The Team

      No, the title does not refer to the Green Bay Packers! I'm thinking of all of our people who serve in the liturgical lay ministries for our worship. This means Altar Guild, acolytes, lectors, intercessors, chalice bearers, ushers, oblation bearers, choirs, bell ringers, and our two Vergers. A word now to each and every one of you—THANKS! Another six words—WE CANT DO IT WITHOUT YOU! This is something I very much keep in my heart and mind all year, but there is no better time to say it than right after Holy Week and Easter. Over those eight days, these faithful servants gave heart and soul and mind and strength and talent and hours-and-hours of time!   For me, being around all of that was very energizing. This is the parish community humming along. This is also the gift that keeps on giving, because they are at it every week of the year.
      I hope you know that I consider worship to be the first priority of the Church; everything begins and ends with worship. In the deep wisdom of our tradition, the "folks from the pew" are essential in our public worship. This is hardly tokenism. They are very much up-front in leading and serving the congregation. This makes it absolutely clear that for Episcopalians, the privilege of offering worship in an active, first-hand manner belongs to the whole people of God and not to just a select few. On this note, I encourage all of you who are not now active in one or more of these roles to give it some prayerful thought. These ministries are open to everyone (to be a chalice bearer you should be a Confirmed communicant), and training is very user-
friendly. We can always use more of these ministers among us—you see that we're working the ones we have pretty hard! Of course, there are differing talents and skill levels involved, but I'd say that the most important thing that is required to serve in these ways is not so much a special skill but, rather, a special heart. IN PRAISE OF OUR ACOLYTES       I want to call particular attention and appreciation to our acolytes. I'm afraid to say that it's easy for all of us to take them for granted, but I want every single one of them to know that we—I—don't! I am so proud of their work and ministry during the several Holy Week services. These really take the extra mile. Not only do those services happen on odd nights but also they have many unique details that can be hard to remember. And then there's the Great Vigil of Easter—all 21/2 hours of it with its many complexities, and on Saturday night! Talk about youth answering the call! But my favorite memory (and example for us all) is from Easter morning. We had a scheduling error that was not discovered until fifteen minutes (literally) before the 10:30 service—no thurifer! [HORRORS!] That's not something that everyone can handle. Verger Nathan Duncan went to work (bless him!). In no time, Charlie Alvis stepped up like a pro and took care of it all -cool as can be—and he had been here the night before until 10:30 p.m. serving at the Great Vigil!   Our acolytes do us proud, and now we're going to notch things up a bit to do right by them. More later!

Faithfully SSJ⁺