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Announcements from 2021
- 2022 Stewardship Campaign Update
- STEWARDSHIP NOTES FOR NOVEMBER 2021:
- Christmas Flowers 2021
- Monthly Zoom Calls With the Bishop
- A Thanksgiving Prayer
- Three Things....
- CHRISTMAS PROJECT!
- 147th Convention of the Diocese of Southern Ohio
- Canterbury Court Ministry Opportunities
- 2022 Stewardship Campaign
- Hygiene Kits for the Homeless
- A Concert for Halloween
- Birthday Blessings in October
- Learn to Zoom Sunday
- Blessing of the Animals
- Twenty Years Ago
- 2021 Diocesan Convocation
- Afghanistan and Haiti
- GUIDELINES FOR IN-PERSON WORSHIP UPDATE
- Lift Every Voice and Sing!
- CRAYONS TO CLASSROOMS
- Explore the Way of Love: Worship
- NEW GUIDELINES FOR IN-PERSON WORSHIP
- LAY READER PRACTICE
- Birtdays and Anniversaries in July 2021
- Stuff the Bus
- Walk in Love
- FOR THIS SUNDAY
- Flag Day June 14, 2021
- Juneteenth 2021
- Birthday and Anniversary Blessings - June 2021
- Ice Cream Social Today!
- Flags for Heroes
- Canterbury Court Ministry Opportunities
- WANT TO SING AGAIN?
- Bishop Price to hold two final Zoom gatherings
- COVID 19 UPDATE
- A Message from Bishop Curry
- St. Mark's Softball
- Flower Sunday
- Diocesan Listening Sessions Scheduled
- Hope Floats:
- ONLINE GIVING
- A message from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
- Spring 2021 Parish Directory
- April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
- EASTER SERVICE and MORE!
- Gem City Ballet
- Meet with Bishop Price Online
- FROM THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
- The Easter Season!
- Holy Week Schedule at Christ Church Cathedral
- FORWARD MOVEMENT
- Sparkle Day 2021
- INCLUSIVENESS
- DAY OF CHANGE March 14!
- The Life and Leadership of John Lewis
- PALM SUNDAY and HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE
- Ready for some upbeat music?
- Forward Today
- Forward Day by Day Lenten Reflections Booklet
- Walking with Christ to the Cross
- Lent Madness 2021
- Keeping In Touch
- Birthdays and Anniversaries in February 2021
FORWARD MOVEMENT
When I was growing up in a Methodist church, we didn’t have the tradition of “burying the Alleluias”—of not saying the word from Ash Wednesday until Easter. When I became an Episcopalian, I thought this was a novel custom, perhaps concocted by clever Christian formation leaders to help conceptualize the season of Lent and its joyous culmination on Easter. After all, the practice of literally burying paper with hand-drawn alleluias is tailormade for young, earnest Sunday School students.
I recently learned that this tradition of omitting alleluia from prayers and songs dates back to as early as the fifth century. During the Middle Ages, the custom emerged of actually bidding farewell to the alleluias. The hymn, “Alleluia, song of gladness” articulates this fasting of the word during Lent and then the joyful exultation of the word on Easter. (You can find the hymn on page 122 of The Hymnal 1982 or here). In an interesting essay on the subject, Episcopal priest Danielle Tumminio Hansen explains more of the reasoning. Given that the word “alleluia” comes from a Hebrew one meaning “Praise God,” it makes sense to refrain from saying the word during the penitential period of Lent. But she goes on to argue that the tradition also symbolizes our relationship to words. As people of the Word, we believe we are shaped and transformed by God’s Word and by the words we speak and pray. By selecting our words carefully, our speech becomes a witness to our beliefs. The words we say (and the ones we don’t) matter, and as people of faith, we must take care to speak with respect and acceptance, love and hope.
As you read the words in the meditations this month, may they remind you of the joys of the Christian life—and the challenges of walking with Jesus.
I wish you a blessed Holy Week and a glorious Easter! (Alleluia. Alleluia).