THIS SUNDAY: Come support our youth who are joining the church on Sunday. YAHOOOOOO!!!!!!! We will re-introduce them to our community as adults and bless their journeys.

In case you missed it: Rev. Ashley's sermon this past Sunday was wakefulness and defiant hope, kicking off the season of Advent. Check it out here!

Want to go to DC? Rebecca Miller and Pastor Laurie have responded to the call to have a group from SpringHouse attend the Women's March in Washington D.C. on January 21, 2017.  This is the day after the inauguration.   We leave on Thursday evening: 6:30-7:00 p.m. and drive straight through on a Charter Bus.  We will arrive whenever we arrive on Friday.  We will stay at National City Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)---we will need to bring our own bedding as there are already 100 women who have reserved space there! So exciting!!! We will attend the march/rally on Saturday and head back to Minneapolis on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. and arrive whenever we arrive back in Minneapolis on Sunday.  Total per/person cost (not including food, gratuity for the drivers, etc.): $275.  Please let Pastor Laurie know if you would like to go by Sunday, the 4th. Email her here.

Join the SpringHouse children's Christmas program! The children’s Christmas program will be on Sunday, December 11 at 10:30, and will be the shared SpringHouse worship service that day. There will be no 8:30 service that morning. Practice for the pageant will be Saturday, December 10 at 10:00 am. Talk to Rae Buzzell for more information.

You are invited to participate in a congregation-wide education and action series on understanding white privilege.  Please choose one of the above opportunities to begin the national UCC curriculum, "White Privilege: Let's Talk." There will also be a daylong session on February 25th where we will go over the whole curriculum at once. The curriculum will take the rest of us about 5 months to work through. We believe that this congregation wide initiative will help us clarify our thinking, beliefs and actions related to racial justice.

For Questions, contact: Members of the Racial Justice Task Force are Paul Thuras (co-chair), Mary Martin (co-chair), Ron Rooney, Rebecca Voelkel, Malia Derrick, Allan Henden, Mary Vanderford and Sarah Kuhnen.

Shop and Donate to SpringHouse: Regla de Oro will again be donating 10% of their sales to SpringHouse Social Justice programs on Sunday, December 11th. The store is open 11 am - 5 pm.

SpringHouse Memorial Garden: The memorial garden is proposed as a place for the interment of burial ashes of anyone from the SpringHouse partner churches or their families.  It is a place where loved ones could go to remember their family member who has died. SpringHouse will hold a forum on the memorial garden proposal on Sunday, December 11^th at noon. Though there are a few details outstanding, we want to present what we have developed so far.  We seek your input and your questions.  We look forward to our discussion.

Blue Christmas:  The holidays are a particularly hard time for those struggling with grief, loss, depression and all of the feeligns that don't seem to have a place amidst the season's cheer. Each year, we make a special space at Lyndale to be together in those painful feelings. Join us for a special service of mourning and healing, December 11th at 4pm.

Christmas festivities:  This year, we have the special treat of having Christmas Even on a Saturday night and Christmas Morning on a Sunday morning. We'll have our usual candlelight Christmas Eve service at 9pm and then gather again in the morning at 10:30am in our PJs (or regular clothes!) to sing carols, read stories and build a mosaic of incarnation together.

Enjoy a Befriender! Our Lyndale team of lay pastoral care providers is now ready to be a listening presence in your life. Please let Pastor Ashley know if you would like to connect with a BeFriender. Email her here.