Hello –
This year, May 1st, which is an ancient day to celebrate Mary the mother of Jesus with flowers, falls on a Sunday. To celebrate that coincidence, we are doing two new and exciting things.
• Our worship at 10am will begin with a song honoring Mary. I will be bringing in a three foot high French wooden sculpture of Mary, one of my most beloved antiques, which we will place in front of the pulpit/ambo. During the opening song, everyone who brings flowers will be invited to go to the front of the church and place flowers in containers around the statue. The last person in the procession will be one of our teen young women, who will put a circle of flowers on her head. I will be preaching about Mary.
• After church, in the second of our events designed specifically to invite new people to St. Paul’s and increase our visibility (the first was the Christmas Singalong for Saints and Sinners) our teenagers and their friends will be making 180 bouquets of flowers in small containers suitable for hanging on doorknobs. The teens will then be going to Aldersley, to the Cogis memory care facility and to the San Rafael Health Care Center to distribute the flowers to every single resident. Our goal is for the teens to have a great time, to learn about the beautiful values and practices of St. Paul’s and to bring beauty and joy into these care facilities.
I hope to see you on Sunday, bearing flowers from your garden or elsewhere.