April 2016

The High Feast of Easter

In

St. Luke 24,  Christ shows how all the Scriptures testify of Him.  Beginning at Moses (the first five books of the Bible) and all the prophets (the rest of the Old Testament), He expounded unto them—what?—in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.  See, it says, in all, all.  Therefore Christ is the Key who unlocks the Scriptures.  The Emmaus disciples were sad, even though it was Easter Sunday.  Why were they sad?  Because the Scriptures were closed to them, who believed Christ was dead.  But now their eyes are opened, because Christ walks with them and makes Himself known to them.  But how, especially, does Christ make Himself known to them?  According to this Scripture, In the breaking of the bread.  So also is He made known to us in the breaking of the bread, that is, in the Holy Sacrament, the High Feast of Easter.  Let us become as the Emmaus disciples, with hearts burning as He unlocks the Scriptures and teaches us of Himself; and let us especially rejoice when He makes Himself known to us in the breaking of the bread. +

The Meditation for Easter Monday, from Every Day Will I Bless Thee: Meditations for the Daily Office, Pastor Eckardt’s published prayerbook.

Special services coming up

The Easter Octave is an entire week of Easter’s joyous celebration. At St. Paul’s we continue the feast on Easter Wednesday, which is March 30^th this year, and on the Sunday after Easter, which fall on April 3^rd. As usual, the Wednesday mass is at 7 p.m. and the Sunday time resumes at 8:30 a.m. (only Easter Day itself saw the morning time move to an earlier 7 a.m.).

The Day after the Octave, Monday, April 4^th, we will be observing the Feast of the Annunciation at 7 p.m. Since it fell on Good Friday this year, it is transferred to “Low Monday.” A special mass will be held, with organ and soloist.

Church Remodeling Moves Ahead

The remodeling of our church has resumed, with well over $5,000 collected toward the project in just over one month’s time, a sure sign of the excitement people are feeling about the project.

    As indicated in the previous newsletter, the project began in February; Otis Anderson and the trustees and volunteers have put in many hours of preparation, including the erecting of scaffolding and arranging with the painter and the paint supplier.

    We have now arrived at the exact colors and color scheme we want. By an informal agreement with members of the council, an ad-hoc sub-committee was formed to sort out exactly what colors we needed, when we discovered that there were many options from which to choose. We also realized we would need to map out how the church painting should proceed at this time.

    We proceeded to do diligent research into the questions of color and style for a neo-Gothic structure, consulting personally with the specialists at Sherwin-Williams, reading many on-line articles advising on church interiors, looking at dozens of photos of church interiors, and testing several different shades on the wall of the church where we have begun. We took into account on the one hand the general consensus that people wanted the color scheme to be pretty much as it was, and on the other hand the concerns that had been raised over the years that our current wall color doesn’t quite seem to match the stained-glass windows. We also asked opinions of people after worship. We learned in the process that much of the difficulty lay in the fact that the wall color was a shade of blue-green, which is notoriously difficult to match with any other shades of green, with the result that it didn’t seem to complement the stained-glass windows. We opted for a bluer tint, since we saw that in the windows, and blue is much easier to match against other shades of blue.

    The blue we chose for the major portion of the walls, called “Vast Sky,” is the blue most members have already seen on our test panel, the wall section between the windows on the west side of the nave.

    There will be two shades of this color used (the darker is called “Resolute blue”), just as we currently have: a darker hue comes up from the floor about four feet, coming to an end where there is actually a third, yet darker hue (“Secure blue”), in a pinstripe, above which is the main color. We have chosen to maintain this pattern; the only difference is that we will be using tints a bit bluer than what is currently on the walls.

    For the ceiling we chose to go a bit lighter than the current color. The first option, which was initially put up and seen by most members at worship early in March, was a bit too light, we concluded, and so we decided a slight darkening would provide a warmer look.

