hi Beloved,

It’s one of those all-church-all-the-time weekends in our beloved community. Maybe you are one of the 50ish people coming on our 7th annual All Church Retreat to Friendly Crossways! If you are, I can’t WAIT to see you in just a few hours! To relax, restore, re-friend, re-meet God in nature and rest and each other, and re-learn what power we have to bless one another and everything that God has made.

If you’re not coming with us, pause on your way this evening, strain your ears, and hear us singing around the fireplace. Hum a few bars with us. The Holy Spirit transcends time and space to hold us together. This is real.

Saturday evening, our Mexico mission team (20 strong! 15 adults and 5 kids) gather in Dorchester to make tamales for Eastern Service Workers’ Association, tamales they will sell to raise money to support their families. This is a warm-up act for our more dedicated service to the Casa, T minus 2 weeks away!

Sunday morning, good sabbath. It’s Communion Sunday and the occasion of the fifth sermon in the Recovery series: Step 5 is, “We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” Emily P (yes, that’s my sister!) is our first-time liturgist. Pray for her! Pass me a hanky! This will mark, I believe, the first time I have shared the chancel with my own flesh and blood, at First Church. I will preach, on the power of confession. Pastor Jeff will pray with us!

After worship, mingling and joy at coffee hour, our second hour of prayer, before our church staff (there are 9 of us now!) gathers for our own mini-retreat, to build connections and support each others’ work. Pray for us!

Our third hour of prayer on Sunday begins at 6:30 EST with the Superbowl kickoff. We’ll be worshipping in diaspora, gathered in twos and threes in front of screens (or big bowls of seven-layer dip, for the less athletically inclined) all over the region. We will, of course, be praying not for our own preferences, but that God’s will be done. We are that mature, as Christians. Yes?

God be with you!

Molly