March 20, 2014



Spring comes to St. Andrew's?

Services for this coming Sunday, March 23rd, The Third Sunday in Lent, will be at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. We hope you will join us for worship and fellowship.

Readings for this Sunday: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42.

Baptismal Preparation and Inquirers’ Class will continue this Sunday, beginning at about 11:25 in the Prince Room. Some people are preparing for baptism; others are preparing to godparent; others are ready for a refresher in Bible, the church, prayer, and exploring how our faith prepares us to be “People of the Way.” We plan to meet each Sunday during Lent at this time slot (after church on Sundays for about 45 minutes). All are welcome!

Wednesday Lenten Simple Suppers: Eight of us gathered for the first of our Lenten Suppers. We ate in silence, savoring our food, as we listened to passages – some humorous, some startling, all quite poignant – from Godric, by Frederick Buechner, which in turn led to some thoughtful and significant conversation. We closed with an informal table eucharist. We will meet with a similar format but different readings and different soups. Please talk to Carolyn Boldt (767-0533) if you would be willing to provide soup, bread, or salad.

Boy Scout News:  Troop 151, the local troop that we support and for whom we provide a meeting place, took third place in the cooking competition at the Abnaki District Klondike — a one-day event.  That night, the troop was invited to camp with Troop 150 of Conway at the CCC camp.  They also won, for the second time in seven years, the Honor Award for cooperation and organization among themselves.

Updates on birthdays and anniversaries: As you know, we always include birthdays and anniversaries in the Sunday bulletin and in the Prayers of the People. This is a way that assures that we as a community can offer to God prayers of gratitude for your presence in the world and that we can have the opportunity to greet you with our love and best wishes. If your birthday or anniversary seems to have passed unnoticed, that is probably an indication that the office does not have that information about you. Please email Debra, or jot it down and leave a note in her basket in the office. 
Stations of the Cross: Many churches have a matched set of images of the “Way of the Cross,” representing fourteen stopping points for prayer traditionally associated with our Lord’s passion and death. To the best of my knowledge, St. Andrew’s has never had such a set. What we do have, and which we set up each year on Good Friday, is a set of mounted photo-copied evocative block prints. It occurred to a few of us last year that it might be interesting to put together our own set, using copies of works of art (from any era) depicting the fourteen traditional stations, which are listed below. If this project speaks to you and you have any images (perhaps postcards from museums or travel, reproductions, or contemporary images that evoke one or more of the stations, bring them in and I will scan them to a uniform size and we can create our own, unique set for use during Holy Week and for our walking of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday.

I  Jesus is condemned to death
II Jesus takes up his cross
III Jesus fall the first time
IV Jesus meets his afflicted mother
V  The Cross I s laid on Simon of Cyrene
VI A woman wipes the face of Jesus
VII Jesus falls a second time
VIII Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
IX Jesus fall a second time
X  Jesus is stripped of his garments
XI Jesus is nailed to the Cross
XII Jesus dies on the Cross
XIII The body of Jesus is placed in the arms of his mother
IXV Jesus is laid in a tomb
Food for thought … from our Wednesday evening reading
from Godric, by Frederick Buechner [Goderic was an 11th century Celtic saint]

Godric’s View of Prayer
What’s prayer? It’s shooting shafts into the dark. What mark they strike, if any, who’s to say? It’s reaching for a hand you cannot touch. The silence is so fathomless that prayers like plummets vanish in the sea. You beg. You whimper. You load God down with empty praise. You tell him sins that he already knows full well. You seek to change his changeless will. Yet Godric prays the way he breathes, for else his heart would wither in his breast. Prayer is the wind that fills his sail. Else waves would dash him on the rocks, or he would drift with witless tides. And sometimes, by God’s grace, a prayer is heard.

See you in church!
Blessings, Heidi+