Pastor's Column: Year of Justice Dawns

Blessings, fellow Epworthians!

We made it to 2021. Can you believe it? We are calling 2021 The Year of Justice. How can we be engaged with God’s plan to make the world a more Just place? What is Epworth’s place in that plan? What is your place in God’s plan?

We began the Year of Justice in worship on January 17. Our Scriptures throughout the year will explore justice. We’ll go in depth into the Older Testament book of Amos and the New Testament book of James, taking particular note how they address justice.

We’ve just started a Racial justice Book Club. We are reading How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. Even if you don’t join the Book Club, I’ve got copies of the book for you. I’m confident that the conversations will be rich and enlightening. I hope that we’ll come to new understanding, perhaps be transformed, and maybe even endeavor to change the world. Hopefully this will be just the first Book Club in a series, so if you didn’t join this first one, look for the next one.

As our nation undergoes a change in presidential administrations, there will be opportunities for us to seek justice, to work for justice, to build a more just world.

Lent begins soon. Ash Wednesday, marking the start of Lent, is February 17 and ends on April 3, the day before Easter.

We’ll need your contributions again to create a new Epworth Lenten Devotional. The deadline to submit your writings and your artworks is February 7 so we can get Devotionals to you before Ash Wednesday.

The COVID vaccination has arrived and is being administered, but it will probably be a while before we can worship in-person indoors again. Until we can be safe, we’ll continue streaming worship. When we can worship together again, we’ll continue streaming services as well. I like to thank you for faithfully participating in worship.

If you have ideas for our Year of Justice, want to contribute to the Lenten Booklet, or have questions, comments, or concerns, please email me pastorsteveepworth@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook or call or text my cell phone 612-708-2466.

Blessings,

Pastor Steve

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The just get involved with the poor and know their issues, but the unjust cannot comprehend such concerns.~ Proverbs 29:7 (The Voice)

Comments

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 ga

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

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

Epworth Echoes: Winter 2021

Search This Blog