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Dear Parish Family,
Spring has sprung! Azaleas have come and gone. Flowers are in bloom. The trees are in full leaf. The daytime temperatures are slowly increasing. The days are getting longer and, much to the delight of our youth, the number of days of school before summer vacation are growing shorter. All the indications point to the fact that summer will soon be upon us.
On Sunday, May 4th we celebrate Youth Sunday. Our young people will take leadership roles in the service and contemporary music will be provided by singers and instrumentalist from the parish. Come and support the youth of the parish as we worship.
Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter. On that day we conclude the seven weeks of celebrating our redemption, shown forth in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and in his sending of the Spirit of God to us. It is the presence of the Spirit in the church that makes God’s action in the dying, rising, and glorification of Jesus of more than historical interest. It is the continued presence of the Holy Spirit that incorporates our lives into the risen life of Christ and makes us part of his Body.
Along with the Feast of Pentecost comes two other major feasts of the Church year, Ascension and Trinity Sunday. The Feast of the Ascension on May 1st commemorates the time when the Lord ascended back to God the Father. We will celebrate this feast on the eve of the Ascension April 30th This is one of the most under-celebrated feasts of the Church year because it always falls on a Thursday.
Trinity Sunday, May 11 is the First Sunday after Pentecost and is a celebration of the Holy Trinity. This is not, however, a celebration of a doctrine, but the celebration of the God whose self-revelation is as an interaction of love between Persons. The doctrine came about as the Christian attempt to express, in human language, our experience of God can experience that we are God’s children, that we are the brothers and sisters of God incarnate, and that we are people who find the Spirit of God living in us. Thus, the names given to God’s action toward us and God’s own being are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Fr. Wayne+
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