    An important addition we agreed upon, after researching the importance of the ribs of a Gothic structure, was to make them an altogether darker hue than the rest of the ceiling. Actually this darker hue, which will be used for the ribs and for the pillars, turns out to be about the same as the color currently on the ceiling and pillars, except that the current color has a hint of peach we found undesirable for our scheme.

    We spent considerable time weighing the option of taking the wall color all the way to the window, as opposed to painting the framing the shade of the ceiling, such as the current style has. We chose the latter, and added a two-tone effect to it, and choosing the darker tone for the windowsill.

    Presently we are planning to finish the entire section where the pews have been removed, all the way to the ceiling, before undertaking to move the pews and scaffolding for the next section. We expect to go section by section throughout the entire church, until we reach the front, and tackle the chancel area

last of all.

    The selection of a color scheme is more daunting than we thought, and there came a point at which we needed to be brave and simply make a choice, from all the possibilities

 (probably over a hundred carefully considered). We did so, and I took the results of our selection process to the church council, and they gave their approval at their March 16^th meeting.

    It is my earnest prayer that this project will be a blessing to us and fruitful; I have added to the weekly prayers a little line from the 90^th Psalm that asks that God would “establish the work of our hands.” The purpose for this endeavor, of course, is to give expression to our most holy faith in the best way we can. We have the gift of a lovely church; our earnest hope is that by the will of our Lord its renewal will work mightily toward a recovery of the majestic effect of which it surely has the potential.

+ Pastor Eckardt

NOTICE: First Tuesday events moved to Monday this month only

IMPORTANT: Due to scheduling conflicts and for convenience, our Altar Guild and Elders meetings are moved to Monday, April 4^th this month. That is the day we will also observe the Feast of the Annunciation (transferred from March 25^th, which was Good Friday this year). Altar Guild time is moved to 5:30, and Elders time is moved to 8:10. Mass is at 7 p.m..

Altar Guild Notes

·         Paraments WHITE for the Easter Vigil and all the rest of April.

·         Parament color does not turn to RED until May 14^th, the Vigil of Pentecost.

·         Parament color is RED for Pentecost, May 15^th, and midweek of Whitsun Week, May 18^th.

·         Parament color is WHITE for Trinity, the weekend of May 21-22 and through the Octave, that is, through May 29^th.

·         Parament color turns to GREEN after mass on May 29^th.

April Ushers

Steve Peart, Grant Andresen, Larry Campbell (or Steve Harris if Larry Campbell is subdeacon)

April Anniversaries

4/13/2002      Steve and Sheri Kraklow

April Birthdays

4/3      Adam Shreck

4/19    Luke Wells

4/22    Grant Andreson

Gottesdienst St. Louis

A one-day conference on Tuesday, May 17^th

will be held in at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois (about a half-hour outside of St. Louis on I-55), featuring the editors of Gottesdienst (including your pastor), and Rev. Matthew C. Harrison, the President of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Its intention is to prepare for the upcoming LCMS convention this summer by focusing on a matter that will be brought up there, namely the restoration in our churches of the Lutheran practice that only called and ordained pastors preach and administer the Sacraments. The Augsburg Confession declares that “no one should teach or administer the Sacraments without a regular call” (Article 14), but in 1989 the LCMS approved a practice of allowing unordained men to do this in certain places. The theme of this conference is

“Removing the Asterisk:

Restoring an Unconditional Subscription to AC XIV in the LCMS”

For details, click here.

Our Shut ins

Mary Hamilton is with her son in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Emmy Wear is at Williamsfield Home.

NKJV for first two readings

You may have noticed a slight change that was initiated midway through Lent. The elders have approved Pastor’s election to begin using the New King James Version for the Old Testament and Epistle, while retaining the older King James for the Gospels, read from the Gospel book.

