Dear People of Ascension,
Often around this point in Lent I send out a letter reminding you of our Holy Week and Easter services at Ascension and urging you to participate as you are able. I often talk about how sharing liturgically in these central stories of our faith can deepen our personal experience of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
This year, it feels as if we are in completely uncharted territory as we think about how to celebrate the holiest time of the church year without being able to gather together in our cherished sacred space, with glorious music and beloved traditions of prayer. And yet, in this wilderness time of COVID, full of death and terror and also of simple grace and loving community, the themes of Holy Week feel very close. In this season, we encounter sudden changes of fortune, political corruption and cruelty, betrayal, costly tenderness, self-giving service and hope that springs up in the dark, heralded by uncertain trembling voices. Through it all, God is present in the hell of suffering and in unimaginable love. We are living this as perhaps never before.
The clergy met (via Zoom, of course) this week to begin talking about how we will shape our worship given these realities. We don’t yet know exactly how the services will unfold, but I pray they will speak to our situation with Gospel integrity- and I trust that the Holy Spirit will sustain and surprise us through them. We will send out the schedule for Holy Week online as soon as we can, and I hope you will participate as much as you are able. We need each other as we make our way through this Passiontide in our lives, our church, our city, and our world. We need to remind each other of the many ways that Christ is risen, even in times of fear and suffering. We are signs of that resurrection as we love one another.
God bless and keep you.
Liz
