Rev Robin Meyers’ sermon will b “luminescence” from Matthew 17:1-9. Special music will be provided by Nicole Van Every, soloist, and Mary Sallee, pianist.

Childcare will be provided.

Faith Based Outreach Meeting

Mark your calendars and please RSVP! Our FBO group will be meeting in two weeks at 11:30am on Friday, February 20, at The Mission, 2525 East Lindsey. Thank you to Dr. Mike Butler for the invitation and for providing lunch. If you are planning to attend, please notify Heather Bedle or Judith Coker by Tuesday, February 17

In addition to hearing about The Mission's plans for expanding their campus and helping even more people, Dan Straughn, retired (sort of)  Executive Director of Oklahoma City's Homeless Alliance, and Lynne Miller will be with us to talk about the Home Together Norman campaign to pass the bond issue for a new permanent homeless shelter. The vote will be on April 7 and getting the "yes" vote out will be critical and we can all help.

Last, please take a minute to look at the list of people receiving this email and let me know of any corrections so we can keep it updated and accurate. Are there churches or organizations engaged in helping people in need who should be invited to our meetings? Have there been staff or ministry changes that we can update? Please let me know! We went to a BCC list a year or so ago, which I totally supported, but there is so much good information to share that I wonder if anyone objects to returning to a displayed list of names and emails, at least during the next few months. 

Thank you all for your devotion to serving all of God's children,

In the light of Christ,

Lisa Schmidt,filling in temporarily for the great Andrea Marler

Weststar Institute Opportunity to Listen to Elaine Pagels

We’re honored and excited to invite you to register for MIRACLES and WONDER with author Elaine Pagels as she discusses Miracles and Wonder.

Can’t make it live? Register anyway. The recording is included.

Join us for this talk followed by an extended Q&A!
 

REGISTER

NEW MEMBER INQUIRER'S CLASS THIS SUNDAY!

 Dr. Meyers will host a prospective new member's class right after the worship service this Sunday.  We will meet in the conference room in the hallway near the restrooms.  We will discuss Congregational polity and the meaning of membership at FCC—and more importantly, get acquainted with those who have recently begun attending this Beloved Community.  Dual members IS allowed (you can belong to FCC and remain a member of another community), and attendance does not obligate you to join.  If you are curious and have questions, please join us.  New members will be received in the service the following Sunday, February 15.

Salty and Luminous

Reverend Robin Meyers’ sermon will be “Salty and Luminous” from Matthey 5:1-13, 16. Special music will be provided by Mary Sallee, Pianist, and Nicole Van Every, Soprano Vocalist.

Reverend Meyers’ sermon will be “Upside Down Blessings” from Matthew 5:1-12. Special music will be provided by Mary Sallee, pianist, and Kiegan Ryan, cellist.

Childcare is provided.

Norman, OK Free America Walkout

On January 20th at 2pm we are all walking out of our jobs, our lives, our daily norm to protest facscism.
At 2pm we will be meeting at the James Garner statue on Main Street and James Garner Ave. to come together and share our strengths to change the direction this country is going.

One year into Trump’s second regime, we face an escalating fascist threat: raids on our communities, troops occupying our cities, attacks on immigrants, families torn apart, mass surveillance, and terror used to keep us silent.  It is time for our communities to escalate as well. 

2025 was a year of marches that showed our collective strength. And as the threats grow, our movement must evolve and escalate. Trump and his allies have already made clear that a second term would bring a deeper wave of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and violence than the first.

On January 20, we call on our communities to organize teams, call your neighbors and classmates, and turn your back and walk out on fascism. Host mutual aid planning meetings, organize public service, but walk out to block the normal routines of power, and make the stakes real. This is a protest and a promise.  In the face of fascism, we will be ungovernable. 

★ We walk away from fascism. ★  

★ We walk towards a Free America. ★ 

★ We fight for a future that belongs to us all. ★

★ Everybody in, nobody out. ★ 

Reverend Robin Meyers’ sermon will be, “Tell Us Again Dr. King,” with text from the “I Have a Dream Speech”, by Dr Martin Luther King. Special music will be provided by Mary Sallee, pianist, and Kiegan Ryan, cellist.

Childcare will be provided.

Reverend Robin Meyers sermon will be “Baptism: A Rite or a Requirement?” from Matthew 3:13-17. Special music will be provided by Mary Sallee and Kiegan Ryan

The Reverend Robin Meyers’ sermon will be “The Odd Watcher” from Luke 13:1-15. Special music will be provided by Mary Sallee and Kiegan Ryan, and communion will be served.

On the following Sunday (January 11, 2025), our Sunday services will begin at 3:00 pm

Rev Robin Meyers sermon will be “Luke 2, a New Reading” from Luke 2:1. Special music will be provided by Kiegan Ryan, cellist, and Mary Sallee, pianist.

