Pastor David Tatgenhorst 568 Montgomery Ave 610.525.2396 Resources The pastor recommends Slate Plus Academy podcasts. I performed a wedding a few years for my cousin, who married a young woman I was really glad to get to know. She is now the editor-in-chief of a web news site called Slate. They have a number of excellent podcasts that I listen to, and recently began offering a paid membership called Slate Plus. The membership gives access to even more educational podcasts and I have been listening to the Slate Plus Academy podcasts like Slow Burn which gives a history of the Watergate scandal, and another series about the history of Reconstruction in the US after the Civil War. February, 2018, a Month of Mission The season after Epiphany is sometimes thought of a time for a special emphasis on mission. We think of the wise ones bringing gifts, paying homage to the child as a model for our giving to the world. This year at St. Luke our emphasis on mission has been particularly strong - maybe a bit over the top. With the Mission Connexion, we served a meal at Grace Cafe in December and filled cleanup buckets in January. With POWER Metro we organized the Interfaith Harmony concert for Puerto Rican hurricane relief. With Volunteers in Mission and Deacon Tom Lank, Jon Cumming and son and I are going to Florida the first week in February to repair houses, also damaged by Hurricane Maria. All of these trips and projects have led to more fundraising activity than usual. The Benefit concert for Puerto Rico that we organized for POWER Metro raised thousands of dollars for Habitat for Humanity. On February 11th, the children of St. Luke will celebrate the Eagles appearance in Super Bowl 52 with a Souper Bowl offering after the service. We will have a soup luncheon and collect funds for the Mary Jane Enrichment Center for a lunch with them. On February 18th after church, Anne Kybert has invited St. Luke folks and friends to her house for a brunch benefit. She s kindly holding this event to ask people to support the St. Luke mission trip to Florida. Looking ahead - on Sunday, March 11th after church, the Children s Celebration and Suzanne Conroy are sponsoring a bowl-a-thon. The children are getting into the act as well - inviting grandparents, family, congregants and friends to sponsor them per point or per game to reimburse the church for all these great mission activities.
What Gives Me Hope Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you. - 1 Peter 3:15 Being hopeful (which is not to be confused with being optimistic) in this world is not easy. Hope requires some effort and some practice, but if we put that energy into looking for what gives us hope, we can develop it as a habit, like a muscle memory. What gives you hope this month? Here are three things that give me hope this month: Working together with wonderful leaders from Christian and Jewish congregations - to help people effected by hurricanes. Great music at the Interfaith Harmony benefit concert People who step up to help and support when we take the risk to commit the church to big projects. Likewise, our communion offering on February 4th will support these current projects - especially the Volunteers in Mission hurricane relief in Florida and the distribution of cleaning buckets through our Mission connexion. Friday, Feb. 2, the Philadelphia Inquirer will have an article about church activities related to the Super Bowl. Check it out to see if they include St. Luke Bryn Mawr! By the way, it is not to late to contribute to the POWER Metro Habitat for Humanity benefit. The St. Luke website has a new link to a PayPal site. You can contribute on this link through PayPal or with your credit card. All contributions currently will go to Puerto Rican hurricane relief. Gratitude Thanks to Suzanne Conroy for organizing a bowl-a-thon for the Children s Celebration, March 11 Thanks to Anne Kybert for organizing a brunch benefit at her house for February 11. Thanks to Virginia Vivino, Anne Kybert, Connie Borum, Lisa & Rick Hellberg and others who reach out to congregants with personal support. Thank you to Bill Reim for serving as sound tech at the Interfaith Harmony benefit concert! Thanks to Lauren & Keith Nunnelee, Lauri Cumming, Emilie Moyer, & Sally Newport for their parts in the Interfaith Benefit Concert. Thank you to congregation members for supporting MLK Day events in Philly & nearer to the church. Thank you to Jon Cumming, Alice Dimler, Connie Borum & Deacon Joanne Miles for changing banners, paraments and altar displays in our chancel. Thanks to all the St. Luke folks working with the anti-racism task force of POWER Metro. Thanks to Joanne Miles and Lisa Santomen Hellberg for their help in planning upcoming retreats. Thank you to this whole community of prayer during stressful times. May generosity be our watchword! We will share from our plenty. We will give for those in need. We will praise lavishly. We will encourage frequently. We will care passionately. We will love wholeheartedly.
