Dear friends,
We are headed into a busy time in the next week with the ending of the season of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent.
This Sunday is the last Sunday of Epiphany. Every year Epiphany begins with the wise men following the star to the baby Jesus and ends with the adult Jesus glowing with God’s radiance on a mountaintop with Moses and Elijah. It is traditional to celebrate (think Mardi Gras) before Lent begins. We’ll be doing that Sunday with a pancake brunch after church. To give our pancake flippers an idea of how many people are coming we ask you to RSVP at the link below.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4FACAA28AA8-shrove
One other end-of-Epiphany tradition is to burn palms left over from last year’s Palm Sunday to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday. If you have palm fronds or crosses at home, bring them Sunday to place in the fire. We’ll be doing this in the Beech Grove after brunch.
Those ashes will reappear on Wednesday, March 2, the first day of Lent. Our Ash Wednesday services will be at noon and 7 p.m. After last year of mailing little packets of ashes to everyone along with a “do it yourself” service, it will be a pleasure to have this service in person this year!
When you are in church this Sunday or next Wednesday, we invite you to pick up a booklet of daily readings for Lent, The Pilgrim Way of Lent. They will be in the narthex on the bell table.
We will have a big change the first Sunday in Lent, March 6. We’ll be returning to our pre-pandemic schedule. That means two services on Sunday mornings — at 8:30 and 10:45. And adult Sunday School will be back — from 9:30-10:30. We’ll be starting with a discussion of what life has been like the last two years. Here’s the description:
LEAVING HOME: COMING BACK
Pandemics and Parishes
1. What has it been like to leave?
2. What has it been like to come back?
3. What has been lost? What has been regained?
It feels good to think about being together for these events!