Redeemer Announcements + Prayers of Intercession (Jan. 1, 2021)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! // We look forward to 2021 and all it will bring to Redeemer congregation! We hope your Christmas and New Year holidays have enriched you and your families and renewed your hope!

SUNDAY MORNING ZOOM FELLOWSHIP // Join Dr Robin Bell this Sunday morning, December 27th, for zoom fellowship beginning at 10:30am. Click here to join (Meeting ID: 828 2807 5412 | Passcode: 371196) or dial in by phone to (312) 626-6799! 

FAMILY ZOOM with ECLC on JANUARY 3, 2021 @ 10:30am // Edina Community Lutheran Church invites Redeemer families to join them for a 30-minute zoom call. These times are a great way to see families from the other congregations and share the week’s craft together! Click here to join (Meeting ID: 867 2164 3104 | Passcode: 592394)

WORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES // We need readers for January worship!! Pleaseregister online or email Amy to sign up to record yourself and/or your family speaking the assigned lectionary readings for our prerecorded worships during the month of January. We imminently need readers for next Sunday, January 12th. Know that you can speak aloud the readings linked on the sign-up or from a children’s or other translation in your home. 

MINNEAPOLIS AREA SYNOD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER TRAINING OPPORTUNITY // Through grant funding provided by the Riverside Innovation Hub, Redeemer and RCFL are sending a number of congregants, council members, and staff members to the Minneapolis Area Synod’s community faith organizer training January 11-15, 2021. The training will be held from 9am to 3pm each day that week. We have a few spots open and invite anyone interested to contact Amy or Pastor Kelly for more information.

REDEEMER CALL COMMITTEE UPDATE // The progress continues! The call committee met with Pr. Craig Pederson of the Synod Office on December 15, 2020 to review the next steps to find and call the next pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church! The congregation submitted the list of potential candidates to the Synod office; and the Synod office has reviewed the list and has added their own candidates as well (there was overlap with some candidates). In the next couple of weeks, interested pastoral candidates will be sending the Call Committee their Rostered Minister Profiles. These are essentially applications to be the pastor at Redeemer. Once the Call Committee receives a few Rostered Minister Profiles, we can set up interviews with the candidates. The Call Committee will be meeting January 5, 2021 to review and discuss interview questions and the interview process, as we prepare to start holding interviews with candidates in mid-to end January. Let us pray for God’s guidance and understanding as we head into the final phase of calling our next pastor.

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM BISHOP EATON // In her 2020 Christmas message, Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA, offers a reflection on what it means to be home in Christ. While many of us will not be physically home for Christmas this year, Eaton reminds us, “Precisely in our distress, in our dislocation, the Lord shows up. Emmanuel — God with us — makes his home in the very places we find foreign or isolating. … There is no God-forsaken place and we are never alone — not in hospital rooms, or sheltering in place, or Zoom calls or on dangerous roads.” Bishop Eaton’s Christmas message is available for download in English andSpanish. 

12 DAYS of CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT TREE // For the 12 days of Christmas (Dec. 25th - Jan. 6th), 12 ornaments will be on the ornamental tree at Logan and Glenwood on the Redeemer lawn. Take one; leave one and post your picture on our Facebook page!

SAVE THE DATE: EPIPHANY of OUR LORD Worship Service, Jan. 6, 2021 // The ELCA bishops elected in 2019 will preside over a special worship service on January 6, 2021 at 8pm EST (7pm Central) and may be viewed on the ELCA churchwide facebook page or any of the ELCA synod pages.

SAVE THE DATE: MLK ANNUAL COMMEMORATION SERVICE on JAN. 10, 2021 // Save the date and plan to join the Metro New York African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA) on January 10th at 4pm (EST) for their annual service commemorating The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year’s event will be hosted online, and will feature preaching Bishop Patricia A. Davenport of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod and presiding Bishop Paul Egensteiner presiding. Learn more here, or click here to register.

ORDER YOUR “REDEEMER BELIEVES BLACK LIVES MATTER 2020” TEES // Redeemer’s Service & Advocacy ministry (led by Holly De Souza) partnered with the Northside’s Juxtaposition Arts to create a brand new 2020 “Redeemer Believes Black Lives Matter” shirts. They are now available for pre-order for a suggested donation of $10 or more which will fund the ongoing work of the S&A committee! Please fill out the pre-order form, and if you choose to, you may pay online through our online giving portal! 

HELP RESTORE REDEEMER PARAMENTS // Do you like sewing? The white and green high altar paraments need their hems restored. Call Redeemer at 612-886-1468. Pastor Kelly will bring and retrieve them for your expertise.

THANK YOU to our Sunday morning Advent households for praying and lighting the Advent wreath, speakers of the weekly readings for the First Sunday and Second Sunday of the Christmas seasons. We thank our preachers, Dr. Bell, Pastor Ankerfelt and Ministry Associate Scherer.

THANK YOU from MARY BOLL // Mary Boll sends thanks to those who donated baby yarn for her ongoing project of crocheting and donating baby caps to Hennepin County Obstetrics and Gynecology. If you’d like to donate baby yarn to Mary Boll to help her continue this ministry during our long winter season, please email Amy to bring baby yarn to Redeemer Lutheran marked Mary Boll and a family member will pick it up for her.

CAN YOU ATTEND HNA MEETINGS? // The Harrison Neighborhood Association is hoping to engage community members and friends in ongoing planning and conversations. All meetings are held via zoom at 7pm on the third Monday of each month. If you can join and represent Redeemer and our community, please do!

HEALTH COMMONS at the LIVING ROOM currently offers Zumba, Book Club Discussions, and Health Q&A's online and via Zoom. Follow them on Facebook to get current schedules, events, and other resources: Health Commons at the Living Room.

Second Sunday after Christmas | Readings & Gospel:
Jeremiah 31:7-14, Psalm 147:12-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:1-18

This year the liturgical calendar includes a second Sunday after Christmas before Epiphany, and the gospel is the Christological poem in John 1. On Christmas Day we heard John 1 in connection with Isaiah and Hebrews, and this Sunday with Jeremiah and Ephesians. For we  who live in a cold climate, the psalm for the day is for us!

Joining our voices with the song of the angels, let us pray for the church, the world, and all who are in need --

Redeeming God, protect your church from stumbling and not be overcome by sorrow, division, or despair as we might live always to the praise of your glory especially Redeemer as we prepare for interviewing candidates.
Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

You bring together heaven and earth. Show us new ways to live in harmony with the world around us especially when we grieve beloved pets like Angel.
Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

You overflow with grace upon grace by expanding the imaginations of those who serve in positions of authority for the needs of their nations and communities especially Croatia and Honduras.
Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

You bring consolation to those who weep by your refreshing embrace for the  feeling far-off, excluded, or defeated, the weak, and weary especially Ione, Mary, and Sarah, our local and global siblings living with surging COVID-19 in the UK,  and South Africa and accompanying lockdowns with quarantines, for first responders as well as disaster volunteers, the unsheltered campers at 2nd Ave North and Van White Memorial Blvd, brothers James and Bobbie, Cindy, Linda, Jovita, Samantha, Shoonie . . .  
Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

You come to us in the beauty of darkness and of light. Guide us to speak holy words of advocacy and truth. Help us to honor your image in one another.
Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

You turn our mourning into joy as we give thanks for Fessehatsion Kiflu Berhane who has died in faith. With all the saints, give us when we gather  our inheritance in Christ.
Hear us, O God. Your mercy is great.

God of mercy, come quickly to us with grace upon grace as we lift these and all our prayers to you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.