What’s Happening at Good Shepherd This Week
Great Litany During the Lenten Season, each Friday immediately following morning prayer, Anne will stay on the call and pray through the Great Litany. If you would like to join her, please join the zoom call by 7:40am.
Acolyte and Crucifer Training In the past few months many young people have volunteered to serve as acolytes. The acolyte’s responsibilities have been limited over the last two years because of the changes during the pandemic, but we are now ready to resume all of the normal functions. As part of the preparations for Holy Week and Easter, we would like to have a training session with all acolytes and crucifers this Sunday, after the 10:30 service.
If you or your child are an acolyte or crucifer, or are interested in becoming one, please stay after the 10:30 service this Sunday for a short training session. Please see Jon Groves for more details.
Potluck This Sunday is the first Sunday of the month so it’s time for another potluck! This month we’ll be having a Salad Bar themed lunch. Good Shepherd will provide a basic salad and some dressings. Please consider bringing your favorite salad topping or side, but stay and have lunch whether you bring something or not!
Streaming During Holy Week Because of the heavy workload for all the staff during Holy Week we’ve made the difficult decision not to livestream the services since it involves a great deal of time and labor. Please join us in person as we observe the Passion of Jesus–his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.
ADOLW Annual Synod Each year, much of the diocese comes together for a three-day meeting where worship happens, many interesting sermons are delivered, a choral evensong service is held, and new deacons and priests are ordained. This year’s synod will be held in Souderton, PA, on May 5-7 and I think there might be a familiar face at Good Shepherd being ordained this year.
You can find more information about synod here. If you’d like to go to synod, but would need transportation, please contact the office, as many of the folks required to go will have room to carpool.
A Note about the Daily Lectionary Good Shepherd has been using a one-year cycle of the daily lectionary for a few years. The morning prayer meeting is using a two-year lectionary reading cycle, which has caused some confusion. To make everything uniform, we are changing the bulletin readings to match. We will still have the same readings, just spread over two years, eliminating the evening readings.
Zoom Morning Prayer This service normally meets online by zoom at 7am Monday through Friday. The liturgy and readings are available each day at www.dailyoffice2019.com. Join the parish email list and look for a daily email invitation in your inbox.
Holy Week and Easter Schedule
Tenebrae (Wednesday, April 13th): 7:30PM Tenebrae means “shadows” in Latin. It is a service of word, light and sound. When you arrive for worship you will see two groups of candles lit on the altar table. As readings are read the candles on the altar will be gradually extinguished until the very end of the service when the last candle left lit is removed from the worship space and the whole sanctuary is left in darkness. At that point a loud crash will (should) shatter the silence of the sanctuary. Then, after a moment, the last candle is returned to the sanctuary and the worshippers depart in silence. The gradual darkening of the sanctuary and the crashing noise symbolizes the apparent victory of death, darkness, and chaos over Jesus Christ on the cross. The final candle being removed and returned, symbolizes the truth that through Jesus’ death, God gained victory over all the powers of evil. The Light was not overcome.
Maundy Thursday (Thursday, April 14th): 6:00PM Maundy Thursday communion celebrates the humility of Jesus with a ceremonial foot washing. Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s and yet on the night before he died, during the Last Supper, he knelt down and one by one washed his disciples’ feet. He did this to show his disciples and to show you and me how to serve one another with humility and love, being willing even to stoop to the most menial tasks. Maundy Thursday is the last chance for communion until the Great Vigil.
Good Friday (Friday, April 15th): noon At about 3pm on Friday of Holy Week he lifted his eyes up to heaven from the cross and breathed out his last. “It is finished” he said. He was not only referring to his life, but he was also referring to his mission to deal with and defeat once and for all sin, death, and Satan.
Stations of The Cross (Friday, April 15th): 7:30PM This is a solemn service. The participants walk through the stations of the cross by candlelight, hearing a brief reading at each, and exit the sanctuary in silence.
The Great Vigil of Easter (Saturday, April 16th): 7:30PM Along with Tenebrae, the Easter Vigil is one of the most ancient services of the Church. It is the most important service of the entire year and it is the first service of Easter. The service begins in total darkness—the lights of the sanctuary are out and not a candle is burning. Then a fire is lit in a firepot at the center of the nave and from that flame all the candles in the sanctuary are lit and the hand-candles in the congregation. Then come readings and psalms, said and sung, by singers and by the whole congregation. The sermon follows and then the first Communion of Easter. The Great Vigil begins at 7:30pm in the sanctuary.
Easter Day (Sunday, April 17th): This is the day Christians celebrate and proclaim the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. There will be music, preaching, smells and bells. Service times are at 8:00am and 10:30am.
Sunday Worship and Holy Eucharist Both the 8am and the 10:30 services are meeting in person.
