Mid Week Worship Services for LENT

LENT - Wed Feb 17 through March 24 at 7:00 PM

The season of Lent is a very powerful time in the life of the church. We begin with Ash Wednesday, February 17th.  Ashes are a sign of our mortality as well as repentance and renewal. We will gather for worship at 7:00 PM.

During the Wednesdays of Lent we will continue to gather for worship at 7:00. The format and theme this year will be very different from anything we’ve done before. The overall theme will be “Called to be Disciples”.  Each Wednesday we will focus on the life and witness of a disciple from the past.

February 17 - Ash Wednesday

February  24 – St. Matthias – Apostle

March 3 -John and Charles Wesley – Renewers of the church or Perpetua and her companions – Martyrs of Carthage (not yet determined)

March 10 - Gregory the Great – Bishop of Rome 604

March 17 – Patrick, Bishop and Missionary to Ireland   461

March 24  - Jonathan Edwards – Teacher, Missionary to the American Indians 1758

Cathy, our Director of Christian Education, will be assigning our confirmation families with various duties in assisting with worship (ushers, acolytes – lectors etc.)

Michelle, our Music Director, has a great deal of experience with the worship and Music of Taize.  She has assembled some music of Taize for us to use on Wednesday evenings. It will be a very meditative worship experience with quiet music and time for silence and prayer. There will be no use of drama or monologues this year. A brief history of the “featured” disciple will be read along with a writing from that disciple – or about that disciple. It will be most interesting for most of our members who probably know little about some of these great disciples of the past.

Following worship, as a postlude is being played, the congregation will be invited to come to the communion rail for the brief rite for anointing and prayer for healing. This has been a long standing part of the Lutheran tradition. It was formalized, once again, in North American Lutheranism over 30 years ago with the Lutheran Book of Worship which included anointing and prayers for healing as a liturgy. Healing, in this respect is holistic in nature – healing of mind, spirit and or body. This form of prayer and worship is now common in all of the Christian traditions and is tied to the New Testament book of James (see James 5:14-16a).