Dear faithful people of Saint Peter’s Church:
Lent at Saint Peter’s is always a powerfully meaningful and often transformational period. Lent 2019 is no different. Beginning tomorrow with the liturgies of Ash Wednesday (click
HERE for the Ash Wednesday schedule) and concluding with Bach’s Saint John Passion on Good Friday (click
HERE for more information). As usual, Sundays in Lent are always celebrations of Christ’s resurrection with masses at 9:00 and 11:00 in the morning and Misa at 1:30 in the afternoon, but this year I want to call your attention to two particular every Sunday events that ought not be missed.
6:00 p.m. Jazz Vespers has for the past several years been Prayers around the Cross. I urge everyone to attend at least one of these during this season. Ike Sturm has crafted a deeply moving and profoundly devotional experience and enlisted musical leaders each week (click
HERE for details on Jazz liturgies) to make each Sunday memorable.
10:00 a.m. Fora during Lent are also significant in that there is one presenter, Dr. Dennis Raverty, for all five Sundays, on one extremely timely topic:
Towards A “Usable” Past: Historical Narrative in African American Art.
Each Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., Lenten Evening Prayer is prayed, led with care by one of our faithful lay leaders, and followed by a light meal and a presentation, led by Candidate Susan Shelhart, our 207-2018 vicar, entitled
Painting the Stars: Science, Religion, and an Evolving Faith.
Each of these offerings have a dual purpose: to assist us to love God with our whole heart and soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.
I am particularly proud of this year’s Lenten offerings and urge you to allow God to use this time to increase and deepen your faith.
The topics for each 10:00 a.m. Sunday forum will be:
- March 10: Nineteenth Century Africa in America
- March 17: The “New Negro” and the Harlem Renaissance
- March 24: Jazz Age Black Artists in Paris
- March 31: The Great Depression through Civil Rights
- April 7: “Postblack” Arts and the Politics of Identity
The topics for each Wednesday presentation will be:
- March 13: An Evolving Faith
- March 20: Evolutionary Christianity
- March 27: Imagining a Future
- April 3: An Evolving Spirituality: Mysticism
Each day in Lent we pray, “create in us new and honest hearts.” We offer these as faithful ways for God to work the new creation in each and all of us.
Peace and Courage,
