Pastor's Page
March, 2010
A message from Reverend Freeman
My Dear Friends,
We are already in March in this year of 2010!
With March comes the spring thaws, brighter, warmer days, and
great gusts of wind! How I love the changing seasons where we
watch as winter melts into spring, then comes summer, then
autumn, and soon the cycle starts all over again and we are left
rejoicing with the gifts that each season brings.
The wonders of nature are ceaseless and, as Swedenborgians, we
remember that everything on earth corresponds with something in
heaven. The seasons of nature and the cycles of the church year
are both correspondentially important to us.
In the church cycle we are now in, the season of Lent -- that
ancient Christian rite that dates back to the first century -- was born
of the worship of our earliest Christian forefathers and foremothers.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday which comes forty-six days
before Easter. There are six Sundays in Lent, but they are not
considered part of Lent since Lent is a penitential season and
Sundays are feast days. The fifth Sunday in Lent is called Palm
Sunday and celebrates our Lord's third and triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The last week of
Lent is Holy Week, and it includes Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and
ends in Holy Saturday.
At the conclusion of the Lenten season we enter into the joyful fifty great days of Easter. In this
manner the seasons of church year, like the seasons of nature, hold us in the firm awareness
of the ongoing-ness of life and its changing seasons and our part in it! Awareness of this
ongoing "wheel of life" sustains us in our love of our Creator and of all of creation.
May your Lenten Journey be richly blessed!
Rev. Freeman Schrock (revfreeman1@yahoo.com)
Manna House Notes
We continue to have a bustle of activity as winter draws towards
its close. We look with anticipation towards the dawning spring
and its refreshing green colors!
At Manna House, we are being fed with an array of activity that
include community groups that come to use the meeting room
facilities and to enjoy the premises. Currently we have three 12-Step meetings attending weekly sessions here. In addition,
many men in our church extended beyond their Journey class to
form an ongoing "Men's Group" designed to provided fellowship and study. Currently we are
studying Tunnel to Eternity - Beyond Near-Death, written by Leon Rhodes, a Swedenborgian
who has been a writer, editor and lecturer for over twenty years. This has been a good study
for our Men's Group, one that has challenged and supported us. We are also studying the film
"The Secret" as a means of enlarging our understanding of the differing dimensions of reality.
Come and join us, we will welcome you!
May the Lord's peace be with you as you travel the Lenten path.
Blessings, always…… Rev Freeman