Friday, June 19

Here is a confession: a few weeks ago I had never heard of Juneteenth and Juneteenth celebrations. Maybe people from Texas could have informed me… Maybe I could have paid more attention. But who can keep up with it all? Well, it has certainly been mentioned many times since. Today is Juneteenth, and since we have reason to remember it this year especially, allow me to include an explanation of the day’s significance for those of you who, like me, had never heard of it until recently. This is from a credible website:  “Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.”  On June 19th 1853, General Gordon Granger, a career US army soldier and Civil War general who was given command over the district of Texas (post bellum), read to the people of Texas General Order Number 3, which began most significantly with: “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.” The celebrations that followed the reading of the proclamation by General Gordon Granger began a tradition that has lasted for one hundred and fifty five years, and today is hosted in cities across America and beyond…

Lisa Miller is working on a pretty thick special edition of Steeple Views that should be in your mailboxes and hands by sometime next week. She told me that she bribed the young people in her house. “If you don’t help me, there will be no pool!!!” That’s a credible threat. Usually, she has a wonderful cast of volunteers who have a routine system in place to crank out the newsletter from our workroom in the office area. Now all these helpers are “on furlough,” as Ginny B. puts it. Instead, we have a blossoming system of bribery at church and in many of our homes… I know that Kirsten Olson has not quite bribed, but “rewarded” some of her musicians and artists with little gifts since we depend on them so much and really appreciate their help. I have heard from various other corners that “bribery” has become rampant during the COVID pandemic. Nicole A. said to me, “Yes, bribery is definitely one of the parenting survival tools.” Her husband Vince will be one of the speakers in this Sunday’s service. Nicole and Vince have two young children, Vienna Rose and Gavin. Overall, I have a full cast of younger and older dads for this Saturday’s recording, including Mark B., Eric J., Bill K., Vince A., Bill G. and Paul S. As we continue recordings throughout the summer, we will move up our recordings to Tuesday nights. Heaven forbid someone has special plans for the weekend!   

Please do not forget the Father’s Day Ice cream truck!!!  The Sweat Pea Ice Cream truck from Doylestown will make a stop in our church parking lot on Sunday/Father’s Day between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The ice cream will be served drive through style and is free of charge, thanks to a generous sponsor. We invite our members and friends to come and enjoy, especially all dads and their children. The ice cream is home-made, all-natural and they use only compostable containers. Do something nice for dad! We will also have a basket for church offerings on site. Come and enjoy!

I want to thank you for many early responses to our survey, see link below. We really welcome and appreciate your input!

Another mini-series that we are adding to our summer calendar had come out of my conversations with Rabbi Parmenter from Tiferet Bet Israel (TBI) in Blue Bell. It is called “Tender shoots of Righteousness: Re-discovering religious Civil Rights Leaders – A Jewish/Protestant conversation in the Black Lives Matter Era. We will offer the following three sessions via Zoom:   

July 7:  Abraham Heschel: “When I marched in Selma my feet were praying.”  – A Jewish mystic on a journey toward justice – what he can teach us and what we can learn while our feet are praying. With Rabbi Danielle Parmenter.

July 21: The Civil Rights Movement in our front yard: Black leaders in Philadelphia from 1963 to 1985 and the Move Bombing.  With Assistant Prof. Emeritus for African American Studies, Dr. Richard Stewart.

August 4:  Lessons learned? Reinhold Niebuhr and the Civil Rights Movement. With excerpts from 1954 until late 1968 written by one of the best-known Civil Rights Ethicists of the time. With Pastor Andreas Wagner.

Be blessed and be safe! Pastor Andreas Wagner

Thursday, June 18

Good morning church,

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things that cannot be seen.” I prayerfully offer this quote from Hebrews 11:1 as our country continues to go through difficult times, tensions, reckonings, revelations… and as we realize that we are not there yet in the country our founders dreamed of. These are messy times, uncomfortable times, and those are pretty tame words to describe the scenes in Atlanta and elsewhere. Yet, we have faith that some good, some full-hearted reforms, some more humane practices, better awareness of the sins of the past and how they are continued in present times will come out of this. Unacknowledged sins always have a way of holding sway over people, which is true in our personal lives but also in the psyche of a country. As messy as it looks right now, this could be an opportunity for the country we love, that is, if we dare to deal with the less glorious aspects of our history and current society.

