On Monday, March 31st, St. Matthew's will host a Lenten-themed service of Taize Candlelight Prayer at 7 pm, followed by a time for silent prayer and reflection.  Taize prayer is part of a world-wide ecumenical movement aimed at reconciliation, healing and union among all people. The church will be open for those who would like to "get away" for a quiet evening filled with readings and prayers, simple chants, candlelight, and silences.  

Sunday night musician Jeff Kidder, accompanied by other St. Matthew's musicians, will play meditative Taize chants for the congregation to sing.  Lenten stations will be available for those who wish to light a candle in prayer for a person, country, or cause, or offer written prayers in the side chapel.

Please join us for the service and invite your friends and family members.

This Saturday, March 22, Lisa Wiens Heinsohn will lead a half day retreat entitled "Reconciliation: Made in the Image of a Triune God," from 9:00 a.m. to noon in the St. Matthew's library.  We will explore how we feel connected to and disconnected from one another, especially our neighbors in need.   

This Lent our theme is reconciliation, but reconciliation is much more than just finding ways to get along better with our families and neighbors. At its core, it is a deep re-orientation of our very identities-away from the individual consumerism of the West, and toward being remade in the image of the communal and triune God. We will tell stories about categories of identity that unite and divide us-categories like woman, man, black, white, middle class, mother, father, etc. and then do an imaginative exercise where those categories get attenuated and superseded by another, more core identity: beloved of God, made for community.  We'll end by asking how God is calling us to shift our self-understanding in the direction of God's own triune life, for the sake of our neighbors. Then we'll come up with three small, practical things we might do in the next month to suspend our usual categories of identity and reach out to someone who seems very "other" for the sake of giving and receiving love.  We hope you will be able to join us.

 

They help us mark the times of our day, morning, evening and night, as well as the seasons of our life together.

Whether you are familiar with this way of praying or not, you are invited to join Ron Matross, Vickie Woodcock and Deacon Phil Boelter  at 9:15 a.m. in the Library on  Sunday April 27th, May 4th and May 18th as they lead us in exploring the structure, history and our own experiences in praying various forms of the Daily Office.