Thursday Memo: March 2013

March 28, 2013

Holy Week, and Easter Services

² Good Friday, March 29^th. Church open all day for prayer.
Noon to 2 PM: Meditations on the Seven Last Words. Come and go as you are able.
2 PM: The Stations of the Cross.
7 PM: Good Friday liturgy with solemn collects
and communion from the reserved sacrament

² Holy Saturday, March 30^th: A day for solemn reflection and preparation
8 PM: The Great Vigil of Easter with the kindling of the new fire, vigil readings,
reaffirmation of baptismal vows, and the First Eucharist of Easter

² Easter Sunday, March 31^st: The Day of Resurrection
8 AM: Holy Eucharist, spoken
10 AM: Festival Eucharist with hymns, choir, and organ

² The Second Sunday of Easter, April 7^th 9 AM: ONE service only. The Easter story and celebration continues.

We hope you will be with us for worship, celebration, and fellowship!

Coming to the Easter Vigil? Following the vigil readings, one of which will be enacted by the children of the parish, the turning point of the liturgy comes at the moment of the Easter acclamation, which is accompanied by much jubilant and raucous bell-ringing. So please bring your bells so that you can join in the excitement!

The Triduum has begun, the three holy days that enfold us now – from the foot-washing and Institution of the Last Supper, through the solemnity of Good Friday, until the breaking-in of the Easter acclamation at the Vigil that “He is risen!” We are invited to think of this time as one single service in the midst of which we will live and move and pray and weep and sing and have our being until the dismissal at the close of the Easter Vigil. And then, we will be charged to live fully, in the world, as Easter people – people of the resurrection.

The Good Friday Offering for the Church in the Holy Lands: It is the tradition of the church to give special attention and prayer to the church in the lands where Jesus walked, a place torn by struggles, in which the Episcopal Church is a strong and active presence, not just for Palestinian Christians, but for people of all faiths. Envelopes are available at church. For more details:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/notice/episcopal-church-presiding-bishop-writes-congregations-about-good-friday-offering-jerusalem-1

Food for thought as we approach the Resurrection, from Barbara Brown Taylor…
The tomb was just the cicada shell with the neat slit down its back. The living being that had once been inside of it was gone. The singing was going on somewhere else, which may be why Peter and the other disciple did not stay very long. Clearly, Jesus was not there. He could have stayed put, I guess, sitting there all pink and healthy between the two piles of clothes so that everyone could come in and see him, but that is not what he did.

He had outgrown his tomb, which was too small a focus for the resurrection. The risen one had people to see and things to do. The living one’s business was among the living, to whom he appeared not once but four more times in the Gospel of John. Every time he came to his friends they became stronger, wiser, kinder, more daring. Every time he came to them, they became more like him.

Those appearances cinch the resurrection for me, not what happened in the tomb. What happened in the tomb was entirely between Jesus and God. For the rest of us, Easter began the moment the gardener said,“Mary!” and she knew who he was. That is where the miracle happened and goes on happening – not in the tomb, but in the encounter with the living Lord.

Blessings in the Holy time,
Heidi+

Ladies in Black (and white) at the Palm Sunday service.

Wednesday of Holy Week Supper gathering.

March 21, 2013

Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter Services

² Palm Sunday, March 24^th: Services at 8 and 10. Holy Week begins.
10:00 Liturgy begins with the blessing of the Palms in the Parish Hall and the Procession of the People into the church.

² Wednesday of Holy Week, March 27^th: Morning Prayer at 9 AM in the church
6 PM Reflective Simple Supper with conversation in the Prince Room, followed by a service of Evensong in the church.

² Maundy Thursday, March 28^th: Liturgy of the day at 7 PM with foot washing, the Institution of the Lord’s Supper, Holy Eucharist, and the stripping of the altar.

² Easter Sunday, March 31^st: The Day of Resurrection
8 AM: Holy Eucharist, spoken
10 AM: Festival Eucharist with hymns, choir, and organ

² The Second Sunday of Easter, April 7^th 9 AM: ONE service only. The Easter story and celebration continues.

We hope you will be with us for worship, celebration, and fellowship!

Wednesday Evening of Holy Week: You are invited to come together with other members of the parish at sic o’clock for a simple, candle-lit supper of soup, salad, bread and comfortable conversation, followed by Evening Prayer.

Take a look at the bulletin board in the Parish Hall for reports form Sammie Wakefield as she works with Eleanore's Project in Peru! Or click here for the blog: http://www.eleanoresproject.org/blog/2013/03/stories-and-photos/

Food for thought and reflection from Mark Brown, SSJE as we begin this of many liturgies and many Psalms.

The Psalms are full of emotional honesty and transparency—even the truth about our ugliest impulses. Rage, resentment, and violent retribution, even the cursing of others: it’s all there in the Psalms. If we pray with this kind of honesty, and live with this kind of truth telling, we approach the presence of light and life. Truth telling leads us toward fuller life.

Join us as we walk this week together!

Blessings, Heidi+

March 14, 2013

Services for this coming Sunday, March 17^th and The Fifth Sunday of Lent, will be at 8 and 10 am with Coffee hour following the service.

