A small forest of Christmas trees has bloomed in Fellowship Hall. We’ll enjoy the trees following our 10AM worship services in December, including our Advent Festival on December 8. Bring your unexpired, non-perishable food items to place under your favorite trees and help our local food banks in the fun!
Want to show off our trees to friends and neighbors? Fellowship Hall will be open in December, Monday–Thursday, from 8am–12 noon and for one hour before each of our Christmas concerts.
We invite you to participate in this important church fundraiser! And, be sure to tell all of your family, friends and neighbors about this opportunity to hang such beautiful wreaths on their doors for the holidays! They look great, smell wonderful and last a long time!
The 14” wreaths are made of noble fir with incense cedar and juniper accents topped with pine cones. These wreaths are great for decorating your own home and/or to give as a gift. Wreaths will be sold from now until November 8. The cost is $30 each. Shipping boxes are available for $5.00. To order, please email info@fauntleroyucc.org the number of wreaths and boxes you would like to order along with your contact information. Wreaths need to be picked up on Saturday, Nov. 23, (the Saturday before Thanksgiving) between 9 AM and 11 AM, in the church parking lot. If you can’t pick yours up, please make arrangements for someone else to do that for you.
You have two options to pay for your wreath:
You can pay online here. Leave a note about the number of wreaths and boxes you are ordering.
You can pay by check. Please make checks payable to Fauntleroy Church UCC with “Wreath” on the memo line and mail to or drop by the church office. Payment must be made when ordering.
Putting up your wreath is a wonderful way to start the holidays! If you have any questions, please contact the church at info@fauntleroyucc.org. Thanks for your support!
MARCH 24, 10:00AM, PALM SUNDAY WORSHIP
Worship will begin with joyful palm waving. We welcome all children (and their parents with child-like hearts) to join in a palm processional with the choir. We process down the center aisle with joy, leaving our palm branches on the chancel steps. Then children can return to join their parents in the pews until Sunday School. Children who would like to be involved should look for Carol Gilderoy in the Narthex about ten minutes before worship.
MARCH 29, 7:00PM, HOLY FRIDAY WORSHIP (in-person only)
We will gather in the sanctuary for a contemplative Tenebrae service to remember the moments surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion. This is a worship of readings and songs, and candles will be extinguished as the service progresses to signify Jesus’ death approaches. Many say that the experience of community in the deepest shadows of this moving worship is what causes their hearts to soar on Easter morning.
HOLY WEEK VIGIL
The sanctuary will be open for a Vigil from 9:00PM on Friday, March 29 (Holy Friday) to 3:00PM on March 30. You are invited to choose an hour to “keep watch” during this stretch of time before Easter morning’s resurrection. Materials to help guide some reflection will be available, and someone will be at the church all night for security. Look for an opportunity to sign up during the coffee hour or reach out to Sarah Ackers (sarah.ackers@fauntleroyucc.org).
MARCH 31, EASTER MORNING WORSHIPS
Three opportunities to celebrate Easter!
6:30AM, we’ll join Alki U.C.C. and Admiral U.C.C. for a sunrise service on Alki Beach (look for a bonfire near 57th Ave SW). A simple communion will be served. Rain or shine! Dress warmly.
9:00 and 11:00AM, identical Easter worship services will take place, with the 9:00AM livestreamed. We’ll transform a simple wire cross with beautiful spring flowers at the start of worship, so bring a favorite flower to add. Both services will include a Time with Children, and we’ll conclude with a joyous rendition of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah. Sunday school is available at the 11:00AM service for elementary-age children, and childcare is provided at both services for infants thru age 3 in the nursery.
EASTER BREAKFAST Enjoy some wonderful Easter fellowship and a delicious breakfast from 9:30-11:00 on Easter morning in Fellowship Hall! Pancakes, egg casseroles, fruit, ham and sausage…! ($10/adults & $5/children suggested donation.)
EASTER EGG HUNT
After the 11:00AM worship (about 12:20PM) children are invited to enjoy an Easter Egg Hunt! Our youth will hide lots of eggs filled with treats around the church property. We’ll set aside the narthex/patio area for younger children and the front of the church for older children to enjoy this fun. (Dress for rain or shine!)
EASTER FLOWERS IN MEMORY/HONOR OF LOVED ONES
If you would like to give toward flowers used to fill our outdoor flower cross, beautify our breakfast tables, and supplement flowers brought for our wire cross, you can do so online or with a check marked “Easter flowers” + “In memory/honor of NAME.” These names will then be shared in our Easter bulletins if submitted by March 25.
Our Festival of Trees is being planted this week and next. And with the trees comes a fun opportunity to support our local food banks. Forest wanderers of all ages are invited to vote for their favorites with shelf-stable food items. The polls open Sunday, Dec 3 after worship. There’s no Voter’s Pamphlet for this election, but proper preparation is needed. Please double-check the list below as you prepare to vote.
DOs & DON’Ts
Do check your pantry. What foods are your family’s favorites? Include some of these.
Do check expiration dates. If a Best Buy date has passed… please don’t donate the item.
