Winter 2021: Luminous Darkness

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Nourishing Faith

Welcoming All

Doing Good

BEing Church

Epworth Echoes is a newsmagazine published 4 times a year by

Pastor: Steve Reiser

Editorial Board: Shirley Durr, Cynthia Lillquist, Mary Ellen Reetz-Pegues, Brian Lillquist, Saundra Johnson

Photographs: Aaron Jones (cover photo), Nan Rice, Nancy Meisel-Youngman, Cynthia Lillquist, Steve Reiser

Image Attributions:

· aurora borealis photo: (favim.com)

· Year of Justice logo: Steve Reiser

· Boundaries photo: “The Beginning is Near” (imgur.com)

· Warnock/Ossof photo: (Epiphany article) Brynn Anderson/AP Photo

· Devotional photo: “In the Wilderness of Sinai” by Igor Ulanovsky

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Share your story with us even if you don’t think you have anything to tell. You are living history that the future needs to know. Send to epworthechoes@gmail.com

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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 n

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

Epworth Echoes: Winter 2021

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