Dialogue sermon last Sunday.
Everyone looks to Kathy and to Kitty Lou below for their contributions.

Readings for this Sunday:
Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8

Easter Flower envelopes are in the pews. We depend on your contributions for our Easter Flowers. Please turn your envelopes in to the office by March 20th. Thank you.

Take a look at the bulletin board in the Parish Hall for reports form Sammie Wakefield as she works with Eleanore's Project in Peru!

The Tuesday Group will be meeting this week (3/19) for families. We’ll gather at 5:00 pm with our box suppers, eat together, then continue our Lenten Bible study and mask-making work.

Two lively discussion groups of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry have taken place, but there is a call for a third group for folks who have not yet been able to take part. Please contact me (Heidi) directly so that we can work out a time. There are two books remaining available for purchase in the office ($14), or ask around to borrow one.

The rector cuts the Simnel Cake, a special cake traditionally prepared for Mothering Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Food for thought and reflection:

Drawing our prayers: Beginning this Sunday there will be “Prayer Card Packets” available on the bulletin tables. They are an invitation to worshippers of all ages to use during the liturgy (or at other times). These visual expressions of your prayers (…intercessions, thanksgivings, hopes, fears… abstract or otherwise) may be offered by putting them in the offering plate, by putting them in the basket by the sacristy door, or purely by offering them from your heart. This is offered as an approach to being attentive to the Spirit and allowing yourself to be in relationship with the Creator. It is NOT about artistic perfection! Perhaps the important part of this prayer is in the drawing – in our opening of ourselves to our deepest longings and feelings. If trying it in church feels to “public,” take a pen and a blank file card and try it at home. If you’d like, we can talk about how some of these prayer expressions might be shared

See you in church!

Blessings, Heidi+

Looking ahead to Holy Week and Easter Services…

Palm Sunday, March 24

8 and 10 AM: Blessing of the Palms,

the Passion Narrative & Holy Eucharist

Wednesday, March 27
9 AM: Morning Prayer
6 PM: Candlelight soup supper followed by Evensong

Maundy Thursday, March 28
7 PM Liturgy of the Day with foot washing,
Holy Eucharist and the stripping of the altar

Good Friday, March 29
12-2:30 PM: Come and go as needed
            Noon to 2: Meditations on the Seven Last Words
            2:00 Stations of the Cross
7 PM Liturgy of the Day with hymns and
            communion from the reserved sacrament

Holy Saturday, March 30
8 PM The Great Vigil of Easter, with kindling of the new fire,
Vigil readings and the First Eucharist of Easter

Easter Sunday, March 31
8:00 Holy Eucharist Rite I
10:00 Rite II Festival Eucharist with hymns, choir and organ

March 7, 2013

Services for this coming Sunday, March 10^th and the fourth Sunday of Lent, will be at 8 and 10 am with Coffee hour following the service. The Fourth Sunday of Lent is also known as Laudate Sunday, Mothering Sunday, or Refreshment Sunday. In the midst of Lent, almost a “little Easter” or a least a glimpse of Easter down the road. By whatever name, this Sunday we are invited to lighten the austerity of the Lenten season. If we had rose-colored vestments, we would use them! And, who knows … maybe there will be Simnel Cake this year. Come and see!

Turn your clocks ahead before you go to bed Saturday night (9^th)!

Readings for this Sunday:
Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.

Easter Flower envelopes are in the pews. We depend on your contributions for our Easter Flowers. Please turn your envelopes in to the office by the Wed, March 20th. Thank you.

(left) Installation of the new doors to the Parish hall.

Trim, stain and finishing to happen in the near future.

Take a look at the bulletin board in the Parish Hall for reports form Sammie Wakefield aas she works with Eleanore's Project in Peru!

The Tuesday Group will be meeting this week (3/12) for families. We’ll gather at 5:00 pm with our box suppers, eat together, then continue our Lenten Bible study and project.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry discussion group will meet this Tuesday (3/12) at 7:00 in the Prince Room. If you know others who have read the book, invite them to come along. There may be a few Unitarians joining us as well on this portion of our Lenten pilgrimage.

The Women’s Lunch Bunch will meet Wed (3/13) at noon at the Mountain View Station Restaurant in Center Ossipee. If you have questions, please contact Dale Appleton. All are welcome.

Food for thought as we approach the Fourth Sunday of Lent,

Now quit your care and anxious fear and worry;
for schemes are vain and fretting brings no gain.
Lent calls to prayer, to trust and dedication;
God brings new beauty nigh;
reply, reply with love to love most high.

To bow the head in sackcloth and in ashes,
or rend the soul, such grief is not Lent’s goal;
but to be led to where God’s glory flashes,
his beauty to come near.
Make clear, make clear where truth and light appear.

For righteousness and peace will show their faces
to those who feed the hungry in their need, and wrongs redress,
who build the old waste places, and in the darkness shine.
Divine, divine it is when all combine!

Then shall your light break forth as doth the morning;
your health shall spring, the friends you make shall bring
God’s glory bright, your way through life adorning;
and love shall be the prize.
Arise! Arise, and make a paradise!
Hymn 145, word by Percy Dearmer (1867-1936)

Blessings,
Heidi+