BETHEL COLLEGE MENNONITE CHURCH
October 27, 2024

Christ Candle Lighting

Centering Music— Morning Song [VT 623] (arr. Joseph Martin) (piano)                                                    
Will Wiebe-Friesen

Welcome & Prayer—Elaine Schurr

*Hymn—All Things Bright and Beautiful—VT 177

Children’s Conversation—Jim Robb

Scripture Reading—Genesis 1:1-5—Janet Friesen

*Hymn—Joyous Light of Heavenly Glory—VT 504

Scripture Reading—John 3:17-21—Janet Friesen

Worship Music—True Light (Hampton)—Chancel Choir; Joel Garber, director; Will Wiebe-Friesen, accompanist

Sermon—Connecting the Night and Day—Nathan Koontz

*Hymn—Darkness Is Not Dark to You, God—VT 200

Prayers of God’s People—Dale Schrag, Mara Oswald

*Hymn—Now, on Land and Sea Descending—VT 503
(People with October birthdays come forward for a blessing, please bring a hymnal)

*Birthday Blessing and Benediction

Postlude— Toccata from Suite Gothique (L. Boëllmann) (organ)
Will Wiebe-Friesen

* You are invited to stand
VT—Voices Together
Audio visual—Ken Lamp

Sunday morning’s choral anthem melds the energetic spiritual “This Little Light of Mine” with a 10th century text excerpted from Grigor Nerekatzi’s Book of Mournful Chants: “Don’t let the light that you’ve given me die, and don’t desert my mind, but let the one who serves you praise you again and again.” The piano centering music is a setting of the shape-note tune MORNING SONG, found in our hymnal (VT 623) with a moving text by Adam Tice, text editor of Voices Together. The postlude, a spooky and sinister toccata by French composer Léon Boëllmann, brings to mind the line from the anthem, “Hide it under a bushel? No! I’m gonna let it shine!” There’s a lot of hiding under a bushel in this piece, but listen for the final chord when that light really gets to shine.