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April’s Letter |
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Dear St. Timothy Folk,
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! Happy Eastertide!!!
First, a huge thank you to everyone who worked hard to make our Easter celebration glorious, both our liturgy and our luncheon. For those not present, we hope your Easter was joyous!
April is the first half of the season of Easter, sometimes called Eastertide. On the Second Sunday of Easter, we hear John’s account of Jesus appearing to the disciples on the evening of Easter Day. On the Third Sunday of Easter, we hear the report in the Gospel of Luke of Jesus appearing among the disciples in Jerusalem after encountering the disciples on the road to Emmaus. These are core stories for us about the Resurrection. The Fourth Sunday of Easter we call Good Shepherd Sunday as Jesus teaches about the role of the Shepherd. On the Fifth Sunday of Easter Jesus continues teaching, this time about being branches of the Vine. These passages help us understand our role as disciples of the risen Lord Christ.
Eastertide invites us to make some changes in our worship. It is a very old tradition of the Church to NOT kneel during the Easter season. You may stand as you are able, or sit. God cares more about the posture of our hearts than the posture of our knees. We will also omit the Confession for some Sundays, as a celebration of our identity as those God has redeemed and forgiven, another ancient tradition. We will return to using the “Glory to God” or other song of praise at the beginning of the liturgy. We will also return to various musical settings for the Doxology. The Sanctus bells will ring again after their Lenten silence. We hope to reintroduce a fraction anthem which was a favorite in years past at the Breaking of the Bread.
Some of you have commented on the length of our prayer list in the Prayers of the People. We have a number of folks who are dealing with long-term or chronic health issues. If you have placed someone on the list (including yourself) and prayers are no longer needed, please let us know by email or phone message. If you wish to place someone on the list, please be sure you have their permission. Some folk do not wish to be prayed for publicly. For more confidential prayers, the Daughters of the King have a text message prayer chain that is very effective. A part of our privilege as the family of God is to pray for one another, so I urge you to take the bulletin, or the back page at least, home to include those on our list in your prayers.
Blessings to you in this joyous season,
Rev. Linda+
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