If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do so with this link.
Our Vimeo page is: vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.
Previous worship services can be found at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do so with this link.
Our Vimeo page is: vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.
Previous worship services can be found at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
We’ll have three in-person worship services this weekend (with masks and social distancing). The first will be at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 3, 2021. The second and third will be on Sunday, April 4, 2021 at 8:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. It was great having 57 of you for Palm/Passion Sunday and I’m busy finding more seats for Easter.
(On a personal note, I’m also super excited to have my parents coming up on Saturday. We haven’t eaten a meal with them in more than a year, but they’re now fully vaccinated and Jenny and I are too.)
There will be an in-person Holy Thursday service of Tenebrae this Thursday (April 1, 2021) at 7:30 p.m. I hope to have the recording posted by the evening of Good Friday (April 2, 2021).
If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do so with this link.
Our Vimeo page is: vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.
You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.
Previous worship services can be found at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
We’ll be doing a Service of Tenebrae this Holy Week. There are 16 scripture readings, the youth have stepped forward and volunteered for eight of them. I just need eight more readers who can record their part beforehand (we only need audio, but video is okay as well). Please let me know if you’re interested. We’ll have an in-person service on Holy Thursday evening (April 1, 2021) at 7:30 p.m. and hopefully we’ll have the video online in time for Good Friday.
This coming weekend (March 27-28, 2021) we will continue our practice of having worship services on both Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. The following weekend (April 3-4, 2021) we’ll have three services to celebrate Easter. One service will be on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. The other two services will be on Sunday at 8:15 and 10:30 a.m.
I’m anticipating that more than 90 people will want to attend worship Easter morning (April 4, 2021). For that reason we’ll have two services, one at 8:15 a.m. and one at 10:30 a.m.
I know that despite Covid-19 concerns, many of you have been missing Holy Communion. I’ve just ordered a box of individual communion cups (with bread and juice continued) for Easter Sunday (April 4, 2021). Anyone who wants can pull their mask down long enough to partake.
The Great Plains Annual Conference has shared some guidelines for worship in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. A pdf document of those guidelines is available here. Please note that http://www.covidactnow.org is the recommended place to go to find out our county’s risk level. Please also note the sentence “Continue to follow recommendations from the CDC on wearing masks throughout this process.” That means that we will continue to wear masks for now.
Yesterday (March 9, 2021), I received a dose of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at Auburn Pharmacy. (I got in before the rest of my age group because of my role as a pastor.) I know that some of you have now gotten vaccinated as well, and that some of you are planning on coming back to in-person worship now that you feel safer. That makes me very excited! I’m looking forward to seeing you. However, that doesn’t change our policy of requiring everyone to wear masks in the church building. The CDC continues to recommend mask-wearing in public for those who have had the vaccine. Our current policy was set without an end date by the Church Council, and the Church Council has left it in place at present. Those two reasons are enough for me, but I’ll also be wearing my mask because I feel very privileged to have received the vaccine already, and I want to show my solidarity with those who have not yet had the opportunity.
If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do so with this link.
You can download a bulletin and the sermon notes at abilenefirstumc.org/bulletin/.
You can view (and download) this video and previous worship services on our Vimeo page at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.
