EBlast from Trillium Lutheran Church 12 June 2020

Welcome to the long Season of Green.

After the festivals of Pentecost and Trinity Sundays, the Church Year turns to the long season of “Sundays after Pentecost”. In 2020, there will be 25 Sundays after Pentecost – the last of them on 22 November to mark “Christ the King” or “Reign of Christ” Sunday.

Will we be back to in-person worship by that late autumn date?

Trillium’s Board of Directors this week voted to delay a return to in-person worship until at least September. This decision followed the strong recommendation of Bishop Pryse and other church leaders to wait until it was clearly safe for church members to re-gather and to allow congregations time to put in place safe procedures for gathering, cleaning and contact tracing.

Unlike the first half of the Church Year that focuses on Jesus’ birth, baptism, ministry, passion, crucifixion and resurrection, the long season of green focuses on the teachings of Jesus. In this Year A of our lectionary cycle of readings, we’ll hear many parables from Matthew’s Gospel. This Sunday we’ll hear Jesus calling the twelve apostles and their commission to a ministry of teaching and healing.

Worship in the Home is attached to today’s EBlast. This Service of the Word order of worship contains all four readings assigned for each Sunday (Old Testament lesson, Psalm, Epistle and Gospel) as well as intercessory prayers and hymns. During these summer weeks, ELCIC Bishops and Assistants to Bishops have prepared sermons to share across our church from coast to coast to coast. This week, National Bishop Susan Johnson, is our guest preacher via her sermon text. (The full schedule of sermons is found at the end of this EBlast.)

Zoom Sunday Worship at 10am is accessible by computer, tablet or telephone. This Service of the Word order of worship has two readings (a portion of the Psalm and the Gospel) as well as intercessory prayers, special music and hymns. Interim Pastor Larson usually provides the sermon (although we may surprise you with an ELCIC bishop’s video sermon some summer Sunday!). After our first two Zoom worship services, feedback and evaluation is under way with some suggesting the need for more scripture readings, more hymns and the possibility of communion.

Stay tuned.

Pastor Stephen

Call Committee and Board Letter: Vote on Calling a New Pastor for Trillium

Have you received your letter from Trillium, with the introduction of our new pastor candidate and directions for voting on the Call Committee and Board of Directors’ recommendation?

If you have not yet received your letter, please contact the church office.

2020 Companions of the Worship Arts Recipients Announced

The ELCIC and Anglican Church in Canada are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 Companion of the Worship Arts (CWA). The CWA is presented biennially as a way to highlight significant contributions and immense gifts in the worship life of the church at both the local and national levels. The ACC and ELCIC have presented the award jointly since 2014, with one recipient from each denomination recognized for their commitment and service to God, through worship, spirituality and the arts.

This year’s Lutheran recipient is Robb Wilson of St. Thomas, Ontario. Wilson, 42, has been involved in worship design and execution for a number of years. Serving as liturgical director for many assemblies, educational events and ordination services, Wilson has excelled at planning and leading worship, while creatively implementing the five senses into his intricate worship space designs. Wilson has widely contributed to reshaping and restructuring of worship spaces at Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Waterloo, Luther Hostel, as well as a host of synodical assemblies, and the 2013 Joint Anglican Lutheran Assembly in Ottawa.

Full story here -- https://www.elcic.ca/news.cfm?article=573

The July, August, September edition of Eternity for Today is available at the church office. If you would like a copy of this devotional booklet delivered or mailed to your home, please contact the church office.

LWF Season of the Spirit + Communion Prayer for the Season after Pentecosthttps://www.lutheranworld.org/content/resource-season-spirit?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_20190719_COPY_01)

This resource is offered to the global Lutheran communion, as a way to be in the solidarity of prayer during this Season of the Spirit. Daily prayer follows a simple order: psalmody and prayer. Prayers can be adapted for use in your practice of prayer: singing songs, adding your prayers, or any liturgical acts that are meaningful in your context. In addition to the texts, which follow the Revised Common Lectionary, you will notice that each week contains a meditation on the Sunday text.

We commend these prayers to your use, whether alone in your home, as a family, or as your community is able to gather at a distance. As you pray in solidarity with the communion across the globe, and the communion of saints in all times and places, be encouraged by the counsel that Luther offers in his letter, A Simple Way to Pray:

“Never think that you are kneeling or standing alone, rather think that the whole of the Church...are standing there beside you and you are standing among them in a common, united petition which God cannot disdain. There we find God the Creator, God the Redeemer, God the Holy Spirit, that is, God who daily sanctifies us.”

Throughout this season of green, may the Spirit of God bring forth new growth in you.

Emanuel Nine day of commemoration and repentance

Chicago (June 11, 2020) — June 17 marks the fifth anniversary of the shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., where nine people were killed during a Bible study.

To honor this day, the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted a resolution to establish June 17 as “Emanuel 9 Day of Repentance,” commemorating the martyrdom of the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson by Dylann Roof, who grew up in the ELCA. Pinckney and Simmons were graduates of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, one of the ELCA’s seven seminaries.

The ELCA resolution calls for the commemoration to be grounded in prayer, the development of litanies and worship around repentance from racism, and for deepening conversation with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) on ways of reconciliation and repentance on the matters of racism and white supremacy. 

The ELCA Prayer Service for Commemoration of the Emanuel Nine will be available online at 12 p.m. Eastern time on June 17. Participants include ELCA leaders representing various leadership groups and ethnic-specific associations, and those who authored and organized the “Emanuel 9 Day of Repentance” resolution. Additionally, several ecumenical partners will participate, including the Rt. Rev. Adam J. Richardson Jr., senior bishop of the AME Church; Mr. Jim Winkler, general secretary and president of the National Council of Churches; and the Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, chair of the Conference of National Black Churches. The Rev. Herman Yoos, bishop of the South Carolina Synod, and the Rt. Rev. Samuel L. Green Sr., presiding bishop of the 7th Episcopal District of the AME Church, will co-host the service. The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, ELCA presiding bishop, will deliver the sermon.

The service will conclude with a call to action from three ELCA leaders, including the presiding bishop, Vice President William Horne and the Rev. Tracie Bartholomew, chair of the Conference of Bishops. More information about the ELCA’s ecumenical relationship with the AME Church and resources to help congregations honor this day are available here.

At present

Our new Office Administrator, Caitlin will be in office Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9:00 a.m. till 12:00 p.m.

We encourage that visits to the church only be made if of an essential nature.

Please be aware that during these times if you must come into the Church be sure to sign – in and Sign – out.

This is to keep our community safest.

Your co-operation is greatly appreciated!