Dear U Park Family,
I know life moves fast, and even on the church staff we’re dealing with programming and plans for May. But I’m still basking in Holy Week and Easter. Our choir did a wonderful job with the Good Friday cantata; the Easter Vigil and Holy Thursday services were beautiful and all our Liturgists helped lead smoothly and capably. And Easter morning was glorious, from the 7:00 A.M. service through the end of the 11:00 worship: the music, the egg hunt and children’s programming, the lovely work done by our gardening team to beautify the grounds, all of it combined to powerfully celebrate the resurrection. Not only that, but we had more people in our Easter worship than we’ve had over the past five years, and our Easter offering (donated to the United Methodist Committee on Relief, our denomination’s disaster relief agency), was nearly $4000.
At the same time, we have some important events going on. This weekend, our youth will go to The Land, an outdoor church in Aurora, to help prepare their community gardens for the upcoming growing season.
Next week on April 29, the Red Cross will be back in East Fellowship Hall for a blood drive. You can sign up on the Red Cross blood drive website. Saturday May 3, support our youth as they raise money for the Denver Human Society through the Furry Scurry, the annual run/walk/dog and cat fest in Washington Park. Contact Lauren Cowden (lcowden@uparkumc.org) or see our newsletter for details.
On Tuesday, May 6, our United Women in Faith will be heading up a volunteer day at Metro Caring, one of our partner agencies. We’ll get there at noon and work until 3:30, and this opportunity is open to anyone who would like to participate. The one limiting factor is that Metro Caring can use a maximum of 10 people per volunteer shift, and we already have 7 signed up! If you’d like to go, contact Lorraine Richards (Lorraine.richards917@gmail.com) to reserve a space.
May 18 will be our celebration Sunday: we’ll recognize our high school and higher education graduates, present Bibles to our elementary schoolers, and celebrate the many volunteers who make our ministry so vibrant. After our 11:00 worship, we’ll host a lunch in the courtyard. Bethany Hader Crabbs, our children’s ministry director, is renting a bounce house and organizing games for our church’s children, as well as preparing to plant the Mother’s Garden with them on that Sunday.
I’ll be out of town for a memorial service May 9 – 11. On Mother’s Day (May 11), our Journeys in Faith adult Sunday School class will host a special “Muffins for Mom” coffee hour. We’ll also be recognizing and giving thanks for Moms during worship. Our guest preacher in my absence will be Caralyn Ware, Co-President of the Iliff School of Theology’s Student Senate. Through my work at Iliff, I’ve gotten to know her as an insightful, energetic, thoughtful leader. I know you’ll appreciate her perspective and I encourage you to come to worship that day to meet her.
I hope that your Easter was as powerful and inspiring as mine was, and that I’ll see you at church soon!
Grace and Peace,
Andy