Lent Begins on Valentine's Day and Ends on April Fools February 4, 2018 Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Holy Communion Reading Isaiah is enough to make you think that God is rooting for the Eagles in the Super Bowl. They shall rise up with wings like Eagles is one of our assigned readings for this Sunday. We also read a Markan healing story and my sermon continues the one begun last week and concludes this sermon series: Captured by Mystery: How are You Healing? The Men s LIFE group meets this morning at 8 am. As Jon, Jon, Pastor David and Deacon Tom prepare for their trip to fix houses in Florida, we will send them forth with a blessing. Our Communion offering will go to help with the costs of our church s hurricane relief efforts in Florida, Puerto Rico, and through our cleaning bucket project. Read: Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39 February 11, 2018 Transfiguration Sunday Souper Bowl of Caring; Mardi Gras Soup luncheon; The week after the Super Bowl, St. Luke celebrates Souper Bowl Sunday. We invite each other to bring our favorite soups to share. You may also bring salad or bread - for a simple meal in midwinter. It s the last Sunday before Lent, Transfiguration Sunday, and this meal together is our version of a Mardi Gras celebration. Deacon Joanne Miles will preach the sermon, supporting Pastor David who will just have returned from a Florida home rebuilding week. Her sermon is The Cost of Compassion in Action. You may also to get a brief initial report on the trip to Florida. Read: Psalm 50: 1-6, Mark 1:40-45 February 14, 2018, 7:30 pm Ash Wednesday Ardmore UMC will join St. Luke for this mid-week service to commemorate the beginning of the 2018 season of Lent. Pastor David will begin our Lenten sermon series, titled Offering Life, which will examine the ways in Jesus gives life to humanity, and some of the extraordinary and ordinary ways in which we care for and give life to each other. We will have a ritual of receiving ashes this evening along with receiving Holy Communion. Read: Psalm 51:10-17; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Feb. 18, 2018 First Sunday in Lent On the first Sunday of Lent we begin a symbolic journey toward the cross, a journey with Jesus that is all about life and death. Every year we begin that journey reflecting on wilderness struggles. Two out of three years we read a beautifully crafted story about Jesus being tempted by the devil three times. This year, however, we read a much rawer, more visceral account in the gospel of Mark - of Jesus in the desert wilderness confronting animals and being comforted by angels. This first sermon in our series is Offering Life: All In, where we notice the level of commitment Jesus is offering and inviting. We as a congregation have been raising our level of commitment to each other and to our mission in the past year. This Sunday we reflect on the meaning of that commitment and the power of Jesus invitation. After worship today, Anne Kybert has extended an additional invitation to the congregation - to join her for brunch at her house 410 Rose Lane, Haverford PA 19041. This brunch is a fundraiser to cover some of the costs of the trip to Florida that Jon Cumming sr. and jr. and Pastor David took earlier in the month. All are invited. Read: Psalm 25:1-10, Mark 1:9-15 February 23-24 Winter Spiritual Retreat Please sign up now for the church overnight retreat at St. Raphaela s Retreat Center, right nearby in Haverford. The sign-up sheet is in the back of the church. The theme of this year s retreat will be a Prayer of PRAISE, using praise as an acronym for a regular prayer life. We will have plenty of time for reflection, connection, yoga/stretching, good food, and learning about prayer. February 25, 2018 Second Sunday in Lent The central symbol of Lent is the cross. We don t get to the good news of Easter without going through this ultimate symbol of suffering and death. In this week s message, Offering Life: With a Cross, we reflect on what the cross means for our own Lenten journeys. A society that denies death and suffering has trouble fully embracing life. This afternoon at 4 pm Nelly Berman school holds their annual family concert in Lurwick Hall. The music is beautiful and there is an awesome international dinner included. Read: Psalm 22:23-31; Mark 8:31-38
Opportunities St. Luke has two retreats planned for this month. This first is Saturday, Feb. 3rd from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. This retreat will be a kind of training day for members who read scripture, great people or take leadership in congregational activities. Lunch will be catered by Landis Catering, which provides a delicious spread! Then on Friday- Saturday, Feb. 23-24 we have our annual Winter Spiritual retreat at St. Raphaela s Retreat Center in Haverford, 616 Coopertown Rd. The theme and emphasis of the spiritual retreat this year will again be prayer - focusing on a suggestion from an Eastern PA pastor colleague by the name of Rev. Scott McDermott. He suggests using the acronym PRAISE as a reminder of a number of different kinds of prayer. We will have plenty of time for prayer, reflection, and renewal on our weekend together. From Anne Kybert: Dear St Luke friends, Like many of you out there, I wondered whether I could take part in the early February hurricane relief trip with Jon Cumming, Jon jr. and Pastor David and decided for a number of reasons that it would not be a good idea. When Pastor David mentioned the need for fundraising to help with the travel and accommodation, especially for Jon Jr., (who is a qualified carpenter and works in his father's construction business), I thought maybe with a bit of help, I could host a brunch on a Sunday after church at my home. With the support of Church Council, we have set the date for Sunday February 18th, around 11.30am or so. The idea is that everyone attending makes whatever large or small donation they are comfortable with. Checks will be payable to St. Luke UMC. Any extra funds, beyond assisting Jon Jr, will be donated to Volunteers in Mission (VIM, the United Methodist organization Deacon Tom Lank works for),who facilitated this trip and has been organizing volunteer groups for disaster relief for many years. Feel free to invite friends and family beyond the church. If nearer the time we can have a rough idea of numbers that would be helpful in planning food and so forth. Any questions, please get in touch. Planning Your Will? Keep St. Luke Ministries Alive for Decades Name St. Luke in your will as a beneficiary of your investment account. Don t forget to fill out the Five Wishes form to act as your living will. Questions? Talk to Jim McDermott or Rick Hellberg Looking forward to fun and worthwhile event. Hope you can be there! All the best, Anne Find our online donation site at www.stlukebrynmawr.org. The first time you make a gift, you input your routing information from your bank account, and after that you can make gifts any time you want without a checkbook or credit card! Thanks for your generosity to St. Luke ministries.