Holy Week Notes and Registrations

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Holy Week Notes and Registrations

Dear St. Paul's Family,

As we traverse the commemoration of Jesus' last days of earthly life, may we be grounded and certain in the knowledge of his mission to offer himself for our salvation.  May we walk this week more intently.  May our prayers take us deeper.

And on this Tuesday of Holy Week, in addition to sending the sign-up links for our upcoming services, please consider the following:

  • Maundy Thursday - Our Maundy Thursday remembrance of the institution of the Eucharist, of Jesus' teaching us to be servants to each other by the washing of feet, and of his instruction of the greatest commandment (to love one another as Jesus has loved us) will happen as in the past with one exception.

    The Altar of Repose, where the Blessed Sacrament will be available for viewing and prayer, will be placed at the space between the altar rails at the front of the church. This will allow each person to view the altar while offering prayers in their own seats. Everyone is welcome to stay after service as long as they would like, until 10pm. Upon leaving the worship space, please feel free to walk past the altar and reverence the sacrament with a bow. We will NOT offer a place to kneel there for private prayer this year due to pandemic guidelines. Once everyone has left, the church will be locked for the night.

  • Good Friday - This service is a powerful and somber remembrance of Jesus' death on the cross and our complicity (via our sinful human nature) in his need to be there. Spiritually, this service brings me to my knees, and leaves me there until the resurrection can be celebrated. This year there will be two differences in our traditional observation.

    Instead of coming forward to venerate a cross one by one, we will each receive a small olive wood cross that fits neatly in the palm of our hand. This cross will be our tactile remembrance and veneration during this pandemic season. It will also travel with us from that service until the resurrection. Keep it in your pocket as a reminder of the solemnity of the hours Jesus remained in death on our behalf.

    Secondly, when Holy Communion is offered on this day it is from the sacrament that is reserved from our Maundy Thursday Eucharistic celebration. Consecration of the elements is not permitted on the day Jesus offers himself on the cross. Holy Communion is an optional element of this specific service. In consultation with the Worship Committee, and at my request, we will NOT offer communion during this service. If this is new to you, notice how it feels to be bereft of the sacrament during this service. Observe how the lack of that spiritual nourishment affects you on this day, and in the hours until resurrection. Sit with that lacking, that discomfort until Easter morning. And then rejoice all the more when you receive the precious body of Jesus on resurrection morning.

We are privileged to be able to meet in person, to worship our Lord, to SING, and to be in community in the midst of the long haul of the pandemic.   St. Paul's is far ahead of the curve in terms of worshiping in-person and singing.  And we are doing this safely.  I share this not only to brag on us a bit, but also as a reminder there are many people in our lives missing church.  We have two Easter services and a maximum capacity of 110 people over those two services, not to mention our live stream offering.  Make it a priority to find someone to invite to our Easter celebration.  It's going to be lovely and wouldn't it be nice to have the church filled (according to our pandemic guidelines)?

Lastly, stay safe my friends.  While the initial waves and absolute terror of the pandemic are behind us, the reality of a "return to normal" at an exact moment in time is unlikely.  Continue to observe the guidelines that keep us most safe by wearing your mask in public, practicing social distancing, and taking care of yourself.  While many, if not most of us, have been vaccinated at this point, we don't know for certain that our immunized status can't still spread the virus and we don't know who among us might not be vaccinated.  As we worship together, we will observe all of the currently required precautions.  As you gather with friends and family personally over this time, please also remember to be safe WHILE you celebrate the miraculous resurrection.

Be well and pray well my friends.  

Wishing you a blessed Holy Week, 
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 (c)

News from the Red Doors - March 26, 2021

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From Your Senior Warden, Jean Burns

What joy it is to look forward with anticipation and hope to Holy Week and, in particular, to our celebration of Easter. As we begin to resume services that more closely resemble normal, care is being taken to proceed with caution. Nevertheless, the Worship Committee, led by Mother Michelle, has in place plans to make this Holy Week as special as it possibly can be. Members of the congregation will be able to sing hymns and the doxology softly behind masks beginning on Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. There will be palm crosses for all who come to the service, and even though there will be no choir or palm procession, there will be the traditional narration by members of the congregation of the Palm Sunday reading and a beautiful service. I am so grateful for a priest and an organist who have given so much time and thought to making the week special and meaningful.

I urge each of you to join others on April 1, at 6:00 pm for the Maundy Thursday service, which concludes with placing the holy sacrament at the Altar of Repose, contemplation and silence, and the stripping of the altar. For me this has always been an especially sacred time of thoughtful contemplation. The Good Friday service at 12:00 pm is a traditional liturgical service without the Eucharist, but includes the solemn act of venerating the cross, which has had to be reimagined this year. As people enter for the service, each will be given a small wood cross of olive wood, a symbol of the traditional act of veneration that cannot safely occur this year. All, contemplating the death of Christ, will leave in silence.

