Saturday, March 31, 2007

Palm/Passion Sunday 10 :30 A.M. Service

If you are looking for a church to attend on Palm/Passion Sunday in the Dayton area and would like take part in a service with a traditional liturgy and fine music, please join us at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior. The following lists the music we will include in this service.

The congregation will gather outside (weather permitting) for the reading of Luke 19:28-40, the story of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Following the blessing of the palms, we will then process into the sanctuary while singing All Glory, Laud and Honor.

The Gospel reading for the day will be the Passion Narrative, telling the story of Holy Week through the death of Christ on the cross. The Chancel Choir ends the service with Pablo Casal's O Vos Omnes. The text of this piece is taken from Lamentations 1:12: "All you who pass along this way, behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow." The service will end in silence; there will be no final hymn or postlude.

We will have services during Holy Week on Maunday Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday . All of the services will use traditional liturgies from Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Details of the times are in a posting below and on the church's web site www.oursaviordayton.org. Please join us for all of these services. The Easter Service will include a festival version of ELW Setting Four (including pipe organ and brass), and the Chancel Choir, Sonshine and Joyful Noise Children's Choirs, and Bell Choir will all participate. More details of the Easter service will be posted in the next couple of days.

Palm/Passion Sunday -

Lutheran Book of Worship Setting Five

Prelude - March, by R. Spry
Processional Hymn - All Glory, Laud and Honor
Chancel Choir - No Rocks A'Cryin, by Rillo Dillworth (based on Psalm 47)
Hymn of the Day - There in God's Garden, ELW 342
Offertory - O Lamb Gottes, Unshuldig, J.S. Bach
Music During Gommunion - Chancel Choir - Ave Verum Corpus, by William Byrd (in Latin)
Hymns During Communion - Beneath the Cross of Jesus, ELW 338; Were You There, ELW 353
Chancel Choir - O Vos Omnes, by Pablo Casals

Bell Choir Rehearsals

The Bell Choir will have its normal rehearsal tomorrow (Palm Sunday) after the 10:30 a.m. service. On Easter, we will meet at 9:00 a.m., before the Chancel Choir rehearsal.

Special Chancel Choir Rehearsal Times

Members of the Chancel Choir should be aware of the following:

Sunday, April 1 (Palm Sunday) - meet in the sanctuary at 9:45 a.m.
Thursday, April 5 (Maundy Thursday) - meet in the choir room at 6:45 p.m. before the service; rehearsal after the 7:00 p.m. service.
Sunday, April 8 (Easter) - meet in the sanctuary at 9:30 a.m.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

A Message From Our Pastor

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

This Saturday is the final Saturday in Lent in which we will begin worship with sung prayers from the Taize' community in southern France.

Sunday is PALM SUNDAY, and, weather permitting, we will begin both services (8:15 and 10:30 a.m.) outdoors with a blessing of the palms and reading of the Gospel account of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. We will then process into the sanctuary with song and celebration.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE
Maundy Thursday (4/5) – 7:00 p.m. in the sanctuary – celebration of the Holy Communion. (Traditional liturgy from Evangelical Lutheran Worship.)

Good Friday (4/6) – 7:00 p.m. in the sanctuary – reading of the Passion Narrative, and procession of the Cross. (Traditional liturgy from Evangelical Lutheran Worship.)

Easter Sunday (4/8) – 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary – Festival of New Life in Christ. (Festival version of Setting Four from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, with brass and choirs.)

THERE WILL BE NO SATURDAY (4/7) WORSHIP AND NO SUNDAY (4/8) 8:15 A.M. WORSHIP, so that our entire community may worship together for Easter. Visitors are of course welcome.

Thought For The Week:

The life which is not examined is not worth living. – Plato

So, as we approach the holiest week of the year, spend time in prayer this week, examining your life, specifically your relationship with God and with those around you. Ask God to help you be open to the needs of others, and then ask God to guide you to help others meet those needs.

May God lead you to be a blessing to someone else this week!

And may we meet one another in worship this weekend!

In Christ,
Gary

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

How to Make a Comment

One of our members who recently visited this blog asked me how to leave comments on the blog. It's really pretty simple, once you know how to do it:
  1. At the end of each posting, there is a line that indicates who posted the posting. In the same line, there is a link that says "comments," which identifies how many comments have have been left. Click on the word "comments," and a box appears with instructions.
  2. Type your comment in the space provided.
  3. Below the space where you typed your comment, you will see a set of letters that look like they've been stretched. Type these letters into the "Word Verification" box that appears below them. This is a feature designed to stop spammers from having computers automatically leave comments on a blog.
  4. Choose an identity. If you have a Google or Blogger account, you can choose the first choice and identify yourself this way. Otherwise, choose "Other" or "Anonymous."
  5. Finally, click on "Publish Your Comment." (You can preview the comment before this if you want to and make changes.)

Once comments have been left on the blog, anybody can read them by clicking the "comments" link at the end of the posting. When there are multiple comments to a posting, they appear in the order they were made. Whenever a comment is posted, the Worship Committee is notified by email so that the comments can be monitored for potential problems, such as spam being posted.

