The Seasons of Worship

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​Program Year Worship
(Sunday after Labor Day - Sunday before Memorial Day Weekend)
During the regular program year, we worship at 9:00 am.  Sunday morning programs for children (PATHWAYS) and youth (OASIS) and Adult Education Classes meet from 10:00 - 10:45 am.

Coffee Hour meets after the worship service in the Social Hall from 10:00 - 11:00 am.
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Childcare is currently available for infants and toddlers on Sunday mornings.

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Summer Worship 
​(Memorial Day Weekend - Labor Day Weekend)

• Worship at 9:30 am with Coffee Hour following at 10:30 am

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Lent
Lent is a season of the Christian Year where Christians focus on simple living, prayer, and fasting in order to grow closer to God.  It's the forty days before Easter.  Lent excludes Sundays because every Sunday is like a little Easter.  Basically it's about one-tenth of a year (like a tithe of time).  Mardi Gras is the day before Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday.

The dates of Lent are based on the date of Easter which can fall between March 22 and April 25.  The most common date for Easter is April 19.  First Council of Nicaea (325 AD), a gathering of bishops, determined Easter would always fall on the first Sunday after the paschal full Moon - the first full moon of the spring equinox.

The liturgical color for Lent is purple.

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Pentecost​
It was on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Christ, that the church was born through the fire of the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost and its call to be witnesses can enlighten and clarify the church's sense of identity and mission.
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Red is the color of the season of Pentecost.  The day of Pentecost is described in the Book of Acts 2: 1-31.

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Advent
The season of Advent is observed in the Christian church as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming".
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At SCPC we celebrate Advent with Organ Recitals,  a Candlelight Service and special worship services on each Sunday during Advent.

The liturgical color for Advent is purple.

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Easter ​
For seven weeks, a week of Sundays, we acclaim the resurrection of Christ by the power of God. The period of seven weeks of jubilation can be traced back to its Jewish roots of the fifty days celebrated from the day after Passover to Shavuot (Feast of Weeks, Exodus 23:16). For Jews, the Feast of Weeks closed the season of harvest, which had been initiated by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In a similar manner, early Christians observed a fifty-day period of celebration from Easter to the Day of Pentecost. To underscore the uninterrupted rejoicing of these fifty days, fasting and kneeling in prayer were forbidden at least as early as the end of the second century. On the pentecoste (“fiftieth”) day, not only was the fifty-day period concluded, but a festival with its own proper content was celebrated. The Jews observed a feast of covenant renewal and eventually commemorated the giving of the Law. Christians celebrated the gift of the Spirit as preparing the way for the day of the Lord. What Moses and the Law did for the Jewish community, the Holy Spirit now does for the community of Christ.

The liturgical color for Easter (as well as communion Sundays) is white.

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Ordinary Time
Pentecost is followed in the Christian year by a season called Ordinary Time.  Ordinary time lasts from the week after Pentecost until the beginning of Advent in November or December. The lectionary readings for this period focus on various aspects of the faith, especially the mission of the church in the world.

​The liturgical color for ordinary time is green.

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Watch the weekly Sunday bulletins and the emailed Weekly Update for details about church activities and events.