beer & carols

Pente-chaos

Sometimes, the balloon order gets lost, the word on the cake is wrong, and the candles on the altar are crooked and they make me crazy. But God shows up. Every. single. time.

Palm Sunday 2010

lent begins

Yesterday, a friend said to me, "You're not writing anything on your blog. You're just slapping your picture of the day up there every day." Yes, yes I am. And now I've slapped a picture up here 17 more times than I thought I would. We'll see how long it lasts.

Truth be told, I am writing, just not writing blog fodder. But, as I have taken on a daily writing practice for Lent, a few words may make their way over here.

Great Ash Wednesday service at House tonight, complete with chanting Psalm 51, a powerful Confession and Absolution, imposition of ashes, and two songs of my childhood- Just As I Am & Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling. I took a few, a very few, photos before the service began, but that was it. Seemed a bit imposing to be skirting around the periphery with my camera tonight.

ash wednesday

Ash Wednesday at House For All Sinners and Saints

7p Wednesday 2-17

imposition of ashes::Eucharist::liturgy

501 Bannock

join us for Fat Tuesday at The Thin Man

new liturgy

I'm loving the Call to Worship, written by Cheryl Lawrie, that we are using right now at House:

We’re here because we’re people who have heard a rumor that there’s life to be found on the other side of death.

We’re here because just the rumor is enough to bring us hope and just the hope is enough to bring us a moment of life.

We’re here because even though it is only a flicker, a moment, a breath it’s changed our death forever.

Sometimes, that rumor is just enough to keep me going.

Communion Bread

Posting our HFASS communion bread recipe here for future reference.

Bread Recipe

Sift dry ingredients together three times:

2 c whole wheat flour
1 c white flour
1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 & 1/4 tsp salt

Stir in 4 tsp oil. Set aside.

Mix wet ingredients together until dissolved:

3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp very hot water
3 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp molasses

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. Dough should be slightly sticky. Do not knead.

Divide into four balls and flatten each into a 1/4 inch thick disk.

With a knife, score the top of each loaf into eight pie-shaped sections, so that the sections can be more easily broken off while serving. Alternatively, you could score a cross onto the loaf.

Lay the loaves on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and brush the tops of the loaves with oil. Bake an additional 5-8 minutes. Let cool.

pentecost, bluegrass style

blessing of the bicycles

Bring your bike and join us for the Blessing of the Bicycles a week from tomorrow. Then we'll eat cake!

Good Friday

Tonight we had our Good Friday service at House. Upon arrival, each person was given a purple tulip to lay on the cross during the time of adoration.

We chanted the psalm and did a responsive reading of the Gospel text, which was John 18 & 19. Not having much Scripture as part of corporate worship in recent years (last several months excluded), I am enjoying anew hearing the text read aloud. (Although 'enjoying' isn't quite the word to describe hearing this text.)

Following the sermon and prayers was the Proclamation of the Cross and Adoration. After which people had a chance to visit the stations of the cross and scribe a response to each station, before leaving in silence.

The times of silent reflection were quite meaningful to me, yet the whole service felt very haunting and sparse without the Peace, Alleluia, and Eucharist.

Following the service, a few of us took the tulips downtown to the site of the last shooting (that we could recall) and placed them at the site and offered a prayer.

I am liking this liturgical rhythm that I have seemingly fallen into.

Maundy Thursday

It's late, so I'm just gonna let the photos of our Maundy Thursday service at House for All speak for themselves with just a few quick details:
- We did the gospel text as a narrative reading and then incorporated the foot washing and Eucharist into it. It was powerful.
- Yes, those are condoms you see. We put together over 200 bleach kits for Praxus, a street outreach that is part of the Colorado Network to End Human Trafficking (CoNEHT).
- At the end of the service we stripped the altar bare and covered it with a black cloth.
- As people left in silence they dropped 30 silver coins into a bowl by the door, to be given to a group that has been betrayed. We'll be giving the money to the Four Winds Native American community, who we rent our space from.
A holy evening.