Christmas Eve Services

Outdoor Worship

Thursday, Dec. 24, 3:00 pm
In the Parking Lot


A recorded Christmas Eve Candlelight Service will be available here on December 24 featuring special vocals and the “All That Brass” teen Jazz ensemble.

Donations for the band are appreciated and may be made to St. Stephen’s.

Third Sunday in Advent – December 13, 2020

Please join our hearts in worship this Sunday by participating in the recorded service (above). Have some bread and “fruit of the vine” ready for Holy Communion. This Advent liturgy was the inspiration of our dearly departed Rev. Bonnie Bell. She always felt that these familiar songs of Christmas- time were the only ones that non-church-going people knew and would like to sing. So we formed a liturgy where we could sing them more often as they related to the different parts of our traditional liturgy in hopes of making new people feel more welcome. I hope they bring some joy to your life.

[Read more…]

Second Sunday in Advent – December 6, 2020

The Second Sunday of Advent we light the candle of Peace on our advent wreath. We hear about how God hopes for us to live peacefully and comforted. John the Baptist is introduced as one who is preparing the way for that peace to come to all humanity. The way it comes is by turning our hearts toward God – repentance. As God’s church, we are the ones who trying to show the world this better way by striving to do our best to live as God intends.

[Read more…]

First Sunday in Advent – November 29, 2020

Stir up your power, and come! The psalmist’s plea in Psalm 80:2 has become familiar to us in the Advent prayers. Isaiah wants God to rip the heavens open. Both cry out for an apparently distant, angry God to show up, to save, to restore. When we hear Jesus describing the coming of the Son of Man with stars falling from heaven, it can sound dire and horrible, not like anything we would ever hope for. But when we really look at the suffering of people God loves, we can share the hope that God would tear open the heavens and come.

[Read more…]

Christ the King Sunday – November 22, 2020

Worship service for Christ the King Sunday, recorded outdoors at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Santa Cruz, California on November 22, 2020.

Jesus compares himself to a king who moves among his subjects to see how he is treated: what is done for the least of those who belong to his family is truly done for him. Pastor Jim expands on our opportunities to serve “the least of these”.