With joy in the risen Christ: Welcome!  Greetings, friends - whoever you are, and wherever you are on life's journey: we are glad you stopped by!

It is Easter Season - which the larger world tends to forget is a season, but the early church celebrated as "the great 50 days" between Easter and Pentecost.  But what do we do with this season in which the risen Christ is walking around among us?  To have him back offering us peace is amazing, but at the same time, our peace is disturbed by this shocking new life in our midst.

One of my favorite Christmas poems is by Howard Thurman, called The Work of Christmas.  He writes:

 When the star in the sky is gone,
When the Kings and Princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To teach the nations
To bring Christ to all
To make music in the heart.
— Howard Thurman

What, I wonder, is the work of Easter? 

We're going to be doing some of that work, I hope, this Sunday, March 30, during our Fifth Sunday/ Faith Walks service.  Our worship at 10 that morning will be briefer than usual, and more informal.  From there we will meet in teams to help bring new life into the community.  Some will be heading to Ann Whalen House to share breakfast and games with the residents there, others will be cleaning up the playground at Crocker Farm Elementary or doing yard work at the Hospice of Fisher Home.  Some will be baking cookies for the Jakob's Well ministry in Northampton, doing a bit of Spring cleaning around the church building, and knitting prayer shawls or squares to make "Linus blankets."  And still others will be visiting friends from the congregation who can't get out so easily, or finding their own ways to bring Christ's love to those who need it.

At South Church, the work of Easter keeps happening!   Come, join us!

In Christ's peace, Caroline