• In 11 days, the United Church of Christ will collect more than 1 MILLION ITEMS OF HEALTHY FOOD and other household items for local food banks and outreach services.
• In 11 days, the United Church of Christ will  make an extra-special push to gather online contribution of more than $111,111 DOLLARS for Neighbors in Need food-related ministries, offerings that will be shared for hunger-action purposes with agencies of justice and compassion throughout the United States; and $111,111 for East Africa famine-related ministries.
• In 11 days, the United Church of Christ will offer more then 11,111 LETTERS to Congress asking our government to reform U.S. foreign assistance in a way that more effectively benefits hungry and poor people worldwide, helping to provide a major final push to Bread for the World’s 2011 “Offering of Letters” campaign.

• November 23rd @ 7PM: Community Thanksgiving Service
• November 27th @ 10:15 AM: First Sunday in Advent Communion, Hanging of the Greens Worship Service
• December 11th: Christmas Caroling and Dinner Meal provided by Pastor Ruthann
• December 18th: Annual Christmas Program
• December 24th: Traditional Worship with Communion and Candlelight
• December 25th @ 10:15AM: Lessons and Carols, Celebrate the birthday of Jesus!
• January 1st @ 10:15 AM: Epiphany Sunday Communion

There will be a community combine and choir and various clergy from the Dover area participating.

Refreshments and cookies and Beverages will be provided for a fellowship hour after the Worship Service. Everyone welcome!

The scaffolding will be setup on Monday, November 7th by the Men’s work group.

Here’s the schedule of the day…

• 8:30 to 9:30: Registrations (parking lot of Mt. Zion UCC, York)
• 9:30 to 10:00: The Rules of the Road (get your packet, hear the rules of competition)
• 10:00 to 12:00: Let the Games Begin! (Safely start gathering your answers and points!)
• 12:00 to 1:00: Lunch, Fellowship, and the Crowning of the Road Rally Champ!

RSVP with your participants to Danielle Neff at pastordani@comcast.net by Monday, November 7th!

Monthly Total:

• Regular Orders: 200
• Crisis Bags: 11

Many of my favorite old hymns were written by “anonymous.” HE/She wrote many, many hymns. The Thanksgiving hymn, We Gather Together is one of those hymns. My high school marching band played it every Thanksgiving Day before the Traditional Rivalry Football Game began. I knew the tune by memory as I played my wee little “picol-blo” and marched up and down the football field. Whenever I hear the hymn, it always takes me back to those moments of my past. What is the history of the hymn? This hymn is reportedly from Holland and the music written in the early 17th Century at the time that Holland was moving from a Roman Catholic Nation to a Protestant Nation. The hope and promise of a break from their Spanish Rule and the Roman Catholicism accompanying it were on the hearts of the Dutch at this time. This hymn began as patriotic tribute to those living through liberalization. This history of their nation brought about the inspiring stanzas that have deep meaning. We can only imagine the trials that the Dutch people were experiencing at the time as they prayed for God to back their cause for freedom from a religious dominance as well as a political dominance. As we sing this hymn today, we focus on our own blessings coupled with our own struggles, and then use the strains of the hymn to provide our hope for the future.

There are many plans in the works for a very exciting Advent and Christmas season. The worship and music team has been working very hard to plan for meaningful worship experiences. A complete calendar of events is included in this newsletter to allow you to put important dates on your calendar now! May you all join together for our Dover Community Thanksgiving Service on the night before Thanksgiving as we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing too. Blessings, PR

• Gather Campbell’s Soup labels and the point seal on General Mills Products for Hoffman Homes for Children. There is a basket in the Sunday School hall.
• Homewood Home at Plum Creek gathers cancelled postage stamps. Be sure to leave a 1/4 inch margin around the stamp. Place items in the basket in the Sunday School hall
• Salem UCC has had a Penny jar for many years. Place items in the basket in the Sunday School hall.
• Magazines will not be gathered at the Church this year.  You can recycle them by placing them in a dumpster on Hokes Mill Road at the Consolidated Metals Recycling. It is not open during the weekend but day working hours only. GLOSSY paper is what is to be collected.
• Dover Lions Club collects eyeglasses, used hearing aids and cell phones for those in need. Place items in the basket in the Sunday School hall.

During two funerals within the past two weeks, we sang the hymn Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…” So begins one of the most beloved hymns of all times, a staple in the hymnals of many denominations, New Britain or “45 on the top” in one of the first hymnals Sacred Harp. The author of the words was John Newton, the self-proclaimed wretch who once was lost but then was found, saved by amazing grace. John Newton ultimately became captain of his own ship, one which supplied the slave trade.

Although he had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child, he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his “great deliverance.” He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him. For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day of humiliation in which he subjected his will to a higher power. “Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace has bro’t me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” He continued in the slave trade for a time after his conversion; however, he saw to it that the slaves under his care were treated humanely.

He decided to become a minister and Newton’s church became so crowded during services that it had to be enlarged. Composed probably between 1760 and 1770 in Olney, Amazing Grace was possibly one of the hymns written for a weekly service. Through the years other writers have composed additional verses to the hymn which came to be known as Amazing Grace, as it reminds us that no matter how “lost” we’ve become, God will always “find” us. If you feel that you have “lost your way” to Salem UCC, we hope that you will once again “find your way” and join us in worship. If you feel that you have “lost your way” WITH God and wish “to be found again” in your relationship with God, I will be happy to meet with anyone to help you through the process. Please phone me to setup an appointment time. Blessings and Hugs, PR