After a luxuriously lengthy Epiphany Season, Lent now descends upon us. This year, March opens with Ash Wednesday, falling as it does on the first of the month. We will hold our usual four services throughout the day ( 7 am , noon , 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm ) so that everyone has an opportunity to worship at one of them.

Our Wednesday night Lenten Dinners and Programs begin the following Wednesday, March 8, and run over five weeks, leading us into Holy Week. As in years past, dinner will be at 6:30 pm , study classes at 7:10 pm and concluding Eucharist at 8:00 pm .

What will be different this time around is the format of the dinners.

In recent years, parishioners have more and more told us of the difficulties they’ve faced in attending these programs. Traffic is the main reason. With evening commute times on the rise, many have found it increasingly hard to return home to warm a dish for the potluck (or even to stop by the local deli) and then make it up to the Church in time for the start of the meal.

And so, after some discussion, we’ve decided to try another approach to address this problem. We’ve enlisted the help of five church groups - the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Vestry, Choir, Ann Mason Guild, and Martha Guild - to adopt one of the evening meals. Each will cook and serve a simple meal (it is Lent after all), usually consisting of soup, salad, rolls and beverages. Macaroni and cheese will be there as an additional choice for the children. While we will have a basket out to accept donations for our outreach ministry to the hungry, the meals will be offered free of charge.

I’d like to thank each of the five groups for their willingness to pitch in. We hope that their offering will make it easier for you and your family to attend this year’s Lenten programs on a more consistent basis.

As for the classes themselves, we will have the following three options for the Adult studies:

• A Journey through Hell: the Seven Deadly Sins, taught by the Rector. This class will explore portions of Dante’s Divine Comedy, including some of the eye-popping artwork inspired by it. The focus will ultimately be upon the Poet’s treatment of the Seven Deadly Sins, examining ways we can combat each of them when faced in our daily lives. No additional reading will be required.

• Our Pilgrimage to Reconciliation, taught by Helen McKee, Senior Seminarian. This class will help us travel the pilgrim’s path of forgiveness. We will learn the power that comes with this act, why it is important to God, and how forgiveness impacts the health of our body, mind, and spirit.

• Christian Symbols in Scripture and Life, taught by Arienne Davison, Middler Seminarian. This series will explore one image from the Bible each week with special attention to how the image, or symbol, was understood by Israelites, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity as well as how it has come to be understood in the intervening centuries. We will then explore how these images are understood today both in the Church and in contemporary life. Planned topics include: Water, Wilderness, the Vine, the Shepherd and his Sheep, Family images (Father, Mother, Son).

There will be classes for our young people running at the same time. Please read the articles inside from our Youth Minister and Director of Christian Education for more information about these. Holy Eucharist will conclude each session at 8:00 pm.