Make Plans to Attend Our Holy Week Services!

During Holy Week we celebrate and commemorate some of the most sacred events in the life of Jesus Christ.  The entire week is full of opportunities to gather together as a community and rejoice in the mighty work that Christ accomplished in redeeming Creation.  Make plans now to attend all of our Holy Week services:

Palm Sunday, April 17th, 10:30am. We start outside and move into the Church commemorating Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem with the Liturgy of the Palms.   We will then recall the Passion of Our Lord with the Passion Gospel dramatically re-enacted by members of the congregation.  This is an amazing service.

Maundy Thursday, April 21st, 7pm. This service recalls Our Lord’s institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper and will include our traditional foot washing ceremony as well as the stripping of the altar.  Without a doubt, this is one of the most moving services of the year.

Good Friday, April 22nd, 12-3pm.  This service will be at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (across the street from JU).  The clergy and congregation of Prince of Peace, Orange Park, will join with Church of the Messiah as we sit vigil and meditate on the sufferings Our Lord endured for us on the Cross.  Join us for the entire time or feel free to come and go as your schedule allows.

Easter Sunday, April 24th, 10:30am.  Join us as we celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ and revel in His saving work! 

Invite your friends to join us as we celebrate the high point of the Church year!

Single Moms’, New Bible Studies, and the First Sunday of Lent!

This is another busy weekend at Church of the Messiah.  Starting at 10am on Saturday we have the Single Moms’ Bible Study at the home of Lizz Looker.  On Sunday morning we will be beginning our Lenten Bible Study series on the Passion of Christ.  Fr. Lon Pardee has prepared an intensive study of the last few hours before Our Lord’s death on the Cross.  Be sure to join us for that at 9:15 in the Student Union building.  Then at 10:30 we will observe the first Sunday of Lent.  Many of our men our in DeLand at the men’s Tres Arroyos so be sure to join us Sunday Morning and keep them in your prayers!

The Patriach’s Lenten Message

Archbishop Craig Bates, the Patriarch of the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church published this pastoral letter this week.

In a few days, the Bishops and Priests of the Charismatic Episcopal Church will call us to a Holy Lent. They will exhort us to self-examination, prayer, confession, fasting, and the study of and meditation upon Holy Scripture. This is not only a season in preparation for our celebration of the Great Paschal Mystery but also a time in and of itself where we become more intensely aware of the awesome grace and mercy of God. We enter into the season aware not only of our sin but also the loving kindness of God.

The journey of Lent is a time to further press in to the love of God. This journey always begins with the recognition of our own mortality – from dust we come and to dust we shall return. This recognition draws us to remember that the God of all creation took on this mortal flesh. And, through obedience and suffering conquered sin, the world and the devil – those forces that war against us in our journey towards His love. And, He is restoring in us the human dignity that was always intended by the Creator.

Around us are constant reminders of man’s inhumanity. We enter the season with reports of a possible genocide in Libya. But this is just one example of the reality of hatred and evil. We think of the number of abortions that were committed last year. There are civil wars that are being waged in so many countries with the accompanying murders and rapes. We are aware of the increasing sex trade industry particularly as that industry impacts minors. We are aware of the vast poverty around the world that brings with it hunger, disease, and crime. And, so often poverty is a result not of lack of resources but greed, corruption, and the un-just distribution of resources.

We are called, as the season of Epiphany taught us, to be “salt and light” in this sinful and fractured world. We were also reminded that the call upon our lives is a life of vulnerability through rejecting violence, embracing love even of our enemies, of absolute truthfulness, and by finding our security not in worldly pursuit and pleasures but in the faithfulness of God – the rock on which we can build our foundation.

Lent then calls us to examine our foundation. We can build our foundation on money, prestige, self-indulgence, or even preaching, healing or wonder-working in Christ’s name. These are not a foundation for life let alone the Kingdom of God. Our foundation must be built on the faithfulness of the Father’s love given to us daily.

The disciplines of Lent are not to toughen us up spiritually. Prayer, Mediation on Scripture, and fasting draw us from the “stuff” of mortality and remind us of our immortality in Christ. They call us for a season to re-examine ourselves and determine if our perspective on life is one of eternity. We may fool others, but God cannot be deceived. He sees the heart as it truly is – with its motives, intentions, desires, and choices.

And, so I call each of us in the CEC to a Holy Lent. Because of the leading of the Holy Spirit we will all come to its conclusion ready to live out the Paschal Mystery in a deeper realization of His love.

Under His mercy,

+Craig, Patriarch

Single Moms’ Bible Study Postponed Until March 12

The Single Moms’ Bible Study that had been planned for March 5 has been postponed until March 12 in order to accomodate to Inner City Mission Trip.  The meeting will begin at the usual time and will return to the first Saturday of the month in April.  For more information contact Lizz Looker.

Father David Wants 100% Participation at Mission Event

Father David announced that he wants 100% of the congregation participating in the upcoming Late Night at His Warehouse event.  Friday and Saturday, March 4 – 5, our Youth Group will be ministering in downtown Jacksonville in some of the poor neighborhoods in the city.  The Youth Group needs your help.  There are three ways you can participate:

  1. You can give money–the cost is $39 per participants and we would love to scholarship students;
  2. You can send food–we need to bring enough food to feed between 50 and 70 people Friday night;
  3. You can come along–We would love to have twenty people attending and ministering this weekend.  Our Youth Group has eight students; we need your help.  We particularly need female chaperons.  

100% participation means that we need YOU to do SOMETHING! 

Contact Fr. Scott or Lizz Looker to volunteer!