Hello, or Welcome Back!

A week ago, we were enjoying temps in the 60s. Today we are seeing almost waist-high snow drifts outside the house—on top of little green points of my trying-to-emerge irises. Such is spring around here.

But the seasons are changing and so we'll look ahead to Holy Week and Easter, even as we finish Lent.

Looking at Lent broadly, it's a time of self-examination and repentance. So, we mention our hymn Dear Lord, I Come Confessing/Dear Lord, See to my Heart, which has some relevance as hate-crimes occur.

We also want to mention our NEW paraphrase, From Psalm 146. This solo, with guitar, could be for personal use, or (with Spirit guidance), for others; Psalm 146 does talk about faith and politics. But we absolutely need to start talking with civility and faith about these things, so there's a study to go with it, which could be used without the song.

For Maundy Thursday, coming up on April 2nd, 2026, we offer our communion hymn Lord, Before that Quiet Meal or possibly our solo Song of John, which references Jesus' washing the feet of his disciples.

Our hymn How Simple is the Washing might be useful if your congregation will be baptizing on Holy Saturday. Set to the well-known and beloved tune AURELIA, it would be relatively easy for a congregation to incorporate.

For late Saturday services or sunrise services on Easter morning, we offer On The Way, a dramatic solo from Mary Magdalene's point of view.

For Easter Sunday's Psalm 118, we offer a fairly new, guitar-based and cantor-led, paraphrase with congregational refrain.

If you've used our worship team song Out of the Box for Epiphany, you might want to use it again for Easter.

I do love thoughts of Easter and spring, here as snow howls around my house! For some, however, spring is already near. So, we do keep mentioning our song/hymn God Must Delight as Trees Leaf Out. It urges us to seek God as leaves seek light, which is always an appropriate leaning.

God bless this season for you!