We will not be holding Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services. However, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church where we hold our services will be having the following services:

• Caroling at 4:45 pm, service at 5:00 pm

• Caroling at 5:00 pm, service at 11:00 pm

The following is a message from our pastor:

A NEW READING WITH APOLOGIES TO LUKE

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a clergy colleague asked me to write a new version of the birth of Jesus that might preserve the radical message of Luke but translate it into more contemporary metaphors. I gave it a shot, and then read it to two of my three granddaughters on Christmas Eve. It is fiction of course (but so was the original), and as we all know, when a story grows stale and sentimental by constant retelling, we can go deaf—which is the first symptom of spiritual atrophy. This isn’t how it happened, of course. But this is how it is always happening.

In those days, a plague had come to the land of milk and honey. Many had died, alone and gasping for breath—wondering anew if God had died. People wore masks and could not hug each other. Our fearless leader told us it would all be over soon. In fact, he guaranteed it. Then we could start shopping until we dropped again.

In the middle of it all, a decree went out from the Census Bureau that all legal residents should be counted so they could be taxed. It was a regular census, and most people stayed in their own towns to be registered. But some, who were called “illegal aliens” (even though they were all from planet earth) took the dangerous journey across the border from the town of Juarez, Mexico to the town of Bethlehem, Texas.

Among them was a roofer named Jose, and his pregnant wife Maria. After a shotgun wedding, they decided to make the dangerous journey even though their friends tried to talk them out of it. “You are hitting the road with a pregnant woman, are you kidding? To which Jose replied. “We don’t just want to be counted. We want to count.”

After crossing the Rio Grande, Maria went into labor, and gave birth to Jesus, squatting behind a trash bin that reeked of Taco Bell wrappers in the Lone Star State Park. No one was taking notes, of course, and so the whole story would have to be invented later, like a prequel.

Maria was not completely alone, however. The women traveling with her acted as midwives. They held up a blanket for privacy, while Jose tried to stay out of the way. Then they swaddled the baby in an old hoodie and the women laid down beside Maria to keep her and her baby boy warm. There was not a Model Six in sight.

In that region there were cowboys, “essential workers” living in their cars and drinking tequila. Why? It’s not easy to work cattle without fences. Try it some time. Besides, since the plague made their work dangerous, they considered quitting altogether. And then, right in middle of doing shots they heard something. Then they saw something—standing right in front of them—an elderly woman with short, snow-white hair and red glasses.

“Boys,” she said, with that stern confidence that elementary school teachers possess who can’t fool around. “Don’t sleep through this. Something big just happened down by the river. Born to us this day in the Texas city of David, a savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

One of the men belched and said, “Who the hell are you darling?” His friend grabbed him by the arm and said, “Would you just shut up and listen! For once in your life, can you just listen?”

“Don’t take my word for it,” she said, “Go have a look for yourself, down by the river. You will find a little brown boy there, wrapped in a hoodie and howling against the night.”

And that’s when it happened. That’s when the men heard music coming from somewhere, even though there wasn’t a radio station for a hundred miles and their car antenna was broken anyway.

But they heard it. They all heard it—like a symphony in the middle of nowhere, and a chorus of voices singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

The angel with the red glasses suddenly vanished, and one of the guys said, “I think that was my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Gabriel.

“Whatever,” his friend replied. “Let’s go have a look for ourselves. That is, if this piece of junk car will start.” It cranked once, then twice, then roared to life in the silent Texas night.

When they got down to the river, the women were not at all happy to see them. They were strangers, hobos, and had absolutely nothing to contribute to the situation. So, the men stood awkwardly at a distance, feeling as useless as they looked. Then they all took off their hats, which in Texas is a gesture of respect.

They had no idea what to say, because they had no idea why they were there to begin with. Finally, one of them, staring at the ground, broke the silence.

“That’s a beautiful baby ma’am. You must be proud. Word has it that your little boy is really going places.”

Maria said nothing. Then the one who thought the angel was his third-grade teacher said, “We sure did hate to bother you, ma’am, but a stranger told us we had to come, maybe to ask if there is anything you need? We think it might have been an angel, but we’re not sure what an angel looks like exactly. So, we all agreed that, just in case it was an angel, it would be better not to start an argument.”

Maria said nothing. She was exhausted, but she listened. Then she did what women have done since the beginning of time when they are overwhelmed by the world—she pondered.

Then the essential workers—those day laborers with mud on their boots and no option to quarantine—turned and got back into their car. In a cloud of nasty exhaust, which Maria did not appreciate, they rumbled away, their red taillights growing smaller and smaller until they disappeared into the night.

After a long journey, they returned to the place from which they had come—to sleep it off. But in the morning, over their cowboy coffee, nobody said a word. Then one of them took off his hat again, followed by the others. Finally, he said what all of them were thinking.

“This is not the same place we left.

We are not the same people we were.

Nothing is the same, or ever will be again.”

Then without another word, they agreed to work the rest of the day without their hats on.

That night, around the campfire, they raised their glasses full of tequila and made a toast, unaware that they were about to invent communion.

“To Jesus!”

