Dear Plymouth,

It’s good to be entering the season of Lent with all of you. I consider this season a time of curiosity. I am in awe of the beauty of our separate and shared lives. I am glad to be journeying with you and this congregation this year.

I love joining you in homes, breaking bread together, sharing our lives, taking ourselves and our values into the public square, and engaging in important local issues. It’s fun to share stories about our personal lives- our favorite T.V. shows, what makes our professions important, and talking about what Jesus means to you!

Who is Jesus to you and how does he show up in your faith? I think about this a lot.

Jesus often invites and calls me into community. Sometimes, it is a familiar community and sometimes an unrecognizable one- but it is always community.

INVITATIONS for you into Community this Lent:

The Immigration Ministry Team invites you to join the Fort Collins community at the City Council Meeting on Tuesday, February 20. We will be rallying for peace and love and asking for a Cease Fire Resolution to be passed so that our city can join the list of other cities in the U.S. asking for the same thing. We will meet in the parking lot at 5:40 pm at the City Hall [the patio outside the main door of the City Council Chambers, 300 Laporte Ave].

I have signed up to talk at the Rally. The youth group will be making us large red hearts to wear around our necks as a sign of solidarity as we all witness the horror that is happening in the West Bank–Palestine–Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and others - our vision must be to protect and love and call for peace here and around the world.

The Interfaith Council of Fort Collins invites you to join a suicide prevention event on Thursday, March 7, 9-10:30 am at Plymouth!

I also invite you to reach out to me if you want to have coffee or sit together and explore your faith during this time of Lent, this time of deepening. I am easy to find. My email is [email protected] and my cell phone is: 719-306-4037

If you have any questions about these events don’t hesitate to contact me.

Love and Peace this Lenten Journey,
Marta

I have been asked on occasion over the years what is the appeal of being a conductor or music director. The question would often go something like this: "If an ensemble doesn't play or sing to one's expectations, then everyone may look to you. Isn't it more rewarding then to just take responsibility for your own musical offerings as a soloist instead?" As rewarding as a solo performance can be in any context, my answer comes easy—no. The sense of community one discovers in a choir, a musical ensemble, and especially in congregational singing is vital to our collective musical and worship experience as a church. We are better together.

The pandemic has sent us as worship staff into surreal territories such as prerecording services into bite-size chunks to be reassembled again, livestreaming to empty pews, and on occasion broadcasting from multiple locations via Zoom. Needless to say, community worship required a strong helping of imagination to accompany our best intentions—as a congregation we all chipped in with that!

Music-making for myself became a private endeavor in large part. Plymouth's music ensembles, when they could safely meet, offered modest (yet spirit-filled!) selections as we observed social-distancing protocols and limited the number of participants who could gather at one time. And congregational singing, the heartbeat of the church's collective song, could only be imagined in viewer's homes on the other side of the sanctuary camera lens.

We came back. And we retreated for our own health and for our neighbors. And likely soon, we will return once again to worship— and yes, sing and play!—as a church family and congregation. Choir rehearsals will resume and ringers will reconvene on Wednesday evenings. The joy of preparing our offerings for worship, experiencing and deepening our understanding of the music and its intention, and being with each other as a merry band of music-makers once again will come rushing back in and be welcomed with wide open arms. And in the sanctuary, God's people singing hymns and songs of old and new together as one voice will make a glorious sound. One community in Christ.

I leave you with these uplifting words from the closing paragraph of A Song to Sing, A Life to Live, a fascinating book reflecting on music as spiritual practice by Don and Emily Saliers:

Mark