We are a worshiping community where everyone matters, everyone is loved, and everyone belongs. Everyone!
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Dear Friends,
I love Holy week and Easter! It is intense and beautiful! Holy week that culminates with a glorious celebration on Easter often feels like a great big family reunion.
Have you ever been to a family reunion and met relatives you didn't know existed?
I have!
This past summer when Jeremy and I went to Australia, we met so many of his relatives. So many relatives... so many Wyndhams, on another continent that we were blessed to meet and now love. I can say, our life, our worldview, and our hearts, were expanded by the experience of turning strangers into friends and connecting as family.
This is what we do on Easter. We get to see friends and family that can't always make it to church. We get to gather together and point one another towards the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
I love when we see friends and meet visiting family members who can't normally come to church with us. I am reminded that for many of us, it is nearly impossible to come to church all the time. And when we see or meet new friends on special occasions like Easter and Christmas, it's like a family reunion where we meet family we didn't know we had! So. Much. Fun!
In addition to God's family reunion, we also have worship that is exhilarating, intense, soul stirring, and beautiful. It begins with us shouting Hosanna to the Lord and waving Palm Branches and ends with us remembering that our Lord and Savior Jesus has an everlasting and transformative love for us and the world.
We have a beautiful week planned -
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Sunday April 2nd - Palm Sunday Worship with the reading of the Passion - one service only at 9:30am
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Wednesday April 5th - 5:30pm Dinner Church with a celebration of an agape meal and readings on the last supper. Holy Hangout at 4:30pm with a feeling box and holy week stories.
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Thursday April 6th - Maundy Thursday worship at 6:30pm. Maundy means New Commandment and we will remember that we are called to love one another as Christ loved us through the celebration of eucharist, foot washing, and stripping the altar. B
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Friday April 7th - Good Friday - Solemn worship and veneration of the cross at noon.
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Friday April 7th - Intergenerational Stations of the Cross Open House beginning at 4:30 ending at 7:30pm. Come and pray the stations of the cross and engage in prayer activities to contemplate Jesus' journey to the cross.
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Easter Sunday - 7:30am Sunrise Outdoor Worship
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Easter Sunday - 9:30am Indoor Worship with brunch, egg hunt, pinatas, cascarones, and tons of laughter and fun
I hope to see you this week. i hope to meet your friends and family. I pray and trust that God will enlarge our hearts this holy week. May we embrace each other and Jesus and rejoice in the knowledge that we are all beloved children of God.
God’s Peace, Love, and Blessings,
Beth+
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This Week and Holy Week at St. Nick's
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Sunday, April 2: Palm and Passion Sunday
Collect for Palm Sunday:
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
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Women's Ministry Gathering
Saturday, April 1, 10am
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Work Day
Saturday, April 1, 10am
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One Service @ 9:30am
Inside and Online
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Maundy Thursday Worship
Thursday, April 6, 6:30pm
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Good Friday Worship
Friday, April 7, noon
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Intergenerational Stations of the Cross Open House
Friday, April 7, 4:30pm
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Easter Sunday
Sunday, April 9
7:30am - Sunrise Outdoor Service
9:30am - Easter Worship
After 9:30 Worship - Easter Brunch Potluck, Easter Egg Hunt, and more!
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Work Day Saturday April 1st
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8am to Noon
Bring your work gloves and weeding tools. We will be sprucing up our building and grounds for Easter. We have activities for all ages!!! We will be pulling weeds, blowing leaves, washing windows, cleaning chairs and tables, putting up shelves, taking items to goodwill, filling Easter eggs and folding palm crosses. Come for the fun, work, tacos, and laughter!
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Women's Ministry Gathering
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Saturday April 1st, 10am
Hike and Picnic Lunch at Guadalupe River State Park
For more information or to RSVP contact Montana at 979-257-0079
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Join us Easter Sunday - April 9th
We are looking forward to our Easter Celebration together! After the 9:30am worship we will be gathering as a church family to eat, hunt eggs and play with pinatas, shower each other with cascarones, laugh and celebrate Christ's resurrection. Here are a few reminders -
DONATIONS: Final day to bring in your Easter eggs, candy, and Cascarones is April 2nd.
