On Christmas Eve, everyone is invited to the celebration – Joy to the World, the Lord is come!  Pre-service music begins at 6:45 pm, and worship begins at 7 pm. This family-friendly service includes the lighting of the Christ Candle – brought to you by our Live Advent Wreath!  The choir will sing, the musicians will play, and we’ll join together in lighting our candles and singing Silent Night.

Part of our Christmas Eve tradition is to celebrate God’s gift to us through gifts to our neighbors: both local and global.  This year, as the Outreach Team considered the many needs in our world, we were reminded of the majesty of God, made flesh in a tiny, vulnerable baby.  With this focus, the Outreach Team selected these projects to receive equal shares of the Christmas Eve offering.

The International half will go to the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), by way of David Radcliff’s New community Project, for help in training 50 midwives in the face of an on-going crisis in maternal/newborn care.  Indeed, a woman dies in childbirth every 25 minutes in the DRC, according to the World Health Organization, and women’s lifetime risk of dying in the birthing process is 1 in 24.  Almost 5% of the country’s newborns die at birth or immediately after.  A two-month training for 50 women costs $1,500; Practitioner’s Kits containing disinfectant, gloves, and other essentials are $40/midwife.

The Local half of the offerings will go to the Parish Resource Center for Baby Kits.  The Parish resource Center has been working with Union Community Care, the medical provider for many low-income folks in Lancaster and Lebanon Counties.  They have requested Baby Kits to provide new moms with essentials to start them out right. The Outreach Team has decided to contribute money to help them provide as many gifts as possible. The current need is 25 Kits per month with pending requests to expand the program to provide even more. When a new mother and baby are released from the hospital, they can be sent home with a diaper bag full of basics to get them started.

Offerings can be made online by clicking in the green Tithe.ly button in the upper right.  Simply select “Christmas Eve Offering” from the drop down menu.  Thank you for your generosity as we anticipate together the birth of the Christ child.

You’ve heard of Live Nativities.  But have you ever heard of a Live Advent Wreath?  This year, we are anticipating the coming of the Light of the World through the eyes of the candles of Hope, Love, Joy, Peace…and the Christ Candle.

Each Sunday of Advent, our narrator Dave invites each candle to share their special kind of joy at the coming birth.

The candle of Joy cannot contain her excitement!

As the days grow shorter, our lights grow brighter.  Join us Sundays at 10:15 am and “wait with us”.  Joy to the World…the Lord is come!

Advent is upon us. One of the ways we are anticipating the birth of the Christ Child is in sharing our favorite nativity sets. Each one offers a unique perspective of this miracle of love!

All of these sets are precious! The one pictured below in the back left was handcrafted by one of our members from items around the house – gourds, cotton, and cinnamon sticks. The one in the back right was handmade in Africa.  Be sure to stop in and inspect them up close!

This Advent, beginning November 27, Mountville Church of the Brethren will fill its two Narthex display cases with Nativity sets borrowed from its congregation. Here is your invitation to participate in this creative way to reflect on Jesus’ birth.

Some background. At the beginning of Advent each year, Christians everywhere prepare the Bethlehem scene of the days before Christmas Day by setting up Nativity sets in their homes and places people gather… like their churches. It’s a beautiful faith tradition.

Nativity sets vary greatly in design and focus. Some are engaged solely with Mary and Joseph at the manger. Some sets are reminders of shepherds with their flocks watching from a distance.  One set I remember from my youth includes the husband and wife inn keepers looking lovingly across the street at the manger sheltering the holy family and a few common folk wondering what is about to happen. And then there were sets which emphasized well-traveled folks from other lands-the Magi, foretelling the unfolding event which will impact the entire world. There was even a story I heard about of a Nativity set which had lost its Joseph so one of the family’s young boys found a “substitute’ for him with a Little People Batman. Wonderful, isn’t it, how the nativity scene inspires so many different thoughtful depictions and perspectives. This makes each one special.

If you have a Nativity set you can “loan” to our church’s Narthex display during the Advent season, bring it in by November 20.

The Advent season is all about reflecting on how we can prepare our hearts for Christ’s birth in and for the world as it is today.

Displaying all our family Nativity sets together will be a heartwarming gift to the Savior we love.

Please bear with us while our site undergoes some rennovations.