Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
With the restrictions that we are currently facing due to the pandemic, we will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday in a different manner this year. For Shrove Tuesday, we will be having a Zoom event titled, "Pancakes and Praise." It will be held at 5:30pm on February 16th. A link will be sent out the day before the event. The basic idea of "Pancakes and Praise" is that you can make your own pancake dinner at home (or whatever you choose to have that night) and, after an opening prayer by me, we will all enjoy dinner together over Zoom. At the end of our time together, Rochelle will lead us in about 20-25 minutes of singing some praise songs, something akin to what we did on Christmas Eve. Since we haven't been able to sing together for some time, it will be nice to share in this together.
For Ash Wednesday, we will be having our live streamed service at 12pm on Facebook Live. (The recording will remain on our Facebook page if you can't attend at that time, so that you can participate in it at a time convenient for you.) Ashes will be available for delivery, if you wish to have them during the service. In order to get ashes, though, you must contact either me or Madeline and let us know that you would like to have ashes delivered to your home. You may certainly participate in the Ash Wednesday service without ashes if you so choose. In fact, for several hundred years, there were no ashes distributed at all in Anglican/Episcopal churches on Ash Wednesday, and the current Prayer Book does not make them mandatory for celebrating the liturgy.
Lastly, we will be having a Lenten Teaching Series this year. For this, we will be reading through a wonderful book by Harold Senkbeil titled, "Christ and Calamity: Grace & Gratitude in the Darkest Valley". It addresses the question of how we make sense of times of suffering and trouble, and where God is in the midst of it. You may purchase the book here:
or here:
The study will be held at 6pm on Sunday evenings on Zoom starting February 21st and running through March 21st. Each week we will cover two chapters, except on the last week we will cover three. We will conclude each session by praying the service for Evening Prayer found in the back of the book, which is taken from the Book of Common Prayer 1979.
If you do not use Zoom and would like to participate in the Lenten Study, there will be a conference call option available as well.
I'm looking forward to the start of a blessed and penitential season of Lent with all of you!
Yours in Christ,
Kyle+