Dear Edwards Church Community,
We all know that summer has its own rhythm and its own demands. Summer is short in New England, and weekends are a unique opportunity to enjoy the season. The lure of nature, family and friends has even tempted some to attend Sunday services less frequently. Go figure!
To provide an option that allows folks to enjoy summer weekends and still worship with others, Deb and I will be offering Wednesday Worship at 6pm on five occasions: June 21, July 12 and 26, and August 9 and 23. Consistent with a summer sensibility, Wednesday Worship will be more casual than our traditional Sunday mornings. We will gather in the Edwards Room for a half hour or so – just long enough to really slow down and open ourselves to the Presence we experience where two or three (or ten or more) are gathered.
The Wednesdays we have chosen alternate with weeks when First Churches holds Common Ground, the farm to table dinner church that meets at 6pm on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month (http://www.firstchurches.org/news-events/common-ground/). This way, almost every week when we are in “summer mode,” you will have a mid-week service available: either Wednesday Worship or Common Ground.
Of course, our regular Sunday summer service will be happening every Sunday, with special music provided by David or guest musicians from time to time. Deb or I (and often both) will be here every Sunday from late June through Labor Day.
Summer has its own rhythm and its own demands. As I wrote last June, my late father-in-law was fond of saying that summer reminds us to take time to “let the fields lay fallow,” to stop being so productive and let ourselves be recharged by our encounters with nature and the ground of our being, what the apostle Paul called “that in which we live, and move and have our being.”.
When someone has been away for some time and returns to church on a Sunday, they often feel compelled to explain, and I assure them “We don’t take attendance.” That does not mean gathering with others for worship is not important. Indeed, it is important. In whatever format we worship, no other activity has the same power to focus and deepen our connection to God as worshiping in a community.
May your summer be blessed with many such occasions. And may God bless you and keep you. May God make her face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you, and give you peace.
Shalom,
Michael