I was very happy that some of our young adults who grew up at church and were influenced by the moral teachings of our faith came to me asking whether they could do a car wash fundraiser. Nicole R. with her siblings Kelsey and Sean and Brynne G., together with a few other people their age and their “old” youth group leader Robin A. (Robin you see, I put that in quotation marks!!!) will offer a car wash on Saturday, June 27, from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. I asked Nicole to carefully think about a worthy beneficiary. These young adults want to do something about racial justice. The event will benefit The Innocence Project, which I think is an excellent choice. It’s an organization that helps imprisoned people with a claim to innocence via DNA testing, legal assistance and such things.  I don’t know about you, but I have read a few horror stories of people who spent most of their lives in prison until their innocence was finally proven. It’s a horrible thought, isn’t it, someone’s life destroyed in such a way! So I am happy, both for the activism of our young adults and for council’s full support of the action.

Another mini-series that we are adding to our summer calendar had come out of my conversations with Rabbi Parmenter from Tiferet Bet Israel (TBI) in Blue Bell. It is called “Tender shoots of Righteousness: Re-discovering religious Civil Rights Leaders – A Jewish/Protestant conversation in the Black Lives Matter Era. We will offer the following three sessions via Zoom:

July 7:  Abraham Heschel: “When I marched in Selma my feet were praying.”  – A Jewish mystic on a journey toward justice – what he can teach us and what we can learn while our feet are praying. With Rabbi Danielle Parmenter.

July 21: The Civil Rights Movement in our front yard: Black leaders in Philadelphia from 1963 to 1985 and the Move Bombing.  With Assistant Prof. Emeritus for African American Studies, Dr. Richard Stewart.

August 4:  Lessons learned? Reinhold Niebuhr and the Civil Rights Movement. With excerpts from 1954 until late 1968 written by one of the best-known Civil Rights Ethicists of the time. With Pastor Andreas Wagner.

Yesterday, I learned more about the mysterious ice cream truck that will appear on our parking lot on Sunday. All fathers and all children and spouses, listen up!  The Sweat Pea Ice Cream truck from Doylestown will make a stop in our church parking lot on Sunday/Father’s Day between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The ice cream will be served drive through style and is free of charge, thanks to a generous sponsor. We invite our members and friends to come and enjoy, especially all dads and their children. The ice cream home-made, all-natural and they use only compostable containers. Do something nice for dad! We will also have a basket for church offerings on site. Come and enjoy!

Last but not least,  please participate in the following survey. As a staff team and as church leaders, we are really curious about your responses and would value your input very much.  Here is a link to the survey. It will also be part of the Steeple Views edition that will fly out this weekend. But for most of you and for us, using the link is easier access.

Today are the birthdays of Colleen G. and Steve W.  Happy birthday, both of you!

And blessed recovery, Steve!

Be blessed and be safe! Pastor Andreas Wagner

Wednesday, June 17

Dear church,

You know by now that I have little bit of a penchant for historical dates, many of them related to either German or American history. Today, June 17, used to be the “Day of German Unity” when I grew up. Of course the country was far from unified then. A big fat wall ran through the biggest city and symbolic center, Berlin, and likewise a wall and heavily fortified barrier was erected along the long border that separated East and West. June 17 was observed because of an uprising on that calendar day in 1953 when Eastern Germans tried to cross the border, supported by people on the other side, and were crushed by Soviet tanks and military force. The protests began with a strike action by construction workers in East Berlin, quickly spreading across Eastern Germany and involving probably about a million people (in a population of less than 25 million). It was clear that people wanted to be free, but they were forced back, the wall was built, and it took another 36 (!!!) years for that symbol of separation to be taken down. For all of those 36 years, June 17 was a national holiday, but not a celebration day in Western Germany. It marked a hope and a dream for something that wasn’t there yet: a unified country. As I look back, I think it was one of the most meaningful national holidays, acknowledging something that clearly wasn’t there yet.  

