Holy Week

Our journey in Lent reaches now to the Holy week. There will be several important worship services at Floris UMC.
The Maundy Thursday service will be held at 7:30 on Thursday, Good Friday service at 7:30 on Friday, Easter Eve service at 5:00 on Saturday, Sunrise service at 6:15 on Easter morning, and three 8:00, 9:15, and 11:00 all traditional Easter service. There will be a contemprory service at 5:00 on Easter afternoon.

On Thursday, the choir will sing "Ubi caritas" by Durafle, and "Abba" by Craig Courtney. Both songs were composed for Maundy Thursday. As I shared it with you before, Ubi caritas was sung on Maundy Thursday from Ancient Christian worship service. Right after they washed their feet each other, they sang this song. It is such a powerful song! "Abba" was written by SUsan Boersma with the lyric. She noted in front of the music; "when Craig asked me to think about the Upper Room from the perspective of God the Father, I was at first overwhelmed by imagery. The participants, the celebration, the singing, the washing of feet, the meal, the aromas, the candlelight, all blurred together in one familiar scene. However, after spending some time in prayerful contemplation, what finally came into focus was the Father/ Son relationship-God, the Father, 'one' with the Son in the Godhead but separated at that moment by Christ's humanity, and Christ Jesus the Son, fully engaged with His disciples in the celebration of the Passover, but with His mind and heart set on His Father and the suffering ahead. The pathos of that moment provided the inspiration for the text of Abba. "

On Easter services, the choir and orchestra will praise " Lord of the Dance" and "Hallelujah" from Messiah by Handel.

Jesus said in a gospel John "I am the resurrection and life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die."

I pray that we will all have experiences of God's presence during this Holy week.

Lenten Concert on this Friday night

The combined choir and orchestra at Floris UMC will have a Lenten concert on this Friday at 7:30. "The Seven last words of Christ" by Dubois will be performed. Three soloists; Tenor, Baritone, and Soprano will lead the seven words on the cross with the choir. I hope that many people come and have an experience of God's grace and mercy through the concert. There will be a light refreshment after the concert. Also, the free offering will be collected during the concert to support Camp Hutchison in this summer.