Greetings!
We have finally come to Spring! Although we did not have a very hard winter, it is still nice to see the days warming and the plants turning green. And with the coming of Spring, we know that it is time to prepare ourselves for the holiest time of the Christian year: Easter.
This year during Holy Week we will be having a special service at each of our churches in the Tri-Penn Charge. The first special service during Holy Week is on Wednesday, April 4, 7:30 PM at St. John’s Union Church in Farmers Mills. This will be a service of healing.
As Christians, we believe that healing is from God and that the greatest healing a person can experience is to be reconciled with God. In the UCC Book of Worship, we read: “Healing, in the Christian sense, is the reintegration of body, mind, emotions, and spirit that permit people, in community, to live life fully in a creation honored by prudent and respectful use. In [a] healing service, four themes are intertwined: God’s word, growth in faith, forgiveness of sin, human touch.”1
On Wednesday, April 5, 6:00 PM, we will be celebrating a Maundy Thursday meal and Holy Communion at Emmanuel Union United Church of Christ in Tusseyville. “Maundy” is the English form of the Latin word meaning commandment. Jesus’ new commandment to "love one another even as I have loved you” is the focus of Maundy Thursday. This love is demonstrated in Jesus’ example of servanthood and the gift of Jesus’ self in Holy Communion.2 We will begin with a fellowship meal and end with Holy Communion.
Then on Thursday, April 7, 7:30 PM, we will be celebrating a Tenebrae service at Grace United Church of Christ in Spring Mills. “Tenebrae is the Latin term for shadows. It is a service of lessons accompanied by the gradual extinguishing of lights.”3 During the service, the scripture readings are on the arrest, trial, humiliation, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ. While the service ends in darkness, it does not end without hope. Note that the final light which represents Christ in the world is removed, but not extinguished. This is a reminder that Christ told his disciples that he would die, but on the third day, be resurrected.
And then on Easter Sunday, all the churches in the charge will celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
I hope and pray that many of us are able to worship and have fellowship with one another during the evening services of Holy Week and our Easter morning service of Resurrection.
May God bless continue to bless us.
Pastor Mike
1Book of Worship: United Church of Christ (New York: United Church of Christ Office for Church Life and Leadership, 1986) 306.
2Ibid., 191.
3Ibid., 207
