April 11, 2020
Collect of the day:
O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Holy Saturday scriptures
Job 14:1-14
Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16
1 Peter 4:1-8
Matthew 27:57-66
Collect of the day
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Scriptures for today
Image info:
© Paul Oman/Drawn to the Word 2020. All Rights Reserved.
www.paulomanfineart.com
Maundy Thursday
Collect of the Day:
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Scriptures for today
image info:
© Paul Oman/Drawn to the Word 2020. All Rights Reserved.
www.paulomanfineart.com
WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK
Collect of the Day:
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Scriptures for today:
Image info:
© Paul Oman/Drawn to the Word 2020. All Rights Reserved.
www.paulomanfineart.com
Tuesday in Holy Week - April 7
Collect of the day:
O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Scriptures for today:
A Prayer to enter Holy Week (written by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller)
Scriptures for Monday in Holy Week - April 6
Collect for today:
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Holy Week Services are as follows:
Palm Sunday, April 5 at 10am.
Monday through Saturday, April 6 through April 11, at 12pm.
Easter Sunday, April 12 at 10am.
All Worship services at St Peter's by the Sea Episcopal Church are currently being held online or can be accessed by phone. For more info on how to join the service online or by phone call, or for any other questions, please email the church at stpetersbytheseak@gmail.com.
The church building and the See House building are currently closed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Image info:
© Paul Oman/Drawn to the Word 2020. All Rights Reserved.
www.paulomanfineart.com
April 2, 2020
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.
Psalm 84: 1-4
Thinking about what "Home" means today....
I was talking with my son this week, who lives in New York City...and he mentioned...that it doesn't feel like the home he moved back to, (after living and working in Italy for a few years)....
He's been "back home" in NYC...for well over a year..(maybe 2 years now? - I'm losing track of time)...
When he steps out into the street...everything is changed...
When he looks out the window....everything is changed...
He can't go to all the shows or the movies, or sit down in restaurants....all that has changed...
No more bumping into people, on the busy sidewalks of a city, that almost never stops...all that has changed...
All the loud noises on the city streets, the screeching/honking car horns, the sirens, the subways....all of that has changed...
There is a silence...
All of us, no matter where we live, have moved to a new place now...whether we wanted to or not...
This time of the COVID 19 pandemic has uprooted us all, from the familiar places we have called home.
There is a silence...that leaves us, worrying...longing....wondering...what's next?
There is a silence...in which new ideas are emerging...creative energy is bubbling up...and imaginations are free to roam...
There is a silence...in the unknowns of today, and for the days ahead...
But, it will be there, in that silence...where we will find our true home again...
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska
Pastoral Letter
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:3)
“In you, Lord, is our hope; and we shall never hope in vain.”
March 30, 2020
To the Beloved of Christ Jesus in the Diocese of Alaska:
I give thanks for the living hope that binds us together in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Despite this period of anxious physical separation from our communities of faith, from our friends and our normal patterns of life, our bounds of love remain strong. In fact, I have witnessed how these bounds have been strengthened.
Giving thanks for the wonderful, creative, and responsible ways the congregations of the Diocese of Alaska have adapted to the guidelines for slowing the transmission of COVID-19, and the extraordinary ministries that continue to serve the needs of our communities, I have even more reason for hope.
Standing with you in this hope, I call on all Episcopalians in the Diocese of Alaska as individuals to strictly adhere to the social isolation restrictions of the Governor’s Public Health Mandates, as well as any Orders or Directives given by the civil authority or tribal leadership in your community. In short: stay home; cease gatherings of any kind except with your household; self-isolate if you have symptoms of illness; avoid all unnecessary travel; maintain a six-foot distance from others if you must be out for an essential activity; wash your hands frequently.
Furthermore, until it is stated by the Chief Medical Officer, Public Health professionals, and the Department of Health and Human Services that public gatherings no longer pose a risk to contributing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and until further notice by Pastoral Letter, I call on all congregations to continue to suspend all public gatherings; and, when possible, to assist any groups or ministries in finding alternatives to public or physical gatherings in church buildings.
As of the date of this letter, the Public Health Mandates and Executive Orders in effect allow small worship teams (10 or fewer) to provide worship streaming from our parish buildings (including sanctuaries). This is permissible ONLY if a strict adherence to the guidelines for social distancing can be maintained. Social distancing guidelines require a minimum of six feet separation between individuals. This is not a loop hole in the civil order or a special exemption, but is specified to allow low risk non-public minimum basic operations or activities to continue where CDC precautions can be maintained. It applies to both for-profit and non-profit entities. However, I urge any leadership teams that choose to provide worship streaming from their church buildings to limit the number of participants to the barest minimum despite the 10-person limit established by the Mandate. Under these restrictions, non-public worship from church buildings for streaming online, as well as other minimum basic operations requiring access to church buildings, is permissible. *
Many options and online platforms are being used to offer worship and pastoral care. Instead of live streaming from the church, several congregations are using teleconferencing platforms for worship, virtual coffee hours, and weekly prayer groups. These teleconferencing platforms have the additional benefit of not requiring worship leaders to leave home or to gather even in the smallest number.
