December 28

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas Day. 

Cheri and I were blessed to have all of our children home for Christmas — even His Highness from New York, Dancin' Anson was with us!

Those who were able to attend Asbury's Christmas Eve Service certainly had a blessed experience. I want to thank everyone who helped with the service: Our readers (Dottie Kluttz and Wayne McGowan), our Mary and Joseph (Lila West and Chris Steiner) our incredible Asbury Choir, the Gretchen Greene Dancers, soloists Jason Zimmer, Tab Brawner, Cecelia Grahame, Kristen Kelso, Chelsea Hester-Bradt, and solo dancer, Madeline Kelso. We thank our musicians, our ushers and greeters, our lighting and sound team.

We are sorry that the service could not be livestreamed, but thanks to the work of Ray Ellis and Barri Marshall, the service was recorded and is now on YouTube. Ray did a fabulous job of editing the service. It can be found by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1H8UOYr-ow

I am glad that we will again be able to offer the Anticipation Celebration & Burning Bowl Ceremony on January 1st, a tradition started many years ago by Janice Gantt. My wife, Cheri, will be facilitating it. I asked Cheri to write up something about it for those who are not familiar with it. 

Asbury Memorial Church has had a tradition of coming together on or around New Year's Day to release things from the past year and to imagine the accomplishments of a new year. 

We look forward to you joining us on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, to continue this tradition!

* All are welcome! *

We will begin with a Burning Bowl Ceremony where everyone is invited to symbolically and literally let go of old, unwanted beliefs, habits, and fears to start the new year fresh.

Then each participant will be led through a guided exercise called an Anticipation Celebration. The Anticipation Celebration is a mostly silent activity, where your facilitators will guide you as you reflect on your goals and write a love letter to yourself. This letter can touch on all areas of your life, enhancing your dreams about who you are and what you want to realize in the coming year.

These letters are then sealed, collected and mailed to you around Thanksgiving. There is great power in the intention process. Our thoughts create our reality. So, it is always a wonderful surprise to read these letters we have written to our future selves.

Please join us. All are welcome!

What to have with you: paper, writing instruments, something to bear down on, a stamped envelope and a curious and open mind ready for all the possibilities this next year holds. We look forward to you joining us and continuing the tradition!

Monday, January 1st - 3pm 

Due to the busy church schedule in December, the Ten O'clock Hour Study Group will not meet during the rest of December. We look forward to starting back again on Sunday, January 5th. Hope you will join us then! 

Remember, there are twelve days of Christmas, so we'll still be singing Christmas carols this Sunday. Hope you will join us tomorrow as we can finally sing, "Joy to the World, the Lord is come!"

And hope you will be able to attend the Anticipation Celebration that Cheri will be facilitating on Wednesday, January 1st!

If you are still out of town for the holidays, and we won't see you until Sunday, January 5th, have a safe and blessed New Year's. We'll see you on the first Sunday of 2025! 

Love,
Billy