The Westtown, NY, Presbyterian Church, my grandparents’ church

Dear Friends,

Back in the day when Sunday Schools presented awards for perfect attendance, and my family was on vacation, my mother would encourage me to approach  the minister of a church we were visiting. I would  then ask him – and it was always a “him” back then – to sign a worship bulletin, which I would then bring back to my home church as “proof” that I had indeed gone to church that Sunday.

As you go about your summer sojourns, I encourage you to bring back a bulletin from places where you worship. No, I will not be checking up on you for any perfect attendance award. But it can be fun and informative  to see how other communities worship. We’ll have a bulletin board set up so you can post your bulletins there – and add any comments you wish.

Perfect attendance – implicit in those words is a goal to achieve, and perhaps even a bit of judgment if one fails. But what if we describe our attendance at church in another way – as faithful attending.  Attending to what is important and vital in our lives is not about winning awards but rather about paying attention to what is essential, to what nourishes us, and to what God desires. Consistent participation in the liturgy of God’s people,  wherever those people are gathered, is a way of paying attention.

So let us know where you have worshiped this summer. And if you cannot join us at St. John’s on a summer Sunday, there are still ways to participate. For most services, sermons will now be posted on the website in the week following (click on the Sermons link on the menu on the left hand side of the homepage). You can see the readings for each upcoming Sunday in News and Notes, and now you also can see a copy of the upcoming bulletin in that same section of News and Notes.

Thank you for all the ways in which you attend to the liturgy of our lives.

Faithfully,

Tom