[Parish] Great News - Pentecost

[Malcolm Young]

Parish Email
20 May 2010
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
 
What a strange day it is outside – dark clouds, bright rays of sunshine and the greenest May I can remember.  I hope that these signs of the spirit are bringing your heart closer to God as we approach the Feast of the Pentecost.
 
Yes, this Sunday is Pentecost.  We’ve got some wonderful guys getting meat for the grill and drinks for our picnic after the 10:00 a.m. service.  Please bring salad, desert, fruit plate, or something else that could go with the meal.  We’ve got plans to move inside the parish hall if it rains.
 
To celebrate this feast, we’ll be hearing from the Very Rev’d John Buenz as our guest preacher.  He’ll also be leading a three-week forum series that starts on Sunday May 30.  He’s served a lot of Episcopal churches in the area and probably can give a good report on what our brothers and sisters are doing.
 
Many of you know that we have been praying for a deacon and for a new youth minister.  On Tuesday both of these prayers were answered at once when we signed up Lauren McCombs to serve next year as our field education student from the School for Deacons.  Lauren will also be helping with 9:00 a.m. Worship Lab service and learning about Godly Play.  She’s got great energy and will be a huge blessing to our life together.
 
We’ll also be blessed this year by the ministry of Alice Larse and Marge Berglund who have agreed to serve as our senior and junior wardens this year.  These ladies really understand how church works.  We’re fortunate to be in their hands.
 
Finally, I have a little note from the seventh century that reminds us that the resurrection is not something that we are waiting around for, that God is already at work in us…
 
“The one who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and hour, and hereby is made immortal,… and while yet in this world, he even now breathes the air of the resurrection.”
St. Isaak of Syria, Ascetical Homilies.
 
May God bless you today as you go out in the world as a sign of God’s life-giving spirit.
 
Love,
 
Malcolm