🕊️ And So I Chose to Begin Again — A reminder that new beginnings are not about erasing the past, but choosing how we step forward.

Worship Service – January 4, 2026 | Second Sunday After Christmas

Bulletin – 01-04-2026

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:7–14

This Sunday at Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, we gathered on the Second Sunday After Christmas and the first Sunday of the new year—standing at a threshold where memory and possibility meet. Worship invited us not to rush past what has been, but to step deliberately into what is becoming.

From the opening prayers to the final blessing, the service was shaped by the language of homecoming—not as a return to something lost, but as a reawakening to a sacred presence that has never left us. We named the weight of the past year honestly, while affirming that we are not defined by it.

Our scripture from Jeremiah 31:7–14 offered a vision of gathering and restoration: a people brought home, mourning turned to joy, lives renewed like a lush garden. This was not a promise of ease, but of movement—God leading the people forward with intention, care, and hope.

In his sermon, “A Word for the Journey This Year,” Pastor Chris invited the congregation to consider the year ahead not as a blank slate, but as a call. A call to begin again—not by striving to become someone new, but by choosing to live more fully into who we already are, grounded in God’s presence and love.

A central moment in worship was the White Stone Ceremony, a sacred practice inviting each person to listen for a word to guide their intentions, actions, and becoming in the year ahead. These words were received not as resolutions to be perfected, but as invitations to be lived—quiet companions for the journey forward.

Music carried this theology throughout the service, offering welcome, courage, and resolve. From the opening tribute to Richard Smallwood to hymns that proclaimed hope, presence, and liberation, worship reminded us that faith is not only believed—it is practiced, sung, and embodied.

📖🙏 Order of Worship Highlights:

• Prelude: “A Tribute to Richard Smallwood”
• Introit: “Welcome to This House”
• Hymn of Joy: “What a World of Sound”
• Special Music: “Joseph’s Song” — Ed Vickery
• Sermon: “A Word for the Journey This Year” — Rev. Christopher Czarnecki
• Sacred Practice: White Stone Ceremony
• Communion Hymn: “Jesus Is Here Right Now”
• Closing Hymn: “Live into Hope”
• Postlude: “Sleep Holy Babe”

“We are no longer defined by our past, but by who we are choosing to become.”