Tag: Christmas 2024

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

Anglican Cycle of Prayer

The below is the weekly calendar produced by the Anglican Communion for 2025. Over the course of each year, we pray for each of the provinces of the Communion. For more information, visit iam.ec/prayercycle.

January

5          The Church in Wales
12         The Church of the Province of West Africa
19         The Church in the Province of the West Indies
26         The Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria

February

2          The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia
9          The Anglican Church of Australia
16         The Church of Bangladesh
23         Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil

March

2          The Anglican Church of Burundi
9          The Anglican Church of Canada
16         The Church of the Province of Central Africa
23         Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America
30         Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo

April

6          Iglesia Anglicana de Chile
13         The Church of England
20         Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui
27         The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean

May

4          The Church of Ireland
11         Nippon Sei Ko Kai
18         The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & The Middle East
25        The Anglican Church of Kenya

June

1           The Anglican Church of Korea
8          The Anglican Church of Melanesia
15        La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico
22         Igreja Anglicana de Mocambique e Angola
29         The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)

July

6          The Church of Nigeria
13         The Church of North India (United)
20         The Church of Pakistan (United)
27         The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea

August

3          The Episcopal Church in the Philippines
10         Eglise Anglicane du Rwanda
17         The Scottish Episcopal Church
24         The Church of the Province of South East Asia
31         The Church of South India (United)

September

7          The Anglican Church of Southern Africa
14         The Anglican Church of South America
21         Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan
28         Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan

October

5          The Anglican Church of Tanzania
12         The Church of the Province of Uganda
19         The Episcopal Church
26         The Church in Wales

November

2          The Church of the Province of West Africa
9          The Church in the Province of the West Indies
16         The Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria
23         The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia
30         The Anglican Church of Australia

December

7          The Church of Bangladesh
14         Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil
21         The Anglican Church of Burundi
28         The Anglican Church of Canada

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds. Small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between use the resources that Sermons That Work provides.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.

The Presiding Bishop’s Christmas Message

Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church:

Among the Christmas Gospels, Luke is surely the crowd pleaser. Nearly our entire visual vocabulary of Christmas—the manger, the shepherds, the angels—comes from the second chapter of Luke. Thanks to Luke, we all know the answer to the trivia question, “Who was Quirinius?”

But if you go to church on Christmas morning, or if your congregation’s custom is to read a last Gospel on Christmas Eve, you will hear the beginning of the Gospel of John, which includes other words we all know: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” Christmas does not truly begin for me until I hear those words.

While Luke paints us a picture of a noisy and chaotic birth, in John we encounter the powerfully quiet mystery of the Incarnation. John brings us the astonishing truth that God lived among us as a person, “full of grace and truth,” ready to share the pain and sorrow of being human. 

Especially this year, our hurting and divided world is desperate for the Incarnation. We live, as have many generations before us, in a time of fear, division, and instability. The Enemy has turned us against one another, sometimes in our own families and communities. The land of Jesus’ birth is torn apart by violence and tremendous suffering, and across the globe, we have hardened our hearts against the strangers among us. All too often, we hear voices that claim the mantle of Christianity calling most loudly for exclusion and conquest.

As Episcopalians, we must resist the urge to retreat from this broken world. Instead, we have been called to model our life together on a different vision of God’s kingdom. Contrary to the world’s expectations, we have bound ourselves together in a global community, following the Risen Christ together despite our differences. We know that death, suffering, and enmity are not the last word, and we proclaim it every time we gather at God’s table.

At Christmas, we can make our unity a witness to the world. Every day, in congregations and communities across our church, you are feeding the hungry, binding up the brokenhearted, caring for the vulnerable, and transforming lives through the power of the gospel. We can also proclaim God’s presence by giving to our church’s historic ministries that are working to alleviate suffering at home and abroad:

• Episcopal Migration Ministries, which is working to resettle refugees and create welcoming communities for migrants in the face of fear.
• American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which brings hope and healing to vulnerable families across the Holy Land.
• Episcopal Relief & Development, which advances lasting change in communities affected by injustice, poverty, disaster, and climate change.

Most of all, we can commit our lives to creating a world that is more just and more loving, in which the grace and truth that came down to us at Christmas is kindled all year long. Especially this year, as we begin our ministry together, I am grateful to be working toward this vision with you.

May God bless you and all those you love this Christmas and always.

The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe
Presiding Bishop

Weekly bulletin inserts

This weekly bulletin insert provides information about the history, music, liturgy, mission, and ministry of The Episcopal Church. For more information, please contact us at stw@episcopalchurch.org.

Sermons That Work

For more than 20 years, Sermons That Work, a ministry of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication, has provided free sermons, Bible studies, bulletin inserts, and other resources that speak to congregations across the Church. Our writers and readers come from numerous and varied backgrounds. Small house churches, sprawling cathedrals, and everything between use the resources that Sermons That Work provides.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.