This Spring, after Easter, we will again offer a program on various aspects of the church and our faith. This will prepare interested adults to reaffirm their faith, to be confirmed or to be received into the Anglican Communion.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Welcome to Christ Church! If you are a newcomer or visitor, we want you to know that we are honored by your presence. This is the Lord’s Supper, God’s feast for God’s people. There is always abundance here and there is a place for you. All Christians including young children are welcome to receive Communion at this altar. If for reasons of conscience or practice you do not wish to receive Communion, please nevertheless come forward and simply cross your arms over your chest to receive a blessing.
9 am Adult Ed. Lenten program begins this morning. It’s called “Just Hospitality.” Join our leader, Beth Tjoflat, in the parish hall.
Please join us for coffee in the parish hall. The von Dwingelos are hosting this morning, thank you Gretchen, Courtney, and Harrison.
Marilyn is on retreat through Tuesday night, Feb 23. If you have a personal emergency please contact Mark Delcuze of St. Stephen’s at 203-438-3789.
Join friends from around the diocese at the celebration of Bishop Andrew Smith’s ministry next Sunday. The party begins at 4 pm with worship and morphs into a grand reception. Hosts are the people of Trinity Church, 120 Sigourney Street, in Hartford.
Please recycle your coffee cans with us. The Messy Church Youth Group will be doing a project that involves the coffee cans with plastic lids (we need the lids too). Please leave them in the designated box in the parish hall. Thanks.
Meredith and Sue.
Opportunities to observe a Holy Lent
• Attend Holy Eucharist each Sunday and/or Wednesday
• Our Sunday adult ed Lent program at 9 am. “Just Hospitality”, led by Beth.
• Our Wednesday evening Lent program begins at 7:50 pm after Holy Eucharist. It’s called “Love and Sin-or-to err is human but it feels so divine.” We begin this Wednesday, Feb. 24. Our leader is Marilyn.
• Our Lent Quiet Day is next Saturday, Feb. 27, from 10:30 till 2:30. Janice Frank leads us from a landscape of stress to a peaceful place. We’ll feed you lunch, too. Sign up on list in parish hall so we’ll have enough lunch and materials, as we “Create a Space for Peace.”
Please notify the office or rector if a loved one is in the hospital. Due to privacy issues the hospitals don’t notify us as they did in the past. Thank you.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Welcome to Christ Church! If you are a newcomer or visitor, we want you to know that we are honored by your presence. This is the Lord’s Supper, God’s feast for God’s people. There is always abundance here and there is a place for you. All Christians including young children are welcome to receive Communion at this altar. If for reasons of conscience or practice you do not wish to receive Communion, please nevertheless come forward and simply cross your arms over your chest to receive a blessing.
Today we rejoice that Bradley Shea Wichman becomes an inheritor of the promise of eternal life through Holy Baptism.
God in the News, our adult forum series, continues this morning at 9 am in the parish hall. Next week we begin a new series with Beth entitled “Just Hospitality.”
Please join us for coffee in the parish hall. The Stevens, Sue Klipfel and Joey Davey are hosting this morning, thank you Deborah, Kyle, Sue and Joey.
The church office will be closed tomorrow. Marilyn and Karen are both away.
If you have a personal emergency and need a priest, Monday through Tuesday afternoon please contact Mark Delcuze of St. Stephen’s at 203-438-3789 on Monday and Tuesday (until the Pancake Supper).
The parish administrator is on vacation this week. Joey Davey will cover the office on Tuesday from 10-12 and Meredith will cover the office on Thursday 10-12.
Thanks to them both.
Preparing for the Lenten Season:
• Shrove Tuesday is Feb. 16
Come and have dinner at our annual pancake supper from 5:30-7:30. Cost is $5 individual/$20 per family.
New Pancake Supper Innovation: We will offer chocolate chip pancakes as well as regular this year!
Our Messy Church Youth Group is sponsoring the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper this year on Tuesday, Feb. 16. We need all of you so if you can help flip or fry please call Sue or Meredith.
• Feb. 17 is Ash Wednesday:
Services are at 7 am, (2 pm Meadow Ridge), 4:30 and 7:30.
Where do those ashes come from? The ashes that go on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday are made by burning last year's palms from Palm Sunday. We'll burn them together on Sunday, Feb 14, during coffee hour. Kids and adults, lovers of fire--all welcome. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust . . .
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[This is the text of an interactive sermon, delivered with the aid of the congregation, out of the pulpit, on the morning of the Annual Meeting.]
Today’s Jesus story tells us about how Jesus’ friends saw him work a miracle, and how it made them feel to know that they were with someone who was so powerful--with God.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here’s a question to start us off today. What in the world do pomegranates have to do with today’s lessons? Those great, healthy, juicy fruits that we have pictured on the cover of the bulletin--what do they have to do with today’s lessons? Listen and see.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I wonder how many people here have read this little book--The Purpose Driven Life? It made quite a splash some 5 years ago and sat on the Best Seller List a very long time.
I think that’s the case because it speaks to our yearning to know what we’re here for, what life is really all about, what our role is in the “Big Picture.” In all truth this book is a little too strident in places for me, but nonetheless it did strike quite a chord in our cultural psyche.
Today our gospel tells the story of Jesus telling out HIS purpose to those family and friends who were with him in the synagogue in Nazareth. This little Gospel passage says so much. Let’s take a look at it together.
