The Lengthening of Our Days 

Dearest Holy Comforter family,

Starting on the thirteenth of January, it felt like I started running a marathon. This is an extraordinarily busy season of the year every year. The vestry gathers for its annual retreat, we hold our annual meeting required by the canons of our church, and convention for the diocese is usually scheduled on the first week of February. Along with the respite session we hosted, we also had the opportunity to provide some comfort and relief to folks so terribly affected by the Tornadoes that ripped through our area on the 12th of January. Meaning, except for 1/2 day here and 1/2 day there, I worked straight through 4 weeks. The last major weekend commitment I made was a planning team meeting with everyone involved in helping to launch our new program. We gathered on Saturday and it was marvelous. I've included a little bit more about it in the dots below.

Monday started a lot slower for me and then I drove to Auburn to meet my dearest friend Carolyn who was my college roommate. We had decided we were going hiking at Chewacla State Park. The sun was shining, the breeze was gentle, and the rocks we sat on by a small waterfall were smooth and reassuringly hard and steadfast. It was truly a moment of Sabbath rest for me. The rest of this week so far has also unfolded more slowly and with far less stress.

With time to look up and look around, I have noticed how much longer the days have gotten. It's hard to miss those first daffodils when they bloom, and my breath always catches when I see redbuds blooming. But it is all the promises of longer days that I am so aware of today. Even though we are almost at the end of the Season of Epiphany, in the weeks ahead the light will shine brighter and longer each and every day. There is a strange kind of grace in the fact that this is also when we will enter into the Season of Lent with its time for self-examination, for metanoia (repentance in the Greek sense of turning in a new direction, taking a path all the way to the cross and then to the Season of Resurrection).

At our staff meeting this week, we discussed the ways in which we recognize through our worship what the Season of Lent is about. For the 40 days beginning with Ash Wednesday, we will have less music to adorn our liturgy. We will start each Sunday with the litany that tries to put into words a lamentation for all that gets broken and lost because of a humanity that is less than whole, less than healthy, and less than willing to live into the fullness of our baptismal vows. I believe the kind of self-examination the Season of Lent calls for is only possible because we already receive more and more light each day. The light allows us to see and feel and touch all the small graces that God offers us so that we may be grounded in the infinitely creative and beautiful love with which God has made everything that is. It is only in that love that we are able to face that which we would prefer to look away from.

I wonder what you will notice, what you will draw strength from, as spring begins to fill the world with new color and small but real growth? I wonder if, in the Season of Lent, all of us may accept the ways in which we are broken and incomplete, and by doing so, discover that God's grace is right there with us, so willing to help us try again, so willing to give us another chance to accept that even in our incompleteness and our brokenness, we are beloved.

I hope you will join your church family on Ash Wednesday at noon, and together we can walk the way of the wilderness together. The light will help us find our way. The laughter and affection we have for each other will make the journey easier and more meaningful. We are being invited to notice, and really pay attention, to God’s creative, redeeming, and sustaining love.

With prayers for the blessing of warm days and gentle breezes, Rosa+

SUNDAYS

Holy Eucharist |10AM

King Cake, Coffee & Fellowship this Sunday, Feb. 19, 11 AM

We will have King Cake to celebrate the end of Epiphany and Mardi Gras. Please come and join us! We experience great joy when we gather together in this kind of fellowship.

Imposition of Ashes and Holy Eucharist

Feb. 22, Noon Service

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WEDNESDAYS 

 • Morning Prayer | 10:30AM

Randy Woodland is the officiant

(We will not have Morning Prayer on Ash Wed, Feb. 22) 

 • Compline | 8PM

Give to Holy Comforter

text 73256 message HCGIVE

To make a contribution through text from your cell phone:

1) Use your message application and type 73256 in the “To” field.

2) Type in HCGIVE in the message field. (You will be taken to a message that contains a link to the secure Holy Comforter screen where you enter the amount, fund (current year pledges or plate offering), frequency, and the date you want to make the gift. )

3) At the bottom is a continue button that will take you to the payment method. You can enter credit or debit card information or bank information.

4) When you choose the payment method, you have the option to contribute to the processing costs for your transaction (there is a charge to the church and this helps defray the cost. You may also save the information for future use.)

5) At the completion of your transaction you will receive confirmation that includes a receipt number for your records.

To make a contribution online:

a) Type in the following web address: https://onrealm.org/holycomfort/give/now

(That takes you to the Holy Comforter screen where you enter the amount, the fund (current year pledges or plate offering), frequency, the date you want to make the gift, and your email address).

b) At the bottom is a continue button. Press that to go to the payment method. (You can enter credit or debit card information or bank information. You also have the option to contribute to the processing costs and save for future use.)

Lenten Study

Book Order for Online Discussion

February 28th - April 2nd, Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00 pm

Starting on February 28th and continuing until Tuesday in Holy Week (April 4th), Deacon Lee and I will facilitate a book study/discussion of, This Here Flesh, written by Cole Arthur Riley. Kate Bowler, another young female writer who writes exquisitely about life in the Spirit said this: “In this beautiful, soul-stirring book, we rediscover a sense of awe for the bodies that make us, the stories that ground us, and the delicate grace that enlivens our spirits.” 

The discussion will take place via Zoom on Tuesday evenings from 7:00-8:00 pm.  You can purchase a copy of the book yourself, get the Kindle version, or contact Diane who will place an order for copies. Please contact Diane if you want her to order your copy (admin@holycomfortermgm.org) and mail or bring a check for $17.78 to the church. The books will be available for pickup at the end of the week, 2/26, 2/27, and 2/28. We will also send out a Zoom link/code next week. You do not need to start reading the book until after our first Zoom gathering. Purchase on Amazon here.

CPR & First Aid class | 11 AM, Sunday, March 19

On Sunday, March 19th, immediately after church, we are having a CPR and First Aid class here at HC. A light lunch will be provided as well. I'd like to ask you to plan to attend this 3-hr class. I understand that is no small commitment and I also believe it makes a big difference for any community to have members well-trained to save a life. The cost of the class is $40 per person. Given our limited budget, if you can cover the cost for yourself, wonderful. If not, HC will--and please don't hesitate to let me know if that is the best option for you.

I'd appreciate hearing back from you no later than Feb 24. I will resend this note close to that date. Thank you! Rosa+

A picture is worth a thousand words

We hope the picture above helps give a better understanding of what types of food

the Backpack program packs in the kids' backpacks. We are currently packing food for 25 children, delivered weekly so they will have food over the weekends.

 Please leave food donations in the basket outside the front office window.

the Food Pantry is serving over 50 families weekly. Donations include all non-perishable food items and personal items: shaving cream/razors, deodorant, toilet paper, diapers, toothbrushes/paste, etc...

Donations can be left in the bins outside McMaster Hall.

Thank you for your support!

DATES to REMEMBER