Grace and Peace to you!
As Lent points us toward Holy Week, the Gospel readings this year collect Jesus’ predictions of his own suffering and death. The cleansing of the Temple from the gospel writer John’s perspective is the context for this week’s prediction, which depends on Jesus replacing the Temple as the place where God meets humanity.
Online Worship – We continue to worship online to help ensure the safety of our St. Matthias family and we invite you to worship at home with us. Worship will be available Sunday morning, March 7, beginning at 9am by clicking on one of the following links:
(71) St Matthias Lutheran Church Carlisle PA – YouTube
(Please click on the video for March 7)
(20+) St Matthias Evangelical Lutheran Church | Facebook
(The video link will be at the top of the page – You do not need to have a Facebook account to view the worship service)
Until we resume in-person worship, we invite you to worship together with us each Sunday morning at 9am, or you may watch the worship service later at your convenience.
We invite you to follow along with our online worship using the bulletin and Celebrate inserts that are part of your “Lent-at-home” worship packet. You may also follow along with the words that are printed on the screen. If you have any questions or concerns, please Email me at vicarmartyjo@gmail.com.
Church Council Meeting Reminder – A reminder that Church Council will meet Sunday morning, March 7 at 11am via Zoom.
Pandemic Numbers – We continue to monitor the Department of Health website regarding returning to in-person worship. Bishop Dunlop recommends that churches maintain online worship until the positive testing rate in our county is 5 percent or lower or less than 20 cases per 100.000 people, especially in older or smaller buildings, or those spaces with slower air recirculation. As of this week, Cumberland county is currently at an 8.8% positivity rate with an incidence rate of 213 cases per 100,000 people.
Holy Week Worship – As the Covid-19 numbers in our county continue to drop and as more vaccines are becoming available, we are discussing plans for worship during Holy Week. This will likely involve online worship services for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, with prepackaged communion elements available for you to partake in during the online service. Similar to the Lent “worship-at-home” packets, we will also provide bulletins and communion elements for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We are also planning a condensed Easter Vigil service for Saturday and an outdoor worship service for Easter Sunday morning, which will be videotaped and posted online following worship. We will continue to update you with information as plans evolve.
Midweek Lenten Worship – We will be hosting a brief mid-week Lenten worship service through Zoom on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. throughout the season of Lent. A reminder email with the Zoom link (below) will be sent out Wednesday mornings.
Go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9780522760?pwd=allhak4rNnMzTyswc0lkbGo5Q0Uxdz09
(If you already have Zoom installed, you can also enter the Meeting ID into your app: 978 052 2760 – a password is not required)
Accessing Zoom on your Telephone:
By phone (not toll free) – dial any number below and enter Meeting ID 978 052 2760 whenever you are prompted
+1 646 558 8656 +1 301 715 8592 +1 312 626 6799
Please note – since you are on a phone, you will not be able to view participants and they will not be able to see you, but you will be able to hear the meeting and participate.
Pandemic Anniversary — It’s hard to believe that this weekend, one year ago, was the last weekend that many churches held in-person worship services, as many began offering online-only worship because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our world has been turned upside-down over the past year. Illustrated Ministries offers a series of prayers and coloring pages for marking a year of Covid-19; a prayer is included below. A link to download the prayers and free coloring pages may be found at PrayersForMarkingCOVID.pdf (convertkitcdnm.com) May you continue to stay safe during the pandemic as we continue to feel God’s presence with us.
Wonder Worker,
In this year when everything changed,
when we felt worried and weary,
when we wailed and we wondered,
you gave us a promise…
Nothing can separate us from your love.
And nothing will be wasted.
With you at work,
light, life, love, and liberation
always win.
Amen.
Walking to Jerusalem – Do you like to walk? Have you ever thought about walking…to Jerusalem?!?! Well, you’ll have a chance to do just that during our season of Lent! We have been invited to partner with our friends at St. Matthew to join them as we record our collective miles and see if we can walk 6300 miles to Jerusalem. Any family and friends are welcome to join in and record their miles — just record your collective miles and submit them to me once a week by emailing vicarmartyjo@gmail.com, or call and leave me a voice message with your mileage, and I will submit them to St. Matthew. Sure, it’s a lot of miles…but we know that anything is possible through God!
Online Giving to St. Matthias – Although we aren’t gathering in person, bills to maintain our ministry and our building still continue. We have set up a secure online giving tool (endorsed by the ELCA and used by more than 4,000 churches) through Tithely. You may give online by clicking on the link below — and you may also use the site to set up recurring giving, where your gift will be automatically deducted on a day of your choosing. There’s also a green DONATE button at the bottom of this bulletin (and at the bottom of our website) that you nay click on to make a gift. If you have any questions on how to use this service, please let me know. THANK YOU for your continued support of St. Matthias and its ministry.
https://tithe.ly/give?c=2732717
Prayer List – All those affected by Covid-19, all affected by the weather disaster in Texas, Christian M. (Marines) and all military service personnel, Don and Joanne, Jacques, Pam, Betty Lou, Mark, Pat, Seth, DJ, Margaret, Sally, George, Arleen, Greg, Charles, Carol, Darryl, Andrea, Billie, Wayne and family, and all who ask for the Lord’s healing and mercy.
God’s Peace,
Vicar MJ