24 February 2022
My Dearly Beloved Friends
I am trusting that you are all well and blessed as I begin to write this letter. We are coming into the season of Lent and I thought that I would enlighten you as to what I am planning for this time. We will be following a sermon series called ‘IRREPRESSIBLE’ which I hope will be beneficial to us all. It begins with Ash Wednesday where we will look at Irrepressible Ash and end on Easter Sunday with ‘Irrepressible Life’. More about these times later. I wish to share the following with you, written by our very own John Van De Laar about this course.
Have you ever started something enthusiastically, with great inspiration and strength, only to find that over time, you began to lose heart and struggled to keep going? Perhaps you’ve even started this year like that. You may have set intentions for the year and set up your systems and structures to bring them to fruition, only to hit obstacles and get derailed.
For many of us the pandemic has been one long, exhausting obstacle that has blocked us from fulfilling our hopes and dreams, kept us from connecting with others, and changed our lives for the worse. Even if we’ve managed to find joy and keep our lives on track, we may still be feeling depressed and depleted. Around the world the call is growing ever louder: we want things to go back to normal.
But what we knew as normal no longer exists and we can’t yet see what the new normal will be like when it finally arrives. If we’ve learned anything from the last two years, it’s that COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon. We will be navigating this pandemic and its impact for years to come.
And that means that we desperately need a new and deeper capacity for resilience.
It is with exactly this reality in mind that I am excited to share the new liturgical guide from Sacredise entitled IRREPRESSIBLE—Find the resilience you need. This guide for Lent and Holy Week explores ten qualities that can empower us to find the resilience we need. In addition, from Monday to Wednesday in Holy Week, IRREPRESSIBLE explores three of Isaiah’s Servant Songs to find what resilience meant for the prophet and how it was manifest in the life of Jesus.
This guide for communal worship will take you and your community on a journey from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday based on the Lectionary readings for Year C. And it gives you everything you need to ensure that your worship is deep and inspiring:
I do believe that this is something to get excited about. Please consider participating in all the worship that is on offer. I believe that it is time, after being in ‘Covid exile’ for so long that we fully integrate ourselves as a community in worship. And so that is my invitation to you.
The following times are applicable:
• Pancake/Shrove Tuesday at St Georges at 17H00
• Ash Wednesday at St Georges at 17h30
• Every Sunday in Lent at both 08H30 and 10H00
• Easter Monday to Thursday at 18H00 in the church
• Good Friday at 09H00 in the church
• Easter Saturday a service of remembrance and exerts from Handel’s Messiah at 17H00 [Come and light a candle
in memory of a loved one both living and departed]
• Easter Sunday. Sunrise Service at 06H00, Leisure Isle and 09H00 in the Hall.
FAMILY NEWS
We continue to hold our Singing Kettle Tea Garden on the first Saturday of every month. Bring a friend for breakfast and a cuppa with cake.
Every 3rd Saturday we have our breakfast sessions for men and women. We will however have a combined breakfast every third month at Bosuns. Watch the press for details.
And now for the big news. Granny’s Attic is undergoing a metamorphosis. Granny’s will be closing on Friday the 25th March in its present location and moving to shop No 1 at Oaks on Main. Our charity shop will from now on be known simply as ‘The Attic’. The new shop should be up and running by April. We will however, still be collecting your gently warn clothing and excess household goodies for the new venture. These may be dropped off at the church. I thank you all for your support for this venture which remains a community project.
Let me close by offering each of us a challenge for this Lenten period. It is so often the case that we are asked to give up something we love for Lent. I want to encourage you to continue eating your chocolate and drinking your coffee. Why not give something away instead of giving it up. An unused item or a tin of food a day for the 40 days of Lent is my challenge.
Remember how blessed you are and continue to be a blessing to others. Pray for me as I pray for you.
With Love
Rod