10:00 a.m. ~ Meeting for worship
We will live stream via the church Facebook page or our website at www.wichitaquakers.org.
Order of Worship
Prelude: Rosemary Nettrouer, “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come”, by M. Luther
Announcements
Music: “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” Hymn # 374
Prayer Concerns
Pastoral Prayer
Message: “God Makes a Way”
Scripture: Isaiah 43:1-2, 15-19
Open Worship
Benediction
Postlude: Rosemary Nettrouer
“Precious Lord, Take My Hand”
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, let me stand
I am tired, I’m weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my ha-and, precious Lord
Lead me home
When my way groweth drear
Precious Lord, linger near-ear
When my light is almost gone
Hear my cry, hear my call
Hold my ha-and lest I fa-all
Take my hand, precious Lord
Lead me on
Technology by Michael Barrett & Joe Dawley, music coordination by Dawn Blue, and
pastoral leadership by Catherine Griffith.
3:00 p.m. ~ 205 Sunday School via Zoom
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Church activities this week
The church office will be closed New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1, 2021 and Tuesday, January 5th.
The church office will be open on Monday, January 4th.
Monday, January 4, 12:00 pm, Prayer with Sue
Tuesday, January 5, 6:30 pm, Ministry & Counsel
Wednesday, January 6, 6:30 pm, Bell Choir
Thursday, January 7, 8:30 am, Prayer with Kim
Thursday, January 7, 4:00 pm, Assets Committee
Saturday, January 9, 3:00 pm, Outreach Committee
Sunday, January 10, time TBD, Threshing Meeting
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Update on Our Building and Friends University
There is now a special place for materials related to Friends University and the church building on the website. Please visit this link to view them on-line:
Attached to this email and available through the above link are these documents:
1. Thoughts on Friends University and the Building Nov. 2020 (time line and space needs)
2. Friends Church Proposal from Friends University Dec. 14
3. University Friends Meeting Maintenance Expenses Oct 6, 2020
4. University Friends Church (university architect’s drawings)
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The Book Club meets at 6:30 p.m., the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. If you would like to join via Zoom, please email Catherine at orcagriffith@yahoo.com, and she will send you an invitation. Everyone is welcome! On Tuesday, January 12, the Book Club plans to discuss Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, pages 169 through 206.
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Let’s Pray Together, Remotely
Friends,
Ministry & Counsel would like to welcome you to participate in regularly scheduled, remote prayer meetings set to begin this week. May these times invigorate our faith and prayer life, and help us to connect with one another, the Meeting, and our mission.
Volunteer hosts have appointed twenty to thirty minutes of their week toward prayer and meditation on the Meeting, its present concerns, and its future. You are invited to join in prayer at the appointed time from wherever you find yourself at that moment. If you would prefer a more connected sense during these appointed times of prayerful consideration, hosts will also provide Zoom links so that our communion might be more apparent, though still remote.
You can find the scheduled prayer times in The Light This Week, on wichitaquakers.org and as events within the UFM Facebook group, and Zoom meeting links will be available there too.
At present, opportunities are Mondays at noon with Sue Wine and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. with Kim Edgington-Keehn.
If you are interested in hosting an appointed time of prayer, please contact Michael at TheMBarrett@gmail.com.
We had a good group who prayed together on Monday, Dec. 28 – Liz, Abigail, and Sue from the Wine family, plus Lynn Hankins and Catherine Griffith.
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Listening Groups: Preparing for an All-Church Retreat
The third Listening Groups Summary went out over email on December 9. The first two summaries are also available. If you would like a copy and did not receive one, please reply to this email and request one.
In our time of transition, we are seeking to answer these questions: Who are we? Who are our neighbors? To what is God calling us?
These Listening Group conversations are crucial as we consider questions related to the future of University Friends Meeting. Please keep them in your prayers.
What would it mean for us to join God’s work in our community, in our time?
How can we be better stewards of our assets, in terms of people, facilities, and money?
What is God calling us to be and do?
Remember to pray earnestly and often for our church.
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PONDER THIS (excerpt from the December 27th message)
Luke 2:25-39 tells of two people, Anna and Simeon, who were paying attention to what God was doing in their world. They were paying attention and ready to join what God was doing. Anna, a widow over a hundred years old, had an active and vital spiritual life, and she understood. Simeon, a good man, listened to God’s leadings and so was there at the right time and the right place to see God’s Light.
May we all be so attentive to God that we see what God is doing and be ready to join in.
As I read this passage this year, I noticed especially Simeon’s message in verses 34 & 35. In the New Revised Standard Version, it reads,
“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Anna and Simeon had open hearts and were ready to see the new emerging, ready to embrace it. Not everyone who was part of the Jewish community was as ready as they.
Even among the followers of Jesus, some people seemed to want to join what God was doing in their world. They were ready to follow Jesus, but they wanted to follow Jesus while keeping their religious traditions the way they’d always done them.