We don’t have a visible wall running through the United States, but sometimes it seems that we are pretty far apart and polarized amongst ourselves, evoking the famous Bible allusion by Abraham Lincoln, “A country divided cannot stand.” (I hope I quoted that right!) As hard as it was to defeat the visible wall in my native country, as long as it took, as hopeless as it seemed at times, it finally happened. But it is even more difficult to bring down invisible walls that are often created by ideological thinking, racism or pre-judgment (prejudice), and that is the case everywhere around the world. Sometimes we like to think that those barriers simply aren’t there. Politicians pretend they aren’t there when they use their favorite three words, “The American people,” as if they could easily speak for all American people. A lot of it is glossed over by other symbols such as the flag and the anthem. I am not criticizing these symbols. I think every country needs some of that. But the hard work of unifying people happens in a myriad of ways, and they always start with an examination of our own hearts. Do I contribute to the invisible walls in our society? Do I defend those walls? Are my thoughts and actions helpful in bringing people together? Sometimes it is better to have a day to remember that you aren’t there yet (as June 17 was in my childhood) than an easy celebration of unity that is, at the very least, severely compromised. May God bless America and bring down the invisible walls that stand between us!

Today I would like to introduce you to another couple that participated in our virtual New Member Orientation in early May. For Gwen S. this was a refresher since she grew up at St. Peter’s and in fact lived next door on Church Street for most or all of her childhood. Growing up, Gwen sang in our children’s choir and was active as an acolyte. She completed her confirmation at St. Peter’s and has fond memories of a church mission trip to Mississippi (for clean-up) after Hurricane Katrina. Also, her mom Cecily served on church council for a few years. A lot of our young people wander around at that stage of young adulthood, and it is not always clear during those wandering years whether they still see themselves as part of the church or not. When Gwen came to me and introduced me to her partner Mike V. and a newborn baby, cute little Meredith who was born in the last minute of August 4th, 2019 (yes, she was born at 11:59 p.m. that day!!!), we agreed on a refresher.  Her partner Mike has two older children, Nathan (14) and Allison (12)who live with their mom in New Jersey.  I had the pleasure of meeting them a few times when they came to church with Mike and Gwen. Little Meredith is all the more precious since her birth came with major complications and indeed endangered Gwen’s health seriously. Mike, who grew up Roman Catholic, also attended our recent Adult Faith Course.  We hope to find a time to baptize Meredith outside in our Baptismal Garden this summer, in a small group and with safeguards in place. I hope you can meet all of them in the not too distant future!    

Yesterday I learned that, sadly, Sharon S.’s husband Joe passed away after a longer period of heart problems. Joe was Roman Catholic and services will be conducted in a small family circle (actually the S. side of the family is very big!) by Corpus Christi. Please feel free to send Sharon a condolence card.  

Please don’t forget today’s food drive  (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) and the noon Bible Study tomorrow (see materials attached).  

Listen, all of you who would like to do something for Father’s Day this weekend.  I got word that a mysterious ice cream truck is going  to appear this Sunday on the church parking lot where you can get free ice cream if you bring your dad along! More about that tomorrow!

Today is the birthday of Betty W. Happy birthday, Betty!

Be blessed and be safe! Pastor Andreas Wagner

Tuesday, June 16

Dear church community,

I had the pleasure yesterday to send a check for $ 14,500 to Food for the Poor, earmarked for a specific project.  This will be the seed money for a farm operation attached to the Marie du Ciel orphanage near Cape Haitian in the north of the island.  As you probably already know, Haiti has consistently been one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, and that for decades. Many people there live on next to nothing. When I visited the place on 2015 with a group of pastors from various denominations traveling in a FFP bus, we saw unspeakable poverty, people living in shacks made of garbage, often without access to drinking water, literally in the dirt. It felt odd to return every night to a pretty nice hotel in Port au Prince, which was probably necessary because of safety and security issues. On our return trip every night I was looking up the hillside filled with shacks, a web of shanty towns with poverty written all over it. Some of the most hopeful places in the country are the schools and orphanages run by religious orders. The government is usually not to be trusted. As is the case in many notoriously troubled countries, corruption plays a role in the cycle of poverty. Our Global Ministry Team at St. Peter’s decided early on to invest in projects related to education and agriculture and to work with a trusted partner. This particular project covers both education and agriculture. It will help the orphanage/school to thrive and who knows, maybe some of these children will have a better future because of it. In February we received a generous gift of $ 10,000 with the intention to match it. The COVID 19 pause button to church activities and all the uncertainties that came with it halted our fundraising after a few short weeks. By then we had raised almost half of our goal. After conversations with Food For the Poor and explaining the delay and uncertainty, they promised to find the additional funds if we could send the money now, and they will start and probably also complete the project this year. Hope for the orphanage and its children and students! We will keep you up-to date as we receive progress reports from Food For the Poor.

