The Epistle Sharing God's Love Together March 2021 Moving Ahead During Lent Our journey through Lent together, as a How will we do this? Since we are limit- congregation, is particularly challenged by ing capacity, we will be asking you to the reality of the pandemic. Lent is de- call or email the church office (831-375- signed to be the time of the year for the 2042 or [email protected]) to let us know church to really come together to sort out the Sundays you would like to attend and disagreements and anything else that gets how many will be coming from your in the way of living out the Good News. household. For the time being, being pre- Sure, if we focus only on personal peni- sent in person may need to be on a rotat- tence and renewal, maybe we can imagine ing basis. Also, preference will be given doing it on our own. But isolation is not to our brothers and sisters who have no truly the heart of Lent. internet access because we all want to worship. You can notify us starting now So I briefly want to encourage you to en- for the Sundays starting March 14, all the gage in some of the opportunities we have way through April. planned for study and reflection together: the Sunday Pastors’ Forum, the Sunday Also please note that we are planning Night Compline, Wednesday Afternoon outdoor worship services, in our lower Bible Study, and Wednesday Evening parking lot) on March 28 (Palm and Pas- Inside this issue: Inside this issue: Holden Evening Prayer. You can find in- sion Sunday) and April 4 (Easter Sun- formation about all of these offerings else- day). On those Sundays, we will be able Updates & Reminders 2 Pasta Dinner where in this Epistle. Let us strive to join to accommodate a much larger in-person LentenAnnouncement Worship Services 2 our hearts and support each other as much presence. We are also planning to live- 3 as we can. stream those services. By Heart - 2 Plants for Easter 4 Small Catechism As you know, I have recently been focus- I know not all of you will feel comforta- Prayercourse Ventures 6-7 ing a good deal of energy on moving our ble with being in-person right now. We worship to live-streaming on Sunday fully respect everyone’s decision making Reconciled in 3 Christ Statement mornings. There have been some glitches, in this regard. Moreover, we all pray for a of course, but we are getting better with speedy and wide distribution of COVID Prayer 4-5 this technology. One advantage of live- vaccines so that we may see an end to Ventures streaming is that it allows us to have peo- this suffering and death. ple worship in person and at home at the Calendar 6 same time. Starting March 14, we will Briefly Noted begin to have a small group of people, I am still looking for a few more volun- wearing masks and well-distanced, to teers to help us live-stream our worship. worship in the sanctuary. We want to make sure that this does not become a burden for anyone, but an im- As of now, guidelines from the county, portant aspect of how we continue to state, and national government allow us to share the love of God. Also, look for have 25% capacity in our worship space. more information to come about how we That is actually a lot of people for our will be observing the Great Three Days: church. But for starters, we will limit our Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the capacity indoors much more, to a maxi- Vigil of Easter. mum of 16 worshippers, plus worship leaders. We will require everyone to wear In the grace and peace of Christ, masks and maintain physical distance, and we will make sure there is adequate air Pastor Clark movement in the church. Page 2 ST. TIMOTHY LUTHERAN CHURCH SILVER LININGS FROM SHELTER IN PLACE Before COVID, I-HELP moved almost every even- ing to a new location, so the time to work on inter- personal skills was limited to a few hours after din- ner and chores. With shelter-in-place, our clients have many more hours each day to work on inde- pendent living and personal development goals. Several clients have developed a new sense of re- sponsibility and pride in their assigned chores. In the men’s program one of the men is now known as Kitchen John and makes sure the kitchen is spotless and the food is magically turned into 3 meals. An- other man, Joe, takes care of cleaning the floors. The biggest transition for many of the men and women is that they have become a community and realize their actions impact others. As a communi- ty, they have to solve conflicts among themselves as there is nowhere else to go. The program direc- tors and monitors have been modeling how to work with people effectively, and everyone is experienc- ing the personal growth and awareness needed to be successful outside of I-HELP. Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program I - HELP UPDATES AND REMINDERS ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving — Ends Mar 28. To donate, write a check to our church and put “40 Days of Giving” in the Memo line. Best regards, Debby Service Commission— Providing a meal for I-Help for Women March 3rd. Meet at 5:00pm in church park- ing lot. You are welcome to join us just to catch up and say hello. Property Committee—Meeting March 11th at 10:15am. Game Day—March 12th @ 1:00pm. We will continue to play Croquet outdoors unless it rains. Hosted by Cheryl Plaskett. Please call Cheryl if you need directions @ 383-9052. Please join us! Foundation— Guardian Angel Relief Fund: If you, or someone you know may need assistance in this man- ner, please contact Pastor Clark via email at [email protected] or call 831-375-2042. Information provid- ed will remain confidential. Church Annual Meeting—April 11th @ 11:00am via Zoom. Committee reports are due by March 23rd. Please and Thank you. St. Timothy Church Council—Looking for new members. Please contact the current members if you are interested: Adrian Johannsen, Jim Helgason, Matt Schulz or Debby love-Sudduth. (#in Directory) Palm Sunday, March 28, and the Easter Worship Service, April 4th, will be held outside (weather and environmental conditions being acceptable) and also Streaming live. Page 3 The Epistle LENTEN WORSHIP SERVICES Holden Evening Prayer This year we will join with our friends from St. Philip Lutheran Church and Epiph- any Lutheran and Episcopal Church. We will gather on the Wednesdays at 6:30 PM, 3/3, 3/10, 3/17 & 3/24 to sing evening prayer and have a brief reflection/ discussion on some of the visual art from A Sanctified Art. This year the Evening Prayer will be led by St. Philip’s Psalm 150 Band and will include a brief reflec- tion/discussion led by Pastor Clark and Pastor Tony on a series of artwork for the season. If you would like to download the booklet with the words and music for this vesper service, you can do so here: https:// www.sttim.org/events. via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87434790755?pwd=RVlhSnpJbk9DeW9CemdJUkNSY0NWUT09 Or dial in: (669)900-6833 Meeting ID: 874 3479 0755 Passcode: 991985 Sunday Pastors’ Forum Join us every Sunday morning for a discussion on a variety of topics led by Pastor Clark and Pastor Tony. During the season of Lent, we will be unpacking the big stories of the Hebrew Scriptures that make up the Readings for the Great Vigil of Easter and consider how we might be able to hear them anew during this year’s vigil. The Vigil series will begin on Sunday, February 21 and continue through Sunday, March 21. Join us Sundays at 11 AM via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85425343702?pwd=c2lmWFVYV3paM3ZFTXRhMWhmUzd0QT09 Or dial in: (669)900-6833 Meeting ID: 854 2534 3702 Passcode: 018974 Sunday Compline Sunday Lent Compline at 8PM on Online Streaming via Zoom 3/7, 3/14, 3/21 & 3/28 8:00pm For this Lenten season, we are joining with the congregations of St. Philip’s, Epiphany, and St. James for shared times of prayer and reflection. Join us for a the service of night prayer (or Prayer at the end of the day or Compline) led by Father Jon at Epiphany Lutheran and Episcopal Church. Compline is probably my favor- ite of the traditional daily prayer services and Father Jon also includes a time of discussion as well. I hope you can join us. Join by Zoom at this link (not the passcode if prompted) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82600752935?pwd=ZFVlcllqL2NyM3kxZE5UaUttNVgrUT09 Or dial in: (669)900-6833 Meeting ID: 826 0075 2935 Passcode: Prayer Bible Study Join us for our weekly Bible Study @ 2pm on Wednesday via Zoom Conference Software. Below you will find the necessary information to join the study, as well as a button that will take you to this week's readings. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82200364066 Meeting ID: 822 0036 4066 Dial in: 1-669-900-9128 Blessings, Pastor Tony COLORS AND SYMBOLIC MEANING OF PURPLE PARAMENTS The word “parament” comes from the Latin word paramentum, adornment, which in turn is derived from parare, to prepare or equip. The terms refer to the liturgical hang- ings on and around the altar/communion table, pulpit, ambo and lectern.