Zwingli United Church of Christ

Never place a period
where God has placed
a comma.

– Gracie Allen, 20th century
American comedian

...you're welcome here!

Worship with us on Sunday mornings, 9 a.m.

350 Wile Avenue, Souderton, PA

SAHS Alumni Men's Chorus Christmas Concert, Sunday, December 4, 7:30 p.m.

The Souderton Alumni Men's Chorus will present A Festive Choral Christmas Concert at Zwingli United Church of Christ on Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

Classic men's chorus anthems and nostalgic holiday songs will be featured. The concert will be under the direction of Jon Leight. He was the Vocal Music Director at Souderton Area High School for 20 years. The guest organist will be Vincent Ryan. Beverly Stover and Susie Childs are the pianists. There will be a free-will offering and a reception follows.

Angel Tree for Bethany Children's Home

Choose a decorated angel from the tree in the atrium or purchase a NEW gift from the lists there. Place unwrapped gifts in the box in the breezeway by the end of the day, Sunday, December 18.

OR, purchase a gift from their Amazon Wish List: https://amzn.to/3MYx5cN. Ignore any message about duplicate gifts, as Bethany NEEDS multiple orders of all the items on our wish list.

Use this shipping address:
Bethany Children's Home
Amazon Gift Registry
1863 Bethany Rd
Womelsdorf, PA 19567

Advent at Zwingli

Sunday, November 27th, First Sunday in Advent

Lighting of the First Advent Candle
Holy Communion

Wednesday, November 30th, Advent Bible Study

The Heart That Grew Three Sizes

Sunday, December 4th, Second Sunday in Advent

Lighting of the Second Advent Candle
7:30 pm Souderton Alumni Men's Chorus Concert

Wednesday, December 7th, Advent Bible Study

The Heart That Grew Three Sizes

Sunday, December 11th, Third Sunday in Advent

Continental Breakfast at 8 am
Lighting of the Third Advent Candle
Congregational Meeting following the service

Wednesday, December 14th, Advent Bible Study

The Heart That Grew Three Sizes

Sunday, December 18th, Fourth Sunday in Advent

Lighting of the Fourth Advent Candle

Wednesday, December 21st, Advent Bible Study

The Heart That Grew Three Sizes

Christmas Eve Services at Zwingli

Saturday, December 24th

Candle lighting at both services.
5:00 pm, Family Service
Join us for a kid-friendly Christmas eve service put on by our children and youth. The service will end just in time to spend the rest of Christmas eve at home with your beloved families.
7:30 pm, Lessons & Carols
The Christmas story is told through scripture and music, with both the Adult Choir and Bell Choir taking part.

Blankets for Church World Service

We are participating in the CWS Blanket campaign this advent.

ONA COVENANT

At Zwingli United Church of Christ, we promise to engage and nurture Christ's light in all of God's people, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, race or ethnic background, social status, soul injury, religious beliefs, age, and physical, mental, or addiction challenges.

We aspire to be a counterweight to exclusion and discrimination. We choose to purposefully welcome and include all people in every aspect of our church family including worship, fellowship, and leadership, lay and ordained, and will meet you where you are on life's journey to share God's love with you. It is our commitment that all members should feel and be safe, as we express God's universal and unconditional love in our church, community and daily lives.

Coronavirus Information

We are worshipping in person in our sanctuary, Sundays at 9 am, and also live-streaming worship on Facebook at 8:45 am. We post our service on YouTube early in the week.

Masking is currently optoional.

There are other important matters to mention regarding worship/events at Zwingli as we live into the "new normal" of the pandemic:
• We have resumed our fellowship/refreshment time after worship.
• We will continue our current practices around passing the peace and greeting before and after worship.
• We will continue our current practices regarding announcements during the service. Please send announcements and prayer requests by Friday each week to office@zwingli.org.
• Please try to social distance as best you can when attending in person worship and events. Please remember to practice good hand hygiene.
• Get vaccinated as soon as possible and keep up with vaccination boosters!! We encourage this out of our deep care for you!!

