Our hearts and souls were turned more closely to Christ as we walked the journey with Jesus to the cross. While engaging in the pre-recorded service of the Stations of the Cross, we were touched by the compelling woodcut prints by Margaret Adams Parker which drew us into the reality of Jesus’ journey to Calvary. There were times emotions overwhelmed us as we entered deeply into prayer. We also used the opportunity to name before God our sins, that which has kept us from fully loving our Lord, by writing them on slips of paper, later to be burned. As always, the music, images, and sacred texts draw our hearts to where they need to be — at the foot of the cross with Jesus.
We celebrated Maundy Thursday in a different way this year. At times it felt odd not to be together, not to share a Bible Foods Dinner, not to wash each other’s feet, not to celebrate the Eucharist together. And yet, God showed up and brought the holiness of this special night into our hearts.
We created our agape meals in our own homes, prayed, sang, and found a new way to lean into the servant heart Jesus showed us at that last supper with his disciples.
Here is a photo of someone’s Agape meal at her home It looks perfect, doesn’t it?
Many of us gathered in our hearts through a guided meditation on the hymn, Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love. We were blessed with the music offered to us by Kevin Gorman as we walked into the holy space, always available to us through our loving God.
Tomorrow we walk toward the cross with Jesus. Please join us.
We celebrated Palm Sunday in a very different way, but it was not a “less than” experience, and in many ways, it became a “more than” experience.
Some of the responses I heard to the Palm Sunday pre-recorded service were, “I felt like I was with my whole parish family”, “It was wonderful!”, “BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL. Hearing you say the Palm Sunday service is the woods was wonderful. I felt like I was there with you”, “It brought tears to my eyes”.
It is our hope that you are worshiping with us, not merely “watching” the service, but allowing your heart to be changed through it. This may take some time for you to make that adjustment — but one thing that can help is for you to be involved in the pre-recorded service. There are many opportunities for you to be one of the lectors, or offer your musical gifts, or lead part of the service. If you are interested, please email me at rector@standrewsship.org.
We encouraged everyone to discover something from their own yard or context that they would use for palms and to process through their house or in their woods, and offer a litany of blessing of their spaces, so we can expand our understanding that our space which we live in is holy space, just like the space in our sanctuary. Here are some photos of doors or mailboxes decorated with the expression of palms on Palm Sunday that worked best for them.
Proclaiming “Hosanna in the highest” in a new way.
To engage in the worship of Palm Sunday, please click here.
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
We gathered by Zoom this past Wednesday — and it was WONDERFUL to finally see each other’s faces and hear each other’s voices. Gathering back into community, even after a break of just a few weeks felt holy and true.
We focused our attention around the spiritual practice of blessing, as part of our Lenten exploration of the series of Life Transformed: The Way of Love for Lent.
We tied the spiritual act of blessing one another with the Christian ritual of turning away from and then adhering ourselves toward something else. This pattern begins in our baptismal vows (renouncing the forces of evil before proclaiming our faith and trust in Jesus) and is a part of our regular lives. Much of our conversation then connecting this Christian ritual with our current situation of living with the pandemic of COVID-19.
It was a good time of being connected with one another in thoughtful discussions about our faith and life.
The Holy Spirit has drawn us into another extension of our desire to offer Christ’s healing to all people. We gather now as a group to knit prayer shawls, those wonderful, warm shawls that we create with prayer and yarn which become real manifestations of God’s love through our hands. We are so blessed to be able to offer someone in need, either in times of grief or health concerns, a prayer shawl. We all bless the shawls in church prior to giving them away, so they are from all of us at St. Andrew’s, and offered in and through the love of Christ.
All are welcome to join this ministry. We gather on the first Sunday of each month at 11:30 a.m. in the Parish Library for conversation, knitting advice, and prayer. If you are in need of a prayer shawl, please let Mother Barbara know so we can get knitting away for you!
We gathered in candlelight, turned our hearts toward the holiness drawn near to us by the harpist, and settled into holy and sacred space. Through chanting, prayer, quiet, intimacy, and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we found a new expression of the love of God made real to us in community.
We offer these Taize Contemplative Eucharists on the first Saturday of every other month as a way to draw those of us who find God through contemplative practices in community as a pathway to wholeness.
We share a light supper afterwards so that we can continue the communion shared in the Eucharist.