Do check for opened, damaged or dented items. These aren’t appropriate for the food banks either.
Do consider healthy options and ones that support a variety of diets.
All types of non-perishable food items are welcome, but there is a special need for healthier options and ones for those with special dietary concerns, for example – low fat, low salt, gluten free, etc.
Do consider food items for those who need or choose to avoid dairy, soy, nuts or meat.
Do think about hungry kiddos after school and put some easy and healthy snacks in your cart the next time you go shopping.
Do consider voting with culturally relevant food items. Both our local food banks serve individuals from diverse backgrounds.
As much as we love them and as healthy as they maybe, please do not donate homemade items. The food banks can’t verify the ingredients or the processes used. Do save these items for your family and friends.
In addition to unstable funding and the growing need for food assistance, another challenge food banks face is WASTE – waste of staff and volunteer time sorting through and disposing of food that is not appropriate to be shared with our neighbors. We can help with this major issue by double-checking our votes before they are placed under the trees. THANKS for your help!
Enjoy the Festival of Trees during coffee hour, after worship, Sundays between 12/3 - 1/7, Wednesday, 12/13 from 7-8pm, and Saturday, 12/16 from 6-7pm, before the Christmas concert. Invite your friends and neighbors to join you too!
The holidays will be here before we know it, and it’s time to ORDER YOUR CHRISTMAS WREATH(S)!
The 14” wreaths are made of noble fir with incense cedar and juniper accents topped with pine cones. You can also choose from three designs for your bow! These wreaths are great for decorating your own home and/or to give as a gift. They smell wonderful and last a long time! Wreaths will be sold from now until November 3. The cost is $30 each. Shipping boxes are available for $5.00. To order, please contact the church at info@fauntleroyucc.org or call 206-932-5600. Wreaths need to be picked up on Saturday, Nov. 18, (the Saturday before Thanksgiving) between 10 AM and Noon, in the church parking lot. If you can’t pick yours up, please make arrangements for someone else to do that for you.
You have two options to pay for your wreath:
1) You can pay online here. Fill in the total amount at the Events & Projects line and enter “Wreath” in the text box to the right.
2) You can pay by check. Please make checks payable to Fauntleroy Church UCC with “wreath” on the memo line and mail to or drop by the church office. Payment must be made when ordering. Putting up your wreath is a wonderful way to start the holidays! Thank you for supporting this important church fundraiser!
Fellowship Hall has been transformed! The festive Winter Wonderland is a sight to behold! From A Starry Night to Frosty & Friends to a Peruvian Christmas, the trees in our holiday forest are all unique creations that will amaze and delight. There is even an Idolitree!
LET THE COMPETITION BEGIN!
One of the primary goals of this event is to collect items for our food banks in West Seattle and White Center. Start gathering non-perishable items and vote for your favorite trees. In this election, voting multiple times and for multiple trees is encouraged! We checked with the food banks. Of course, all types of non-perishable food items are welcome, but there is a special need for healthier options and ones for those with special dietary needs, for example – low fat, low salt, gluten free, etc. Also needed are easy and healthy snacks for kids.
COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSES: Wednesday evenings - Dec 7, 14 and 21 from 7-8 pm Please help spread the word throughout the community. The more visitors, the more items for the food banks.
AFTER WORSHIP SERVICES: Join us for Coffee Hour in the Fellowship Hall on Sundays – Dec 4, 11 and 18. Stack your “votes” around your favorite trees.
VOLUNTEER: Hosts for the Open House evenings and cookie bakers are still needed. Parish Life Ministry is coordinating these efforts.
The outside church Christmas lights are up, our halls are decked, the giving tree stands ready to have tags taken as it’s undecked, our home-grown devotionals have found their way into many hands already, our children are preparing for the pageant, our choirs are filling practices with Christmas music, and a small forest of themed trees is growing in Fellowship Hall. It’s beginning to look and sound a lot like Christmas at Fauntleroy Church!
Advent begins this Sunday, December 27 with communion served during worship. As we make our Advent journey together, you’ll notice that we are taking what feels a tree-lined path to Christmas. That’s intentional! “Under the Tree” is our 2022 Advent theme, and immersed in it, we’ll encounter Biblical stories and passages in which perspective is gained and the indwelling presence of God felt under the boughs of trees.
You may know that the tradition of having a Christmas tree only goes back about 500 years. But long before that, Ancient Romans were known to mark the winter solstice by decorating their homes with evergreen boughs – symbols of hope and life in a cold and dormant season. Even longer before that, humans found meaning and glimpses of the Divine in the presence of trees.
I have a Bible in which all the passages about nature are highlighted in green. Much like the more popular red-letter Bible that highlights Jesus’ spoken words (as presented by each Gospel writer), a green Bible draws one’s attention to just how much life and faith has intertwined with nature in the experiences of many. One of the things I’ve learned in reading this “green-letter” Bible is that references to trees abound in scripture. There are cedars and spruce, fig trees, oaks, olive trees, acacia, almond, apple, pine, pistachio, willow and more. Hundreds of references to trees can be found in the Hebrew scriptures and New Testament! Reinforcing the importance of their presence are bookend references to the tree of life in the first verses of Genesis and the last verses of Revelation – its boughs hanging over the garden of Eden as life begins, and as our scriptures end, its boughs stretching to both sides of the river of the water of life, flowing from the throne of God. Under the canopy of both these trees of life, the story of our faith unfolds and deepens.