It is easy at any time to focus on your own community and your own problems. It is even easier to do that during a pandemic when people in our own community are hurting. And while I am sensitive to the needs of our immediate neighbors, I have always felt it important for our churches to develop awareness of global issues and poverty that reaches a whole different level compared to anything we know from experience. Early on in the pandemic I always included in the Sunday prayers that draw our awareness to our distressed neighbors in not so far away countries. Here is one of those prayers. It is from April 19:

“Dear Lord, on this Sunday in Easter we pray for the poor of the world who are vulnerable to disease at any time, for whom the uncertainty of life is a permanent reality, who feel exposed in their own feeble homes.  Walk with the people on the streets of Port au’ Prince. Be a neighbor to those who live in the slums of Mumbai; a beacon of hope in the bad neighborhoods of Mexico City; a compassionate friend to the people in Kensington, Philadelphia. Bring us the kingdom that you taught and lived and proclaimed, risen Lord!”      

Thank you to all who contributed. It is good to do good!

I received this nice note from Jamie Nouri on Sunday afternoon, and I will pass on the praise to our entire staff and worship team:

    “I know you must spend a lot of time organizing the services for taping, and I think you’re doing a terrific job. This Youth Service was really special, the kids were great (though someone should tell Jaden not to do the filming outside the wind was very distracting) and Sam is an excellent reader – wonderful tone of voice, and he still looks like Art Garfunkel, which makes me smile. James Miller’s message was touching and relateable – I hope the young people were watching and listening this morning = even an oldie like me thought it spot on in message.  and Kenny & Emily’s duet at the end had me in tears – they sing together so very beautifully. I miss our church gatherings very much.Thank you for keeping the spirit of St. Peter’s alive and well and continually growing in spirit and possibility.

see you on Wed. Jamie”

Please don’t forget the food drive tomorrow between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Be blessed and be safe!

Pastor Andreas Wagner

Monday, June 15

Dear congregation, dear friends near and far,

I hope you had a chance to see the Youth and Graduation service yesterday. Do you still enjoy these services? Of course we spend many hours every week putting them together, from the writing of the script and the prayers, to the selection and recording of the music, to the recording sessions on Saturdays and any additional editing that is needed. We try to involve different people from across our church community. Next Sunday it will be a male cast as we prepare a service focused on Father’s Day. The scripture readings usually follow our regular church Lectionary and the services are shorter than a full sized in-person service with Holy Communion. Are you someone who would like to speak some parts for a church service recording but who hasn’t been asked? Please let me know. We are all feeling our way forward, trying to make the best decisions during these unusual times. The movie “Covid 19” hasn’t finished yet and I’m afraid it’s still a while before we come to the credits and our popcorn is running out! Who produced this movie anyway?  

I have mentioned before that we are going to reopen in-person services on Sunday, July 5.  Attached is council’s official re-opening document which gives you a clear idea of all the protections we have built into the re-opening process after reviewing many resources about the subject matter. It will not be a “grand re-opening” of glorious church services; rather, it will be a modest step toward services in our sanctuary and giving people a personal choice. I look at it more as prayer service for our people, our country, our world. During this time, churches are adopting different strategies. Some remain totally closed for in-person services. Some began offering services as early as June 7. We are somewhere in the middle. We will send you a survey this week to also get input from you regarding various questions, including your social comfort level at this time. The survey will come to you in the form of a Survey Monkey link that you can access online. It will also be included in the special edition of Steeple Views that is coming out this week.

