This coming Sunday, we begin our launch of the new year. It is always an exciting Sunday for me. The feeling of excitement hangs in the air as we gather for worship. Our worship is once again buoyed by the beautiful voices of our choir, and we are invited to gather for formation classes for all ages. And this year, I am looking forward to launching our new year with even more gusto than perhaps in years past. I think that is mostly because it has been a while since we have done this! (We can thank the ongoing pandemic for that!) 

While we have been sharing information about this upcoming Sunday and the launch of our formation programs, we are going to have a few other things happening on Sunday as well. So, let’s dig into some of the things you can expect to see on Sunday morning! 

Formation Classes for All Ages

On Sunday morning, we will begin our formation classes for all ages. All of the classes will be meeting in the education building with spaces set aside for children, youth, and adults. 

Our formation programs will begin at 9:30am on Sunday mornings and go until around 10:15am.

Children’s Formation

The children’s formation classes have two rooms that they will be using throughout the year. One room, complete with a carpet area, will be the gathering space for our children where they will hear enter the lesson for the day with our dedicated church school teachers and mentors. Across the hall, we will have tables ready for our kids to do craft projects of all sorts! 

For the first Sunday, we have a crafts project ready for our kids to dive into the new year with paint and laughter so be sure to bring a painting smock for your child!

Youth Formation

Our youth will be meeting in two rooms in the education building in the same suite of rooms as our children. The youth will be exploring themes meaningful to them throughout the year and will meet on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. This Sunday, our youth will be working on a painting project to decorate their own space. Lisa Morley is helping us with the design and logistics of it all, and I cannot wait to dig into painting with our youth as we begin a new and exciting year. 

Adult Formation

Adult formation will be across the hall from our kids in classrooms 1 and 2. The adult class is exploring Episcopal belief and practice through an exploration of the theology of the Book of Common Prayer. The curriculum accompanies a book, Walk in Love, available from Forward Movement if people want to purchase the book. (The book is not required to participate in the class!) Each week will be facilitated by a member of the class as we enter into peer-based learning and discussion, which has been our practice at Church of the Epiphany for nearly two years now. 

New Worship Bulletins

At the end of the last year, a member of our vestry approached me about creating a bulletin format that would be more straightforward for newcomers to The Episcopal Church. With samples of bulletins from other parishes, Alex Davis and Dylan Westbrook assembled a group of folks to think through the bulletin formatting and what would be easiest for newcomers to our practices and beliefs. 

The result is the new bulletin format that we will begin using on Sunday. The outer jacket of the bulletin is intended for each person to take home with the weekly announcements. It is easy for you to pin on your refrigerator for reference throughout the week. 

The interior of the bulletin features the full liturgy with sheet music for all of our hymns and service music throughout the service. 

We will also be introducing a new way of singing the psalm this fall with the choir. First, the choir or a cantor will introduce an antiphon. We will then sing the antiphon with the choir after which the choir will sing the psalm. At certain points in the psalm, we will return to the antiphon as indicated in the bulletin. 

Celebrating a Parish Vision

Over the last year, we have done a lot of work towards a new parish vision statement. For the next four Sundays, we will explore the different aspects of that vision statement each Sunday. By the end of the next four weeks, the full vision statement will be on display in the narthex where it will remain at least until Advent. 

Our vision statement is how we go about fulfilling the mission of the church which is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. Our vision is that we are able to do that by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ by inviting relationship, connecting in hope, growing in faith, and serving in love. It is a big vision that will continue to challenge us to follow the way of Jesus Christ as we seek to live into the ministry of reconciliation as gifted to us by Christ. 

The next four weeks are launching us into an exciting new year with the opportunity for us to continue along the way of our spiritual journeys. We begin with relationship with one another and with God, and I cannot wait to see where the Holy Spirit is leading us as a parish of faithful disciples working out our own salvation.

In Christ,

Hunter+