Holy Week and Easter
What a wonderful Palm Sunday service last Sunday! Two baptisms, plus, the music was inspiring, and the palm processional was beautiful. Not to mention the pancake breakfast prepared and served by our youth. I'm told 275 folks came to breakfast. So much fun to see so many of you last Sunday.
This week is Holy Week, an important week in the life of our faith and in the church. I hope you'll be able to take part in some or all of the opportunities and join us for worship on Easter Sunday. If you have family or friends in town, bring them along. I'd love to meet them. Feel free to invite a friend or two, as well.
Here's the Holy Week schedule and something to reflect on as we go through the next few days.
HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE
Maundy Thursday Service | April 17, 6:30 p.m. Join us in the sanctuary for a brief service and communion in remembrance of the Last Supper. “Maundy” means mandate: the command that we love one another as Christ has loved us. Then experience the Stations of the Cross with artwork created by our Artists Place of Belonging group.
Good Friday Seven Last Words | April 18, 6:30 p.m. Join our friends at Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church for this special Good Friday service.
Easter Sunday Service | April 20, 10 a.m. Our Easter Sunday service is always a highlight, with a blooming Easter Garden and extra-special music. There will also be snacks and coffee in the Gathering Room afterward. And, as I mentioned last Sunday, we've put out a call for folks to bring some snacky goodness. If you'd like to bring something, just drop it off in the Gathering Room before the service.
FOR REFLECTION
For reflection this Holy Week, let me offer you these words from M. Shawn Copeland:
If we, who would be his disciples, recall the night before Jesus died, we are led to a table, from a table to a garden, from a garden to a courtyard, from a courtyard to a hill, from a hill to a grave, from a grave to life. The table holds the self-gift of his very flesh and blood; the garden is watered by his tears and blood; and the cross holds him, even as the One whom he knows and loves lifts him up from the grave to release him into the surprise of hope and life.*
Much love,
Pastor Gregg
*M. Shawn Copeland, Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience