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Christmas Eve Worship at Cloverdale United Church

Plan to take part in either or both of our worship services on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24th, as we worship God together in celebration of the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ—God-with-us.

4:30 pm Intergenerational Service

A family-friendly service that includes the singing of lots of favourite carols, and the telling of the Christmas story through engaging visual presentations that incorporate art from our congregation's young ones.

9:30 pm Festival Service

A joyous and majestic traditional Christmas service including the singing of lots of favourite carols, Rev. Matt’s Christmas sermon, music from our Choir, and candlelight. You are encouraged to have a candle available for lighting in the latter portions of this service. (Please also note that we won't be celebrating Holy Communion as part of this service, contrary to earlier plans.)

 

Find our Zoom and YouTube links for taking part over on our Online Worship page...

 

Rev. Matt's letter to the congregation on December 22

Beloveds: members and friends of Cloverdale United Church,

Well, this is an email I hoped I wouldn't have to write, but here we are... 

In light of the COVID situation, I have had extensive consultation with members of CUC's Church Council over the course of the last 24 hours. Out of that consultation, I have made "the call" that we need to pivot our upcoming worship services, including both Christmas Eve services, to online-only formats.

I know this is disappointing... believe me: I do! We are heeding, however, the strong urging of the Pacific Mountain Regional Council of The United Church, and this decision is in alignment with what many of our neighbouring United Church congregations have also decided. Yes, it does go "above and beyond" the protocols required in the province's most recent health orders; however, sometimes our Christian and moral responsibility to do what we can to ensure the health and safety of others calls us to a place of greater response than mandated by the law. As the executive minister of the Pacific Mountian Regional Council, Treena Duncan, said in her email earlier today, "This pandemic has gone on for longer than any of us could have ever imagined. We are all tired of restrictions and we just want things to go back to ‘normal.’ But we are led by one who calls us into difficult choices and walks with us through these challenging times." 

Indeed, this has been a difficult decision to make, and indeed it is a disappointing decision... but in the long run, it is also the decision we are least likely to regret.

Sarah Zezchuk, our children and youth leader, has already begun work on engaging plans for a "pivoted" version of the 4:30 pm intergenerational service we'd planned, and members of our choir will still be on hand for the 9:30 pm service to lead music-making.

Going forward, we are planning to be online-only for December 26 and January 2, and will re-evaluate the situation following January 2nd.

Again, I know this is not the situation we'd hoped to be in, or even assumed we'd be in as recently as a couple of weeks ago. Nevertheless, Christmas and Christmas worship services are not cancelled... we simply will be gathered together in a different way. And, as a colleague of mine back in Chicago put it in a message to his congregation, "remember this: we do not rejoice because Christmas solves our problems. We rejoice because God chose to live among us. Jesus's birth tells us how much we are needed, and how deeply we are loved. This is the source of Christmas joy."

Yours in the journey,
--Matt

P.S.: Please help spread the word to others not on our email list, and invite them to join us online!

P.P.S.: As was shared with the congregation in late September, at our September meeting, the CUC Church Council established as policy that if the Average Daily Rate metric for the Fraser South health delivery area exceeded 15, we would suspend in-person gatherings. As of the data published today, covering the 7 day period ending yesterday, that metric was already 14.77, and it has been increasing by 2 or more points each day this week (which is to say, it is on-trend to be well above our previously established cutoff of 15 by Christmas Eve.)