We read about that struggle in Acts 15.
- Some believers said that followers of Jesus have to keep the law of Moses (Acts 15:5). After all, Jesus was Jewish.
- Some believers observed that God was already at work in the lives of people who weren’t keeping the law of Moses (Acts 15:7-11, 12). It’s about grace, not about the old traditions, they argued (Acts 15:11).
- In the end, they came to agreement to keep some of the Jewish law but to let most of it go (Acts 15:28-29, NRSV).
I wonder how many of those believers went home with tears in their eyes, understanding that something new was emerging while also grieving for a way of life that had fed them and sustained them and that they were letting go.
Change involves both falling and rising, letting go of the old and embracing the new. That was true for those who saw God breaking into human history with the birth of Jesus. It’s also true for us.
As this church moves forward, some of you may want to welcome a new pastor while keeping everything else the way it was before.
Now is the time to ask some important questions.
What was not so good about the way things were before? How might you want to develop new ways of being together and being in Wichita that are better?
What was good about the way things were before? What of those good things may still have to be set aside to make way for the future?
I cannot answer those questions for you. I can say with some certainty that you will have to set aside some of the way things used to be. Some of those ways, you may set aside gladly as you see the new things that God is doing in and among you. Some of those things are going to be more difficult to let go. You will likely have to set aside some good things, things that have fed you and sustained you.
May your hearts and minds and souls be open to the new thing God is doing among you.
Catherine Griffith
Intentional Interim Minister
University Friends Church
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PRAYER REQUESTS AND CONCERNS.
- Dave McDonald was admitted to the hospital Tuesday, Dec. 29, at his doctor’s insistence, and is in the ICU at St. Francis with a MRSA infection.
- Sasha Keehn has COVID and is achy and anxious.
· Don Mallonee as he recuperates from heart valve replacement which he had on December 29.
· David Stanislaw who has an electric heart and doesn’t get out much.
· Our church during this time of transition – May we find clarity and energy for the tasks at hand and the decisions we will need to make as we find our way forward. May we find ways to use our assets wisely and well. May we discover ways we are to be a beacon of love in our world. May we be looking for the doors God is opening, and may we have the courage to walk through them.
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CONDOLENCES
Erin DeGroot and family. Erin’s grandmother, Bonnie Jarvis, who was recently diagnosed with leukemia, passed away Thursday, December 31st.
Marion “M.E.” Nansel passed away on Saturday, December 26, at the age of 79. Marion and his wife, Joyce, served in pastoral ministry together for 32 years at Cloverleaf, TX, Coffeyville, KS, and Southeast Community in Wichita. There will be a memorial service on Saturday, January 2, 2021, 2:00 P.M. at West Side Nazarene, 2300 S Seneca, Wichita. Joyce’s address is: 1915 W MacArthur 37, Wichita, KS 67217.
Jeff Adams, 56 year old Pastor at Lowell Friends Church in Southeast Kansas, had been fighting COVID for some time and passed away on Wednesday, December 30. Please keep his wife Pam and their family in your prayers.
Family and friends of those who have died this year: Valerie Guilliams, David Bengi, Gordon Smith, and Steve Grether
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(40+ Years)
C.G. and Susan Chacko, 51 years on January 8
A.J. and Kim Sales, 43 years on January 12
Happy January Birthdays!!
Jan. 1: Duane Moss, Phillip Lambdin; Jan. 2: Robert Carter, Aaron Savely; Jan. 4: Brian Strole, Tanner Mallonee; Jan. 5: Keara Newman; Jan. 6: Karmen Allen, Deanna Douglas, Brasen Hogg; Jan. 7: David Chacko, Andrew Shaw; Jan. 8: David Stanislaw, Michelle Barrett; Jan. 9: Carla Siemens, Diana Doyle; Jan. 10: Alexius Savely; Jan. 12: Janette Kelly, Eric Dyck, Gary Tomey; Jan. 14: Roger Mendenhall; Jan. 15: Mariah Jack; Jan. 16: Jon Mosher; Jan. 17: Randy Cook, Patricia Scheer; Jan. 18: Mike Buesch, Kerin Francis; Jan. 20: Kelly (Hooker) Jackson, Lauren King; Jan. 22: Amy Withers, Jadon Gunkel, Joseph Lugalia; Jan. 22: Quentin Buesch; Jan. 23: Matthew Barrett; Jan. 26: Elaine Woodard Parker; Jan. 27: John Fowler; Jan. 30: Herb Van Giesen
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Yes, we’re on Facebook, with a variety of pages and groups. Check these out:
University Friends Church (page)
University Friends Church Private Page (private group)
University Friends church Family Promise (private group)
University Friends Children’s Ministry (page)
Like them. Follow them. Join them.
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New Year with New Hope!
Let’s join together in prayer for a better year in 2021
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