Joyfully, the week concludes with a new beginning, Christians’ most important celebration of the year, Easter, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. The bell will ring in triumph both before and after the service. The congregation will sing hymns, the doxology, the Lord’s Prayer; the priest will chant the liturgy; the congregation will receive the bread. The altar will abound in beautiful lilies and spring flowers. No church is more beautiful than St. Paul’s on this day! May each of you, your family, your friends and neighbors join us at St. Paul’s on this holiest of days as we celebrate together.

- Jean Burns, Senior Warden

This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker

Dear St. Paul's Family,

Since Jean offered such a lovely overview of Holy Week, I will add to this newsletter only a couple bits of practical information.  

This week Tom Konieczny and I spent some time measuring pews.  We discovered that for the first 10 months of the pandemic we have been overly cautious by seating people 9 feet apart!  The CDC only recommends 6 feet of social distancing.  We discovered this while contemplating potential Easter seating and how we might be able to seat 55 people, our maximum capacity.  (55 is 25% of our fire marshal capacity, and the guideline established by the diocese for this phase of the pandemic.)

After conversation and consultation with the vestry, we decided to revise our two center aisle pew rows to the 6 feet of distancing recommended by the CDC, while maintaining our previous 9 feet of distancing on the side aisles.  We're doing this to offer those individuals who appreciate the greater distancing an opportunity to continue to feel most secure.  If you prefer one of these seats, please let the usher know when you arrive for service.  We will maintain those as long as they are being used.  We want everyone to feel secure in their worship.

We also learned, from a trusted medical professional, that COVID is not transmitted by contact (it's spread via the respiratory track).  Now we have lived for more than a year with the fear of contact transmission, so we have no intention of reducing our efforts to keep the church clean and avoid commonly touched services.  However, we will likely sneak the Hymnals and Prayer Books back into the pews if for no other reason than that is where they belong.  Please don't feel intimated by this AND you won't be required to use them in the near future.

Don't forget we resume singing this Sunday.  Tune up your vocal cords, wear your mask, and let's enjoy the (soft) singing voices that have been resting for far too long!

Lastly, I plan to send a short newsletter on Tuesday for next week.  Look for that.  I hope to see you Saturday for clean-up day and Sunday for worship!

Wishing you a blessed Lent, 
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 (c)

PS.  Invite someone to church this week, in-person OR virtually.  Go on our Facebook page and share our events or the video I recorded inviting people to church (https://www.facebook.com/stpaullaporte/videos/427378468327695).  Now is a great time for us all to practice our evangelism skills!

So you're not surprised, the signs designating which pews are available for seating have been moved from the middle of the pew to the far end.

So you're not surprised, the signs designating which pews are available for seating have been moved from the middle of the pew to the far end.

Revised seating chart w/ 6 ft social distancing in the center and 9 ft on the sides.

Revised seating chart w/ 6 ft social distancing in the center and 9 ft on the sides.

News from the Red Doors - March 19, 2021

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This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker

Dear St. Paul's Family,

With a resounding "yes", we will reintroduce congregational singing effective Palm Sunday!  Thank you for sharing your opinions and support on this topic.  We decided at our Worship Committee meeting on Tuesday to phase singing back in quickly.  On Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday we will sing the hymns, the Psalm, and the doxology.  Beginning on Easter, we will sing everything again.  It will be so glorious.  I can't wait!

One important note on our "glorious singing", however, is that in order to optimize everyone's safety we will follow these guidelines:

  • When we sing, actually anytime we're in the building, our masks must cover both our nose and our mouth.

  • Singing softly means singing no louder than a normal speaking voice. Think of it as if you were singing a baby to sleep.

  • Our soloists will continue to add their beautiful voices to ours, both to help us get back in the swing and to remind us to sing softly.

Many of us, especially our organist, are greatly looking forward to the return of singing.  You'll also find it lovely to know he is meeting with me personally to help get me up to speed on chanting the liturgy, which is a new skill considering I've only done it twice!

This Sunday, however, on our last Sunday in Lent, we will continue with NO congregational singing - as we have throughout the pandemic.  That will make it all the more wonderful to sing again on Palm Sunday.

Be well, dear ones.  Stay vigilant and safe regarding the virus.  Draw closer to Christ in these last Lenten days.  And begin preparing yourself for crucifixion, death, and resurrection. 

Prayers and blessings to you,
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 

Some Thoughts About Creation Care

I prepared these notes and links for our March 16th vestry meeting. It was suggested that I share them with the entire congregation. I plan to include 5-10 minutes of "development time" at all future vestry meetings, when possible. I'll be sure to share the good details with you as appropriate.

