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Sunday 23 April 2017 – The Second Sunday of Easter
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Dear Parish Family,
At today’s Vestry
meeting, there was some brief conversation on the topic of the Feast of Corpus
Christi.
You may recall that
when I became Rector, there was a long-standing tradition that our parish kept
this feast. On a good many occasions,
one of the bishops of the diocese was present with us and served as the chief
celebrant for the liturgy. Early in my
time, this liturgy became a parish celebration only. This lasted one year, primarily because of
the sacrifice that I was making to take PTO from my full-time employment in
order to be present for this liturgy.
Attendance on the last occasion was so poor that I decided it was not
worth doing again.
This feast is
traditionally kept on the Thursday following the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the
Sunday after Pentecost. Thus Corpus
Christi Day, the official name for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, is, this year, Thursday 15 June.
I am scheduled to work 4pm – midnight on that day. If we are to attempt to revive the
celebration of this feast, I will need to take PTO again. This request would need to be submitted by 15
May, as I am expected to put in requests a month in advance.
I am writing you all
to see if there is a desire to keep this feast and a willingness to commit to
being present if the feast is kept.
Ideally it would be at 7 pm that evening. Another possibility which would not require
use of PTO on my part is if the liturgy were to be during the day. Either way, especially in the event that this
would involve a 7 pm Mass, I want to know that there is a desire and a
commitment of a significant number of parishioners to be present for the
feast. I do not have a set number in my
head as to what that significant commitment would look like. Please share your thoughts and I will stew on
them and share my thoughts in the weeks to come prior to the point in which I
would need to submit a formal request to take that day off from work.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
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Fr. Tim+
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The Rev’d Timothy Alleman, M.Div.
Rector – The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross
Cell: 570-540-3535
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