Discipleship is sometimes about a passion for the details that keep a church healthy and growing - and sometimes that means a passion for hardware! Our deep thanks for the many talents of SMT member Bob Moore, who has carefully selected and tested a new PC, amplifier and software that replaces our fading 1970's vintage carillon with worry-free and flexible capabilities - for a small fraction of an equivalent "old-tech" replacement unit! You can hear the results below in the YouTube video. It is scheduled to play at noon, 6PM, at school openings and closings, and before services on Sundays.

​Bob's plumbing know-how has also given us a very reliable and durable new kitchen sink faucet (photo below video). We thank Bob for his steadfast love for our church, and his dedication to service!

 On a (very!) cold Winter's morning, we had a great turnout to continue our celebration of the coming of Christ into the world. ​Our Lay Leader Sally Dow and our Music Director Laurie Brandl shared the back-stories of some of our most popular Christmas carols, as we enjoyed a sing-along, and heartfelt prayers and hymns. Announcements, stories, and prayers on the podcast. Have a blessed New Year!

Joy to the world! Come celebrate Christ's birth this Christmas Eve in our beautiful church sanctuary, and let God create joy-filled memories that will make this a very special Christmas in your heart.

At 10AM this Sunday, December 24th, our worship service will be the setting for our annual Christmas Pageant, when the whole church comes together to tell the story of how we need to put God's love into Christmas. It's a very special story that will make you appreciate what our faith brings to this most important celebration.

Then at 7PM, celebrate Christmas with our candlelight carol service, when heart-warming favorite carols will help us all to appreciate the holiness of Christ's birth in human history, and in our lives today. Experience a traditional Christmas Eve that will bring Christ into your life like a newborn child.

On Monday, Christmas Day, weather permitting, the church will be open at 9AM for a very informal prayer service and singalong, for those who want to start their Christmas celebration on a note of joy and gratitude. Please check our signboard if weather becomes a factor.

Have a blessed, merry, and joy-filled Christmas, knowing that God loves you, our church loves you, and that all the world can be transformed by God's amazing love in Christ, one person at a time. All things are possible! Amen!

ur church as a alive with celebration, fellowship and mission on Sunday, as we redicovered Christian joy during our worship, singing our New Testament lesson, while our children and youths had fun assembling gingerbread houses during Sunday school. Afterwards, we had a warm lunch to prepare us for caroling at the homes of our church friends who are at home or in rehab. At one of our stops at the Masonicare center, we sang for more than twenty-five neighbors who had been invited, and Pastor John slipped in a short sermon message about Christian joy.

During the caroling, a mission team led by Mary Barker and Linda Kirk, with our secretary Dawn Pelletier participating, put together a very warm Christmas celebration for more than thirty men at Meriden's ShelterNow shelter. They received a very hearty meal including snacks, salads, pulled pork, mac and cheese, Puerto Rican rice, and lots of desserts, as well as Christmas gifts, health kits, and a special "door prize" of bonus gifts! The men were very grateful, and filled with the joy of being cared for by our church family who makes this mission their "real" Christmas gift to themselves and to the world!

Enjoy photos from the day's events below the podcast, and hear our worship prayers, announcements and Pastor John Blossom's sermon "Homecoming" on the podcast below; text for his sermon is here and below the photo slideshow. Get ready for our Christmas pageant at 10Am on the 24th, our special luncheon, and our classic Christmas Eve candlelight service at 7PM that evening. Be blessed with the joy of Advent!

We are entering the season of Advent joy - and we are bringing this joy to some of our church family who need it most! Come join us for a journey to these families with song and prayers in our hearts on Sunday, December 17th after worship and fellowship with a special meal, followed by departing in our cars (carpooling suggested) at 12.15. We expect to visit five church families who will rejoice in the presence of Christian hope! Please contact Debbie Moore for details.

Welcome to a new Christian year, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus as the beginning of Christ being born again in us. Are you ready for a fresh look at your life? Are you ready to get a new perspective on how you can live it with God? Our four Advent Sundays will feature moving celebrations of Christ's coming, and messages that will make this a very special Christmas celebration. Our celebrations will include:

• Christmas in the Village Saturday Afternoon, December 2nd - our church opens its doors to the thousands of people visiting South Meriden's Christmas in the Village celebration, offering free refreshments, gifts, and fantastic displays of many traditional nativity scenes and a miniature village.
• Celebrate Hope Sunday, December 3rd, 10AM - Begin Advent with the beginning of God preparing to reshape the world, and our lives, in spite of our shortcomings.
• Celebrate Love Sunday, December 10th, 10AM - The prophets invite us to be comforted by the all-powerful God, who wants to hold us close with loving comfort.
• Celebrate Joy Sunday, December 17th, 10AM - Be anointed with the joy of Christian rebirth, as we anoint you with a renewal of your baptism, and seal it with the oil of gladness.
• Celebrate Peace (Christmas Pageant) Sunday, December 24th, 10AM - Children and adults tell a very powerful story about what forgetting Christmas means in a world that needs God's peace!!
• Celebrate Jesus Sunday, December 24th, 7PM - Our traditional candlelight Christmas Eve worship service celebrates the peace that the birth of Jesus, the Christ, our Savior, brings to the world - and us!
• Celebrate Christmas Monday, December 25th, 9AM - Come exactly as you are - because that's just how Jesus came into the world! A brief celebration for families will start your Christmas day on a note of faith!

We hope that you'll try faith South Meriden Trinity UMC-style this year, and grow in God's grace along with us. May the blessings of Christmas fill your life with hope, love, joy, and peace in Christ!

How can we be Christians who are "the real deal," the ones who people hope to meet when they peek into our church, live with us at home, or meet us in the store or at work? On Sunday we heard the first of Pastor John Blossom's sermons on the "Three Simple Rules" of Methodist faith - John Wesley's general rules that are the foundation of our Methodist way of life.

​Rule #1: Do no harm! So simple, so hard, and, through faith in Jesus Christ, exactly what God wants us to do. Audio, slides and text from worship on the podcast, and text from Pastor John's sermon here and below the podcast. This coming Sunday: Learn how Methodists are to do good! The book "Three Simple Rules: a Wesleyan way of Living" are available in the rear of the church. See you soon!

South Meriden Trinity UMC has always been passionate about music that calls us to faith. Since our bell tower was added in 1915 to our original 1872 church building, music has pealed from it to call people to God's grace and love. In recent years, though, our automated carillon system that plays bell music has been limited to manual operation. Bob Moore, a member of our Board of Trustees, was able to restore the carillon to full working order recently. Now, God's call to grace rings out again twice a day! What a joy to bring the music of faith to the world again.

With our beloved Music Director Laurie Brandl on vacation for two weeks, South Meriden Trinity was blessed to have a special guests to fill in for leading worship music. Sue and Ken Paulsen, guitarists and singers, were joined by guest Justine Guckin and our choir, providing joyful renditions of familiar and loved hymns and some new sounds. Sue, Ken, and Justine are members of the Tres Dias interdenominational Christian fellowship, and brought their passion for faith to enliven our summer worship. Laurie continued to support us "in absentia" with recordings of some of our worship music, so familiar and new sounds filled our church.

Thank you for bringing your joyful sounds, Sue, Ken, and Justine, hopefully you can join Laurie in helping us to celebrate faith in South Meriden again!

You can read a printable version of Pastor John's sermon for this Sunday, "More than Luck," here, or below.