We began our beautiful service tonight with the following prayer:
God of abundant mercy, you have given us grace to pray with one heart and one voice, even though our hearts are broken and our voices tremble with grief and sorrow. Comfort, comfort, Lord, your holy people. Comfort those of us who sit in darkness, mourning beneath our sorrow’s load. Speak to us of the peace that awaits us, of the balm of healing for our weary and wounded souls. We ask all this, trusting in the promise you have made to hear the prayers of two or three who have gathered in the Name of your Holy Child, Jesus. Amen.
This prayer gathered our thoughts, drew us together in love, and offered us the space to allow our most vulnerable selves to be present to God and to each other.
Our worship service today was meditative, moving, and healing as we came forward to offer our deepest pains and most fervent prayers to the healing grace of God. The music from the harp soothed our souls and and lifted our hearts as we sat in prayer and in the beauty of our sanctuary. There was great meaning in writing the names of the people whom we love but see no more or the deepest prayers from our souls on stars, which we then hung on the Advent tree. We were very blessed too to welcome new people into our worship. God’s mercy and grace abounded.
Our closing blessing offers us much wisdom and direction in how to faithfully live our lives:
The Blessing
My friends, life is
short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who make
this earthly pilgrimage with us, so be swift to love, and make haste to do
kindness, and the blessing of God, who comes to us as Creative Presence, Saving
Grace and Life-giving Spirit be upon you and all whom you love this night, and
forever more.
In the beauty of our candlelit sanctuary, in the midst of people from within and beyond our parish community, in the “active and alive” silence shared by people in prayer, and in companionship of grief, we prayed for Brian Helman, our church musician who was severely injured two weeks ago. This prayer vigil was organized as an effort of love with Brian’s family, St. Andrew’s, the Cumberland Valley School of Music. This time of silent prayer felt like a thin place, for Brian was in a liminal space, between life and death, and we could join him as we joined our hearts with God, who holds us all.
To read the collection of prayers, poems, and lyrics gathered specifically for this time of prayer, please click on the resource below.
We are so grateful to all whose hearts were opened by this time together, whose prayers were offered in love and hopefulness, and whose souls were changed by this encounter with God in community.
In the vesper light, in the presence of the Spirit, in the calling of our hearts through music deeper into the holy, we gathered together to experience God in the simplicity of prayer, chant, silence, and communion. It was a time of a gathering of hearts turned toward God and it was beautiful.
We then gathered for an amazing dinner, so we could carry the sense of communion into our community. Our hosts for the evening meal, Susan and Keith, brought their warmth and deep generosity into their offering and the feeling of hospitality spread among us. Thank you to everyone who made this such a meaningful event and one where God was praised through our opened hearts.
Please see our photo gallery on this worship service and reception on this website to get the spirit of the event. We all loved this so much we’ll do it again, probably often, so if you have an interest in this simple, quiet type of service, plan to come to the next one, please. You are always welcome!
This past Wednesday evening, after a time of laughter, joy and a meal shared together, we settled down into a deep and profound conversation about our spiritual lives. We had each completed a Spiritual Type Inventory, based upon our natural preferences for the order in worship, in the structure and time of worship, style of prayer, music, preaching, support of causes, membership criteria, ritual and liturgy and concept of God. The four spiritual types articulated in this inventory are “Earth, Water, Air, Fire”.
To complete the inventory, please click on the link below.
We then opened up the conversation, to what specific part of the Sunday worship experience draws your heart the most. The answers were diverse and deeply profound. The idea set within our Christian lives is to deepen that experience. Our current spiritual practices keep us where we are now with God, but our spiritual life is never static, we are always called to go deeper, so we can live into and out of God’s blessing which meets us in our prayer life.
If you would like to talk with Mother Barbara or Dina Carter Ishler, our Field Placement Intern, about this Spiritual Types Inventory or how you might be able to deepen your practice, please reach out to them. You can call the parish office (717-532-8089) and leave a message for them to contact you.
Our Altar and Flower Guild Members are simply the best! They really are. They are dedicated, faithful ministers who understand the holiness of their work. They set the table (altar), wash the linens, fill the candles with oil, polish the brass, set out the bulletins for the altar party, prepare the bread and wine for service, arrange the flowers, and hold the space as sacred– and so much more.
We are very blessed that we have such a wonderful group of people involved in this ministry — and that they do it with joy and kindness. If you would like to join the group, please see Laura Bonanni or Mary Grace Shearer or Mother Barbara.
Each year Mother Barbara offers a luncheon for these members to thank them for their service. It is a time of gathering, catching up, laughing, deepening friendships, and then to go over the Altar Guild instructions to see if anyone has questions or suggestions on how things can work more smoothly.
Thank you, Altar Guild Members. You really are the best!
