A Message from our Rector:
Invitation to a Holy Lent: Awareness, Prayer, Charity, Meditation
Dear Friends:
Lent is the most focused of all the seasons of the Church, beginning 46 days before Easter Sunday on Ash Wednesday.1 On Ash Wednesday we are invited to the observance of a holy Lent, to
*self-examination and repentance
*prayer, fasting, and self-denial
*reading and meditating on God’s holy Word
This Lent will be a particularly poignant observance. I heard a comment that for most of living generations of Americans, we have heard the Gospel from a distance. Our circumstances have been much gentler, more civilized and expansive, and we have taken the gift of democracy as a given as well as and our wealth, wellbeing and civil order. Our situation, our circumstances, are changing. The life-situation of the writers of scripture, those who are navigating a capricious, violent, and vengeful government now often parallels our own immediate circumstances.
Our practices will give opportunity to lean into a new and emerging experience and reality as we engage the familiar observances of the season of Lent.
Prayer: Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday services are at 12.00 and 7.00. Ashes are a powerful marker of the beginning of Lent, a reminder that our days are a blessing, and our days are numbered.
Prayer: Lent 1 and the Great Litany
We will begin our Sunday Lenten worship with the Great Litany. If this is your first time in a service with the Great Litany, be ready to open your ears, mind, and heart to its prayers and its refrains. The Episcopal Dictionary of the Church2 notes that the Great Litany was used as early as the fifth century in Rome. It has been a part of our Anglican tradition since 1544, as it was the first English language rite prepared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1544, and thus the beginning of the Book of Common Prayer. Some tweaks have been made to the Great Litany since then, but its weight and solemnity has remained consistent. Consider this reflection:
“… nothing can compare with the depth, beauty, and comprehensiveness of the Litany. We pray for deliverance from disasters, heresy, schism, violence, war, blindness of heart, hypocrisy, and oppression. We bid the Lord to visit the lonely and grieving, to strengthen marriages, to protect unborn children and women in childbirth, to care for those who have lost children. This is only a small sample. Christians should be praying for these things, regularly.” 3
As you hear the voices and verses of the Great Litany on Sunday, consider it the beginning of a great spring cleaning of the soul.
Self-denial and Charity: Mite Envelopes and Lenten Charity
Giving money to those in need changes the life of those who receive—and changes the awareness and then heart of those who give. In Lent we aim to give more to others, pray more, and to center less on ourselves. Ideally, we will practice charity every day, offering a small sum with prayer, intention, and awareness. To build stronger muscles requires not on one big workout but smaller daily exercise; opening hearts and minds and gaining awareness is accomplished by practicing giving and repetitions of awareness on the needs of others.
You are invited to exercise charity, generosity, prayer, and selflessness by giving every day, just a little, in reflection of the abundance of your own life and awareness of the need of those around you. Our awareness will focus on the needs of the homeless in our community. Our individual practices will be collected into one check to give to Beyond Homeless at Easter.
Prayer: Wednesdays in Lent
It is traditional to have Wednesday Lenten Offerings. We have five different prayer services offered every Wednesday this year. You are welcome to any or all of these services
7.45 am Pray where you are—light a votive; spend a moment in prayer. We will have votives for you to take with you.
1.00 pm Contemplative Prayer, St. Andrew’s sanctuary. Gather in focused silence for 20 minutes, end with a shared prayer.
1.30 pm Stations of the Cross, St. Andrew’s sanctuary. Traditional prayers focused on Jesus’ last day. We will have a different version of Stations each week for five weeks.
6.30 pm Taizé Service, Gobin UMC. Collaborative service of prayer, quiet, and chanting every Wednesday evening.
9.00 pm On-line Compline; take a votive home, light it and log in via Zoom from Saint Andrew’s web page, and gather from your home for this beautiful just-before-bedtime end of the day prayer
Bible Study: Walking the Palm Sunday Path
Our Sunday readings are set in three-year cycles, and have been so for decades. Any time I want to change the readings, I am required to get clearance from Bishop Jennifer. It is very unusual to make this request even one Sunday of the year. This year I have permission to change Gospel readings of all six Sundays in Lent, in my experience unprecedented. Our Tuesday Book and Bible Group and our Sunday sermons will focus these six readings that bring us vital questions about Jesus and the new reign he proclaimed—to remember that Jesus’ message was public, provocative and risky.
Every week you will have a two page resource (available printed or on-line) that includes
a) the Sunday Gospel reading
b) one paragraph introduction
c) 1-2 page exploration of themes
A powerful Lenten discipline is reading through this materials daily in preparation for the message on Sunday—and in preparation for the culmination of Lent on Palm Sunday.
You will find the whole series here:
On the more lighthearted side: Bible Study and Church History and Lent Madness
32 saints. Awesome bracket sheet. Inspiring and wild biographies.