This Advent, as we prepare for Jesus and God’s love to be born in the world anew, some of the trees under which we’ll find ourselves include the oak of Mamre, as Abraham and Sarah entertain angels unaware. Then, we’ll nod toward the hope-bringing oaks of righteousness in Isaiah 61 (a common Advent passage) as we enjoy our children’s pageant, “Under the Tree.” Next, we’ll meet Jesus and Zaccheus under the sycamore tree of Jericho as joy in that encounter prompts Zaccheus to embrace the world and life in radically different ways. As we near Christmas, we’ll draw near to the tree of life and a vision in Revelation of the world dwelling in wholeness and peace under the canopy of God’s healing, nourishing love. Though we’re taking this different, tree-lined path toward Christmas this year, the messages of the season will be found in the shade of rich boughs overhead, carols, candles and one another before finally, we emerge on the doorstep of the traditional Christmas story on Christmas Eve.
We hope you’ll meet us under some tree boughs in worship this Advent. There together, I trust we’ll find some of the most meaningful presents of Christmas: welcome, good news, joy, shared life and the indwelling love of God!
With hope,
Pastor Leah
Our giving tree offers five opportunities for you to donate toward basic needs as identified by our homelessness and immigration task forces. You'll find tags on trees in the narthex and lobby through Dec. 11 for these needs:
- winter clothing for Welcome Table guests and Camp Second Chance residents ($20)
- Safeway gift cards for low-income school families ($25)
- food and gifts for asylum-seeking Peruvian families ($30)
- underwear for Welcome Table guests and Camp Second Chance residents (35)
- new shoes for Camp Second Chance residents ($45).
No shopping is required on your part, just a cash donation toward the need of your choice, either online, in the plate, or in the church office. The trees and office also have "Gift from the Heart" cards to present to someone you might wish to honor with your donation.
One of my favorite times of year at my last church was November -- when tree-by-tree-by-tree, a forest of themed Christmas trees would come alive inside the church building, made possible by the creativity, joy, and wonder (with a smidge of competitiveness) of a congregation that loved to make one another smile. This year, with our approaching Advent theme of "Under the Tree," it felt a wonderful thing to attempt at Fauntleroy Church -- so, we're going for it!
Individuals, church groups, community groups, groups of friends, families, all are invited to make a fun, themed tree come alive inside our church building! What do I mean by "themed?" Well, it could be something as simple as a tree you title "the purple tree," then decorating it with all purple lights and ornaments. Or, you could do something a bit more complicated, such as...
● a superhero tree with Marvel and D.C. Comic ornaments and maybe a cape,
● a hymn pun tree where all the simple handmade ornaments are puns on hymns ● a star tree, with all star ornaments
● a pride flag tree
● a flower tree with nothing but flowers to decorate it
● a "trigonomeTREE" for the math enthusiasts among us
None of those ideas are taken, by the way, but ideas abound on the internet and in your creative minds, I'm sure! To prompt your creative juices flowing, we're making this a competition to benefit our local food banks, as people vote for their favorite trees by placing non-perishable food items "under the tree." With the help of our Parish Life Ministry and others, we'll invite the community to come at specific times, enjoy some cookies, maybe an ornament scavenger hunt for kids, some background Christmas music and vote with their food bank donations too! Your help in spreading the word for both participation and visiting our Festival of Trees in December is appreciated. We'll announce specific times at which the church will be open outside Sunday mornings for December/Advent tree enjoyment, but first things frist: WE NEED TREE SUBMISSIONS. So, if you'd like to participate, here's the form you need to complete with instructions on what you need to do. A big thanks to new member, Shirley Asmussen, who is helping to coordinate! Please note that you do need to have or borrow an artificial tree for this event. If you happen to have an artificial tree not doing anything this year and would be happy for someone else to use it, let us know that too!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la,
Pastor Leah
Do you have someone special you would like to have honored or remembered in our Christmas Eve bulletin and Christmas Eve prelude video this year? Take these two steps:
1) Go to the church website and click on "Give Today," then enter a gift of any amount toward Christmas flowers and decor (alternatively, you could drop a check by the church).
2) Email Hope, our Communications and Operations Manager, at hope@fauntleroyucc.org and tell her who you are and who you would like to remember or honor with your gift (eg: "I'm Charlotte Wester, and I'd like to give a gift in memory of my grandparents, May and August Wester.")
Any financial gifts you give will go toward expenses of flowers and other Christmas decor in the sanctuary (so that we can associate the beauty of the sanctuary with remembered beauty in those we've loved). Once sanctuary decor expenses are met, remaining funds go to the general church operating budget.
Please make your gift and email Hope by Sunday, December 19 to make sure we are able to get it into the bulletin and video before those are finalized. Thank you!
