Are you looking for some peace and time for prayer in your busy life? I invite you to attend Prayer around the Cross on the first Thursday evening of each month.

Many in our congregation got a chance to try out Prayer around the Cross during Lent. We www.essaywritingplace.com are now holding this service on the first Thursday of each month. This is a time of quiet reflection, prayer and simple song. Please join us and invite others from the community who may benefit from this peaceful service.

I first experienced this form of worship at Holden Village during my first visit there in 1995 or so. Holden hosts their “Prayer around the Cross” service every Friday night. For every subsequent visit (5?6? I’ve lost track!) I planned my visit around the Friday night service. When I lived there the fall of 2005, it became a highlight of each week.

During the service we sing simple songs together, reflect on two readings, and then have time to go to the cross as individuals to light a candle and pray. You are welcome to pray as long or as briefly as you like. You can also just stay in your pew the entire service.  The service is based on a style of worship practiced at the community of Taize, an ecumenical monastic order in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France.

One of my favorite aspects of Prayer around the Cross is the experience of having others lay their hands on my shoulder as I pray.  I really encourage you to try it. The experience of the light and simple warmth of another person as you pray is truly amazing. It is equally powerful to the person who lays hands on another during their time of prayer.  As a community of Christ, we are called to support one another in prayer. We are offered a powerful gift in the invitation to bring our prayers and lay them down at the cross.

I look forward to welcoming you at an upcoming service. The next Prayer around the Cross service is Thursday, October 3 at 6:30 p.m.

-Amalia Vagts

Saturday and Sunday, October 12 and 13 – Bill Deutsch, president of the board of the Decorah Community Free Clinic at First Lutheran Church, spoke to the congregations about the medical care and healing work of the volunteer health care professionals and staff. The Free Clinic is the recipient of the local outreach portion of Good Shepherd's 25th Anniversary Gift.

Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20 – Worshipers will remember Sunday, October 23, www.essaywritingplace.com 1988, as the date of the first worship service in the almost-finished new sanctuary. On that day, the service began in the old sanctuary with the Order for the Disposition of a Sanctuary, thus ending almost 30 years of worship in that space. It was followed by the outdoor procession carrying the altar and its appointments from the old into the new addition and sanctuary.

Photos of the Disposition Rite and procession can be viewed below.

Disposition of old sanctuary in preparation for moving to the new, October 23, 1988

Procession carrying altar leaving old sanctuary.

Congregation processing from the old sanctuary to the new.

Altar and procession entering the new addition.

Pastor Paul Hasvold, 1974-1998.

Saturday and Sunday, October 26 and 27 – Confirmation – the Affirmation of Baptism – for Kalle Solberg will occur at the Sunday service.  We also will remember the first Confirmations in the almost-finished sanctuary, Reformation Sunday, October 30, 1988. Members of the 1988 class are Jane Hover, Rose Knudsvig, Tobin Laursen, Scott Leake, Erich Morris, Jennifer Naslund, and Kerry Wuest.

L – R: Kerry Wuest, Erich Morris, Jennifer Naslund, Jane Hover, Pastor Paul Hasvold, Rose Knudsvig, Tobin Laursen, Scott Leake

As summer begins, the Coffee Committee is having a closeout sale on the remaining dark and milk Divine chocolate bars, with the price reduced to $1.00 per bar. Indulge your chocolate sweet tooth and take advantage of a great price on a great product for a good cause!

In July and August, coffee will only be sold on the second Sunday of each month, July 14 and August 11. We’ll resume our twice a month coffee sales in September. In addition, we’re not planning to order any additional coffee during the summer, to help us reduce our inventory. We’ll be restocking product again in the fall.

Thank you for your continuing support of the policies of Fair Trade and our Fair Trade products! Remember that all our coffees, teas, and hot chocolates are also good cold over ice in the summer!

Wholly Iowa Youth Leadership Discipling Event (WIYLDE) is a ministry and leadership workshop for high school youth of ELCA congregations in here Iowa and is supported by all three ELCA Iowa synods. Dates for WIYLDE 2013 are July 22-27, 2013. Registration for WIYLDE 2013 is now open.

Source: https://www.luther.edu/ministries/congregations/wiylde/