From the Rector: Discovery Sunday

In the last days, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your children shall prophesy,
and your youth shall see visions, and your elders shall dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)

Dear friends,

I love the verse above from the book of Acts. On the day of Pentecost, St. Peter tells the amazed people that what they are seeing--Jesus' friends preaching God's good news in all languages--is a work of the Spirit. He reaches back to quote a wonderful line from the prophet Joel that specifically names people of all ages: children, youth, elders.

One of the many things I love about our congregation is that we are an intergenerational community. Every week we are blessed by the ministries of children, youth, and elders. We worship, learn, grow, and serve, sometimes together as one group, sometimes in special programs for just one age group or another.

Back in April, on the Second Sunday of Easter, we tried something new: a 10:15 service designed to be a little more intentionally intergenerational than usual. Our Children's Choir led our music, several of our young people served as acolytes and readers, and our children came forward for a sermon intended to be accessible to all ages. It wasn't a "children's service," but a service designed so that children, youth, and adults could all find something meant for them.

Since then, a small subteam of our Liturgy Committee has been reflecting on that experience--and we'd like to build on it. During the 2024-25 year, we'd like to set aside four Sundays to do a special all-ages service at 10:15. We won't have Children's Chapel on these days, but will worship all together. Again, these won't be "children's services" so much as services designed to be accessible to all. Some of our prayers and scripture translations will be simpler, some of our music will be drawn from our Children's Chapel repertoire, and children, youth, and adults will share in leadership roles.

We're calling these Sundays "Discovery Sundays"--a name some folks may recognize, as I'm told Incarnation used to have services with that name in the past, perhaps ten or fifteen years ago. Like those Discovery Sundays, these will be a little different from a regular Sunday. But this is something new, and we'll be learning as we go. Our first Discovery Sunday will be August 11.

Our team (Melissa Moholt-Siebert, Robin O'Brien, Rebecca Kendall, and me) are hoping you'll come to Discovery Sunday ready to experience something new. Notice what you experience--and then let us know! Some may love these Sundays and find a delightful burst of creativity and freshness in them. Others may find they're glad we are only doing four of these a year--and that's OK too! Praise God for our differences. Mostly, though, we hope this will be a fun and gentle way to help our younger members grow as full participants in worship and help all of us expand our experience of the Sunday liturgy just a little bit.

I'm looking forward to our first Discovery Sunday on August 11. I pray we'll sense the Spirit--and maybe even see visions and dream dreams.

In Christ's love,

Stephen