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SCHEDULE OF WORSHIP
Week of March 7, 2024                                                        PRAYER LIST 

Daylight Savings: Remember to set your clocks forward one hour for daylight saving time on Saturday night.

Sunday, March 10: The Fourth Sunday in Lent
9:15 a.m.      Nursery Opens
9:30 a.m.      Adult Forum in the Parish House
9:30 a.m.      Children's Sunday School in the Parish House
10:30 a.m.    Holy Eucharist: BULLETIN
6:00 p.m.      Evening Program and Choral Compline

Wednesday, March 13
12:00 p.m.    Holy Eucharist with Prayers for Healing
12:30 p.m.    Mid-Day Music: George Fergus, organ

Livestreamed services can be found on the on the Christ Church YouTube channel


MESSAGE FROM THE REV. SAMANTHA K. MCKEAN

This week I have been away at Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina on a silent retreat. I worried at first that staying quiet for the better part of a week would be hard, but so far, I’m happy to report, it’s been an introvert’s paradise.

It’s also proving to be spiritually meaningful. There are a handful of us on retreat here, all strangers to one another. When we arrived on Monday afternoon, a monk who manages the retreat center gave us an orientation. In addition to the typical housekeeping stuff, he told us this: “Silence is God's first language.”

In other words, get ready to hear the voice of God. That will get you pumped for a retreat.

God’s voice hasn't come to me in a boom from the heavens or a zap down my spine, but spending long days without talking has made me notice a few things. For starters, “silent retreat” is a bit of a misnomer. Other than my vocal cords, almost nothing is silent. Once you stop talking, you realize how loud everything else is. Birds are loud. Insects are loud. The plane flying overhead is loud. The silverware clanking against dishes in the refectory is loud. People are loud, even when they don’t talk—shifting and coughing and creaking. Right now, the clacking of this keyboard is loud. The thoughts in my own head are loud enough to make me forget that I haven’t been talking this whole time. All of it is loud, loud, loud. I suppose that’s why God speaks in silence. The world is already so noisy that sometimes, if we don't zip it, we have a hard time hearing what God has been saying all along.

I remember once, when I was in my early twenties and nearly capsized by some heartbreak, my mother came to Chicago to visit me because she knew I was having a hard time. She looked at me sternly and told me, “God is always speaking, Miss Samantha. It’s just a matter of listening to what’s he's saying.”

She was right. God was speaking to me then and God is speaking to me now, and the same is true for you. What strikes me as especially remarkable is not just that God might speak in silence, but that God speaks to us at all. Here, now, in our ordinary everyday lives, the vast unknowable power that made the universe has something to say.

I wonder what God might be saying to you?


CONNECTION

Seeking Donations for "Lift High the Egg" Easter Egg Hunt


We need donations of plastic eggs filled with candy or stickers for the egg hunt on Easter morning. Please bring filled eggs and/or candy to the church over the next few weeks. The supplies may be left in the narthex or the undercroft.


Christ Church Shoe Drive: Donate New or Gently Used Shoes this Lent

Mark this Lenten season by donating new or gently used athletic shoes at church this Sunday. These shoes will be collected by Steps for World, a youth-led nonprofit that connects youth in East Africa to needed supplies. Because many youth travel by foot, access to shoes can mean access to education, water, and a better quality of life. Any shoe size is greatly appreciated, and youth sizes are especially in demand.

Donation bins will be available in the narthex (church entrance) and in the undercroft on Sundays, March 3, 10, and 17. Providing shoes for those who need them is a great way to travel with Christ through the wilderness this Lent. Many thanks to Steps for World for partnering with Christ Church in this project!


Adult Forum: Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
Listening for God's Call: The Spiritual Practice of Discernment

Join us on the second floor of the Parish House each Sunday in Lent as we explore what it means to listen for the call of God in the various stages of our lives. Nursery is provided for children ages 0-4.

On Sunday, March 10, the Rev. Lauren Flowers Byrd, former Chair of the Commission on Ministry, will lead a program on "Landing a Dream: Coming to Ground." Discernment often begins with big and lofty questions: questions that find us dreaming in new directions, seemingly caught in mid-air. Trouble is we can’t stay there for long. Eventually, we come to ground, with bruises to show for it.  As Thomas Breidenthal, the former Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, put it, “[When we offer our lives to the glory of God], we should not assume that what we receive back will not be experienced first as loss. The practice of offering up is the daily practice of being willing to let go of what must be let go, even if it feels like death.”

Framing our time together, we’ll look at Mr. Philippe Halsman’s playful photographs of famous people jumping and at the sainted work of Dr. George Washington Carver. We’ll talk about the creative role limitations and losses can play in the work of discerning how to offer ourselves to the glory of God on the actual ground where we live. And we’ll begin by remembering Lent is a pilgrimage that finds us following Jesus toward the Cross on his way to the tomb.


Children's Sunday School: Sunday at 9:30 a.m
Let's Build Some Bible Stories


Children and youth are invited to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Modeled after "Adventures with Moses" from last summer, we are going to create immersive art focused on five great Bible stories. For the fourth Sunday in Lent, we will build the story of the feeding of the 5,000 from John's Gospel.

