Happy Easter, UCC family!
I am very happy to be able to write to you and bring official greetings during Eastertide! As Pastor Megan reminded us all during worship in April, Easter is not just one day, but a period of 50 days of full celebration in the Church! But, you may be wondering, why? In the early Church, Lent was intended as a period of solemn reflection before Baptism on Easter Sunday. This was the time that congregants went through what we now call "The Pastor's Class," and learned about the Church, and their role in it before they formally responded to the call that God placed on their life through Baptism. After these brand new Christians were Baptized, Eastertide was their first 50 days officially "in" the faith. For the next 50 days, they were encouraged not only to celebrate the Resurrection, but also to discern the ways in which they were called to use their gifts for the purpose of the kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven."
In the same way as some of our earliest siblings in faith, we too are facing a period of discernment and celebration. Spring has mostly sprung (although in Central Texas, that often means that our temperature vacillates between winter-ish and dead-heat), and we are approaching a new reality as Covid shifts and changes the ways in which we are able to be gathered together. We will have an opportunity to be gathered virtually for some discernment time by using the ancient practice of Lectio Divinia, where we will together meditate on Scripture (please join us Sundays at 5 p.m. on Zoom!). We will also have opportunities for outdoor, small, masked, socially distanced gatherings on some member's yards.
These past 15 months have contained challenges that we could have never, ever anticipated, they have also provided us with lots of joy (our new settled senior minister! The ability to be gathered with our Sunday school classes no matter where we are!) and even more importantly, opportunities for new ways to "be" Church. I encourage all of us to continue our discernment, both personal and collective, as to how God is calling us into continual new life as the Body of Christ in Austin, Texas.
Each of you, by merit of your very creation, are beloved and gifted and called into the ministry of sharing the Good News. I am, as always, overjoyed to be able to walk alongside you.
Love and blessings,
Pastor Chelsea