An Altar in the Wilderness: Interactive Worship for Holy Week
Dear friends and members of St. Matt's,
We are living in the midst of a wilderness time. A time when we cannot worship together, a time of distance, a time of anxiety. In the midst of this time, as we approach the journey of Holy Week, St. Matthew's invites you to participate in an ancient tradition. A tradition that will connect us to God and to each other. There will be opportunities to worship every day in Holy Week, and while we cannot gather around the altar at St. Matt's, we invite you to set aside a sacred place in your home and to build an altar with us.
Each day throughout Holy Week, you will be invited via email and worship to add something(s) to the altar in your home. This interactive means of prayer and worship will connect all of us, in different places and spaces, to God and to each other. The first email with instructions will come tomorrow (Saturday) in order to help you prepare for Palm Sunday. I'm looking forward to sharing this with you.
This interactive worship experience has been intentionally crafted with you in mind, our community at St. Matt's, for those of you who live alone, and those of you who live with others. I'm grateful to Sharon Pearson and Samantha Trolice who worked with me on the layout and steps of these days. And I hope that you will join us as we take this journey. Toward the end of the week, we'll ask you to send in prayers and pictures of your altar, so that they can be shared with the whole community. Read a little below to understand more about this tradition that is an ancient part of our faith and our heritage.
Visit the Holy Week page on our website to see the full schedule of worship and music. We'll also collect the daily instructions for our Altars in the Wilderness on this page throughout the week.
In the meantime, begin looking for a place in your home, near to where you will participate in worship. Don't set anything up yet - tomorrow you'll get an email about how to prepare for worship on Sunday. Just find a place that can be set aside for you and for God.
God bless you.
Faithfully,
--Marissa +