Come in your halloween costume Sunday the 30th!
Deborah Rucki Drake, our Archdeacon, started by asking if the children could wear costumes to church on the 30th... And then upped the ante by suggesting that adults might come in costume also. So dress up -- to your heart's content!
Samhain, the Gaelic precursor of Halloween, was a harvest festival at the end of the harvest, and the end of the "lighter" part of the year, as the northern hemisphere moved to the "darker" part of the year. In some traditions, people dressed up, and bonfires were part of the festival. Celtic Christians put the feast of All Saints at this time when the popular culture was already having a feast of the dead.
There's a pattern here, a pattern of welcoming and embracing what we meet. The Rev. Howard Anderson, one of the keynoters at our Clergy Conference, cited Anglican theologian Richard Hooker's statement that he would "make the Christian religion an inn where all are received joyfully". The premise of the church is thar God's love is for all, and that all are welcome: it's a come as you are party.
This week:
Tuesday, October 25th. 1PM. Needle crafters meet.
Clergy are at conference Tuesday through Thursday noon.
Sunday, October 30th. 10AM. Service, Children's Chapel, Nursery Care.
Healing prayer available at the end of the service. Coffee Hour follows.
