Palm Sunday:
10AM traditional service, livestreamed and in person
Contemporary Worship Cafe Playlist
Maundy Thursday:
Noon service of footwashing and Holy Communion on Facebook Live from the Pastors Satrum/Peterson house
Good Friday:
Virtual Stations of the Cross on YouTube (stay tuned for direct link)
Please note that we will not be gathering in person for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday.
Easter Sunday
9AM traditional service, livestreamed and in person
11AM contemporary service, in person
Contemporary Worship Cafe Playlist on YouTube (stay tuned for direct link)
Please do not come to worship onsite if you are not feeling well or if you are still uncomfortable doing so! Plenty of folks are continuing to worship from their homes, and we look forward to seeing you when you are comfortable coming in person, whenever that may be. Here’s a link to our COVID-19 safety measures and protocol.
Dear Friends and Families of Faith Lutheran of Shelton,
Happy Spring! It’s been a while since our bonfires last fall: what beautiful evenings they were! Light and life are returning to the land—and hopefully, we will be together in person soon.
In the meantime, we offer your household some devotions and coloring pages to connect with each other and the love of God through the Easter Story. Illustrated Stations of the Cross introduce us to the people and events of Jesus’ Way through Jerusalem to the hill where he died and invite us to celebrate his resurrection on Easter Morn.
We have mailed out paper copies of the following:
8 ½ x 11 coloring pages of the Stations of the Cross, both simple and more complex.
Devotions for kids and adults: super conversation starters that fit beautifully into the Faith5 (SHARE highs and lows, READ scripture, TALK about it, PRAY for each other, BLESS each other) we practice at FLC. Use some or all of the 15 entries!
Please email youth@faithshelton.org if you haven’t received these and would like us to send (or re-send) some copies.
Digital copies of the coloring pages and the devotional are available on the church website if you need more (please see our weekly email for the password).
Help us out with Holy Week? We’re looking for readers (young, old, and in-between) and singers for Holy Week Zoom worship.
God bless each and all of you, dear friends! We hold you in Light and Hope of new beginnings and re-openings soon to come, and in eager expectation of connecting with you during this Holy Week and Easter season.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Brenda
Pastor Brenda Satrum, Spiritual Formation
Our Ash Wednesday service will be at noon on February 17, 2021: in person (wear a mask!) and livestreamed on Facebook.
Religion and ritual often give outward, shared expression to profound inner realities. On this day, dust and ashes express our own and our community’s confusion, division, fear, lack of understanding, grief, anger, despair. Together in heart and spirit if not in body, we return to God, powerless over this unmanageable life and world, seeking the power and hope of our Creator, Savior, and Living Spirit to save and sustain us all.
TO PREPARE AT HOME:
This service can be as interactive as you want to make it. Gather a candle or two, a cross of some sort, a small bowl or cup of water, dust or ash mixed with oil (a dab of cocoa powder or mascara works, too), and perhaps paper or your journal, even art supplies(!) for prayers. We will also share communion, so have bread and wine ready if you wish.
The virtual Christmas pageant was a success! 31 children and young adults appeared in the show, as well as a few older children of God. We were even able to incorporate some kids from Kids Cove Preschool, which meets in our building. Thank you to all of the camera-people, kiddo-wranglers, and costumers/prop masters from each household; we couldn’t have done it without you!
Originally streamed on Facebook Live on December 19, 2020.
October 12, 2020
In the name of the God who creates every human being out of love, this church teaches human dignity is God’s gift to every person and that the commitment to universal rights protects that dignity.
—ELCA social message “Human Rights,” 2017 (p. 2)
We cannot advance justice today by forgetting injustice yesterday.
—Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, Osage Nation
While so many in our country endure a time of suffering and despair, God is present with us as we seek to see more clearly, heal from unrest and renew ourselves and our relationships. The way we talk about people matters. Names matter. Renaming a day matters. Recognizing the original people who have been here for time immemorial matters. Indigenous Peoples Day matters. We join states, cities and towns across the country to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in place of Columbus Day and honor the people whose lands we walk, whose Indigenous voices have always been spoken here and who share their gifts and contributions throughout our society.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s churchwide office sits in an Indigenous place. What is now known as Chicago remains the home of many Native nations. Historically and now, the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois people have congregated and lived at these crossroads along the banks of what is now known as Lake Michigan. The places where every synod has its offices, where every congregation built its place of worship, and where every Lutheran college and seminary was established belonged to a people. Indigenous Peoples Day is a time to acknowledge and recognize them.
