Music and Worship
By Jody Fuller
How have you seen God at work in your ministry over the year?
God has blessed us with active and dedicated volunteers who gave their time and talent to serve as ushers, prepare the chancel for worship and the sacraments, share beautiful songs that uplift our souls, lead worship singing, create beautiful flower arrangements, operate the audiovisual, and offer Livestream worship every Sunday!
Please list the activities of your ministry this past year.
NEW HYMNAL
We are incredibly grateful to Hugh Wilkinson for his generous donation of ¥1,106,484 to purchase new hymnals for our congregation. This contribution allowed us to update and enhance our worship experience with a wider selection of hymns and songs. The new hymnals will be a valuable addition to our congregation, and we appreciate Mr. Wilkinson's generosity in making this possible. Thank you for your support and dedication to our community.
USHER TEAM
Leader - Sam Donkor
The year past was full of blessings and also challenges. Due to the Covid -19, church attendance was down considerably. We faced a shortage of ushers and continue to look for new members for the usher team. Ushers have essential tasks such as giving out bulletins and welcoming people to worship with a smile. Ushers make sure people are comfortably seated. Ushers collect the offering and tidy up the Sanctuary after worship. We welcome all YOU to join the usher team!
Usher Team Members: Theophilus Bannor, Becky Agatsuma, Toshihiro Agatsuma, Carmen Chua, Jody Fuller, Jojo Alade, Keiko Ozaki, Tomoka Tasaka, Devon Arthurson, Jennifer Luvanda, Linda Lau Hirata, Anne Dala*, Mike Tsunashima, Atsuko Tsunashima, Darey-Ann Louisville*, Chie Matsuda, Chika Eto, Larry Mojumdar, Lorraine Mojumdar, Matt Ushida, Philip Jellicoe, Sam Donkor, Tazuko Arai, Vanessa Shiite, Russell Gesling, Anita Gesling, Nancy Pierson, Maki Yamamoto*
Those with star marks are the ones who joined the Team within the past year.
FLOWER GUILD
Leader - Akiko Adachi
Flowers were displayed weekly in the sanctuary with special flowers on Christmas and Easter.
Active members of the flower guild are Tomoko Sakurai, Chika Eto, Hisae Iwasaki and Akiko Adachi.
ALTAR GUILD
Leader - Dima Kato
As the COVID pandemic subsided and more people attended services in person, we were happy to prepare communion for more and more people. We look forward to preparing for more baptisms in the future.
The Altar Guild is very grateful to Jody Fuller, Laurel Yamashita, Anita Gesling, Yumi Hoshi, Yuko Horiuchi, and Yuko Harada, who did the bulk of the work in 2022. The Lord has sent us five more people eager to prepare for the services and the sacraments: Sarah Dusek, Jennifer Luvanda, Yannick Plomteux, Nobuko Sato, and Charles Cook. Sarah, Jennifer, and Yannick prepared 660 candles for the Christmas Eve services and have been replacing the pulpit and lectern paraments. With joy in our hearts, we look forward to serving together.
Altar Guild members: Jody Fuller, Laurel Yamashita, Yuko Horiuchi, Yuko Harada, Suresh Kukde, Nobuko Gaine, April Morito, Dima Kato Altar Guild supporters: Anita Gesling, Yumi Hoshi Altar Guild trainees: Sarah Dusek, Jennifer Luvanda, Yannick Plomto, Nobuko Sato, Charles Cook
SANCTUARY CHOIR
Director - Yuka Omi
The Sanctuary Choir serves 2-3 Sundays a month. The choir sings for the 8:30 and 11:00 worship services on the 1st Sunday of the month and for the 11:00 on the 3rd and 5th Sundays. The choir participated in the 150-anniversary kick-off weekend into Palm Sunday with our virtual choir videos. After two years of reduced numbers of singers allowed to sing in the sanctuary, the full choir resumed at the 150-anniversary service on October 2nd, 2022. The Sanctuary Choir and Union Praise Choir joined together and sang “Gather to Offer You” for this very special event. We welcomed several new members into the choir and welcomed back returning members. We took a break from having Choir Sunday during the pandemic but will resume it in June 2023. While we sang our traditional public domain songs, we added some contemporary repertoire to our list. We seek a way to present our favorite repertoire that touches our spiritual and musical soul and complies with the license requirements.
UNION PRAISE TEAM
Leaders - Lorene Abella Clemens, Madoka Yoshida, Brad Schmidt
We are blessed with singers who show their love of Christ through song. UPT sings various music and especially focuses on praise music that fills our hearts during worship. A special Christmas concert was held in December featuring singers and instrumentalists from TUC and guest musicians. TAIZE WORSHIP Leader - Nancy Pierson Taize worship services were a regular part of worship on the 4th Sunday of each month. We thank Nancy Pierson, coordinator and singer for Taize worship, and all the singers and instrumental musicians who support this special worship service. We thank Pastor Steve for his active role as a singer and guitarist.
AV and LIVESTREAM TEAM
Leader - Jonathan Oh
We joyfully serve the Tokyo Union Church congregation by providing a positive in-person and online worship experience. Over the past year, we have redeveloped our team to balance the service loads better and improve the worship service's audio and visual aspects. We praise God that we could be a part of the 150th-anniversary services and programs, and we are thankful that we could resume using lyrics on our projections and online services. Our team is beginning to have occasional lunches together to have deeper fellowship and to grow as a community. In the coming months, we hope to increase the number of members on both the AV and Livestream teams and to develop an improved structure for our operations to make it more enjoyable and efficient. Your prayers and support are always appreciated, and we always welcome new members to join the team!
Here are the team members who served during the 2022 year: (AV) David Berg, M. Catala, Ayumi Ito, Jimu, Risa Kikura, Ren Kubo, Isaac Lee, Kanehira Mitani Jonathan Oh, Rance del Rosario, Daiki Sasaki, Brad Schmidt, Remi Yamazaki (Livestream Hosting) Nee Lam, Winnie Langelaar, Jonathan Oh, Vanessa Sihite, Maya Tatsuno
With grateful hearts, we thank the Pastoral Team of Steve Yamaguchi and Hector Herrera for their leadership, support, and encouragement of everyone on the Worship and Music Ministry Team.