I applaud and commend all of these creative uses of technology to support the spiritual health of our people. I am encouraged to hear the excellent reviews and to read comments from online participants of how important, meaningful, and comforting these “virtual” worship services have been in all their forms. I support and trust our congregations and leaders to use whatever technologies or practices that best suit their needs and resources while honoring our civil responsibility to protect the public health.
With Holy Week and Easter ahead, I have every confidence that our worship and spiritual preparation for the journey with Jesus to the Cross and the grave of Good Friday will awaken our souls to His Passion, and our celebrations of His glorious Resurrection on Easter Day will fill our hearts with the joy of His victory over death and the grave and His gift to us of reconciliation and new life.
In the Hope of Christ Jesus,
The Rt Rev Mark Lattime, 8th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska
*This provision of the State Mandate also permits going to a church office when necessary to collect mail, pay bills, process payroll, or to conduct any Minimum Basic Operations that cannot be achieved from an off-site location. However, this ONLY applies if social distancing guidelines are strictly enforced.
5th Sunday in Lent/March 29, 2020
In this time of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45
Breathe on me, breath of God….fill me with life anew…
I would like to ask you, right now, to place your hand over your heart…and hold it there for a few moments…and think and pray on these words….Breathe on me, breath of God…fill me with life anew…
*play piano – (!982 Hymnal #508 - Breathe on me, Breath of God)
As you paused, listened, prayed, with your hand over your heart…Did you feel your heart beating? Could you feel it gradually slowing down? Were you able to let go for just a few moments, to rest, to be still, in the presence of God, and pray?
Our heartbeat reminds us, that we are of this world… …Our breathing, in and out with our lungs, and through our noses, also reminds us that we are of this world….but, when we take the time to stop, to rest, to be still, to pray.. we are reminded that we are not just people of the world…we have a spirit and a heart as well as a body that belongs to God.
With every breath that we take, with every heartbeat that we feel…we are reminded that we belong to God, not just for today…but for all our days ahead…in this life…and in the life yet to come…
Our bodies and our spirits belong to God: We need to take care of both.
In this time of the COVID 19 pandemic, I think we can all agree that our attention and diligence in finding ways to take care of both, body and spirit, is essential for our own well-being….but not just for our own health and wellness, but for our neighbors, for those we are called to love and care for, for the well-being of the whole community, and our neighbors beyond Sitka, and Alaska.
It’s not one or the other…body or spirit…it is both.
In the teachings of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we are reminded of that.
In our gospel reading today, the raising of Jesus’ beloved friend, Lazarus, we are given a glimpse into a story that shows us not only the wide range of emotions that are experienced by those people whose loved ones are dying or have died…but we got a glimpse of Jesus, being fully human, who was deeply immersed in the lives of others. We see that he was not just a heavenly, spiritual being only…Jesus had skin, flesh and blood, and had deep connections and relationships with others. He experienced anger, discouragement, frustration, sadness…profound love for others…deep sorrow in his own heart…we were shown how he reached out with compassion, with empathy…and after a brief back and forth conversation with Martha and Mary, pouring out her heart over the loss of her brother, and seeing how she and the others were weeping and so deeply grieved…Jesus, too, began to weep. Jesus wept.
Weeping, crying, sobbing, tears…this is the most universal human response to what deeply grieves our hearts and unites us to Jesus and one another.
Jesus wept. We weep for our loved ones, and today, we weep for the entire world.
Jesus knows, what grieves our hearts, as human beings. People all around us are suffering, loved ones are dying… changes, and cancellations, and closures, and family separations…loss after loss after loss…sometimes leaves us with only tears…
But knowing Jesus, was fully human, and with him, sharing our sorrows… we are given a gift…a healing balm for our broken hearts and spirits, right in the midst of our thinking that death and sorrow would have the final say…
Jesus offers us hope, when he proclaims this good news:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
And then he asks the question: “Do you believe this?”
In our minds, from the vantage point of our being fully human…it may be hard to make sense of Jesus’ words or believe them. How can we be alive if we die, how can we never die? That’s not possible, we tell ourselves…we all know that all of us will die some day…because of illness, diseases, accidents, from our bodies growing tired and breaking down…
But, here is one reminder of why this is possible… We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever.
On the day of our baptisms: We are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever.
We belong to God, Jesus reminds us of that.…Our bodies and our spirits belong to God. We need to take time to rest, to be still, to pray, to take care of our hearts and our spirits, as well as our bodies…. So, I ask you, once again… to place your hand over your heart right now…and listen to Jesus’ words of hope being poured out for your weary spirit today:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die”
“Do you believe this?”
With our hands over our hearts… yes…we can believe this…
Our bodies and our spirits belong to God: We need to take care of both.
With every breath that we take, with every heartbeat that we feel…we are reminded that we belong to God, not just for today…but for all our days ahead…in this life…and in the life yet to come…
Breathe on us, breath of God….fill us with life anew…
Rev. Julie Platson, Rector
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska
Instrumental after sermon:
The Hymnal 1982 - #508 Breathe on me, Breath of God
