celebrationoffice outreach, polka worship, Worship

Save these dates!

Watch this space for more information, but save these dates!

On June 24, Celebration will host a free, all-day workshop on mental health, conducted by Mental Health First Aid Ohio. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Registration is required so that we know how many to expect! A registration link will be posted here and elsewhere soon!

July 16 will be our annual Polka Worship service, featuring the Chardon Polka Band. Weather permitting, this service will be held outdoors on the church grounds. Lunch will be provided by Celebration Lutheran Church. Gathering with coffee and donuts begins at 9:30 a.m. Worship will be from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m., followed by lunch and a concert!

On July 30 we will celebrate Celebration’s 30th anniversary! Bishop Laura Barbins, former pastor of Celebration, will join us to preside over worship, and we will of course enjoy a festive feast afterward.

celebrationoffice Worship

Earth Day Weekend

In honor of Earth Day, April 22, our April 23 worship will lift up our call as Christians to care for Creation. After worship, we’ll share lunch and a screening of the documentary “The Ants and the Grasshopper,” which follows a Malawian activist as she travels to the US to talk about the impact of climate change on the world’s most vulnerable populations.

celebrationoffice Faith Formation, Lent, Spirituality, Worship

Preparing for Lent

Midweek Lenten Worship: Join us on Wednesday, March 1, 15, and 29, for a soup supper at 6:15 p.m., followed by a short worship service at 7:00 p.m.

Even though Ash Wednesday comes more often in February than it does in March, it still feels “early” to me, this year! But today we enter the liturgical season of Lent, a forty-day period during which we who follow Jesus devote more intentional time to reflection, repentance, and reformation: how closely do our lives align with what we understand to be the will of God? How closely do we pattern our conduct after the life of Christ? The forty-day span recalls Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness (Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:1-2), as well as Moses’ forty-day fast on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28).

This past Transfiguration Sunday, at the end of our worship service, we “put away the ‘alleluia,’” following a centuries-old Lutheran Lenten tradition. We will not utter the word again until we celebrate Easter Sunday. The tone of Lenten worship changes somewhat, as well, becoming more penitential and reflective. Each Sunday service will begin with a sung confession, and we will encourage periods of silent reflection and prayer during the prelude and postlude.

We will have midweek soup supper-and-worship on March 1, 15, and 26. Supper begins at 6:15 p.m., and worship begins at 7:00 p.m. We’ll have sign-up sheets on the oak table for contributing soup and sides. On the Wednesdays in between – March 8 and 22 – I will offer a short online (Zoom) prayer service, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Email Pastor Marilyn for the link.

As you begin your own Lenten journey, there are many good resources to guide and accompany you. Below, I share a number of them. Peace and blessings – Pastor Marilyn

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