Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

What is it that lifts our hearts?  What is it that stretches us beyond ourselves?  What is it that connects us with God and with one another in a spiritual way that makes the more practical and conflicted ways we connect seem petty and rude?

What I do know is that that doesn’t happen rationally or mechanically.  Instead, we come closer with expression and emotion than we do with information and reason.  It’s why Jesus told parables; three-dimensional stories that cannot, finally, be reduced to points, or positions, or ideas.  It’s why we illuminate our worship spaces with stained glass, and why stained glass will never be replaced by a digitally animated projection screen.  It’s why we still use candles in the age of electric lights.  It’s why the majesty of a pipe organ speaks to the soul in a way that cannot be imitated or replicated by even the most advanced electronics.

This Lent, we will be blessed by an opportunity each Wednesday evening at 7:16 p.m. in the Bagby Chapel to do just that.  With the leadership of the Worship Ministry and the dedicated work of Ruth E. Baker, we will gather to worship on these Wednesday evenings in the manner of Taizé.  Taizé is an ecumenical community in France that has given its contemplative, introspective worship to the world.  The service is very simple, but lavish with light from candles and rich with music.  Taizé worship believes the words that Aldous Huxley wrote:

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

Please do join us on the five Wednesdays in Lent, beginning on Wednesday, February 29 through Wednesday, March 28.  I know we will be blessed and graced by this beautiful time of worship together!