“Pastor’s Letter January 2021”

Happy New Year!  Welcome to the year 2021!  Let us look to this New Year as an opportunity to do new things, thereby expanding our ministry outreach to those around us! 

Let us, together, look to the year ahead with new hope and optimism!  It will not be an easy transition into our future, we know this.  Yet we must look to all we still have and what can still be in our future.  The tragedy of the human loss due to the pandemic and the heartache caused by economic upheaval, has changed our lives and how we gather to worship our God!  The divisiveness within our society has threatened to erode our way of life as a free democracy.  Let us, members, and friends of Riviera United Church of Christ, not allow the turmoil that has besieged us and our neighbors and our works as a community of faith, let us not allow this turmoil to further damage our ministry into the communities we serve.  Let us return to our basic rudiments of faith, turning to our God in prayer seeking direction and new hope for the future.

We turn now to the teaching of Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit to give us new spirit and new energy to push forward into this New Year!  May God’s grace and mercy be upon us as we seek to be the living body of Christ in the community we serve! 

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Tim Woodard