This past weekend found myself and another congregation member with 14 of our Confirmands in St. Louis. We first went to Shaare Emeth Synagogue for worship. A beautiful synagogue in West County that received us with such grace and very patiently explained their traditions and faith perspectives. We closed the night at the City Museum, (you gotta go sometime!) Lights out by 1:00 a.m. and wake up at 6:00 a.m.! We attended Mass at the Cathedral Basilica at 8:30 and a tour of a Greek Orthodox church at 10:00. Lunch and worship with Bishop Schnase and on the way home by 3:30!
God's presence for me was when we walked into the Cathedral Basilica and these 12 and 13 year olds were speechless. It is difficult to impress this demographic and for them to be speechless in a place of worship did my heart good. Each of our hosts did a great job in talking about their unique beliefs and practices and I think our Confirmands had a great experience in learning about the roots of our faith. Please keep them in your prayers as we have about 6 weeks left to this part of the journey.
So two weekends in a row I have been on the road hosting large groups from one place to the other, and I'm tired and in need of a break. Looking forward to family time and not working on Sunday! I will return to planning the summer and turning from "Spiritual Formation" to "Christian Education" as a focus!
Peace Out!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Tuesday After
It is the Tuesday after the Women's Retreat and the Tuesday after "Springing forward" on our clocks. I'm just a little dazed! The retreat was very good, great weather on Saturday for doing anything you wanted to do. We had tough weather Sunday morning for about 10 minutes. Just when we thought we were going to go to the basement because of a Tornado warning, the sun came out and it was all gone. As a result we were able to go the chapel on the hillside for our Sunday worship.
The theme all weekend had been the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. We had broken the story down into three parts: first, understanding why she was at the well and her attitude toward Jesus; then we asked ourselves why we had come to the well. Second, we talked about the woman's encounter with Jesus and how his truth telling had changed her from skeptic to believer. On Sunday morning we heard how she had returned to her village and told the people there that the Messiah had come to them, and to come and see for themselves. The scriptures tell us they were so in awe of Jesus they asked him to stay with them for two days. At the end of that time, they committted their life to following him and said to the woman, "it is not because you say so anymore, but because we have seen for ourselves that we believe."
Our worship was very much touched by the Holy Spirit, as the wind blew, as we sang beautiful music and as birds sailed in the breezes. We beheld the simple resurrections we had known since last year and the ones we anticipate this year. We shared our prayers, and shared in communion. It was a blessed time.
I have to share one of the joys for me is that this group is so diverse. All generations are present, from 70's through 20's and we learn from each other all the time and in all ways. And yes, I'm a bit weary for the excursion but a weariness born out of community and joy.
There was an article in USA today that I will post about how religion continues to shrink in the US. A sobering article that says UMethodism has fallen from 8% of the population to 5% since 1990. What do you say to people who say organized religion just isn't relevant anymore? That there isn't anything worth pursuing in church that they can't find outside of church...we need to find the answer to that and talk about it. Who will carry the Good News of Jesus Christ into the world? It is time, it is time!
The theme all weekend had been the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. We had broken the story down into three parts: first, understanding why she was at the well and her attitude toward Jesus; then we asked ourselves why we had come to the well. Second, we talked about the woman's encounter with Jesus and how his truth telling had changed her from skeptic to believer. On Sunday morning we heard how she had returned to her village and told the people there that the Messiah had come to them, and to come and see for themselves. The scriptures tell us they were so in awe of Jesus they asked him to stay with them for two days. At the end of that time, they committted their life to following him and said to the woman, "it is not because you say so anymore, but because we have seen for ourselves that we believe."
Our worship was very much touched by the Holy Spirit, as the wind blew, as we sang beautiful music and as birds sailed in the breezes. We beheld the simple resurrections we had known since last year and the ones we anticipate this year. We shared our prayers, and shared in communion. It was a blessed time.
I have to share one of the joys for me is that this group is so diverse. All generations are present, from 70's through 20's and we learn from each other all the time and in all ways. And yes, I'm a bit weary for the excursion but a weariness born out of community and joy.
There was an article in USA today that I will post about how religion continues to shrink in the US. A sobering article that says UMethodism has fallen from 8% of the population to 5% since 1990. What do you say to people who say organized religion just isn't relevant anymore? That there isn't anything worth pursuing in church that they can't find outside of church...we need to find the answer to that and talk about it. Who will carry the Good News of Jesus Christ into the world? It is time, it is time!
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