Dear Friends,
We are invited - all of us now - to a season of spiritual renewal.  Traditionally, this season, which begins with Ash Wednesday (March 5), is called Lent.  But Lent is not a season of guilt and groveling, as some have observed it.  Lent is a time of repentance - of cleansing and getting back on track.  It is a time of confession - honest recognition of our needs, our weaknesses, our realities.  It is also a time of anticipation - for our God is forgiving and loving and wants to renew our hearts and our lives. 
The following verses from Psalm 51 (which is featured in our Ash Wednesday liturgy) set forth the possibilities of Lenten renewal for us: 
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
In this troubled world and with our busy lives, I believe we all need such Lenten renewal.
I invite you all, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent.  Our forty day season will lead us through the waters of the Flood, with Abraham and Isaac to a mountain-top experience of terrible grace, to Mount Sinai as Moses received in the wilderness the Ten Commandments, to another wilderness where Jesus was tempted as we are tempted, and to yet another deserted place where a few loaves and fishes fed a multitude.  These Lenten images (any many more to come) describe our own lives; through them God seeks to renew our hope for the future.
Besides our Sunday services, we will offer a Wednesday Communion service at 12 Noon, and our on-going Bible classes (Sunday 9am, Monday 11am), Women's fellowship, Centering Prayer, etc.  I would like to offer a class on Monday evenings - see me for details.  In addition, I invite you to read another one of the Gospels during Lent (remember the Advent assignment?), and /or to read the Psalms according to the sequence in the Book of Common Prayer.  Beginning on page 585, you will find the Psalter divided into thirty day pieces, and each of those allocated to Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer.  I suggest you read the day's portion - morning or evening, as often as you can.  When you read, listen for a section or set of verses or just a few phrases that resonate with you.  Let that be enough.  Reflect on that, maybe right them in a journal or post them on your refrigerator.  The Psalms are very honest, blunt, heartfelt cries and sighs, songs and joys, of biblical people like you (people about whom and for whom the Bible was written!). 
I am looking forward to this season of spiritual renewal - with a little trepidation, but with eagerness to journey through it with you all.