Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. John 15:4

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love...This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:10a,12

Welcome to the Spring Season. Spring comes gradually through this season as we move through the lingering cold, dark days of winter towards the lengthening of days, the warming of the ground, and the emergence of new life. Meanwhile we make our journey from Lent to Easter to Pentecost, a spiritual journey through our own darkness, towards the good news of resurrection, grace, and the life of faith. The word Lent actually means "the season of Spring" and one theory is that the word Easter means "from the East" or the dawn. Lent is a forty day journey, excluding Sundays, between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, remembering the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. During this time we walk with Jesus towards Jerusalem and explore the meanings of the cross. The Easter season stretches out for fifty days to the celebration of Pentecost, the birth of the church. During this time we explore what it means to be a resurrection people and a people of the Spirit. This year our theme for these seasons is Abide With Me. As we make our way through this pandemic, seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, we continue to need ways that our faith can guide us and hold us when we feel isolated, sad, afraid, and anxious. We hope you will find solace this Lent in the ways God abides with us in all circumstances. As we move through Easter, we hope you will find courage in the ways that we can abide in God. To these ends, our scripture readings in Lent will explore the covenants God made with the people of Israel and the new covenant we celebrate as Christians in the life and person of Jesus. We will also follow Jesus on his path to the cross. In the Easter season and on Pentecost we will explore the early days of the new community of faith and the nine gifts of the spirit outlined in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. The weekly themes are printed on the back of your bulletins. Weekly, we will sing the well known hymn Abide With Me written by Henry Lyte in 1847 and explore a prayer about abiding in God by Thomas Merton through the ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina, and its newer expression, Visio Divina. In your take home worship bags, you will find a small stone with your name written on it - a tangible, visible, tactile reminder of God's abiding presence and of the relationship we each seek to nurture with God. And our music this season will be in the form of short, repetitive songs that allow us to come peacefully and meditatively into the presence of God. Please note: We will continue to worship on Zoom. We will continue to have Children's Worship before Worship. We will continue to have small groups after Worship.