During this Lenten season on Wednesday evenings between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week we gather at St. Alban's for evening worship at 6 o’clock – followed by a simple soup potluck supper, and a study & reflection hour from 7 to 8 o’clock.
For our worship together we have a rich treasure house to draw upon - Taizé chant, from an ecumenical community in northern France. It is meditative, repetitive, and inviting. While singing the same words over and over may seem on paper like a profligate way to spend time, in worship experience it turns out to create a quiet time, a quiet space - just what we want to give people this Lent.
Early in the service we have a reading to set the tone, such as:
Isaiah 26:7-9
The way of the righteous is level;
O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.
In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and your renown
are the soul’s desire.
My soul yearns for you in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
The readings deeper in the course of the service will be tied to the Baptismal Covenant, the theme of the study and reflection hour later in the evening. The Baptismal Covenant is found in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 304-305). The first session, in February, we will have been considering the covenant as a whole - and the following weeks we can take up each of the five promises in turn (covering the last two on the fifth week.) You may attend any of the sessions or all – they will each have something different to offer.
The five questions lay before us an invitation to live in keeping with God’s holy will and commandments – and walk in them all the days of our lives. Here are the five questions:
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
And the answer to each?
I will, with God’s help.
Amen.
--Fr. J.
The 2010 Lenten Wednesday series runs February 24th, and March 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th. Come worship with us at 6 o’clock, share a simple potluck supper at 6:30, and join us for an hour of study and reflection from 7 to 8 o’clock.
St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 21405 82nd Place West, Edmonds WA 98026 (425) 778-0371
http://www.stalbansedmonds.org/
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