Easter; Resurrection Sunday
This Rite II Eucharist is a sung mass where we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. There will be a children’s message at this service. Come and raise your voice with others in praise of God’s salvation for us.
This Rite II Eucharist is a sung mass where we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. There will be a children’s message at this service. Come and raise your voice with others in praise of God’s salvation for us.
This traditional Rite I mass continues the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection that was begun at the Easter Vigil the night before. This is a spoken mass with the hymn Jesus Christ is Risen Today as the sending hymn to raise the rafters in celebration.
This traditional mass begins outside where we light candles and process into the sanctuary. The service then begins in candlelight. We hear the story of salvation through the reading of scriptures and hymns. At the Hymn of Praise all the lights are turned on and we hear of the saving grace of Jesus.
We will affirm our baptism at this service and rededicate ourselves to a life of faith.
We will gather with St. John of the Cross in Bristol for this service.
Good Friday is called good because of God’s plan for our salvation through the crucifixion of Jesus. We focus on Jesus’ death at this service.
Jesus wrapped a towel around his waist, knelt, and washed the disciples’ feet.
This contemplative service begins in light and moves to darkness as we listen to salvation history in scripture. It sets the stage for the Triduum services beginning the next day on Maundy Thursday, March 28. We gather in the Chapel across the hall from the Sanctuary as you come up the main steps.
All families are invited to join us in the Great Room downstairs following mass to make bread for our Maundy Thursday Mass. This event is free. Families will be able to take some of the bread home as well.
Each year on the Sunday before Easter, we begin our mass outside the sanctuary for prayers and a reading then we process in to the sanctuary remembering Jesus entry into Jerusalem. This mass includes the story of Jesus from the time he enters Jerusalem through his crucifixion. It is a moving and powerful service.
We will pray Evening Prayer and read scripture from the Sundays in Lent with a short discussion of the text during prayer. We will gather in our Common Room for prayer.
You are also invited to a Soup Supper on Wednesday evenings in Lent at 6pm. It is free and open to the public.
We will also pray the Stations of the Cross on Wednesdays in Lent at 6:40pm in the Sanctuary.
We will pray the Stations of the Cross in the Sanctuary at 6:40pm Wednesday Evenings during Lent.
February 21, February 28, March 6, 13, and 20.
A soup supper begins at 6pm each of those evenings as well in our Common Room. A vegetarian soup option will be available. It is free.
We will pray Evening Prayer at 7pm following the Stations in our Common Room.
Everyone is invited to a simple meal of soup, salad, and bread on Wednesday evenings during Lent. There will be a vegetarian soup option each week. The meal will be in the Common Room from 6pm until 6:40pm.
Praying the Stations of the Cross in the Sanctuary will begin at 6:40pm.
Evening Prayer begins at 7pm back in the Common Room.
It may seem odd to think of joy on Ash Wednesday. The readings this day lean into what we would traditionally associate with a season of fasting: a long list of privations and human limitations. Where’s the joy in that?
As you’ll discover this season, these experiences often help us recognize joy when we truly experience it. Joy does not require suffering or disappointment or austerity. But when we live through times like those, we know how to appreciate times of joy’s sudden abundance
In Psalm 51, the psalmist feels the kind of obvious, embarrassing humiliation that comes from recognizing what we have done wrong. The writer feels “born guilty,” filthy, dirty, crushed (5-8). What joy comes from the healing mercy of forgiveness! It is like restoration, or newfound wisdom, or the return of the lost, or being able to sing again (12-15).
Then, in the gospel text from Matthew, Jesus calls the faithful to hide their obvious shows of piety. What joy comes from washing your face to remove the signs of fasting? It is like a secret reward, the quiet delight in the knowledge that the God “who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:18).
In all the Ash Wednesday readings, we find a biblical roadmap to joy: it follows an experience of God’s absence and emerges the moment we rediscover our faith. Joy follows the painful, shocking recognition of our abject sin and emerges as we receive God’s forgiveness. Joy follows occasions of social jeopardy and personal calamity and bursts forth when we harvest unshakeable life in a moment that might have devastated us once.
We are not meant to seek out painful and life-endangering experiences in order to find the joy that comes from God. It is enough to name them honestly. Our temporal misery, our bodily suffering, our grief – none of it is required for joy. These experiences simply help us recognize and appreciate and celebrate that which is worthy of true joy.
We begin this service with 15 minutes of carols prior at 7:45pm.
We will have a French horn accompanying the organ for this mass. Stephen Miller will accompany us on guitar for Silent Night, Holy Night.
This year we will have the Christmas Program during this mass. Anyone that attends the mass is welcome to join the program.
Stephen Miller will accompany us on the guitar for Silent Night, Holy Night
We will celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent and then begin our Christmas Eve celebrations with Christmas Carols following the mass.
We will decorate the sanctuary for the evening services following the mass. Everyone is invited to help.
You are invited to our Longest Night Service on December 21 at 7pm
This service recognizes that holidays are difficult for those who are mourning, going through a divorce, struggles within families, and that these dark days weigh on our hearts.
Invite all who are hurting to join us for this meaningful service.
Candlelight Mass
Come a bit early, 7:45pm to sing additional carols.
Believers, seekers, questioners, and everyone is invited to join us to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
All baptized christians are invited to receive communion. Those who are not baptized or do not wish to receive communion may come forward to receive a blessing.
Candlelight Mass with Children’s Message
Believers, seekers, questioners, and anyone is invited to join us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Come and participate as much or as little as you feel comfortable.
All baptized christians are welcome to receive communion. Those who are unbaptized or would prefer not to receive communion may come forward for a blessing.