We continue to ask for your help in protecting our entire congregation and the wider community by staying home if you feel sick in ANY way. Please also stay home if you have experienced any of the following:
• Any symptoms of Covid-19 — cough, fever, loss of smell and/or taste, headache, or shortness of breath.
• Have cared for or been in close contact with anyone diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past 14 days. (Please note that this does not apply to health care professionals.)
• Have been advised to self-quarantine.
• Are currently infected with Covid-19 or are undergoing treatment for Covid-19.
• If you are unvaccinated, we recommend that you wear a mask or enjoy our services and special church events from home.

The RTC Team will continue to monitor pertinent information as we always have and make ongoing decisions about mitigation efforts as new information is available. We ask for your patience and hope our church community can be flexible enough to move in and out of restrictions with ease, if necessary, as we keep in mind the safety of our congregation and the community at large.

Let us worship together.

Live-streaming on Facebook, Sundays starting 8:45 am:
Facebook.com/Zwingliucc.
Scroll to the Sunday morning post.

See it later on YouTube:
Jonathan's YouTube channel

Or check your weekly Z-News on Monday for a link!

Click here for some Adult Church School lessons during the COVID-19 closure

Sign Up Now to Help Teach Children's Sunday School

Interested in leading or helping with our Children's Sunday School? Sign up here! This year we will be following the Sparkhouse lectionary. Curriculum is provided to guide you through the lessons--see the link and information at the signup page. Have questions or need help getting your clearances? Ask an Educator! We would be happy to help.

Prayer Bench on Wile Avenue

EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT: We are thankful for Konnor S. Pierce and Boy Scout Troop #401 for their work on our prayer and meditation bench. And thanks to all who donated toward expenses. We met our goal!

Stained Glass

Our stained glass window panels were installed in early April, 2019! As we experience this beauty in our sanctuary, may we be reminded in new ways of God's presence with us and the beauty of God's creation all around us. Thanks to all those who made this possible, especially creative craftsman Mark Beard.

Stephen Ministry

Stephen Ministry congregations equip and empower lay caregivers—called Stephen Ministers—to provide high-quality, confidential, Christ-centered care to people who are hurting. Thanks to Jonathan Widgins and Pastor Butch, our Stephen Leaders, we have a trained group of Stephen Ministers. Now it is important for all of us to understand how this ministry will best benefit our congregation and community.

To learn more about Stephen Ministries, check their website.

AmazonSmile

AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com. When you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to Zwingli.

On your first visit to AmazonSmile, you are prompted to select a charitable organization from a list of eligible organizations. Type "Zwingli United Church of Christ" in the search box!

This link will take you directly to Zwingli's Amazon page.

Want to have AmazonSmile available on your mobile phone?

Open the Amazon Shopping app on your device.
Go into the main menu of the Amazon Shopping app and tap into 'Settings'.
Tap 'AmazonSmile' and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

Need more help? Learn more at this link to Amazon.

Paper Recycling!

There's a bin at the back of the parking lot!

Recycle all of your newspaper, magazines, shopping catalogs, office and school papers and mail 24 hours/ 7 days a week right here in our green and yellow bin. You save water and energy by recycling .

What is that picture?

These pictures were taken by the Zwingli Youth Photography class as a way to understand that we may not always see things as they are...each picture is just a part of an item in Zwingli. Can you tell what the entire picture would be? We may only see a part of a person, item or activity around us. Stepping back and looking at a bigger picture could change our view of situations, people and experiences. At the same time, isn't it nice to see some of the detail in each item and person if you look closely?

Z, closure on door to sanctuary (look up!)
W, music folder in choir room
I, window frame
N, books on a shelf
G, leaves on a plant
L, space between bricks
I, space between chairs in sanctuary

...store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

-Matthew 6:20-21

We believe...

God loves us unconditionally.
We are one family in Christ.
We are called to follow Jesus.
We are called not to judge, but to accept and forgive others, as we have been accepted and forgiven.
We are called to care for, to develop, and to share cheerfully the gifts and talents God has given us.