Here’s what volunteers have been doing:

Vacuuming the church

Dusting the church

Sweeping the halls

Emptying the trash

Fixing the candles

Preparing the altar

Arranging for altar flowers

Polishing altar-ware and offering plates

Preparing bulletins

Managing and juggling the finances

Counting and recording offerings

Preparing finance sheets for the council

Seeing to the maintenance of the building

Cleaning the gutters and window-wells

Preparing Sunday breakfasts

Preparing Lenten suppers

Planning an volunteering for Easter breakfast

Planning and volunteering for Oktoberfest

Preparing Gottesdienst

Assisting on Sunday mornings (subdeacon, servers, ushers)

Liaison with Head Start

Participating in our church remodeling efforts (contacting the painter, getting scaffolding up, moving pews, selecting paint, etc.)

Grading new gravel, sifting out gravel from lawn

Gardening

Mowing

Pulling weeds

Trimming the hedges

There’s probably more, but you get the idea: a lot of volunteer work goes into maintaining this church. A hearty thanks to all who participate! And a note to everyone: it is our sincere hope and prayer that so many tasks will not continually fall to so few people, though they generally never complain. Please, if you can, help us out! Not only is every volunteer needed; volunteering together is enjoyable: often Saturday mornings are a good time for this.

In Our Prayers

Our current list of prayer intentions at mass includes the names on the lists here following.  To update the list please inform the pastor.

in our parish:

Denny Schoen

Sandra Verplaetse [recovering from surgery]

Emilie Ricknell

Linda Rowe

Berniece Harris

Mary Hamilton

Emmy Wear

and also:

Anna Rutowicz [granddaughter of Harrises]

Julie Ross [Svetlana Meaker’s daughter]

Jill Matchett [at request of Diana Shreck]

Lorene Foglesong [at request of the Kraklows]

Cathy Van Wassenhove [friend of Sandra Verplaetse]

Shelly DeBord [at request of the Watsons]

Robin Hampton [at request of the Watsons]

Maria Thorndike [at request of the Murphys]

Dottie Olander [at request of the Murphys]

Annie Eastman [at request of Svetlana Meaker]

Emily Corzine [Sarah’s sister]

Dennis Hoag [at request of Diana Shreck]

Nancy Popejoy [relative of Sharon Hartz]

Jeff Autery [friend of Chris Erickson, with cancer]

John Molburg [friend of Sandra Verplaetse]

Dave Colgron [friend of Tom Wells]

Shannon Watson [Jim’s daughter]

Ray Zarvell

  in the military

John Eckardt

Donny Appleman [at request of the Ricknells]

Thomas Kim [at request of the Shrecks]

Michael Creech [at request of the Murphys]

Katherine Creech [at request of the Murphys]

Richard Heiden [at request of the Eckardts]

Carter Wills [grandson of the Thompsons]

Luke Van Landigan [grandson of Dick Melchin]

Jaclyn Alvarez [daughter of Kris Harden]

  in trouble

any unborn children in danger of abortion

those suffering from unrest, persecution, and imprisonment in the Middle East, North Korea, and elsewhere.

Recruiting for Catechesis

Catechesis concluded on March 19^th and 20^th; we now look forward toward the recruitment of new members. Do you know someone who might be interested? A family member or co-worker, perhaps? The schedule is flexible for for any adult who has interest. The best way to pick up new members is by personal invitation coming from a member of the church! That is, our members are our best resources when it comes to bringing new members in. Be sure to pick up a tract or two from the rack in the hallway to have available.

Pastor’s Schedule

Several events and speaking engagements will keep me busy over the next several weeks, beginning this month. Here are the events:

• Association of Confessional Lutherans conference, April 6-8 (speaking)
• District Pastors’ Conference, April 11-13 (attending)
• Regional Pastors’ retreat, May 2-3 (speaking)
• Gottesdienst St. Louis, May 17 (speaking)
• Concordia Catechetical Academy, Waukesha, Wis., June 15-17 (speaking)

St. Paul’s Ev. Lutheran Church

   109 S. Elm Street

   Kewanee, IL 61443