VOLUNTEERS: Join Dawn Robinson and Rev. Beth to decorate for Easter on Saturday morning, April 8th, starting at 10am.
ALL TEENS and YOUNG AT HEART HELPERS: Help us hide eggs Easter morning before the 9:30 service.
In addition to special Easter flowers, bring your garden flowers for the flowering of the cross at 9:30am. We flower the cross after the sermon on Easter as a way to remind us that Jesus has conquered death and turns the ugliness of the cross into a beautiful reminder of life everlasting and God's eternal love for us.
BRUNCH POTLUCK: Please bring your most fantabulous brunch dish to share for after the 9:30 service.
Feel free to invite your friends and family to join us on Easter Sunday for either the 7:30am Sunrise service or the 9:30am Worship in our sanctuary. All are welcome to come and join in the joyous celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!
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Church and Diocesan Information
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Donate Time and Talent to St. Nick's
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Donate Your Time and Talent!
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If you are interested in donating your time and talent to St. Nick's you can pick up a donation card from the Greeter table or sign up at this link.
You can also connect with Rev. Beth to join some of our new ministries - prayer shawl, congregational care, and youth ministry.
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Summer Camp at Camp Capers
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Children and youth ages 8-18 are invited to Camp Capers for a joyous time including kayaking, team-building challenges, a high ropes course, crafts, Bible-based teachings, devotional times, and building life long friendships. If you are interested in learning more or signing up, you can find more information here on the diocesan website.
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A Special Note from Rev. Beth
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I have had so many different things on my heart this week. I mean, here we are getting ready for Easter celebrations and we have another school shooting and great sadness and grief. My heart aches and I am so frustrated at the inability of leaders to and people to keep our children out of harms way... There are also other violent acts that are on my heart - unjust wars, and the general lack of respect for human dignity that is pervasive in the world around us.
My first response for any emergency, disaster, and tragedy is to pray. From the car accident I pass on the side of the road to the events on the news. When our immediate response is to pray, we are caring for one another and taking one another's burdens to the Lord. I was taught in seminary to pray with the newspaper (or internet news) in one hand and the Book of Common Prayer in the other.
I want to share some resources that may help you as you pray your way through life. I also want to encourage you to pray for one another. Pray that your brothers and sisters in Christ here at St. Nick's stay strong in their faith. Pray God will sustain us as we live out our collective and individual calls to respect the dignity of all human beings. Pray that we will turn to one another and God in faith, pointing each other to the hope that is in Jesus Christ our Lord who has and will continue to defeat death.
The first resource I will point to is our Book of Common Prayer found online here. You can go to the section on prayers and thanksgivings and find prayers for all sorts of conditions and events.
In addition, for those with children or grandchildren (or those who appreciate children's prayers) there are two books I recommend. The first is Common Prayer for Children and Families by Jennifer Gamber and Timothy J.S. Seamans. There are prayers for the church year, prayers for daily living, and prayers for the world. The prayers for the world have prayers for bullying, gun violence, prayers for people of different faith, our armed forces and a reminder prayer that we are one family.
The second recommendation is To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers and Liturgies for Parents by Kayla Craig. These are prayers to guide parents helping their children growing up in a complicated world. You can also find resources on Instagram at Liturgies for Parents at this link.
I hope these resources are helpful. Remember also, that you have a resource in me and in our new family minster Mrs. Jena. Well... you also have resources in one another. We are in this crazy and complicated life together - thank God!
As a final note, I leave you with a prayer from the service of Compline from our BCP on pg. 133. May it be a balm and remind you of God's eternal love for you.
Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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2265 Bulverde Rd.
Bulverde, TX 78163
Phone: 214-213-0739
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