The 8am service If you are high risk, or at all nervous to be in social gatherings, this service is designed for you. All those who attend are asked to wear masks and remain socially distanced throughout the service. The 8am service is not currently being live-streamed.
The 10:30am service You can download the bulletin, including the scripture readings here. One of the joys of having a fully digital bulletin is that we are free to use color! You’ll find that some of the artwork and many of the directions are in full color. You’ll also notice that there are links in the offertory section to take you out to two different means of giving electronically. You can give online through Breeze or you can text a donation through Breeze at 607-882-6551. Good Shepherd also has a PayPal account. If you choose to give via PayPal you can avoid fees by paying directly from your bank. Be sure to uncheck the box that says, “paying for goods and services” at the bottom or PayPal will charge Good Shepherd a fee. As always, thank you for your great generosity and kind support.
The lectionary readings for this week are: Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126, Philippians 4:14-23, and Luke 20:9-19.
Catching Up…
Last Sunday’s Sermon Last week Matt preached on Philippians 4:8-13. You can find his sermon ‘Through Him Who Strengthens Me’ here.
You can find previous sermons here.
Christian Education If you missed Christian Ed on Sunday, we continued our discussion on Carl Trueman’s ‘Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self’. You can watch that class here, and previous classes at this link.
Preventing Grace Podcast Did you know that Matt and Anne have a podcast? In this week’s episode, ‘What Happens When What You Most Dread Comes to Pass‘, If you’ve never heard the story about how Good Shepherd lost its property to the Episcopal Church and how God provided for us and for the church, Anne relives the entire thing for a wonderful group of women who invited her to speak at one of their gatherings.
Miss an episode? You can catch up on all of the older podcasts here.
Tuesday Morning Bible Study This Tuesday we continued our study of the book of II Thessalonians. You can find that class here.
Miss a class? You can find all of the previous classes in this series and previous series here.
Thursday Evening Beginner’s Bible Study The Thursday evening studyhas resumed meeting in person at 6pm in the classroom area. Mr. Terry Ray is leading the class through the book of Jonah. This is a great place to connect with others and learn more about what God has to say to us through his word.
Men’s Breakfast and Bible Study The Men’s bible study meets at 6am each Friday morning, and they are currently studying the book of 1 Peter.
Women’s Bible Study is back at a new time. This study is meeting at 4:30 pm on Friday afternoons in the Parish Hall. Anne Kennedy is leading and they are currently studying the book of James. Children are welcome—as in, we hope to have some childcare available. If you’d like to join by zoom, please join the church email list and look for a link in the weekly update email.
If you’d like to come a little bit early to hang out for Friday Play (all the children play while their mother’s talk to each other), please let Anne know.
Weekly Bible Readings
| Monday | Psalm 83 Job 2 Titus 1 |
| Tuesday | Psalm 85 Job 3 Titus 2 |
| Wednesday | Psalm 88 Job 4 Titus 3 |
| Thursday | Psalm 89:19-52 Job 5 2 Tim 1 |
| Friday (Annunciation) | Psalm 91 Job 6 2 Tim 2 |
| Saturday | Psalm 94 Job 7 2 Tim 3 |
| Sunday | Psalm 97, 98 Job 8 2 Tim 4 |
Serving at Good Shepherd
| Serving at Good Shepherd April 3, 2022 | Serving at Good Shepherd April 10, 2022 |
|---|---|
| 8am Celebrant: Matt Kennedy 8am Preacher: Jonathan Groves 8am Assistant: Jonathan Groves 8am Reader: Assistant 8am Usher: Terry Ray 10:30am Celebrant: Matt Kennedy 10:30am Preacher: Matt Kennedy 10:30am Assistant: Anne Kennedy/Jon Groves 10:30am Reader: Brett Dewing 10:30am Crucifer: Emma Kennedy 10:30am Acolytes: Murielle & Elinor Kennedy 10:30am Usher: Ben Manwaring Tellers: Scott Pineau, Don Dean Altar Guild: Mary Schuster Nursery: Kariah Manwaring & Addie Pineau Shepherds Bowl: Pete Putano with Team 1 | 8am Celebrant: Matt Kennedy 8am Preacher: Bob Carlson 8am Assistant: Matt Kennedy 8am Reader: Joyce Carlson 8am Usher: Terry Ray 10:30am Celebrant: Matt Kennedy 10:30am Preacher: Matt Kennedy 10:30am Assistant: Anne Kennedy/Jon Groves 10:30am Reader: Ronnie Murphy 10:30am Crucifer: Patrick Carlton 10:30am Acolytes: Seth and Jonah Carlton 10:30am Usher: Scott Pineau Tellers: Chris Jones, Bruce Layman Altar Guild: Christine Osgood Nursery: Ronnie Murphy and Talitha Pineau Shepherds Bowl: Joyce Carlson with Team 2 |
Have an item for the Update or an Announcement?
Email the secretary at: gs.binghamton@gmail.com
by Monday night.