Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

            The calendars all say that a new year begins in January. The Church’s traditional “liturgical” calendar says that it begins sometime after Thanksgiving with the first Sunday of Advent. But if you ask me, a new year begins in September, right after Labor Day. That might come from having spent almost twenty years of my life going to school, followed by parenting children for over 26 years, one of whom still is in school. But, regardless, a new year begins in September.

            And that’s reflected in our life together as a community of faith. For the second year in a row, Pastor Deborah and I will be using the Narrative Lectionary to organize our preaching on Sunday mornings. A lectionary is an assigned cycle of readings. Unlike the Revised Common Lectionary, which has that odd liturgical starting date on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and then proceeds to jump around in the Bible, the Narrative Lectionary starts on the Sunday after Labor Day and moves through the Bible chronologically, from Genesis to Revelation. On September 11, we start a new year with the Narrative Lectionary.

            And there will be other new things at Central as well. One of the most obvious will be a new entrance from the Elm Street driveway that is handicap accessible. We will be welcoming officially our new Parish Associate, the Rev. Noelle Kirchner, who is developing a television series on parenting in cooperation with Hometowne TV.. There will be a new time for our informal WAVE worship service when it moves to Sunday evenings in October. And in October, we will give you a new opportunity to learn about Islam in much greater depth in a series of Wednesday evening classes with Dr. Ali Chaudry.

            And so, Happy New Year! For no matter what others might tell you, a new year begins at Central in September, and we hope that you will make it your resolution to renew your commitment to this community of faith.

Rev. Don Steele