Join us for our annual Advent Workshop on Sunday, November 23rd, from 4 - 6 p.m. in the Community House.  We encourage you to invite friends and extended family members to become part of this wonderful RHCC tradition.

‘Tis the season to begin thinking abt the holidays and what better kick-off to the season, than the Christmas on Round Hill Preview Party?  Christmas on Round Hill is our Church’s only fundraising event, and receipts from the Preview Party account for a large percentage of our profits.  This year’s party will feature fabulous cocktails served with a flourish by the Men’s Group, carving and pasta stations and a variety of delectable hors d’oeuvres   Michael FitzSimons will entertain us with his distinctive piano stylings during the evening.  The Greenwich High School Chamber Singers will make a special appearance to sing a medley of your favorite carols.  And, of course, there will be the opportunity to shop ‘til you drop!  Not only do we have a variety of beautiful handcrafted items made by our Committee, there is also a wonderful group of vendors lined up.  We are happy to offer a Silent Auction again this year.  The Auction and two of our vendors will be exclusive to the Preview Party.

About this time every year, my mailbox, like yours, gets filled with requests for end of year giving from the organizations I support.  One organization that I give to, other than the church, is my high school alma mater…Salem Academy.  Salem is a wonderful girl’s preparatory school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina that was founded by the Moravians back in 1777.  The Moravians were big on providing quality education for young women, and that tradition has held strong all these years.

Pianist Christopher Kabala will present a program entitled “Romantic Perspectives,” playing works by Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, Barber, and Liszt at the Round Hill Community Church on Friday, November 14 at 8p.m.

If you are interested in ushering, hosting Fellowship Hour or arranging flowers, please click here.        

NOV. 2,  [USHERS]  Craig & Caroline Lazzara

               [FLOWERS]  Louise Hoffman

               [HOSTS]  Helen & Bruce Dixon

NOV. 9,  [USHERS]

                [FLOWERS] Finlayson Dedication/Finlayson Arrange

                [HOSTS]  Alice O'Gorman & Joan Ingersoll

NOV. 16,  [USHERS]  Nancy & Phil Meek

                 [FLOWERS]  Nancy Meek/Suzy Simpson/Arrange

                 [HOSTS] Michael & Heather Sandifer

NOV. 23,  [USHERS] Alice Fisher,

                 [FLOWERS] Fisher dedication/Alice Fisher Arrange

                 [HOSTS] 

DEC. 7,  [USHERS]  Lyn & Bob Harmon

               [FLOWERS]

               [HOSTS] Betty Hogin

DEC. 14,  PAGEANT  [USHERS] 

                 [HOSTS] Craig & Caroline Lazzara

Here’s a story which has been told in many variations over the years…

Two guys sitting together in a bar in the remote Alaskan wilderness. One of the guys is religious, the other is an atheist, and the two are arguing about the existence of God with that special intensity that comes after about the fourth beer. And the atheist says: "Look, it's not like I don't have actual reasons for not believing in God. It's not like I haven't ever experimented with the whole God and prayer thing. Just last month I got caught away from the camp in that terrible blizzard, and I was totally lost and I couldn't see a thing, and it was fifty below, and so I tried it: I fell to my knees in the snow and cried out 'Oh, God, if there is a God, I'm lost in this blizzard, and I'm gonna die if you don't help me.'" And now, in the bar, the religious guy looks at the atheist all puzzled. "Well then you must believe now," he says, "After all, here you are, alive." The atheist just rolls his eyes. "No, man, all that was was a couple Eskimos happened to come wandering by and showed me the way back to camp."

     The church means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To some of us here this morning, the church is a center for inspirational worship, growth, and nurture ... a place for singing and praying, learning and celebrating the truths of our faith as followers of Jesus Christ. To others of us, the church is a household of mission and justice ... a staging area for being equipped to reach out to attend the needs of the poor and neglected, as well as to change unjust systems in the world. To still others among us, the church is an agent of reconciliation and liberation, called to heal tender wounds and to tear down dividing walls, thereby demonstrating the life-giving love of God we know in Christ.

     Many of Jesus’ parables and memorable encounters seem to find their focus around a banquet table, a feast or wedding gathering, or a gala party of some sort where Jesus is in attendance or about which he has some knowledge. And there is a mood of celebration and festivity that permeates a whole host of Jesus’ stories in which he draws a connection between such delightful occasions and the Kingdom of God. Now, it’s not that Jesus is some kind of party animal. But in contrast to the religious leaders, Jesus embraces such festive occasions with great delight, smiling and laughing, eating and dancing ... which somehow served to earn him a rather poor reputation, at least among the sober-faced Pharisees in his day.

     Since the first of the year, we have lost electricity at least five different times, with storms, equipment failure, or accidents being the reasons for such power outages. Now, generally speaking, I have to confess that when these power failures have happened, I have not been a very happy camper, especially when I have seen 4-5 paragraphs of a sermon suddenly disappearing, lost forever in the netherland of cyberspace.