On A Couple of Matters...
I always have the fantasy that after Easter the pace will ease-off a bit with the summer months of July and August beckoning on the horizon. Alas not so. The winding up of the academic year for many families alone is enough to raise heart beats and bring on sleepless nights!
The final weeks of May bring two dates to mark in our calendars. The first is Sunday
,
May 26
th
in the Memorial Day Weekend. Although still in the Easter Season, at St. Martin’s we will commemorate those who have given their lives in the many wars stretching back to the Civil War. Here are eight things you might want to know about
Memorial Day
.
The Memorial Day commemoration comes this year against the background of the increasing drum beat of military escalation aimed clearly at Iran.
Iran is certainly no innocent actor on the Middle East stage, but the provocation potential of the current buildup of our forces in the Gulf should give us pause for thought for what we
fail to remember we are destined to repeat!
The second date to mark in our Calendars is
May 30
th
,
Ascension Day. Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday marking the 40
th
day after Easter. The fullest depiction of the Ascension of Jesus occurs in Luke’s Gospel, where it forms a kind of literary device that signals the resurrected Jesus’ physical departure as a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, the 50
th
day after Easter. Because it’s always a Thursday, the Ascension observance is, these days, most commonly observed on the Sunday after the Ascension.
However, last year, St Martin’s, St Stephen’s and Church of the Redeemer – the three Episcopal parishes on the East Side - marked Ascension Day with a joint celebration. Last year St Martin’s hosted, and I believe, this was the first occasion – at least in recent memory -when the three parishes had come together in worship – a fact that should also give us pause for thought. This year St. Stephen’s will host our combined Ascension Day celebration with a Solemn Eucharist at 7pm followed by a simple reception.
At the risk of sounding like an anxious coach pep-talking his team’s supporters for an away game event, I do hope many of our St Martin’s community will fill the pews in Smokey Steve’s (the common nickname for St Stephen’s among the incense adverse) to celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord with our Episcopal friends and neighbors. So, please mark your calendars for
Thursday, May 30
th
, 7 pm!
I can promise it will be a totally different style of worship from the one we are used to – so why not live dangerously.
See you this Sunday when we will baptize Amaya Hershberger, daughter if Ianthe and Anthony, and granddaughter of Angelita and Dharman Hensman into membership of Christ's Body on earth.
Mark+
