News & Notes
Dear St John’s Church family,
I’m VERY, VERY late in getting this off to you this week. No excuses! Too much talking when I should have been working. Please have mercy.
Let me begin with a note from our District Superintendents, Mike & Jan Davis. “As your Distric5 Superintendents, we are continually holding you in prayer. We want to stay in touch with you and be with you in your joys and in your struggles. To make this more intentional, we have set aside a week each year to pray specifically for your church and pastor. During the week of April 1st, St. John’s Church will be on our prayer list. Please feel free to call or e-mail us with any specific prayer requests. God bless you and your ministry. Together, in the power of Christ, we can make a difference in our communities and in the world.” If you wish to send them a specific request, you can email them at Tri-State@neumc.org
How ’bout that news that was in today’s issue of Fosters? Our own “finest,” Bill Simons has been promoted to Captain on the Dover Police Department! We know how great he is - it’s good to see others do as well! Congratulations, Bill!
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. We’re going to observe it as “Passion” Sunday - that is, during our worship services, we’ll be following Jesus’ journey through the last week of his earthly life. We’ll trace his steps with scripture, song and liturgy. The story is an emotionally moving, and spiritually transforming account. I hope you’ll do your best to be in worship. And if you happen to be working in Sunday School during the first service, please try to stay for the second service.
Part of what will take place during the first service is that three folks will join the church!! Praise God! We’ll welcome Christine Devlin for Confirmation; Sara Curtis by transfer from First UMC in Hudson, MA; and Roberta Deane by transfer from Brackett Memorial UMC on Peaks Island, ME. Please be sure to greet them and welcome them.
Let me list our Holy Week activities one last time:
Maundy Thursday Service, at 7 PM - a Communion Service shaped around a dramatic presentation of DiVinci’s painting, “The Last Supper.”
Good Friday - And Ecumenical Service at Noon, at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church on Locust Street in Dover. Then at 7 PM, we’ll have a quiet, reflective service of readings and prayers in our own sanctuary.
The Worship Committee would love to have any help that you might offer, in arranging the Lilies and Daffodils in our chancel - on Saturday, beginning at . . . I think it’s 9:30 AM.
Sunday morning is full - beginning with the First Fire Service at 5:30 AM - outdoors, with bagpipe music and candlelighting. That service ends in a procession into the sanctuary, for the 6 AM Sunrise service - lead by our High School Sunday School class. Breakfast will be served by the United Methodist Men, right after the Sunrise Service. Then we’ll have two “regular” (if any Easter celebration can be called “regular”) services at 9 and 11 AM (Note: our second service will begin half an hour later than usual.).
I want to thank you, our church family, once again, for supporting people in their times of loss. This week you offered that to Lynn Devlin and her family after Kevin’s death. In so many ways you helped to make the celebration of his life wonderful. She gives me all the credit - and I’ll let her think it was all me, for now. But you and I know that LOTS of the work is done by many members of our congregation. Thank you! And God bless Lynn, Cate, Christine and the rest of their family and friends.
I know many of you have heard this, but for those who haven’t, Michael Graff (Deanna and Kenny Gallant’s son) went through surgery that held great hope for addressing his cancer. In the surgery, the doctors found the tumor had grown, and was attached to his spine. There is nothing that they can do for him at this point. We continue to hold Michael (and his family) in our prayers. He will come back to Portland as soon as he can be released from the hospital in Baltimore.
Not that I want to keep sharing unhappy news, but some may not have heard that Betsey Bolton’s grand-mother passed away last Sunday. Her death was not totally unexpected, but it happened suddenly. We hold Betsey and her family in our prayers as well.
With things like the last three items I shared with you, the message of Easter comes into sharper focus. It’s not just at our deaths that Easter has meaning, though. All of life can be better - more hope-filled - more joyous - because Christ bore the burden of our sins on the cross, and not even death could win! As we walk this week with one another, and with Christ, may our faith be renewed and reborn. Have a blessed Holy Week, and an awesome Easter!
Peace, Mark