Message from Rev. Bob
Tempus fugit! Rermarkably, this Sunday is already the fourth Sunday of Lent and that means that Passion Sunday and Holy Week are fast approaching. Here’s a preview of what we will be doing:
Passion Sunday: Continuing with our alternating worship schedule, this service will be mainly hosted by St John’s. However, Father Joseph and I will lead the blessing of the palms together at the beginning of the service so that blessed palm fronds can be distributed at both parishes on a drive through basis at the end of the service. Please stop by.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week: There will be an evening prayer or compline service hosted by Grace and St Peter’s on each of these three evenings.
Maundy Thursday: Father Joseph and I will lead a Maundy Thursday worship service (minus the foot washing and dining) that will conclude with the stripping of the altars in both parishes.
Good Friday: St Johns will host a traditional Good Friday liturgy while Grace and St Peter’s will go on a prayer tour of our neighborhood as we did last year. You will be invited to join the tour this time—masked and distanced, of course—or you could wait to watch the recorded version later in the day.
Holy Saturday: Gretchen Pritchard has offered to create a virtual Easter Vigil not entirely unlike our recent Christmas Pageant. See elsewhere in this enews for a note from Gretchen about participating in this creative extravaganza. There will also be a brief liturgy and Easter hymn sing outdoors (social distanced and masked) at St John’s beginning at 7PM.
Then, all going well, on Easter Sunday we will have an outdoor, in person Easter morning service in the side yard of St John’s, North Haven. We are even trying to figure out how to share Communion in a safe and spiritually meaningful manner!
Please stayed tuned for more details about, and links for, all of these Holy Week and Easter activities.
As well, please join us for next Monday’s ongoing Jesus’ Kingship of Kinship conversation. After an inspiring discussion with Alden Woodcock, director of EMERGE CT, two weeks ago, we continue next week in conversation with local interfaith leaders Rabbi Herb Brockman, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Mishkan Israel, and Imam Omer Bajwa, Director of Muslim Life at Yale University. Rabbi Brockman and Imam Bajwa will be speaking with us about the importance of strong interfaith relations and the ways that interfaith coalitions can help to bring about racial justice and equity in our communities. A zoom link will be sent out on Monday.
Peace,
Bob+
Great Vigil of Easter via Zoom, Saturday, April 3, 7:30 pm
The Great Vigil of Easter is a unique liturgy in the church’s yearly round of celebrations. It is held on the night before Easter Sunday, and recalls Jesus’ descent to the dead and his victory over death.
Like the other liturgies of Holy Week, the Easter Vigil is normally very physical and sensory. It involves light and darkness; water, movement, singing; bread and wine. Often it ends with feasting. Yet here we are, after a year of pandemic restrictions that may feel like one long Lent, still separated from each other,still fasting from touch and taste and song and sacrament.
Thanks to the development of vaccines and the hard work of health care workers, we are coming close to the moment when we will once again be able to gather together and lift our voices in joyful praise around God’s altar. But as we wait in hope, we still can share some of the excitement and drama of the Easter Vigil, together, through our now-familiar medium of online worship.
This year, Grace & St Peter’s will offer an adapted Great Vigil ofEaster via Zoom. Bob has invited me (Gretchen Pritchard) to lead it. Participants will gather online to light candles in our darkened homes; to listen to stories and renew our baptismal vows, then proclaim Christ’s victory, turn on the lights and make noise, and bring out some festive foods (and maybe flowers and Easter baskets) each in our own homes, as we anticipate the completion of our worship on Easter morning.
I hope a goodly number of folks will plan to participate. We can even invite friends and family from afar to join us!
Taking advantage of the capabilities of digital gatherings, we are inviting parish members (individuals, households, groups) to present the various readings in creative ways, such as a slide show (whether of original art,children’s drawings, photographs, or images taken from world art), or a dramatic reading by several voices, or a video, or some other interpretation. The Biblical readings include:
- The Six Days of Creation
- The Flood
- Abraham’s Offering of Isaac
- The Crossing of the Red Sea
- The Dry Bones, and
- Several prophecies of God’s restoration of right relationship between God, the people, and all creation.
Depending on the interest shown, we can use four or more of these choices; one of them has to be the Red Sea.
Our video Christmas pageant showed how effective this kind of endeavor can be to bring us together at this time and remind us of the permanence of God’s promises.
If you would like to present one of these readings, please get in touch with me (203-624-2520 [home phone] or sundaypaper@snet.net).
Thanks! - Gretchen Pritchard
Lenten Program Schedule
March 15th -- Jesus' Kingship of Kinship
Guest Speakers, Rabbi Emeritus Herb Brockman, Congregation Mishkan Israel; Imam Omer Bajwa, Director of Muslim Life at Yale University.
March 23rd --Faith Study
Reminder: Consider a Donation
to G&SP Black History Scholarships
To donate, you may mail a check to Grace and St. Peter's with 'scholarship' in the memo portion of the check, or use the donate button on our graceandstpeters.org website. For those using the website, a follow up email to the parish office notifying of the donation would be appreciated, as the program does not allow you to designate the intent of the donation.
Dinner for a Dollar
On March 5th, our Chef Candace Grey served a meal of chicken parmesan, buttered noodles with parsley and vegetables. Girl Scout cookies were served for dessert. Many thanks to Candace, and all the Dinner for a Dollar volunteers for continuing this ministry every Friday!
PRAYERS
We pray for our ministries at Arden House and Whitney Manor. We pray for our Friday night dinner ministry. We pray for the ministry of Christian Community Action in New Haven, and the families they serve. We pray for our own parish of Grace and St. Peter's.
We pray for those in need of healing:
Andy, Frank, Sharon, Dan, Glenn, Peter, Mary, Mac, Alice, Bernadette, Marge, Sandi, Micki, Matthew, Peter, Nancy, Judy, John, Chukky, Elsie, Joan, Charles, Fiona, Marion, Dan, Debbie, Ellen, Nicole, Cassie, Phillip, Anthony, Mary-Anne, Margaret, Gwennie, Christy, James, Pat L., Ed, Alicia, Sean, Diane, Debbie, Esther, Candice, and Verna. We hold in our hearts all those who mourn.
Joining the Episcopal Church of Connecticut in the cycle of prayer, we pray for: Grace & St. Peter’s, Hamden; Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford; and Good Shepherd, Hartford. We also pray for Bishops, ECCT staff, and parish employees, and their families.
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