Tag: Holy Week

OSLC Blast for Monday, April 6, 2020

OSLC Blast for Monday, April 6, 2020

Posted on by Claire Cassell

Holy Week Happenings

Thurs, April 9 —– Maundy Thursday

          4:00pm Bread for the World letter-writing (info below—more details to come)

          7:00pm Worship

Fri, April 10 —– Good Friday

          Worship

Sun, April 12 —– Easter !!!

          Christ has arisen, alleluia!

A Message from Pastor Marty

Hey All,

Blessed Holy Week to you!  As spring brings our time for Easter upon us, we are all welcome to be part of this wonderful season of Good News.  I know that we are deep in the heart of the Shelter in Place order, and that trouble surrounds us every turn it seems, but isn’t that why Easter is so great?  God comes into our experience to be with us in our trouble, pain, fear, and dis-ease.  Christ’s ministry is a gift of example and support for us as we live fully human lives while being children of the most high God.

So, this week we will have our Maundy Thursday Service at 7:00pm.  We will also gather at 4:00pm on Thursday via Zoom to participate in a letter writing campaign for Bread For the World to support their efforts in advocacy for food and nutrition programs.  

On Good Friday there will be a digital worship as well, and that will come online in the evening, probably around 6:00pm.

Easter morning will be a digital worship in the early morning with a gathering to follow on Zoom at 10:30.  Please join us in your Easter best to see shining faces and share in some stories together.  Yesterday we had about 35 folks join us online together.  

Thanks be to all of you for your prayers and support to me and each other during these times.  We are all going through this together, and alone, and this is part of what is hard.  There won’t be a unifying worship to be part of this week, we will each have to prepare our hearts and homes for an Easter service.  

On Thursday, we are going to work through a service of remembrance, and a stripping of the altar.  I will have to be creative in doing this.  On Good Friday maybe you could light 7 candles with me to help put them out, together, in our own space.  And on Easter, can we gather with each other to livestream the worship together?  Gather with family members from a distance?  Be creative in new ways of being together?  This is our current challenge, opportunity, and situation. 

I asked Grace to send me a few words about how she is making this transition.  She offered these words:

“As the church year calendar moves along from Lent towards Easter, we are contemplating a new way to celebrate Easter 2020.  Our usual preparations include changing the paraments or hangings in the sanctuary, as well the pastor’s vestments, to a new color:  from Lent’s penitential purple to celebratory white.  White reminds us first of the newborn Christ, and our joy in Him (Christmas), and then again in the great joy of the resurrection at Easter.  We don’t always think of white as celebratory, but we do use it often for graduations, confirmations, and of course, weddings. All joyous occasions!

“The task of putting up a new color is something I look forward to as it means a new season, but there is also peaceful satisfaction in the mundane process of taking down one color, pressing and hanging the new color, an essential part of the preparation of our worship space.  This year I will create my own worship space by moving my laptop from my office to the dining room table, where I can set up candles, some flowers and my hymnal, and celebrate Easter remotely with Pr. Marty, Caleb and all of you in the Our Savior’s family.  Happy Easter!”

However you make arrangements for this worship-filled week, I want you to feel free to do it your way, and be ready to share photos of your experience.  This is one for the record books!  Have a great week!

Peace,   Pastor Marty

This ‘n’ That

  • Bread for the World. Maundy Thursday letter writing at 4pm via Zoom: Bread for the World makes an annual request to congregations to write Congress to lift up either specific legislation or an issue in relationship to hunger issues, either domestic or international. OSLC has participated in this practice for many years. Now is a good time for us to join together and participate in this request again this year in lieu of foot washing during this Holy Week. Please watch for an email inviting you to join the Zoom gathering. 
  • Care of Creation. April 22, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.  Since 1970, Earth Day has increased awareness of the planet we live on, pollution, climate change, endangered species, and many other environmental issues.  The current pandemic has slowed human activity to the point that pollution is clearing in many places around the globe.  It is a kind of resurrection to celebrate on Easter!  Action:   Visit www.thealliancecenter.org/earthweek for daily virtual activities in which you can participate hosted by people in our community. (from the AllianceCenter.org)
  • Save those toiletries, because Helping Hands will be back collecting items for the disadvantaged when we’re up and running again.

Readings for Sunday, April 12 – Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34-43 OR Jeremiah 31:1-6

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Colossians 3:1-4 OR Acts 10:34-43

Matthew 28:1-10 OR John 20:1-18

Mission Statement

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church connects people to God and Each Other.  We embody this mission through Word and Sacrament Worship, Music, Faith Formation, Service, and Authentic Community.

OSLC Blast for Monday March 30, 2020

OSLC Blast for Monday March 30, 2020

Posted on by Claire Cassell

Hey All,

Here we are in the last week of Lent! Unbelievable that Ash Wednesday seems like a decade ago. Normally I would be making plans for Holy Week during this time. There would be conversations about the altar, the songs, the flowers, the bulletins, the… preparation for Holy Week. But that isn’t the case now. Instead the preparation of what we know so well, the stuff we do every year is not available. So, what should we do?

This is my mindset going into this next couple of weeks. We are going to do Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter differently this year! And I don’t exactly know what that means! So please tune in to our worship times these next few weeks. Please take the time to connect with our group in Zoom meetings and be part of this process and development. I am not dreading these changes. In fact it is something to look forward to as a time of creativity and new ways of proclamation.

Another important discussion that we are having as pastors with Bishop Jim, is surrounding communion. Can we have a digital service of communion? Does it make sense? Is it necessary? How would people prepare? There are these and many hundreds of other questions about doing this in a digital way with a community that is spread out all over the place. But, do we hold back the gifts of grace found in the meal at a time when we are most in need of connection? Any and all of these questions are for the congregation to decide and discuss, not me. This is a community discussion. I am asking for you to think and pray about this question. It is not just a question for now, because we are in a digital world now. Can we, should we, or how should we go forward with the symbols and signs of our faith while we are in isolation? I look forward to hearing what the Spirit is calling us to do.

One thing I know we need to do is reach out to people and talk. Make time for those phone calls and emails and notes of support. Send a letter if you can’t reach someone. It’s good for each one of us to do the correspondence, and it is life giving for each of us to receive the support. We all need it! We all need to give it away too!

One additional digital gathering for this week will be our Wednesday Bible study which will meet digitally on Zoom at 1:00 pm. Look for that link in your email. 

Peace be with you! May you have a blessed week! And as Lent begins to wrap up, may the light of Christ shine brightly in all of our hearts.

Peace, Pastor Marty

This ‘n’ That

  • Devotion books for April through June – We have a plan to mail Christ in Our Home and The Word in Season to people who want them. Please call Dean if you are interested. Don’t have his contact? Please email OSLC915@gmail.com.
  • Save those toiletries, because Helping Hands will be back collecting items for the disadvantaged when we’re up and running again.

April Birthdays

  • Dan B – 4/7, Gretchen F – 4/8, Jamie C – 4/9, Spencer H – 4/9, Gerry F – 4/12, Delmar K– 4/12, Jane F – 4/17, Karen M – 4/24

Readings for Sunday, April 5 – Palm Sunday

  • Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 31:9-16, Philipians 2:5-11, Matthew 26:14 thru 27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54

Mission Statement

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church connects people to God and Each Other. We embody this mission through Word and Sacrament Worship, Music, Faith Formation, Service, and Authentic Community.