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April 02, 2006

Interim Rector's Reflections - April

Dear Friends,

The best Lent I ever had was when I discovered in prayer that Jesus knew my name and gave me bread to eat. In that moment I knew Jesus to be both fully human and fully divine—something I had known only in my head until that Lent. How did I get to that new way of knowing God’s love? Through learning a new way to pray, participating in a Lenten program and being part of a church that took spiritual growth seriously. Easter was a glorious celebration that year!

As we approach Holy Week and Easter, I hope you are preparing yourselves spiritually to enter into this time when we proclaim the death and resurrection of Christ. One of my concerns as your pastor is that some people may still be carrying hurt and resentment from the events of that past year. The clergy are available to anyone who would like to talk about forgiveness and reconciliation. On Sunday, April 2 our services will give special attention to reconciliation. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to arrive at Easter free of the burdens of past events?

Holy Week: Our desire is to have as many people as possible participate in liturgies for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil. This sequence of services is truly powerful and a wonderful time to introduce friends to the Episcopal Church. On Thursday we will focus on the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. We will have beautiful music for this service, which will close with the stripping of the altar. We
also propose to have a vigil in the chapel if we have enough people sign up. Our Good Friday service will be similar to last year’s service, and we hope to have a program for families that day also. We will have the first service of Easter on Saturday night, complete with baptisms.

And then we get to EASTER! Come and experience the joy of the Resurrection and the gift of new life. The promise of Easter is that God has triumphed over sin and death; with Easter comes the gift of hope.

Make a promise to yourself now that you will enter into Christ’s passion and resurrection with all your heart!

Faithfully, Anne