Dear Friends--
I will be on vacation for the next week and a half, and -- amazing to say -- it will be just a day or two before Lent when I return. Here are a few Lenty announcements:
First, please mark your calendars for the Ministry Discernment event on Saturday, March 15th. The MDC only does a small number of big events to get input from the community, so each one is very important. Details and times will be forthcoming.
St. Barnabus in Norwich has recently entered their own transition period with the retirement of their Rector, and has invited us to coordinate our Ash Wednesday (March 5) services with them. So, we will jointly be doing one service at noon at St. Barnabus, and one service at 7pm here at St. Paul's. If you'd like to carpool to the noon service, please meet me in the Parish House at St. Paul's at 11:30. There will be no 11am Bible Study on Ash Wednesday.
Small Groups will be our Lenten focus this year. Please have a look at the information and signup sheets in the Parish Hall, by the door to the kitchen. If you have questions or comments, or if you're interested but none of the current options work for you, please email Diana Collins (dianacollins43@gmail.com) or me. We can't promise to match everyone's schedule and interest, but we'll look for opportunities to get people together if possible.
There will be another in our series of conversations about being reconciled to past events and to one another on March 9th, from 3:30-6:30pm. This event will be quite different from the two we've had already, redesigned in light of feedback the steering committee has solicited. We've left a lot of time for this gathering because we hope to cover a lot of territory. A detailed invitation will arrive next week; in the meantime, please do consider putting this on your calendar.
Please watch for details about Shrove Tuesday happenings!
Don't feel you need to put on an emergency in the next couple of weeks, but if you do then you'll be happy to know that Leslie Black has agreed to be pastoral care point person. Her cell number is 802.272.9664.
Peace,
Mark.