Jackson Community Church

Summit, Spirit, Sky: connect to community and creation!

Advent

SUN, Dec 17 – Advent 3 (Joy)

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  • INTERFAITH SERVICE
    8am • Old red library in Jackson / zoom

    • Join us for poetry, prayer, and conversation.
    • Or join us over Zoom:
      • Link and password required
  • CHRISTMAS CHOIR PRACTICE
    9:15am • JCC (in-person only)

    • Come to prepare two songs for the Advent and Christmas season
  • SUNDAY WORSHIP with Advent 3: Joy
    10:30am   • Jackson Community Church (zoom also available)

    • Music by Sharon Novak
    • Reflection by Rev Gail Doktor
    • Candle-lighting by Verran family
    • Christmas choir performance of Carol Medley
    • Or join us over Zoom:
      • Link and password required
  • Community Resource: JACKSON XC SKI TOURING
    Open for skiing. More info: https://www.jacksonxc.org/trail-report/
  • Community Event: CHRISTMAS CAROL (final day)
    3:30pm • M&D Playhouse, North Conway

    • Directed by Siobhan Stevens
    • Members of JCC’s community are performing in this production
    • Additional performances:Thurs, Dec 14 @ 7:30pm, Fri, Dec 15 @ 7:30pm, Sat, Dec 16 @ 7:30pm, Sun, Dec 17 @ 3:30pm
    • All Seats – $29
    • Tickets: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=145461
  • Community Event: ARTISAN NIGHT
    5-9pm • Shannon Door

    • Artisan shop open at Shannon Door
  • Community Event: OPEN HOURS @ Jackson Historical Society
    1-3pm • Jackson Historical SocietyAlso open by appointment.

    • More info: https://www.jacksonhistory.org/
    • White Mountain Art Sale
      • The Jackson Historical Society is holding its 21st annual White Mountain Art Sale. There are currently over 50 items from private collectors, primarily 19thcentury paintings. To see the online catalog, go to https://www.jacksonhistory.org/catalog.html. Items are available to purchase as they arrive, so check the catalog frequently to see new additions.
      • The Society is open Saturdays and Sundays 1-3pm  If you are interested in a painting, the Society can open by appointment. Contact info@jacksonhistory.org
  • Community Event: MUSIC AROUND TOWN
    • Shannon Door: Dan Parkhurst & Rafe • 6-9pm
    • Red Parka: Blue Sunday with Juke Joint Devils • 5-8pm

BLUE CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS EVE & CHRISTMAS MORNING with Jackson Community Church

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THURS, Dec 22 – BLUE CHRISTMAS @ Jackson Community Church

  • 6pm • In-person only
  • Worship service
  • Gathering to observe a time of solemnity, sorrow, and hope in the midst of the holiday season

CHRISTMAS EVE,  SAT, Dec 24 @ Jackson Community Church

  • 5pm • OUTDOOR SERVICE with CAROLS, LESSONS & CANDLELIGHT
    • Hot cocoa
    • Caroling as we walk the journey of the holy family
    • Scripture
    • Candlelight & prayer
    • Dress warmly!
  • 7:30pm • CANDLELIGHT SERVICE 
    • In-person & zoom (link & password available by emailing church by noon on Sat, Dec 24: jcchurch@jacksoncommunitychurch.org)
    • Traditional indoor service with carols, scripture, candelight
    • Harp with Dominique Dodge
    • Solo by Becca Gottlieb
    • Piano by Maisie Brown and Sharon Novak
    • Candellight
    • Carols
    • Live music
    • Zoom
  • 10pm • CANDLELIGHT SERVICE 
    • In-person and zoom (link & password available by emailing church by noon on Sat, Dec 24: jcchurch@jacksoncommunitychurch.org)
    • Tradiotional indoor service with carols, scripture, candelight
    • Debut of Christmas song written and performed by Sharon Novak
    • Candellight
    • Carols
    • Piano with Sharon Novak

CHRISTMAS SUNDAY, Dec 25 @ Jackson Community Church

  • 10:30am • STORIES & BELLS
    • In-person and zoom (link & password available by emailing church by noon on Sat, Dec 24: jcchurch@jacksoncommunitychurch.org)
    • Piano: Sue Titus-Reid
    • Interactive Message: Gail Doktor
    • Text: Children’s Story
    • Come in your pajamas or favorite casual attire
    • Bring a sleigh bell or jingle bell if you have one, but we have plenty to share
    • Prepare to sing and ring jingle bells