Dear Vestry,

This evening we will spend a few minutes discussing Creation Care, one of the three focus areas from our General Convention in 2018. (The other two are Racial Reconciliation and Evangelism.) The intention is to make you aware of offerings from the wider diocese in the event you might be interested in them or would like to support these initiatives in any way. As April is the month we celebrate Earth Day, it is appropriate to share this with you prior to then. I am scheduling this email to arrive at the start of our vestry meeting so that you have the links necessary to further explore this topic.

The Diocese organized a Creation Care Commission, which ANYONE is welcome to join, shortly after General Convention 2018. More information can be found here: https://ednin.org/creationcare.

Mission: The mission of the Commission on Creation Care is...bring resources together, focal point, creation library, foster an awareness of our connectedness to the earth, enable congregations to help steward the earth.

Vision: Our vision is that people of our faith communities of the Diocese of Northern Indiana will...increase awareness, decrease use of Styrofoam, creation audit, explore other sources of energy.

Creation Care in the Episcopal Church is based on understanding ourselves to be stewards of what belongs, not to us, but to God. Stewardship of creation therefore demands that we "seek to heal, defend, and work toward justice for all God's creation and to respect the kinship and connection of all that God created through education, advocacy, and action." The people of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana engage in Creation Care through a variety of activities, some of which are highlighted below.

We also have a diocesan Facebook group that you are welcome to join, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ednincreationcare1

And there are several components to Creation Care that are currently ongoing around the Diocese such as:

Deacon Melissa Renner is the chair of the Creation Care Commission and is planning an event on April 24th beginning at 9am to kick off the Creation Care initiative more fully. Look for details in the Diocesan eNews. Deacon Melissa serves as the deacon at St. John the Evangelist, Elkhart and can be reached at this email address: melissa.e.renner@gmail.com.

The earth is not ours to use and destroy, but must continue to shelter and nourish (hopefully) countless generations after us. We might not think that seemingly small changes will help preserve the environment but if all of us make those changes it just might.

Personally I work hard to reduce, reuse, and recycle. I am constantly looking for ways to reduce the amount of plastic I use, even though I recycle it. I use very few disposable straws and avoid Styrofoam as much as possible. I carry my own silverware so that I rarely need plastic, even from fast food places. I am experimenting with shampoo bars (vs. plastic containers of liquid) and use linen napkins in our home. I rarely use disposable plates. I try to be aware and hope that my small pieces add up to something larger.

If caring for the environment is important to you and you'd like to be more actively involved, or aware, I suggest you research some of the links above.

Thank you!

News from the Red Doors - March 12, 2021

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This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker

Dear St. Paul's Family,

On Wednesday, during a Diocesan/Parish leadership call, we heard some wonderful news about singing.  We learned that medical experts now believe singing can return to church, observing the following guidelines:

  • Masking and social distancing must be maintained (as we are already doing).

  • Singers must sing at a quiet or soft level (like a normal speaking voice).

As long as these guidelines are met, we are welcome to begin singing again! Isn't this the most joyful news we've heard in a long time? I have included the document Bishop Doug prepared in conjunction with Dr. Poland here in case you'd like to read the full details.

Now, before we reinstate this fully we would like to check-in regarding how YOU feel about this. Please share your opinions regarding singing in this short survey, by Monday end of day. I will tally the results in time for our Tuesday afternoon Worship Committee meeting where we will determine our plan. Thank you for taking the time to offer your opinion.

We also heard from the CDC this week that fully-immunized people may now gather without wearing masks. We will NOT be implementing this guideline at this time, for many reasons. We all look forward to the day when masks are no longer required. It's not quite yet though. (As a side note, I received my second Pfizer vaccination on 3/3. I am considered "fully immunized" by 3/17.)

In other exciting news, we have decided to offer TWO services on Easter Morning:  a 7:30am Spoken Word Eucharist and a 9am Holy Eucharist with music.  We recognized our current seating capacity doesn't allow for everyone to attend on Easter and we want to ensure each of you are able to attend.  Please consider the earlier service, as you are able, since 9am is more hospitable to visitors.  (Wouldn't it be nice to have a few?!?)

Lastly, mark your calendars for Thursday evening, May 6th, for a Renewal of Ministry with the Welcoming of New Pastor service, often referred to as an Installation Service.  Bishop Doug presides over this beautiful service that welcomes a new pastor/priest to a faith community.  Although it's typically done in the first months of a new call, due to the pandemic we have sent May 6th as a date shortly after our one year anniversary together.  I pray you will attend.  More information will be shared in future newsletters.

As we continue to journey through Lent, please know that your leadership team is busily working to ensure we have the most lovely Holy Week and Easter celebrations possible in these times.  We are praying for YOU and we appreciate your prayers for US.   

Prayers and blessings to you,
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226