Right: Last week's class created "The Baptism of Jesus"


Evening Program: Sunday at 6:00 p.m. 
Embracing the Dark, followed by Choral Compline


During the last of this four-part Lenten series, Christ Church member and professor of art history Gary Radke will lead a program on "Problems with Light."

A service of Choral Compline will follow the program. Sung Compline comes from the monastic cycle of daily prayer, and is the last service appointed for the day. Reflect, meditate, and pray while the choir offers prayers and psalms in plainsong, the very earliest music of the Christian church.


In the Spirit: Monday, March 11 at the Sandfly 5-Spot

Second and Fourth Mondays, 5:30 p.m.

"In the Spirit" is a discussion group for those who seek to deepen their faith through meaningful conversations. Join us this Monday at The 5-Spot in Sandfly (7360 Skidaway Rd), where you can grab a drink or a bite as we spend time together. We'll gather at 5:30 p.m. and begin our discussion at 6:00.

This week's topic: Transition and Change

Change and transition are inevitable parts of the human experience. Often, we are asked to walk into new places where familiarity is replaced with uncertainty, and security must scoot over to make room for trust. It goes without saying that usually, navigating transition and change is not our favorite activity. It seems to be a universal human tendency to resist, hide from, and actively avoid change, because often it means losing things that we hold dear—or at least the things that we know.

Lent can be a good training ground for navigating this unavoidable part of life. It’s a season of the Church year that asks us to get comfortable with discomfort, stretch beyond our self-imposed limits, and let go of our false senses of security. How else could we follow Christ down a path that looks like death, and still trust that it’s the doorway to life?

Questions to Ponder:
  • Why do you think people usually find change so difficult? What is a change you experienced in your life that you found difficult to face or accept?
  • What makes change easier to adapt to? What makes change more difficult?
  • How has aging changed your faith? What has growing older taught you about God or life that your younger self did not know?
  • What transitions in your life are you most grateful for? Why?

If you have questions or would like to receive emails about upcoming In the Spirit topics, please contact the Rev. Samantha McKean.


Christ Church Book Group: When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold Kushner

Thursday, March 14, 10:30 a.m.

All are welcome to join the Christ Church book group as they discuss When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold Kushner. When Harold Kushner’s three-year-old son was diagnosed with a degenerative disease that meant the boy would only live until his early teens, he was faced with one of life’s most difficult questions: Why, God? Years later, Rabbi Kushner wrote this straightforward, elegant contemplation of the doubts and fears that arise when tragedy strikes. In these pages, Kushner shares his wisdom as a rabbi, a parent, a reader, and a human being. Often imitated but never superseded, When Bad Things Happen to Good People is a classic that offers clear thinking and consolation in times of sorrow.


Easter Flowers for the Altar


Remember and celebrate loved ones by donating toward the flowers that will cover the altar this Easter. The gifts can be given in memoriam or in thanksgiving, and the names will be printed in the Easter bulletin. You can make your donation of at least $30 at the Christ Church website, or fill out the form in Sunday's bulletin and place it in the alms basin. Donations must be received by March 24.


Request for Historic Christ Church Photographs and Materials

Our Generation to Generation Strategic Plan is going ahead full tilt with many parishioners working on various aspects of the plan. Our new history book is well underway and is under contract with the University of Georgia Press. The working title is Christ Church Savannah: The Mother Church of Georgia since 1733; we hope it will be out in the next two years, anticipating a 300th Anniversary Edition in 2033. The author is Barrie Bradley with editorial advice from Gary Radke and new photography by Mills Fleming.

Barrie is seeking historic photographs and any material such as old fliers, bulletins, newspaper clippings, etc. that you may have and be willing to lend or donate to the Christ Church Collection at the Georgia Historical Society. You can email Barrie to make arrangements for scanning or donating items you have. Thanks!  


Lenten Book Study: Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor

Wednesday, March 20, 6:00 p.m.

In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Episcopal priest and writer Barbara Brown Taylor asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us “in the dark.” She argues that we need to move away from our “solar spirituality” and ease our way into appreciating “lunar spirituality” (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes). Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God’s presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen. Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most. This book discussion will continue themes explored throughout the Embracing the Dark program offered earlier in Lent.


Save the Date for the Ordination of Bertice Berry:
Saturday, April 13

                    


Next Week at Christ Church


Sunday, March 10: The Fourth Sunday in Lent
     9:30 a.m. Choir Rehearsal
     9:30 a.m. Adult Forum & Children's Sunday School (Parish House)
     10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist
     6:00 p.m. Embracing the Dark, followed by Choral Compline

Monday through Thursday, March 11–14
     10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Docent Tours

Monday, March 11
     5:30 p.m. In the Spirit, the Sandfly 5-Spot. Transition and Change.

Wednesday, March 13
     12:00 p.m. Holy Eucharist with Prayers for Healing
     12:30 p.m. Mid-Day Music. If Music Be the Food of Love
     7:00 p.m. Choir Rehearsal

Thursday, March 14
     10:30 a.m. Christ Church Book Group. When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Friday, March 15
     Church closed for St. Patrick's Day

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK






Thanks to Mills Fleming for the photographs
Centered in Worship
All are Welcome
Joyful Living

Servant Leadership


We invite you to worship with us at Historic Christ Church.
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Church Location: Johnson Square | 28 Bull Street
Our mailing address is:
28 Bull Street
Savannah, GA 31401

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