Today there are nearly 5,000 American Indian and Alaska Native members of the ELCA and 30 ELCA congregations in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Alaska Native congregations occupy some of the oldest Lutheran places of worship. These Lutheran and Native places lie on the open tundra near the icy waters of the Bering Sea, on the rolling prairies of the Great Plains and in leafy woodlands. These places are their homelands.
The historical and generational trauma experienced by tribal nations does not have its source in nostalgia, or a sense of loss of private property: its source is in the loss of their place of deeply rooted identity in a specific place. This is a place which was given to them by the Creator thousands of years ago, a particular place where the Creator covenanted with their ancestors to live in this specific place; relation to the land cannot be moved to a different place, since the knowledge is meant for the specific relations which abound in that specific place.
—Rev. Dr. Gordon Straw, Brothertown Indian Nation
In 2016, the ELCA took steps to repudiate one of the most fundamental bases for colonialism, the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which pledges, in part,
… to repudiate explicitly and clearly the European-derived doctrine of discovery as an example of the “improper mixing of the power of the church and the power of the sword” (Augsburg Confession, Article XXVIII, Latin text), and to acknowledge and repent from this church’s complicity in the evils of colonialism in the Americas, which continue to harm tribal governments and individual tribal members.
—ELCA Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery
This alone will not suffice. As a church, we must sustain our efforts to educate ourselves and the wider community on the consequences of the Doctrine of Discovery* on Native peoples.
We must continue to do this, repudiating racism, white supremacy, and logos, mascots and stereotypes that perpetuate prejudice against Native Americans. We must learn and tell the stories. We must educate ourselves and everyone within the sound of our voices about all the corners of our country’s dark and shameful past. We must build and strengthen relationships anew. Today and every day we commit to do our part to understand, respect and celebrate American Indian and Alaska Native people, their congregations and communities, and the church.
As we celebrate our rich history as Americans, we should reflect on the reality that the arrival of Europeans to these shores is seen differently by those who have experienced great pain and suffered many broken promises. Naming and honoring Indigenous Peoples Day moves us all toward a better place.
In peace,
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
*The Doctrine of Discovery is a papal bull from 1493 validating the seizure of lands from Indigenous people and nations based on the false teaching that Indigenous people are not human nor Christian, and therefore do not have sovereignty or government. The Doctrine of Discovery undergirds the entire experiment of the United States and continues to inform and justify supremacist laws, policies and practices. Christ’s church, including the ELCA, continues to be complicit in its application today.
As I hope you have seen in the previous weeks, the church council has some constitutional amendments that the congregation needs to vote on. This voting will take place on October 11. You can either attend the meeting via Zoom (recommended) or in the church building. Here are the important dates you need to know:
Forums for Questions:
Wednesday, September 9 at 7pm on Zoom
An optional forum held via video call where you can ask questions about the proposed amendments. No official business will be conducted; this meeting is not mandatory. If you did not receive the email with the Zoom link, email the church office at welcomehome@faithshelton.org.
Sunday, September 13 at 10am at Faith (in person)
An optional forum held in person where you can ask questions about the proposed amendments. No official business will be conducted; this meeting is not mandatory.
Practice Zoom call:
Saturday, October 10 at 10am on Zoom
If you will be attending the voting meeting on Zoom, you are invited (but not required) to attend this practice session. This session will get everyone comfortable with logging on, will allow your church staff to practice making sure that only voting members are present, and will let us practice voting to make sure that votes are counted correctly.
Congregational Meeting to vote:
Sunday, October 11 at 10am both on Zoom and at Faith Lutheran
This is the meeting where the actual voting will take place.
If you want to read up on the amendments and see the entire draft of the constitution, those can be viewed here.
In August, we asked the congregation to fill out another questionnaire to see how folks are feeling about the church’s response to COVID-19 and to pinpoint areas in which we could serve each other better. Click the button below to view a side-by-side comparison of the two surveys’ results.
In general, it seems that we need to do a better job of communicating what we are doing in each of these areas. Please keep an eye on the newsletters each month, as that’s where a lot of this information will be shared. In addition, we are working on making the newsletters available to read on the website! Look for that in the coming months.
