Skip to main content

Epworth Lenten Devotional 2021: Join the wilderness journey

 


By Saundra Johnson

After some discussion with Epworth lay leaders, Pastor Steve proposed creating an Epworth Lenten Devotional like the ones Epworthians created in the past. 

 

As she did for the 2019 Epworth Devotional (Faith, Hope, Love: These Three), Shirley Durr hopes to be involved with putting together the 2021 Devotional.

 

“Considering we spent most of 2020 physically apart from each other,” she said, “and the trauma of COVID in our world, political turmoil in our country, and racial unrest in our neighborhood – I think people must have lots to share.”

 

Pastor Steve is ready to accept whatever personal reflection people want to send for Devotional 2021 and other church leaders, like Judy Ayers, agreed. 

 

Shirley said people were especially moved by the words and art from the children and youth that appeared in the 2019 Devotional. These received the most meaningful. attention and comment during Lenten Study time that year.

 

But without Children’s Class and Youth Group gatherings taking place on a regular basis, a lot will depend on families to encourage and support their children and youth to submit something.

 

“Lent may be a season of lament,” Shirley said, “but there’s also a great deal of celebration and the promise of Easter in there, too. I hope to see this range of response in this year’s Devotional.”

 

What appears in Epworth devotionals is not limited to what members of Epworth write or create. In the past Epworth included quotes and works from professional authors and artists. Devotional 2019 included devotions from people as far away as Florida who never even heard of Epworth. 

 

Nan Rice hopes the families at the Toy Library and renters -- like the theater groups, TGIF, and members of Greater Hope COGIC -- also are willing to add something to Epworth’s latest Devotional.

 

What you write can be as short or as long as you like. Art and photography just has to be original unless you’re reflecting on something someone else created. You can also make more than one submission. 

 

If you want to join this Lenten journey, the deadline is February 7. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, is February 17.

 

Email your contribution to Pastor Steve <pastorsteveepworth@gmail.com> OR mail to Epworth UMC, 3207 37th Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55406.

 

 

“The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.” 

~ Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Power of music to illuminate the darkness

By Mary Ellen Reetz-Pegues Even while recovering from knee replacement surgeries, Mary Ellen Reetz-Pegues continued teaching her Adult Sunday Class via email. She missed only one class -- January 10 – two days after her second surgery. She was back teaching on January 17 with a lesson about one of her favorite things – music! We’re sharing that lesson below and asking that you respond to one or more of the questions Mary Ellen poses in this lesson and email your response to us for the next Echoes.        As I’ve been reading the lessons, I've found many that were meaningful and pertinent. However, I’m going to mention a couple that dealt with music, and in particular, the songs we sing. We so need our songs in this trying age!   From  Our Daily Bread , January 13, “What’s Your Song?”  with a reading from Deuteronomy 31: 15-22.   “So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.”  Deuteronomy. 31:22        Hymn singing is part of our faith tradition, a very bi
Post a Comment
Read more

Christmas Eve traditions and innovations

  Although our Christmas Eve service could not be in person to protect our families and neighbors from coronavirus infections, it still held many of the traditions we've enjoyed over the decades at Epworth plus some clever innovations, some necessary for our new reality.   Christmas Eve worship, although filmed in the sanctuary, could only be seen on Facebook. The virtual worship experience opened with a video of luminaries lining the aisles leading to the altar decorated with our traditional poinsettia and Advent wreath   Besides the innovative video, the manger that has decorated the balcony for the past few years was placed on the altar instead so that worshippers could see it from home.   Traditionally, Christmas Eve services have consisted of scripture and familiar carols with special music interspersed throughout. This year was the same – with a few twists.   Jasper Ayers Assad has been the first soloist for Christmas Eve for a couple of years and he carried on this new tradi
Post a Comment
Read more

MNUMW, MNIPL collaborate for creation care, climate justice

By Susan Mullin and Cindy Saufferer   “Don’t desecrate the land in which you live. I live here, too— I, God, live in the same neighborhood … .”  ~  Numbers 35:34 ( The Message ) Minnesota Conference United Methodist Women (MNUMW) and Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light (MNIPL) received a Justice 4 All Grant from the National United Methodist Women to collaborate in two different campaigns, seeking an equitable and speedy transition to a renewable energy economy for the people of Minnesota while demonstrating the breadth of the climate justice movement in Minnesota and the groundswell of demand for strong action on climate justice.   100% Renewable Energy One campaign is MNIPL’s 100% Renewable Energy Campaign which embraces a vision of a Minnesota run on 100% renewable energy, with 100% access to the benefits of renewable energy.    MNIPL plans to amplify this work in 2021 by working with congregations in Minnesota to help them craft their climate stories, and then join together in mee
Post a Comment
Read more