Category: Announcements

Ash Wednesday

February 16, 2021

As Pastor Inger wrote in our February newsletter, the pandemic came to Jackson just about a year ago, a few weeks into Lent. While we observed the subsequent liturgical seasons, in some ways it feels like we are entering what we never seemed to have left. In this year where remembering we are dust feels far less optional, far less momentary, the better analogy of Ash Wednesday and the invitation of Lent is pulling up a chair, settling in and being present to all the changes and realizations the pandemic has brought us.

Shepherd of the Mountains will be open throughout the day (10 am – 7pm). In the sanctuary, you are welcome to rotate through one or more contemplative stations. When you are ready, return to the narthex to pick out a special gift (one per person) for “living with Lent,” and receive your ashes as you leave. Please wear masks and practice physical distancing.

Annual Meeting

January 28, 2021

Due to the pandemic, the council passed a continuing resolution in December to allow this year’s Annual Congregational Meeting to take place via Zoom on January 31, 2021 at 11am.  An email with annual report packet and the zoom link was sent out on Tuesday, January 26th.  If you have not received it but would like to attend, please let the church office (sotmlcjackson@gmail.com) or Pastor Inger (pastor.inger@sotmlc.org) know ASAP.

Advent Evening Prayer

December 10, 2020

On Wednesday evenings at 6 pm this Advent, we will pause and gather (for now by zoom) for “cruciform prayer” with song and candles. “Cruciform” means “cross-shaped,” and as we pray, we know that God is shaping us to become more like Christ. We start with God at our center, move outward to God’s world, back to ourselves, and then to the needs of friends and enemies. Email or message Pastor Inger (pastor.inger@sotmlc.org) or the church (sotmlcjackson@gmail.com) if you would like the link to join us live! A recording will be made available after.

One Bread Recipe Kitchen Devotional

June 6, 2020

As Pastor Inger wrote to the congregation in the June newsletter, even as regulations ease, public health officials consistently predict a long trajectory for this pandemic, and religious gatherings are considered highly contagious events. The acts of singing, sharing communion, and the familiarity of people across households – things we treasure and celebrate at SMLC – also create more risk for spreading the virus. For now, Tiny Desk Worship allows a more robust worship than we can offer in person, and continues to protect and include our most vulnerable.

However, Tiny Desk Worship, as a pre-recorded service that we access at different times, does not include communion. Consecrated bread and wine, means of God’s grace, are ways that we are tangibly comforted and strengthened by God’s presence, and might be one of the things you are missing and need the most. There have always been provisions for communion to be offered in special circumstances: the gluten-free bread blessed at a distance, the pastor bringing the sacrament to hospital rooms or nursing homes, or a smaller assembly gathering at the edge of Phelps Lake as part of a “Walk and Worship.” Leaning on these foundations, even as we extend Tiny Desk Worship into the foreseeable future, I am going to begin offering socially distanced outdoor communions for households. Each household will be their own altar guild, providing their own bread and wine.

Intimidated? Don’t be! Check out this kitchen devotion and walk-through of a scaled down communion bread recipe our altar guild often uses:

 One Bread Recipecomp.mp4

Big Chair Story

May 29, 2020

Pastor Inger tried a very casual spinoff of tiny desk with a children’s book (that might speak to adults too). Sarah Raymond Cunningham’s “This is the Church” has a message particularly for these times. Thank you Beaming Books!

 ThisistheChurchcomp.mp4

In-Person Worship Suspended

March 14, 2020

We are suspending in-person worship tomorrow (March 15th) and into the coming weeks as we take precautions with our community for COVID-19.

Read more about we can worship together in spirit, and an important blood drive March 19th, here:COVIDandSMLC2