Worship at Second Congregational Church in Newcastle on January 9, 2022

Worship on January 9, 2022:  Baptism Renewal Sunday

Note: January 9th was the “test drive” of a new arrangement for streaming the service online. Whereas previous live-streams went from the church sanctuary out to the church’s Facebook page, on this Sunday the streaming went simultaneously both to “Facebook Live” and to a new YouTube channel.
Unfortunately, some major issues arose during this “maiden voyage”. The streaming audio and video was not smooth, indicating that the bandwidth of the internet connection was inadequate to handle the amount of data. Surprisingly, the audio & video in the recording is smooth.
A second glitch was that streaming stopped mid-way through the service, likely due to an error using the new broadcasting tools. Consequently this recording does not include the second half of the service.

PREPARING FOR WORSHIP ON THE SUNDAY OF BAPTISM RENEWAL, January 2, 2022:
Wednesday, January 6th was Epiphany (Three Kings Day in other Christian/cultural traditions), when we remember the manifestation (revelation) of Jesus Christ as God among all people. It begins the season of Epiphany, when we recall Jesus’ baptism (today’s worship focus), his temptation experience in the wilderness, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and the time of Transfiguration. The Epiphany season ends on Shrove Tuesday (March 1), the day before Ash Wednesday (March 2), which then begins the season of Lent.

For today’s remembrance of Jesus’ baptism and our own, you may wish to prepare a small bowl of water, which we will bless later in the service. You will then be invited to touch the water and mark your forehead or hand or to gently make this symbolic mark on the forehead or hand of those you are gathered with.

The Order of Worship for this service is available here:  https://wp.me/a9HLsD-Pb.

Please send any questions or comments to webmaster@secondcongo.org.