benefit the Hempfield Food Pantry.

The COA Book Club meets every second Tuesday of the month at 2 pm in the Parlor. Please join us on Tuesday, November 13 to discuss The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende.

Upcoming books will include:

• December 11: The President is Missing by Clinton & Patterson
• January 8, 2019: The Cemetery Keeper’s Wife by Maryann McFadden

We are happy to have new people join us (even if you haven’t read the book)!

On Sunday, November 11, New York pianist, composer, and vocalist, Deanna Witkowski, will bring special music to our 9:15 am and 10:45 am worship services. Witkowski is best known for her jazz arrangements of classic hymns, her sense of swing, and vast harmonic resources.

Witkowski has released six critically hailed albums since 2000 that feature rich fusions of jazz, Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban music. Her work also includes 80 sacred music originals and arrangements, including two jazz masses.

Witkowski has won several competitions throughout her career, including the 2002 Great American Jazz Piano Competition, the ChoralArt New England Carol Contest, and the Illinois-ACDA Choral Composition Contest. In 2015, she was one of five composers selected for the New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, where she composed five music theater pieces in the space of two weeks in collaboration with five playwrights. She is also the recipient of a 2018 New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant.

In the spring of 2018, Witkowski spent eight weeks in Bahia, Brazil doing research for her new project, the “Nossa Sehhora” Suite. The suite will merge Afro-Brazilian expressions of the Virgin Mary with new jazz composition for Witkowski’s jazz quartet, percussion, and four vocalists.

Witkowski holds an M.A. in jazz piano performance from the City College of New York and a B.M. in classical piano performance from Wheaton College of Illinois.