The Week of April 10, 2022 |
|
Join us this Sunday at 10:15AM in person or online
|
|
Dear friends in Christ,
With Palm Sunday, Christians all around the world begin Holy Week (excepting the Orthodox, whose Palm Sunday begins on April 24 this year), our annual path through the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a reason why we call this week “holy”: it is primary, set apart from all other weeks, placed at the very center of our Christian devotion. Holy Week brings us to the climax of the whole Christian narrative, and for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it is the most exciting narrative ever set down on paper.
As the mystery writer and theologian Dorothy Sayers put it, “The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused Him of being a bore—on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atmosphere of tedium.”
About this time two years ago, as we all had begun our lockdowns and the uncertainty of the pandemic was at its height, the writer Casey Cep published a really wonderful piece in the New Yorker, a piece about the impulse to worship, about why Christians go to church at all. A lifelong Lutheran, as an adult she remains someone for whom the Christian faith is a living thing, and it informs her writing and thinking.
In her piece, Cep wrote:
“Worship has always been a time when I felt myself turned outward to others. There are many definitions of sin and as many preachers willing to expound on them, but I’ve always liked the one that Martin Luther borrowed from St. Augustine: incurvatus in se. If to sin is to be turned in on one’s self—a thoroughly modern and anthropologically astute idea—then worship is one obvious antidote. I’ve certainly experienced it that way. Church is where I go to be reminded that the world is full of other people, and that their needs and desires are every bit as urgent and real as mine, and not just of those gathered in the sanctuary but of those around the world.”
If Lent is the period of the Christian year when we focus most especially on making the turn from a life of sin and self-absorption to a life of freedom in Christ, then Holy Week is its annual dénouement. During Holy Week, we come face to face with the reality of our human predicament. We come face to face with our propensity to make a mess of the world, and we come face to face with God’s response to that predicament, which was to send the Son directly into the breach to win for us the victory over Sin and Death that we never could win ourselves.
Leaving the house to come and sit in church, to hear the story of salvation and sing the hymns in the company of our peers, is a purgative and spiritually refreshing experience, and never more so that during Holy Week. If sin is to be turned inward, to be incurvatus in se, then freedom is to be excurvatus ex se, to be delivered from the captivity of our own contradictions and set on the path that leads to spiritual liberty.
The schedule of services at St. John’s is below, and I’ll see you in church.
|
|
Yours faithfully in Christ, |
|
Holy Week and Easter Services |
|
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. To observe our Lord’s passion, death, and his resurrection from the dead, our services this week will take place as follows:
Holy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 7:00 pm (in the Ladies’ Chapel)
Maundy Thursday: 7:00 pm
Good Friday: 12:00 noon
Great Vigil of Easter: 7:30 pm
Easter Day: 10:15 am
The service on Easter Day will be followed by a reception and Easter egg hunt, both of which will take place outside if the weather permits!
|
|
Easter flowers are given every year to the glory of God and in memory of those whom the parish would like to remember with a thank offering. If you would like to make a contribution in memory of a loved one, please contact the Parish Office.
|
|
|
This year marks the centenary of the Good Friday Offering, which was established in the wake of World War I as Episcopalians sought to establish closer ties with Christians in the Middle East. Over the last 100 years, the Good Friday Offering has been an effective means to connect Episcopal parishes and individuals with the ministries of the three dioceses of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. As in previous years, the loose cash placed in the alms basins during Holy Week services this year will be directed to the Good Friday Offering, so please be generous!
|
|
Prayers and Financial Support for Ukraine |
|
The crisis in Ukraine continues, and our prayers are with not only those on the front lines and in the peace talks, but also if not especially with the millions who have been displaced. Working through the Action by Churches Together Alliance, Episcopal Relief & Development will provide cash, blankets, hygiene supplies, and other needed assistance to Ukrainian refugees. If you feel moved to contribute to these humanitarian relief efforts, please do give via ERD’s website: https://support.episcopalrelief.org/ukraineresponse.
|
|
Tuesday Afternoon Bible Study |
St. John’s Tuesday Afternoon Bible Study meets every week at 2:00 pm via Zoom. During Lent, we are studying the book of Ruth. On the Tuesday after Easter we will be studying The Book of Esther with Betsy Owens leading the discussion. Click here to join the Zoom meeting.
|
|
Open Thursdays and Saturdays: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
The Community Thrift Shop welcomes new, almost new, and gently used clothing, home goods, and jewelry donations. All proceeds from the Thrift Shop are donated to nonprofit charities serving those in need.
|
|
Recent Prayer Requests for Healing of Body, Mind and Spirit. |
|
Please keep these persons in your daily prayers:
Ben, Carol, Daniel, Ed, Kedley, Lloyd, Marc, Terrence, Jon, Ann, Henri, Sharon, Erin, Dante, Anthony, Marie-Anne, Martha, Nessa, Angela, Gweneth, Toni, Jordan, Gabriella, Cindi, Barbara, Andrew, Jeffrey, Theadeen, Latoya, Christine, Murdena, Aidee, Anthony, Mitch, Jacob, Roslyn, Collin, McKenna, Andy, Errol, Emman and Bill. Please send all prayer list requests for the bulletin to the Parish Administrator, Kathy McBride, at kmcbride@stjohns-stamford.org.
|
|
To give to St. John's Episcopal Church, you can make your donations electronically or you can simply mail in your check to the church office if you would rather not use the online giving tool. Our Parish Administrator, Kathy McBride, is receiving the mail and doing the banking as usual.
|
|
Forward Day By Day is the Episcopal Church's own discipleship publication! As disciples, followers of Christ, daily prayer and reflection grounds us in God's love and gives us strength and clarity to confront our weaknesses, put our trust in God and listen to where God is calling us to serve. Available online for-free!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
