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​​Sunday 
Week of Prayer for Unity
​
​  January 18, 2026
11:00 am
​
  All That We Are
​​
​Bulletin 


​Rev. Dr. Chris Ponnuraj, Preaching
 
Mr. John Strybos, Music Director


Choir: J. J. Haight, Kelly Guerra Sedgwick, Lauren Mitchell, Robert Orbach, Susie Reisinger
​
Join us for our
Friendship and Fellowship Hour
after 11:00 AM service in Bodge Lounge.
 All are welcome. 

Come and share the joy of Christ's love with us.
All are welcome!


Join us for the next showing: 

Harvey

January 17, 2026
Pot Luck dinner at 6 PM
Movie at 7 PM​​
This comedy/fantasy was adapted for the screen from the Pulitzer Prize play stars James Stewart as Ellwood P. Dowd who has an imaginary friend named Harvey, a human sized rabbit that no one except Ellwood sees (and sometimes a few other people get to see).  Much silliness and fun happen as people think he is hallucinating and his sister tries to commit him to a mental institution.


​​​​​​​All are welcome, admission is free.
​For more information or to volunteer, send an email to
[email protected]

​​​​​​​​​

Sunday, February 8​​   
11:00 AM
​​   Restoring Beauty
Racial Justice Sunday
For Super Bowl Sunday Bring in a can of soup for the Yonkers Food Pantry

​ All That We Are
Short Sermon
​Rev. Dr. Chris Ponnuraj, Preaching
​
The gospel reading for this Sunday is from St. John 1: 29 - 42. John the gospel writer reveals to us three important things for us to follow: 1. To be a witness and to tell others that Jesus came to take away the sins of this world, 2. Jesus is the Only Son of God and 3. Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit.

We find John the Baptist playing a particular role. John the Baptist was viewed by many as the top spiritual leader of his time. John the Baptist knew his true role was that of supporting Jesus who was the Son of God and a true spiritual leader. John the Baptist knew that Jesus had been born to play a certain role in the life of Israel and the world. John the Baptist tells us in this passage that there was one who was coming after him and will outrank him. 

In our passage we can also see another important personality John the disciple of Jesus and writer of John Gospel. History tells us that this person would later on be called the "disciple whom Jesus loved". Our writer at no time focuses on himself. Like John the Baptist John the evangelist (disciple of Jesus) understands that Jesus must be the focus. Both of them understand that Jesus outranks them. They understand that their role is that of being a witness for Jesus. 

Both the Evangelist and the Baptizer saw their role (their mission) in life to be a witness for Jesus. They saw their mission in life to tell others what they had experienced in Jesus. It was their desire to never be the center of attention but instead to make sure that they were doing all they could do to make Jesus the center of attention. They wanted people to know and experience Jesus.

The role they played here at the Jordan River and in the writing of this Gospel is the same role that you and I are called to play. More than anything else in this life we are called to play the role of being a witness for Jesus Christ. We are called to testify about who Jesus is and what He has done in our lives and is able to do in the lives of others. 
We must always remember that it is very easy to forget our mission. It's easy to forget that our main role as Christians in this life is to be a witness for Jesus. It's easy to be tempted to take our eyes off of Jesus and put them on ourselves or our own desired programs and agendas. It is easy for us to even think that the Church is for us and our needs, instead of lifting up the name of Jesus in praise and worship. It's even easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we get to choose where we want to go to church. Where we go should be solely our choice. That we get to pick a place where we like the music, where the programs meet our needs and where we like a particular pastor/preacher. And then when we get unhappy or upset we can simply walk away. The truth is Jesus should be leading us to the place that He wants us to serve. 

At times, even as a connected body of Christ, we forget that our role is that of witnessing about and for Jesus. At times we get the misguided idea that our main job is constructing some building or fellowship hall. We get the idea that we have to be busy doing something but so often that something has very little to do with true witnessing.

To learn more please join us in worship
with us on Sundays at
11: 00 AM. 
Peace! 
Rev. Dr. Christopher Ponnuraj
Minister

​~ All Year Long ~
Ongoing Food Collection
The Board of World Service collects
​ food donations for the
Yonkers Emergency Food Pantry,
which distributes them to families in Yonkers. 
Non-perishable food can be brought to the church
any Sunday and left in the large basket
in the back of the Sanctuary. 
Monetary donations are welcome, too;
checks can be written to West Center Congregational Church, noting "Yonkers Food Pantry"
​on the memo line and can be left in the offering plate on Sunday.

With the holidays coming up sooner than we think, the stores already have displays of side dish food for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners -- how about picking up a couple of things for the Food Pantry?  No matter what you can give, all donations are much appreciated!
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​
​Contact us:

Church Office: 101 Pondfield Road West,
Bronxville, NY 10708
Email: [email protected]
​Phone: (914) 337-3829
​​​Your Donations help us to continue with
our Missions during these trying times!

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