You are invited to vote throughout for your preferred saint (and to learn a little about the variety of saints honored in the Episcopal Church) in Lent Madness. The bracket poster is up in Hamilton Hall; you can get your smaller bracket sheet in the file folder in Hamilton Hall. Subscribe for your daily ballot, read about the saints, and vote—you will be surprised at the stories of the saints! https://www.lentmadness.org/
The Lenten Journey
It is my deep hope that you find a pattern of participation during this Lent, making this time holy through your participation, awareness, intention, and dedication.
In peace,
Jen+
For the curious and detail oriented:
1 Yes, Lent is 40 days long. Sundays are excluded, as Feasts of the Resurrection of our Lord, aka Sunday, are not officially Lent.
2 How is Easter determined? The first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. A super early or super late Easter depends on whether the full moon is right after March 21-22 (an early Easter) or if the full moon fell right before March 21-22 (very late Easter), and, of course, what day of the week that full moon and vernal equinox are on. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/great-litany-the/
3 https://thecloisterblog.com/2021/02/16/the-litany-a-history-practical-guide-w-videos/
Connect With Us
Rector’s Office Drop-In Time
Rev. Jen has set her office drop-in day as Wednesday of each week from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. for anyone who would like to stop in and visit. You are always invited to make an appointment for a time convenient for you. Mondays are her Sabbath day.
The First Sunday in Lent
In-Person Sunday Morning Worship Service, February 22, led by the Rev. Dr. Jennifer Oldstone-Moore,10:15 a.m.
You can stream the service via St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Greencastle, Indiana Facebook Page. Click on this link to view the Live Stream. We will start the Live Stream 5 minutes prior to the start of the service.
Click here for the service booklet for February 22.
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The Latest Updates
EPISCOPAL 101, SUNDAYS 11:45-12:45
Continuing this month, Episcopal 101, a gathering to learn about the Episcopal church–what we do, how we pray and worship, our history, and more. All are welcome.
ASH WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18
Services at 12:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Lenten Taizé at Gobin, Wednesdays
Gobin and Saint Andrew’s are collaborating on Wednesday services this year. One of these collaborations will be hosted by Gobin, a weekly evening Taizé services that will give voice and time for considering grief. This Lenten Taizé Wednesday series will be offered 2/25, 3/4, 3/11, 3/18, 3/25 at 6:30pm.
St. Andrew’s Youth Murder Mystery Party, Friday, March 13th
Youth are invited to join us for an interactive murder mystery party and see if you can spot “whodunit!” This is an interactive game where people sign up to play a role for fun. It is open to all young adults, but please note that content may not be appropriate for all ages – it is a murder mystery after all!
Sign up for characters is available in Hamilton Hall. Friends are welcome to join but please provide an email for communications. Non Player Characters are available for adult chaperones to enjoy playing along.
Friday, March 13th
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Cheese pizza will be available for all. Please consider bring a baked delight to share!
The Great Bake Down Murder!
World-renowned British baker, author, and artisan chef Barry Merry is finally retiring after over 40 years and 40 bakeries in 40 countries, and he’s giving one lucky person the chance of a lifetime: The keys to this multi-million-pound business.
We are in the final weeks, and Lennon Drizzle is the front runner with the most points, closely followed by Ed Velvet. One more challenge will crown the winner who will inherit the company.
When Lennon doesn’t immediately show up for filming, show runner Faye Ricake checks his trailer… and finds him dead! An opened box of suspicious smelling fruitcake points to a planned attack. But who was responsible for the deadly fruitcake attack!?
PROJECTS AND PARISH SPACE
We are blessed with ample and well organized spaces for our worship, fellowship, and outreach. However, things have a way of collecting at churches—as we found when Gwen Morris and Cathryn Ensley cleaned out the front closet. We want to know what’s going on! Please mark supplies or materials gathered for outreach with the name of the project and the name of the point person.
ST. ANDREW’S ANNUAL MEETING 2026
Please mark your calendars! St. Andrew’s annual meeting part two, an overview of the program year and new Vestry members will be elected; Sunday, February 22nd immediately following the church service.
HEALING PRAYER
Most Sundays our intern Meghan will be offering anointing and healing prayer at Sunday services during communion. Meghan will set up a station in the narthex; meet there for general or specific prayers for healing.
TUESDAY BIBLE STUDY
Starting Lent, we will focus on a series called “Walking the Palm Sunday Path.” I will be inviting the whole congregation to use the materials for their own Lenten practice, and will send links and some printed copies out. In addition, the sermons in Lent will preach on these texts.
I am attaching Week One materials here. I will also bring the printed handouts that were not picked up in church on Sunday to our meetings.
