The Ward Hill Church Bell Ringer – October 25, 2020
Happy Reformation Sunday!
Outdoor Gathering for Prayer and Conversation at 11:45 to 12:30 Today
Bring a chair as we chat and pray from a safe distance!
MIDWEEK STUDY ON ZOOM RESUMES WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4 at 7 pm
Angel Tree Christmas Gifts
Christmas is coming — exactly two months from today! The Angel Tree Christmas gift program for children of prisoners is becoming a wonderful Ward Hill Church tradition! What a great way to serve, and many thanks to Anne Smith for organizing it. We will be serving 8 children from 4 families this year. We need people to either buy gifts or distribute them (or do both!). Please contact Anne Smith if you wish to participate.
Church Calendar & Lectionary
Season: Ordinary Time after Pentecost – from the day after Pentecost until Advent (June 1 – November 28, 2020)
Color: Green – for Christian growth and expansion of God’s Kingdom
This Sunday: 21st Sunday after Pentecost – Reformation Sunday
Sun, Nov 1: 22nd Sunday after Pentecost – All Saints’ Day
Lectionary (All Saints): Revelation 7:9-17; Ps 34; 1 John 3:1-3; Matt. 5:1-12
Lectionary (22 Pent.): Micah 3:5-12; Ps 43; 1 Thess. 2:9-13; Matt. 23:1-12
Hymns: 358 – For All the Saints; 100 – Holy, Holy, Holy
Monthly Prayer Focus for October
Local Church Focus: Primera Iglesia Biblica Bautista (First Bible Baptist Church), Haverhill – Felix Rodriguez Rijo, pastor
Missions Focus: Missions Work in Southern Africa
Community Resources – Food, Clothing, Shelter, & Other Help www.communityactioninc.org/phocadownload/resource_guide_english_october_2017.pdf National Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
Refugee Ministries: Interserve USA (interserveusa.com); Emmanuel Gospel Center’s Greater Boston Refugee Ministry (http://www.egc.org/refugee)
Global Crisis Help: World Relief – worldrelief.org
Information on Persecuted Christians: Open Doors USA – opendoorsusa.org
Monthly Scripture Memory for October
2 Timothy 3:16,17 (ESV) – 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Catechism: An Outline of the Faith
Q. What is Holy Baptism?
A. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.
Q. What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism?
A. The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?
A. The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is required of us at Baptism?
A. It is required that we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
The following two questions are for our congregants who believe that the children of Christian believers should be baptized. Like many churches in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, Ward Hill Church affirms as biblical and proper both this traditional Congregationalist understanding as well as the Baptist view that children of believers should wait to make their own profession of faith prior to baptism.
In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.
Q. Why then are infants baptized?
A. Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God.
Q. How are the promises for infants made and carried out?
A. Promises are made for them by their parents and sponsors, who guarantee that the infants will be brought up within the Church, to know Christ and be able to follow him.
Ward Hill Church of Christ the King 