From the Pastor's Study

CONSECRATION SUNDAY TO THANKSGIVING SUNDAY

We have recently finished and celebrated Consecration Sunday and are looking forward to Thanksgiving: that warm, family time when we gather to eat, watch parades and football, eat, go shopping and eat.  But humans are called to be grateful more than just one weekend a year.  We disciples know that!

B.H. Childs defines gratitude in the Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling as ”the appropriate, spontaneous, joyful response to an act of forgiveness, favor, or other kindness shown to one by another, especially if unexpected or undeserved.  Whether in response to God or other persons, gratitude is integrally related to gracious actions, and may be defined as the ideal or normative response to them.” (p.470)

Later, he says, “Genuine gratitude and thanksgiving…are free, not obligated, just as the act which prompts them must be free and gracious—in some sense always undeserved and ‘beyond the call of duty.’  In Christian perspective, gratitude, as the truly appropriate and comprehensive response to God’s grace in Jesus Christ, is the fundamental orientation for Christian life, the basic motive and perspective for all true worship and faithful living.” (p. 471)

Paul encouraged his readers to “be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 5:18b-20

Let us always and everywhere give thanks to God, singing and making melody in our hearts.

Pastor John

OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY TRIP DEPARTS JULY 14, 2010

The Oberammergau Passion Play is held only every 10 years.  Educational Opportunities will guarantee tickets to the play for a Cleveland departure on July 14, 2010.  According to Rev. Bill McFadden, space is limited and registrations are currently being accepted.

People in Oberammergau first performed a Passion Play in 1624 in response to being saved from a plague.  Now every 10 years thousands of persons travel to this beautiful German village for the six-hour performance.

This eight-day tour will depart July 14, 2010, and will feature an Alpine Wonders itinerary.  Places to be visited include Munich, the concentration camp at Dachau, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Italy and the Brenner Pass, and a variety of churches and castles.  The group will stay in small family-owned hotels in the picturesque village of Steinach, Austria.  The McFaddens have visited all the hotels and highly recommend them.  Brochures are now available, but final pricing will not be known until May 1.  A totally refundable deposit of $100 will hold a space.  Bishop John and Elaine Hopkins will accompany this tour.

Seven-day extensions are available for Switzerland, northern Italy, Vienna and Prague, or an opportunity to stay on your own in an Alpine Village.

SEE POSTER AND BROCHURE IN THE LOUNGE

MISSION STATEMENT OF CHRIST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

"To Serve God by Sharing Compassion and Love”