I will be drawing from (and you can find out more here):
We will return to Chinese Religion—and other religions, if you wish—when Lent is done and our alleluias have returned.
In peace,
Jen+
LENT SCHEDULE AND GUIDES
First week of Lent
Lent and Easter Schedule
Daily Lenten Discipline 2026 “Walking the Palm Sunday Path”
EVENING PRAYER
Join us for Evening Prayer in the sanctuary on Tuesdays at 4:00. Evening Prayer is a wonderful service to wind down the day and move into the evening hours.
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
On Wednesdays at 1:00, we gather for about a half hour in quiet contemplative prayer. A leader introduces the prayer and a bell is chimed; we sit in prayer for twenty minutes until another chime sounds and then close with a spoken prayer. Feel free to come in any time between 1:00 and 1:20 to pray in silence in a lovely sacred space.
ALTAR FLOWER CALENDAR
An altar flower calendar is posted in Hamilton Hall. Sign up to sponsor the altar flowers to commemorate a birthday or anniversary, remember a loved one, or in thanksgiving for an important event. We ask a donation to help offset the cost of the altar flowers and other worship expenses. Be sure to tell the office your dedication so that it can be printed in the bulletin. Please make checks payable to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and in the memo field please put this information: Altar Flowers, person’s name, occasion, Sunday date you’d like for the flowers to be on the altar.
VESTRY MEETING MINUTES
If any of you are interested in what your Vestry is doing, there are two copies of each month’s minutes on the music stand in Hamilton Hall. Feel free to read and return!
SHOPPING LIST FOR NON-FOOD PANTRY
Please add razors, shaving cream, laundry detergent, spray cleaner, and toilet bowl cleaner to your shopping list for the NFP for the month of January. Meals and conversation in Hamilton Hall are going well. Patrons are now able to pick out items they most need. Your contributions help our budget go farther in helping meet the needs of those in Putnam County. The next Non-Food Pantry will be Saturday, February 28 from noon – 2:00 p.m. If you can help with this ministry in any way, please contact Harriet Moore or Carl Huffman.
KROGER COUPONS
If you have any unwanted Kroger coupons, please bring them to Hamilton Hall and place in the window ledge near the “Little Library”. We would like to make them available to our Non-Food Pantry recipients so that they might be able to take advantage of them to help extend their food budget. Thanks in advance!
FREE DAILY DEVOTIONAL
We have some large print Day by Day daily devotionals in the sanctuary that you are free to take home for your personal devotions–and if we know that people would like copies, we can order the right amount. Many of you may also appreciate the on-line version of Day to Day. Click here.
Prayers and Reflections for This Week
We have heard that the daily reflections and scripture readings provided during Lent were appreciated. The meditations are written by persons from Gobin UMC and Beech Grove UMC. They will be in the newsletter each week. Whether you enjoy these every day or as the Spirit moves you, may this resource continue to bring you spiritual food for the journey. Blessings!
Click here to view the readings and accompanying links.
Non-Food Pantry Latest
Saturday, February 28
• Noon to 2:00 p.m.
There will be a distribution in Hamilton Hall and light lunches will be served inside. We are grateful for all those who have worked so hard to obtain supplies for the Non-Food Pantry. Items are having to be purchased from a variety of sources making it much more expensive. Donations to help offset this extra cost will be gratefully accepted!
Top 3 Needed Items
Your prayers are asked for:
Haile Bane, grandson of Joanne Haymaker
Beth Benedix, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
Jennifer Clarke, friend of Patti Harmless
Diane
Angela Evans
Katie Gleichman, relative of Jim & Cathryn Ensley
Tom Kaiser, friend of Jen+ & Chris
Lynda, friend of Sarah Finlay-Black
Warren Macy
Jacob Majors, son of Renee Majors
Teresa Masten, friend of Karen & Jim Mannon
Sally Motsch, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
Mary Mountz
Elizabeth & Natalie Sheffler, daughter & granddaughter of Page & Narda Cotton
Deloris Smith, friend of Emily Knuth
Luke Smith, son of Mark Smith
Skip Sutton
Larry Taylor, former member of St. Andrew’s
Donald Voermans, father of Nick Voermans
Dwight Ziegler, uncle of Stephanie Gurnon
Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: St. John’s, Crawfordsville, The Rev. Jason Fortner
Our companion dioceses: The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil: The Most Rev. Mauricio Jose Araujo De Andrade, Primate of Brazil and Bishop of Brasilia. The people and Diocese of Haiti and Saint Andre’s Parish and school in Mithon.
Anglican Cycle of Prayer: The Church of Ireland
Birthdays: Jenny Heithaus, Feb. 19; Warren Macy, Feb. 19; Owen Jedele, Feb. 20; Larry Wilson, Feb. 20
Anniversaries: none
Special Events and Services