------------------

CHRISTMAS MUSIC SUNDAY

Guests Musicians:  Camryn Creech, Soprano; Angela Walker, Oboe/English Horn

Alaina Brady-Hummingbird, Violin 

Staff Musicians: Mary Sallee, Pianist and Kiegan Ryan, Cellist

Prelude:

"Of the Father's Love Begotten (instrumental)

[Please join in singing all carols]

"In the Bleak Midwinter" (128)

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" (133)

Announcements

Joys and Concerns

Singing Bowl

Opening Hymn:  "Angels We Have Heard on High"  (125)

Passing the Peace

Pastoral Prayer/Lords Prayer:  Our Creator, who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.  Do not let us fall into temptation but deliver us from evil.  For you reign in the power that is love, now and always.  Amen.

First Gift of Music:

"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (131)

"Once in David's Royal City" (145)

Following the Star-Reverend Robin Meyers

The Christmas Story from Luke 2

Second Gift of Music:

"O Holy Night"

Offertory:

Mary Sallee:  Medley of Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine, Still Still and the Rocking Carol.

Doxology:  Praise God from whom all blessings flow/Praise God all creatures  here below/Praise God the source of all our gifts/and Jesus Christ whose power uplifts/Praise the Sprit, Holy Sprit, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Closing by Candlelight

"Silent Night"  (134)

Special benediction

Postlude:  Please leave in silence, please go in peace.

Dr. Chris Carter will continue our study of the book, Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus, by Elaine Pagels.

Our annual congregational meeting will be held to elect the President-Elect and the Treasurer, amend the bylaws and other church matters.

Rev Robin Meyers message will be “Herod, Are You Coming to the Baby Shower” from Luke 1:46-55. Kiegan Ryan, cellist and Mary Sallee, pianist will provide the music.

Rev Meyers’ message will be “Where is he Peaceable Kingdom?” from Isaiah 11:1-10. Communion will be served. Special music will be provided by Kiegan Ryan, cellist and Mary Sallee, pianist.

Dr. Chris Carter, featuring “Miracles and Wonders: The Historical Mystery of Jesus” by Elaine Pagels. We will be reviewing the second half of Chapter 4.

First Congregational Church of Norman, UCC, in partnership with KGOU Radio, will present an informative talk by Dick Pryor, General Manager of KGOU Radio, on Sunday, November 30, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. The presentation will take place at St. Michael's Episcopal Church Sanctuary, 1601 W. Imhoff, Norman.

adaptations facing public broadcasting stations following the elimination of federal funding. His

presentation will examine how public radio and television stations and the communities they

serve are responding to preserve and sustain essential public service journalism.

Pryor brings more than 50 years of experience in television, radio, public relations, law, and

government service to this timely discussion. As general manager of KGOU Radio, he oversees

an NPR member station that serves more than 1.8 million Oklahomans with news, information,

and entertainment programming. He began his journalism career at KGOU as a University of

Oklahoma student and returned as general manager in November 2016.  During his distinguished career, Pryor spent 25 of his 34 years in television serving in leadership

roles at OETA, Oklahoma's PBS station, including deputy director, managing editor, and news

director. He has won numerous broadcasting awards, including three regional Emmy Awards.

Pryor was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 2009 and was chosen as a

Distinguished Alumnus of the OU Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication in

2015.

The public is welcome to attend this free, informative presentation. For more information,

contact uccnorman@gmail.com

Rev. Robin Meyers’ message for the first Sunday of Advent will be “Cousins Who Changed the World” from Matthew 3:1-12. Special music will be provided by Kiegan Ryan, cellist and Mike Evans, pianist. Following worship service, there will be a potluck dinner.

At 6 pm guest speaker Dick Pryor, KGOU general manager, will present “The New Normal of Public Media.” All are welcome.

Reverend Robin Meyers’ message will be “The Myth of Thanksgiving” from 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Music will be provided by Mary Sallee, guest pianist.

The Book study led by Dr. Chris Carter, featuring, “Miracles and Wonders: The Historical Myster of Jesus” by Elaine Pagels. We will be discussing the first half of chapter 4

Reverend Robin Meyers’ message will be “I’ll Have the Dry Bones Please” from Ezekiel 37:1-10. Mike Evans will be the pianist.

There will be no book study today.

St. Michael’s Jewelry Fundraising Sale will be held at the church Friday and Saturday, November 14 and 15 from 8 am to 8 pm. Proceeds will be used to replace the broken heat and air systems in the church and education building. If you have jewelry, you are not wearing, this is a great opportunity to donate it for a good cause. There are flyers for this sale that you can take and post around town. Let’s help support St. Michael’s with this worthy cause.

St. Michael’s Jewelry Fundraising Sale will be held at the church Friday and Saturday, November 14 and 15 from 8 am to 8 pm. Proceeds will be used to replace the broken heat and air systems in the church and education building. If you have jewelry, you are not wearing, this is a great opportunity to donate it for a good cause. There are flyers for this sale that you can take and post around town. Let’s help support St. Michael’s with this worthy cause.

Erika Wright of Better Outcomes for Oklahoma Kids (BOOK)