Category Archives: Worship

Looking for Quilts for Worship

The main purpose of the blue moving blankets on the pews in the sanctuary is to minimize the echo in a sanctuary nearly emptied by COVID-19. The problem is that I don’t have enough moving blankets, and the echo remains a problem. I’ve been thinking about it, and one possibility would be to replace the few moving blankets we have with a plethora of quilts (which would probably do a better job of dampening the echo). If you have a quilt you would like to display and share, please let me know at john@revcollins.com. If I can locate enough quilts, we’ll move forward and replace the moving blankets. If not, I’ll buy a few more moving blankets.

Conference Online Communion Service

Received from the Great Plains Annual Conference:

Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. invites clergy and laity of the Great Plains Conference to a special online communion worship service as an act of pastoral care and encouragement after a contentious election season.
 
Please prepare to virtually join together in worship by securing bread and grape juice for when the bishop consecrates and distributes the elements that night. Substitutes include crackers and water.
 
The worship service will be livestreamed from the conference website and from the conference Facebook page beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Links:
https://www.greatplainsumc.org/livestream
https://www.facebook.com/GreatPlainsUMC

Important Worship Reminder

We’ve reopened the sanctuary to in-person worship. We still wear masks and practice social distancing, but we no longer take temperatures or confirm attendance (reservations). There are two in-person worship opportunities. One service will be on Saturday morning. The second service will be at 10:30 on Sunday morning.

If we have enough interest in an 8:15 Sunday morning service, we can start one. We’re adding the Saturday service so that it can be recorded, processed, and uploaded to Vimeo and Facebook by the following day (Sunday). This same service will be aired in our 10:30 Sunday slot on KABI. 

You can watch the Saturday morning worship service here: abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.

Clark Will Be Singing this Weekend

Clark Williamson will be singing the hymns at both the Saturday and Sunday services this weekend (October 24-25, 2020). There is still reason for abundant caution, so the congregation will not be joining in, but it’s a start. (Clark will be 25+ feet away from everyone else and masked even while singing.)

In-Person Worship This Coming Weekend

We will reopen the sanctuary to in-person worship this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25, 2020. We will still wear masks and practice social distancing, but we will no longer take temperatures or confirm attendance (reservations). There will be two in-person worship opportunities. One service will be on Saturday morning. We’re adding this service so that it can be recorded, processed, uploaded, and “premiered” on Facebook Live at 8:15 a.m. the following day (Sunday). This same service will be aired in our 10:30 Sunday slot on KABI. The second service will be at 10:30 on Sunday Morning. If we have enough interest in an 8:15 Sunday morning service, we can start one.

Clarification: the Saturday and Sunday services will both be at 10:30.