Posts by Rev. Paul Calvin (Page 2)
Address One Another With Song
As we learned this past Sunday from Ephesians 5:15-21, song is one of the unique ways that God’s people can make wise use of difficult days. This week, we are blessed with a recording of Julie and Ken Willey’s arrangement of the hymn I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: O come, let us adore him! I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say Verse 1 I heard the voice of Jesus say…
Next Steps in Worship, Fellowship, & Mission – March 14
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The consequences of postponing public worship are weighty, but we can be confident that God is sending us out for His glory. As David Stewart encouraged us last Sunday: God initiates and we follow, and the path of obedience is one which leads us to a place where Jesus is lifted up. I believe that the sacrifices of the present time are mile markers on that path.…
Gathering Responsibly
With counsel from physicians, Bishop Stewart and other diocesan leaders, and in light of the Minnesota Department of Health’s most recent community-level mitigation recommendations for Covid-19, I have decided to postpone Sunday public worship services for the next two weeks, beginning this Sunday, March 15. I will reassess this decision on a weekly basis, but due to public health concerns I think this is an immediate way for us to: “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:17)” Although…
Ten-Year Rhyme
Long time member, John Lundgren, shared this narrative of Church of the Redeemer’s first ten years at our annual meeting on Saturday. Enjoy! Paul+ Church of the Redeemer’s Ten Year Coracle Journey By John Lundgren Our tiny boat set out from Cross They knew we would prevail. They said, “Good-by” and grieved their loss. The Spirit blew our sail. Our Mother Church had sent us out, With Blessing and Provision. We were small, but hearts were stout With clarity of…
Advent 2 – Pastoral Letter
As we celebrate the season of Advent and anticipate the anniversary of Church of the Redeemer’s tenth year of public worship, I will be sharing the primary themes that arose from our summer discernment meetings* and how they are shaping the vision for where God is calling us as a church. This week’s focus is communities that we are best positioned to serve. Youth and Newcomers Our church is most whole when we’re all gathered to “keep the feast” together,…
Advent 1 – Pastoral Letter
Dear Church of the Redeemer, As we celebrate the season of Advent and anticipate the anniversary of Church of the Redeemer’s tenth year of public worship, I will be sharing the primary themes that arose from our summer discernment meetings* and how they are shaping the vision for where God is calling us as a church. This week’s focus is gifts and opportunities within our church in the areas of study and teaching. Discipleship Opportunities We are blessed to have many…
Testimony of the Resurrection
By Molly Riley This winter’s narrative Bible study taught me to listen to scripture and attend to its details in a new way. Each week we listened to a different story from the Gospels about Jesus’ encounters with women. We learned to paint the setting in our minds as we listened, discussed the details of each story together, and then in pairs practiced telling the stories ourselves. On our second-to-last meeting we retold all the stories we’d studied, each person…
Shrove Tuesday: Why Pancakes?
By Heather Walker Peterson Before my family’s fast begins in Lent, we follow the Anglican tradition of feasting on pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. But why pancakes? Unless my husband is making his rich Swedish pancakes, really crepes with spoons of sugar added, pancakes don’t seem like the kind of food many would refrain from. I grew up thinking of them as an occasional easy supper with eggs. Nothing fancy. It wasn’t until I read Frederica Mathewes Green’s Facing East about…
Advent Practices – Part 3
By Haley Scharf If you are unfamiliar with the Advent tradition of O Antiphons prayers, you’re in for a treat. They are an ancient monastic tradition (dating to at least the 8th century A.D.) that I knew nothing about a few years ago. But once I learned about them, they quickly became one of my very favorite Advent practices. The O Antiphons are short prayers traditionally used during evening prayer on December 17 to 23, the last seven days of…
Advent Practices – Part 2
By Haley Scharf Advent is a time to remember that we are a people of hope because we have a God who keeps his promises! Long ago he promised a Messiah, and his word was fulfilled when Jesus came the first time. Now we have a promise that Jesus will come back again to fully establish his kingdom and set things right, and we wait with hope because we know God is faithful and will fulfill that promise as well.…