CHRISTMAS WEEK & WEEKEND

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Advent & Christmas, Home, WorshipTagged , , , , ,

Fri, Dec 24: OUTDOOR CHRISTMAS EVE

  • 5pm – Outdoor Service of Scripture, Songs & Candlelight (in-person only / non-zoom event)
    Come to the church campus. Start with mulled cider or hot cocoa, walk the stations of the nativity, sing favorite carols (masked), listen to scripture, share candlelight.

Fri, Dec 24: Virtual Christmas Eve

Sat, Dec 25: CHRISTMAS MORNING – PAJAMAS, BELLS, STORY & CAROLS

  • 10:30am • Pajamas, Bells, Story & Carols (in-person & zoom)
    Come to church in your pajamas, bring bells or ring the ones we share, listen to a story, sing carols (in-person & zoom).
    Live music for carol-sing by Sue Titus Reid (weather permitting for piano accompaniment).
    Storytelling by Rev Gail Doktor.
    Contact church for link and password: jcchurch@jacksconcommunitychurch.org

Sun, Dec 26: WORSHIP & CAROL-SING

  • 10:30am • Carol-Sing & Scriptures (in-person only, no zoom).
    Led by deacons, carol-sing live accompaniment by Alan Labrie.
    Contact church for link and password: jcchurch@jacksconcommunitychurch.org

Meditations on love for the fourth Sunday of Advent

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Advent & Christmas, Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!— Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Love is the bridge between you and everything. ~ Rumi

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return. – Natalie Cole

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. – Lao Tzu

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. – C.S. Lewis

SONGS about LOVE:

PRAYER
Be for them, Lord, a defense in emergency, a harbor in shipwreck, a refuge in the journey, shade in the heat, light in the darkness, as staff on the slippery slope, joy amidst suffering, consolation in sadness, safety in adversity, caution in prosperity, so that these your servants, under your leadership, may arrive unharmed … — Christian prayer from a liturgy for those setting off on pilgrimage, — The Missal of Vich, A.D. 1038

BLESSING — Kundalini Yoga farewell blessing  
May the long time sun
Shine upon you,
All love surround you,
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on.

FIVE PRECEPTS (Reiki principles)

  1. Just for today, I will not be angry.
  2. Just for today, I will not worry.
  3. Just for today, I will be grateful.
  4. Just for today, I will do my work honestly.
  5. Just for today, I will be kind to every living thing.

INVITATION— Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger for just a little while
out of your busy
and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles
for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,
or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air
as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine
and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,
do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

COMMENTARY ABOUT LOVE

Where there is love there is life. – Mahatma Gandhi

The greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. – Dalai Lama

Love is more than a noun – it is a verb; it is more than a feeling – it is caring, sharing, helping, sacrificing. – William Arthur Ward

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ~ Rumi

… But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it! ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Nothing God ever does, or ever did, or ever will do, is separate from the love of God. — A.W.Tozer

… the action and behavior produced by love is distinctly countercultural. … In a society where so much is presented in terms of “self”—self-awareness, self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-image, self-realization—to present a way of existence in which a person lives for the other in a life of loving self-sacrifice will be highly provocative. Following the one who gave his life as a sacrifice for us will be humbling and undoubtedly costly in terms of human recognition and progress in life as secular society defines it.— zondervanacademic.com

DANCE— Wendell Berry
… And I love you
as I love the dance that brings you
out of the multitude
in which you come and go.
Love changes, and in change is true.

I Did Think,
Let’s Go About This Slowly
— Mary Oliver
I did think, let’s go about this slowly.
This is important. This should take
some really deep thought.
We should take
small thoughtful steps.
But, bless us, we didn’t.

OF LOVE

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.  – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In the end we discover that to love and let go can be the same thing.— Jack Kornfield

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. – Rumi


You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth. – William W. Purkey


Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. – Martin Luther King Jr.


Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.  – Washington Irving


Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third. – Marge Piercy

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. – Zora Neale Hurston

The chance to love and be loved exists no matter where you are. – Oprah Winfrey

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. – Charles Dickens, Dr. Marigold

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