Dear Friends,
Lent, as we all know, comes early this year, perhaps too early, and is
probably about to catch us somewhat unprepared. It begins on Ash
Wednesday, February 6, and ends, as always, with our celebration of Our
Lord’s Resurrection: the Easter Vigil, Saturday, March 22 (5:30 p.m.)
and Easter Sunday, March 23 (8 and 10:30 a.m.).
Between now and then we have set aside times, programs, services and
fellowship opportunities to help each of us, unprepared as we may now
be, in “the observance of a Holy Lent,” as the invitation on Ash
Wednesday notes.
We invite you, then, to participate in as many of these opportunities as
your busy schedule allows yet also encourage you to be intentional in
setting aside the time to do so. If we all do, when Easter arrives, we
will be able to enter into that celebration fully and faithfully.
On these pages you will find the schedule of all those opportunities. We
invite you to mark your personal calendars now. Please keep this
brochure handy so that you will not miss anything.
Lent
Begins
Shrove Tuesday: February 5
Pancakes & Sausages
Youth program annual fundraiser
Serving from 4:30 - 7 p.m. in the Parish Hall.
$3 child/senior | $5 teen/adult | $15 family
Ash Wednesday: February 6
Holy Eucharist with Imposition of Ashes
7 a.m. (quiet), 12 noon (quiet), 7 p.m. (choral)
Weekly at Christ Church
Sundays in Lent
Saturdays: 5:30 p.m.
Sundays: 8 and 10:30 a.m.
Our services begin with the Penitential Order to remind us of the theme
of this season. Periods of silence will be incorporated into the service
to help us enter more deeply into the spirit and the Spirit.
Wednesdays in Lent
Worship: 5:30 p.m.
Taizé and Stations of the Cross
(alternating weeks)
Supper: 6:00 p.m.
Suggested donation: $3-5
Program: 6:30 p.m.
Manners and Morals
(see facing pages)
Small Groups
Lectio Divina
This is “holy reading” of scripture. It can be done individually or with
a small group. We are encouraging everyone to “try it, you’ll like it”
during Lent this year. We hope that you can do it with a friend or two
or three at some set time every week. This could be over a meal or a cup
of tea (or a beer), any time of the day or evening, anywhere it works
for your small group.
It would involve reading a short passage of scripture, possibly one of
the readings from the daily lectionary, and sharing some thoughts about
it in a systematic manner.
This experience opens scripture in a new way and deepens relationships.
So think about who you might “group” with and when. Simple formats for
group and individual use will be available in the office and in the
narthex.
Lenten MDG Focus: Episcopal Relief and
Development
At Christ Church we are answering the Presiding Bishop’s call for the
first Sunday in Lent to be Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday,
engaging in the Episcopal Church’s ongoing commitment to fight extreme
poverty and disease.
However, we won’t stop there.
Take home the special booklet, Seeking to Serve, and use it to reflect
on your faith and the ways in which you can help Episcopal Relief and
Development empower vulnerable people to be the agents of their own
positive change.
Throughout lent, prayerfully consider your financial contribution to the
Millennium Development Goals Inspiration Fund, a joint initiative of
Episcopal Relief and Development, Jubilee Ministries and the Executive
Council of the Episcopal Church. You will find an insert in your
bulletin on February 9/10 that outlines what your gift will provide. Our
gifts will be gathered and made part of our worship offerings on Palm
Sunday weekend.
Commit yourself to knowing more fully the Millennium Development Goals.
What are the actual goals? Why do we need them? What can one person do
to achieve them? What can we do together?
Pray. Pray for the fulfillment of these Goals. Pray for those who are
desperately awaiting fulfillment. Pray for those who are taking action.
Pray for your action.
Manners and Morals: Being Christian in an Uncivil World
Wednesdays in Lent, 6:30 p.m.
Why does there seem to be so much uncivil behavior in our world today?
Where have our manners gone at home, at work, at school, in the
marketplace, everywhere? Bullying, road rage, web rants, back-stabbing,
impolite discourse seem to be common and, sadly, even accepted and,
worse yet, expected.
Why? What does our faith have to say about all this? How can our faith
form and inform our conversations and actions? How can our faith
transform, or at least begin to transform, all those places where we
live and move and have our being?
On Wednesday evenings this Lent we will take some time to examine the
issue, the reality of trying to be a Christian in an uncivil world. We
may not like what we hear because some of this uncivil behavior and
uncivil language arises from the person who looks back at us in the
mirror every morning.
Whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not, we are all part of the
problem. We are also all part of the solution. We will talk about it,
try to understand it, even get a handle on it. At the end of our time
together, perhaps we will become even more aware of this sad reality.
Even more, we will have some tools on how to become agents of change,
both in our own lives and those with whom we live and work and play.
Session One: Wednesday, February 13
Manners and Morals Begin at Home
So much of who we are and how we behave is a learned behavior and that
learning begins at home. What have we learned and what do we need to
unlearn?
Session Two: Wednesday, February 20
Manners and Morals at Work and at School
Both at work and in school we are forced to encounter those whose
behavior is both unmannerly and uncivil. How do we deal with such
behavior? Are we part of the problem?
Session Three: Wednesday, February 27
Manners and Morals in Communications
In our hi-tech world of instant messaging, the ever-present cell phone,
talk radio and blogs in abundance where ranting is an acceptable way of
communicating, no one is immune to the temptation to respond in kind.
How do we respond?
Session Four: Wednesday, March 5
Manners and Morals in the Public Square
Rude behavior is everywhere: in the grocery store, on the highway, even
on playgrounds. Rudeness often boils over into rage. How did it get so
out of hand?
Session Five: Wednesday, March 12
Manners and Morals in Politics
We are well into the midst of a presidential campaign that, if true to
form, will only become more and more uncivil. How do we separate the
wheat from the chaff so as not to become the victim? |
