Please join Episcopalians around the US in keeping Lent: The Epsicopal Church Foundation is offering a number of opportunities for prayer and faith formation.  Here are 3:

This year, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 22 and ends on Easter Sunday, April 9th. Lent brings us to a time of self-examination and reflection about our relationship with God, and provides an opportunity for fasting from the behaviors, ideas and objects in life that pull us away from God. Below please find a collection of resources for Lent and Easter with ideas to help make good use of this time of reflection.

1. The Episcopal Church invites us to walk with Jesus in his Way of Love and into the experience of transformed life through Life Transformed: The Way of Love in Lent, which includes videos, adult forum curriculum, calendar, publicity materials, and quiet day curriculum available in English, Spanish, and French.

2. Lent Madness is an offering of Forward Movement, created in 2010 by the Rev. Tim Schenck. Instead of basketball’s March Madness, Lent Madness pits saints against each other in a tournament-like, single elimination bracket. To join in the fun and learn more about the saints, click here. To see Forward Movement’s different Lenten and Easter products, click here.

3. Living Compass offers a complete toolkit including a Lent devotional available in English and Spanish, a Facilitator's Guide, a flyer for publicity, images with quotes from the devotion to use on social media, and participants can sign up to receive the reflections for free via email as part of their series, Living Well Through Lent 2023: Practicing Compassion With All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind. 

Keeping Lent 2023

At the beginning of our Sunday Service yesterday, I offered an invitation for us all to observe a Holy Lent.  From  our BCP, here is a part of the text I read:

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

In the sermon, I asked each of us to consider how we might keep Lent this year, orienting our lives towards actively living into God’s approving gaze.  James Steven Wheeler, in his book Serving a Crucified King: Meditations on Faith,  Politics, and the Unyielding Pursuit of God’s Reign, writes of this invitation: 

… finding rest within God’s approving gaze and the blessed assurance of Christ’s unending love and unmerited grace provides for us the psychosocial security required to live as whole, integral persons.

This year, I invite us all to observe a holy Lent, and to lean into traditional Lenten practice from within this contemporary framework.  Here are some questions for your careful thought:

·      what needs to be uprooted in you? (This conversation is your prayer practice)

·      what is one practice you can observe to re-root yourself in God’s approving grace? (This is your Lenten fast.)

·      where can you give of your time or money to extend that gaze to others? (This is a way of almsgiving.)

Passion Sunday, April 2

9:30 AM

Holy Communion, St. Peter 

(with Rev. Cynthia Bronson Swiegert)

St. John’s Mankato

(with Rev. Cindi Brickson)

Holy Thursday, April 6

5:30 PM Holy Thursday Service

with Foot Washing and Eucharist

St. John’s Mankato

Good Friday, April 7

9 AM Morning Prayer

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86884964347?pwd=SldxR3NIZzFGRFgrTVhwR2RnSlVvQT09

Noon Stations of the Cross

Hybrid

7 PM Good Friday Prayer

Holy Communion, St Peter

Holy Saturday, April 8

9 AM Morning Prayer

Zoom Link TBA

Noon Midday Prayer

Zoom Link TBA

7 PM Easter Vigil

Good Courage Farm. Hutchinson

Easter Sunday, April 9

6 AM Sunrise Service 

with Easter Fire

St. John’s, Mankato

9:30 AM Easter Eucharist

Holy Communion, St. Peter

Vineyard Stewards Small Group Ministry

Time is short! The first day on the farm will be either March 4th or 11th, weather depending

Ready to root deeply in the gift economy/ecology of God's good Creation?

Join others from St John's and Holy Communion as a Vineyard Steward at the ECMN Mission at Good Courage Farm in Hutchinson https://www.goodcourage.farm/.

The Vineyard Stewards Small Group Ministry is a commitment to seasons-long relationships with one another, with Hebrew scripture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and most notably, with a row or 2 of cold-hardy grape vines at Good Courage Farm. Our goals are to experience reciprocity with Creation, deepen our understanding of vineyard metaphor and imagery in Jesus' teaching and in our lives, and end the season with bottles of Eucharistic wine for sharing in our parishes or congregations.

Reach out to Margo W. Druschel with questions? mdruschel@gmail.com

for more information about Good Courage Farm:

https://www .goodcourage.farm/smallgroupministry

Photo by jose alfonso sierra on Unsplash

Our church...

1. Warmly welcomes, loves, and includes all.

2. Ordains women, as well as men, to the clergy and bishophood.

3. Attracts an eclectic people, as 70% of Episcopalians are from other faith traditions

4. Includes many famous people, such as Colin Powell, Judy Garland, Sandra Day O'Connor, Bobby McFerrin, John Steinbeck, and Garrison Keillor - to name a few!

5. Encourages and treasures the service of lay members.

6. Provides open communion where all are invited to partake in the Lord's Supper.

7. Welcomes an open discussion of controversial topics and is open in matters of faith.

8. Works for social justice, an end to poverty and hunger, a greener environment, and better education worldwide.

9. Seeks to understand rather than judge.

10. Loves to sing and praise God through beautiful and uplifting liturgy and music.

Please note: Most attendees enter through the parking lot entrance, which is accessed from West Chestnut Street and is handicapped accessible.