Good day and Happy 7th Monday of Easter! Alleluia, Christ is risen!

Happening…

Tuesday, May 14, 7pm at Holy Trinity, Sault Ste Marie (352 Northern Ave.): The Celebration of New Ministry of The Rev. Susan Montague Koyle. Followed by refreshments and fellowship.

Thursday, June 13, 7pm at St. Luke’s Cathedral (160 Brock St., Sault Ste Marie): the installation of The Very Rev. Dr. Jay Koyle as the dean of the diocese. 

Saturday, May 25, 11am – 3pm at the Trinity Centre (across the parking lot from Holy Trinity): Spring Fling…bake table, cinnamon buns, barbecue, and “new to you treasures”, possibly craft tables as well. 

Yesterday, at the beginning of the worship service, I asked the people seated there, “Why are you here?” And I pointed out that, under all of the individual personal reasons, there is one “bottom line” reason: We gather together in worship to be the Church because the Holy Spirit has called us to gather together to be the Church. 

Why? If it is God who calls the Church into existence, why does God want/need the Church? Before I tell you the “bottom line” answer, Jay shared this gem of wisdom with me recently: If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. Knowing the destination is crucial in actually being able to get there. Otherwise, we may be getting somewhere…but not where we are meant to be.

The great missionary bishop and theologian, Lesslie Newbiggin explains our “why”: “The Church exists not for itself and not for its members but as a sign and agent and foretaste of the kingdom of God.”  We, the Church, are called into existence in order to reveal God’s kingdom by living the ways of God’s kingdom and inviting all others to join us until God’s kingdom comes, God’s will is done on earth as in heaven.  Please read on and be sure to check out the video. 

Know Your Why

The reality for many devoted Christians is that we actually do not know our story of salvation very well and we have allowed mainstream thinking to distort or dilute our story. This unfortunate reality is powerfully reinforced – to the detriment and distortion of our thinking about who God is, what God does, the goodness of God, and even the very existence of God – through our understanding and practice of prayer. That’s right, you read this correctly: Our personal prayer practices are one of the most powerful and widespread ways in which Christians are being malformed. (Personal prayer can also be one of the most powerful ways of transforming us into the kingdom people we are meant to be so we’ll talk more about prayer some other time.)

The rediscovery of our story – who we are and why we are as Christians – that fuels our passion and ignites the desire within us to be this story and to share this story is crucial to our existence as the Church. Please take a few moments to watch this amazing video at the link here as a reminder of the difference it makes when we know the “why” of who we are as the body of Christ:

A Liturgical Note About Pentecost: This coming Sunday is the Principal Feast of The Day of Pentecost (see below in the “Devotions” section). The Paschal Alleluias that we have been saying during our liturgies throughout the Easter season can be doubled at the dismissal for the Pentecost liturgy. The Paschal Season comes to an end after the day’s final liturgy – whether it be Evening Prayer or Compline. This means that the Paschal candle is extinguished at the end of the day’s services and is not lit again except for baptisms and funerals. The Paschal candle is moved from the prominent position where it has been throughout the Paschal Season and is placed back in its customary place – usually near the font.  The liturgical colour for the Day of Pentecost is red since red is associated with the image of the Holy Spirit as fire.  (There are other associations with the colour red which is why we wear red on other days of the church calendar as well).

Just to reinforce…because it’s so important that we get it right:  The Day of Pentecost is a part of the Easter season. The Easter season ends after the final liturgy on the Day of Pentecost.  This means that Pentecost is not a season of the church…Pentecost is part of the Easter Season. There is no “season of Pentecost.”  When Pentecost is over, we enter into Ordinary Time and we count Sundays as Sundays after Pentecost – not in Pentecost and not of Pentecost. Liturgically and theologically speaking, if there were a season of Pentecost, we would be wearing red the whole time. But we are not wearing red, we are wearing green because it is Ordinary Time in the season after Pentecost. 

For Your Devotions:

Tuesday, May 14 is the Holy Day of St. Matthias the Apostle.  According to the first chapter of Acts, it is Matthias who is chosen to replace Judas Iscariot. Matthias then receives the Holy Spirit along with the other disciples and, after that, the New Testament does not mention him. Early tradition credits Matthias with Christianizing Cappadocia and the region around the Caspian Sea. It is also believed that Matthias was crucified. To read more…  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Matthias 

Sunday, May 19 is The Principal Feast of the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost comes from Greek and means the fiftieth day. We celebrate it, therefore, on the 50^th day following Easter. It is the day when, in Luke’s account, the disciples were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Many people were then inspired, by Peter’s speech explaining this strange experience, to be baptized and follow the way of Jesus Christ. This is why Pentecost is designated as a day especially appropriate for baptisms. If nobody is being baptized, we renew our baptismal vows as part of the Sunday worship. In Jewish history, Pentecost (Shavuot) was primarily celebrated as a day of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the harvest and so Christianity’s use of the same festival name indicates the view that, for Christians, the giving of the Holy Spirit is the first fruits of a new God-given system of ordering our lives that fulfills the Law.

In the joy of the risen and ascended Christ,

Susan