Holy Cross I sat next to Ellen Wells today at the Ash Wednesday service, and we got to the part of the liturgy where you say "Thanks be to God..._____" and then you pause and swallow the "Allelulia" that you find stuck in your throat. "I'm going to miss those Allelulia's!" Ellen whispered. I agree...we've begun with the somber reminders of our humanity with dust and ashes, and we're six weeks from the Allelulia of Easter. But the great news is that we know it will come - that Christ lived an amazing life, died, and lives again in each of us.
I'd like to invite you to take advantage of some Wednesday opportunities to deepen your spiritual walk during this Lenten season. Each Wednesday - March 8, 15, 22, 29, and April 5-, we will be offering Contemplative Prayer at 5:00 p.m., followed by a Eucharist service, then dinner, and a study of the book Hosanna from 6:30 - 7:30. You can come for the all four portions of the evening, or just one or two...and you don't have to attend all five evenings to be able to follow what's going on. Each week, different leaders will lead the contemplative prayer and book study. Each week, we'll enjoy great dinners prepared by our faithful Sunday School teachers, the band, the men's group, and the lay readers. The last week will be a pot-luck.
The first week, May 8, Jamie Graves (who was our music director for several years) will work with Amanda to lead us in Evensong beginning at 5:30 - 6:15 - truly a special treat!
Then on March 31, we'll have our annual spaghetti supper from 6 to 8 p.m., which will be a great time to feed your inner-Italian and enjoy some fellowship.
And a vestry update from today: we met with Matt Stockard, the canon to Bishop Skirving, concerning our Priest-in-Charge search. We had a very informative meeting about how the search process goes from this point, and I can only tell you that this part of the search is very confidential. We will probably have no more updates for you until after Easter, so please realize that your vestry is not allowed to share information at this point. We promise to give you information about next steps as soon as we are able.
Please be praying for the new priest who will join our Holy Cross family - and be praying for Holy Cross that we all have open hearts to welcome this priest!
Looking forward to the Allelulias...beth