This same procedure will work at the Sonshine Choir's blog. www.sonshinechoir.blogspot.com Wouldn't it be nice for the Choir's director to be able to tell the kids that positive comments were posted on the blog about what they've been doing?

One Service on Easter Weekend; Holy Week Services

We will be gathering the entire congregation together for one service on the weekend of Easter. The service will be at 10:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday, April 8. This will be a festival service, including brass players and special music by the choirs.

There will be no 5:30 p.m. Saturday service on April 7 and there will be no 8:15 a.m. service on Easter. If you regularly attend one of those services, please join us on Sunday at the 10:30 a.m. service.

Services during Holy Week:

Saturday, March 31 - 5:30 p.m.
Passion Sunday - Sunday, April 1 - 8:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Maunday Thursday - Thursday, April 5 - 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday - Friday, April 6 - 7:00 p.m.
No service on Saturday, April 7
Easter, the Resurrection of Our Lord - Sunday, April 8 - 10:30 a.m. (no 8:15 service)

We will use traditional liturgies for Passion Sunday, Maunday Thursday, and Good Friday which appear in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. On Easter, we will use Setting Four from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, which is taken largely from Setting II in the Lutheran Book of Worship.

Please join us for all of the Holy Week services if you are able. Going to church on Passion Sunday AND Maundy Thursday AND Good Friday AND Easter seems like a lot, but these services all work together, and if you miss a piece of it, you will be missing something.

Sign Up to Decorate the Sanctuary Windows for Easter

If you enjoy flowers and being creative, help us make the sanctuary festive on Easter by signing up to decorate a set of windows. You can sign up individually, as a family, or with a group. This is a good activity for Sunday School classes, parents and children, and grandparents and grandchildren. There is a sign-up sheet in the narthex. See the weekly church bulletin for more details.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

A Message From Our Pastor

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Our Mid-Week Lenten Services for this week will be held tomorrow (Wednesday, March 14), at noon and 6:45 p.m. in the chapel, with meals served in the fellowship hall at 12:30 and 6:00 p.m. Tomorrow's worship theme is based upon the Old Testament story of God's testing of Abraham. As we continue our journey through Lent to our Easter Celebration, I invite you to join us tomorrow and for the other Wednesdays in Lent. Special craft activities for children are held during the evening worship time.

This Sunday, March 18, at the 10:30 a.m. service, we are receiving new member disciples into our fellowship, and we hope you can be with us to welcome them into our community of faith. We will also provide opportunity for prayers and anointing for healing during the communion celebration at the late Sunday service.

Scripture Thoughts for Lent:
"Be still, and know that I am God!" (Psalm 46:10)
1. Do you have a time that you set aside each day to "be still" and be with God? What I mean is, do you take time each day (however long or short) from your busy schedule to just spend time with God in prayer?
2. If so, think about how spending time with God impacts your life, and ultimately, impacts the lives of those around you.
3. If you do not have a time (or take time), what is keeping you from doing so? What gets in the way? Ask God to help you make room in your life to spend time with God, because not spending time with God also impacts your life and the lives of those around you.
4. Give thanks to God that our Lord always has time for you!

And . . . another thought:
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hope to see you in worship this week!

In Christ,
Gary

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Taize Prayers

A message from our pastor:

During our Saturday worship in Lent, our service begins with one or two sung Taize prayers as a way to help worshipers center themselves in God. Candles are also available to be lighted and placed in sand as a visual symbol of prayers offered to God. Taize is a Christian community in southern France in which simple songs with powerful messages are sung as prayers. “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom” is a Taize prayer in our hymnal which we have sung in worship over the years.

Tomorrow's Lenten Services

A message from our pastor:

Tomorrow (Wednesday), we will hold our Lenten services (noon and 6:45 p.m.), with lunch at 12:30 p.m., and dinner at 6:00 p.m. Meals are in the fellowship hall, and services are in the parish house chapel. This week’s theme involves the ancient “flood narrative”. I hope you will find time in your busy schedules to deepen your relationship with God by joining us in worship and fellowship.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Sound Familiar?

In this weekend’s Gospel lesson, Luke 13:31-35, some of the Pharasees are trying to talk Jesus into leaving the area. Jesus decides to leave, and tells them: "See, your house [the temple] is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.' " Commentators have different explanations these things will come to pass.

This passage probably sounds familiar to many of you who attend church regularly, because you sing it every time you attend a communion service. It’s the last part of the Sanctus, and is sometimes called the Benedictus:

"Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
Heaven and Earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest."

May we come to see Jesus, the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Chancel Choir - Extra Rehearsal; Maundy Thursday

Holy Week is only a month away. To help prepare, the Chancel Choir will have an extra rehearsal on Saturday, March 31 at 10:00 a.m.

In addition to its normal schedule of singing during Sunday services at 10:30 a.m., the Chancel Choir will sing during the Maundy Thursday service. Maundy Thursday is April 5.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time starts early this year. Clocks move ahead one hour during the early hours of Sunday, March 11. Remember to set your clocks ahead before you go to bed on Saturday evening, the 10th, or you'll be late for church the next day.