41 Washington Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 (518) 584-5980

Rector's ramblings - March 2005

We are at the midst of Lent drawing nearer each day to the great celebration of Easter, the primary feast of the Christian Year.

Our Pizza and Variety Show takes place Saturday, March 5th and is always an evening of fun, fellowship and really great entertainment. We really have a lot of talent at Bethesda and this is one of those occasions when all ages perform and are entertained in a delightfully old fashioned family setting. This is one of my favorite events of the year.

The Service League will present another Lenten Pot Luck Supper for our dining pleasure and fellowship on Wednesday, March 16th. This has become the annual event where I do a visual presentation on some aspect of our faith as found or depicted at Bethesda. I thought I was about out of ideas for something new to present about our church building until I noticed all the sayings and wordings carved and inscribed in walls and windows that surround us as we worship each week. I am calling this program “The Words of Bethesda” and will hope to show you some areas you might not ordinarily notice.

Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday on March 20th presents opportunities for special devotion each day. There are daily 12:10 pm celebrations of the Holy Eucharist through Wednesday. That evening at 7 pm the Stations of the Cross are marked with procession and prayer. The Maundy Thursday evening service at 7 pm on March 24th is one of the most spiritually compelling celebrations of the church year. A watch is kept with the Blessed Sacrament through the night until the Liturgy of Good Friday begins the next day at Noon. A special Bethesda Youth Group (BYG) program coincides with this with an all night lock-in, cookout, movies and late night visits to the Altar of Repose.

I am delighted to welcome The Rev’d Canon Walter A. Collins recently retired Albany Hospitals Chaplain for the Diocese of Albany as our preacher for the Hours of the Cross from 1:15 to 3 pm Good Friday. He is a long time friend of mine from General Seminary days and beloved of many in Bethesda for his faithful ministrations to them while in an Albany Hospital. He is the Vicar of St. David’s Church, East Greenbush.

Please be serious about planning ahead and being present for these celebrations of our Salvation. I pray you are having a blessed Lent and rejoicing in the path that leads to Resurrection Joy.

Thomas T. Parke

Rector's Ramblings Archive