As a pastor I intend to leave my monk’s cell at home a bit more often in the upcoming weeks, and one thing I would like to offer to you if you are interested and comfortable with it, is a socially distanced walk with your pastor for conversation and prayer. Of course, the phone is always an option, but I would like to offer this meeting form because I know that the months of isolation and being distanced from most of your friends, church and family members are wearing on people.  It is wearing on me. And I have a pretty high tolerance for solitude and also family members around me. I know some of you don’t. 

This week our Adult Faith Formation Team will meet to discuss various sessions for the summer season. We will certainly offer some more Zoom sessions, but a small gathering in an outdoor setting (socially distanced) is also a possibility, and we are working on a few things.  Stay tuned!  We are still looking to add a few people to our Tech Team as we try to share responsibilities for the recording of  church services.  Life is an adventure and we embrace every bit of it.   

Steve W. is scheduled to return home today after his heart surgery last week. Many blessings to him on his road to recovery!

Please don’t forget the food drives on Wednesdays between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

Be blessed and be safe!

Pastor Andreas Wagner

Sunday, June 14

Good morning, dear church,

We are celebrating this second Sunday after Pentecost with our youth and graduation students. Several of them participated in our recording yesterday:  Ethan and Carson B., Sarah N., and Tyler T. (North Penn High grads), Sam W. (Wissahickon High), as well as Zach B. and Jaiden M. from this year’s confirmation “graduates.” The recording includes a reflection by adult youth leader James M. on Genesis 1. It also features music and songs by Ben C. (trumpet), the Flanagan girls (including mom), Lili S., Kenny G., and Emily R. The opening prelude and picture show features all St. Peter’s graduates that we received pictures from. I hope you get to enjoy both the service (it is already posted) and also the great outdoors today. It is a beautiful day here in North Wales.

I would like to thank Brian B. for his wonderful work producing our recordings. We are looking to expand our tech team to put the work on more shoulders. Safe travels today, Brenfleck family!   

We congratulate Nancy S. and Lilia M. who are celebrating birthdays on June 14. Happy birthday, ladies!

This coming week, you will get some more information about re-opening church on a limited basis, as well as many more updates and pictures via Steeple Views.

Be safe and be well, and please don’t forget to support your church during these times.

Blessings,

Pastor Andreas Wagner

Saturday, June 13

Good morning, church!

think I can share with you now that our dear friend Steve W. had heart surgery earlier this week at Lehigh Hospital.  He didn’t want too many people to know and worry, but he allowed our prayer team to pray for him during this time. Steve and his wife Eileen re-joined St. Peter’s some eight years ago. They were married at St. Peter’s a good while ago and had always fond memories, but attended another church as their lives and careers evolved.  Since coming back, Steve has become involved on our Property Team and also joined the council two years ago.  Eileen is probably responsible for one-third of all the home-baked goodies that usually find their way into our freezer and onto the coffee table on Sunday mornings. And yes, Eileen, I miss that part of church!!!  In any case, Steve had open heart surgery on Monday. They laid bypasses, using arteries from his legs, and everything went very well according to my sources. I expect his recovery to take a while because open-heart surgery is no picnic.  So please, keep him in your prayers! Steve and Eileen are very thoughtful people.  Before he went into the hospital, Steve made sure that a property matter was taken care of, it’s the kind of person he is… Heart problems can sometimes come on very suddenly, as was the case here. This is what Eileen wrote initially, which I am sharing because it gives you some insight as to how people are dealing with “regular” medical problems during this time…  You may send him a card to his home, 833 Elm Street, Hatfield, PA 19440.

“Steve will have bypass surgery on Monday at Lehigh Hospital.  SuPRIZE, SuPRIZE, right!  He had some chest pain yesterday, racing heart, elevated B/P, so we went to GVH ER.  [He’d worked reg. work day & was mowing.]  Since yesterday 4pm-ish, he’s had a significant number of tests @ GVH and is going to be transferred to Lehigh later today.  I don’t know if I’ll be permitted to see him, so we’re waiting on that.  This is what life’s like during Covid-19.  We do know that 3 arteries have blockages (tho’ not 100%) and they’ll check the 4th during Monday’s surgery.  GVH Cardiologist reports good, strong heart muscle.  Steve will have the same incision as his Mother (had hers @ 80!) and Father before him.”

Meet Sarah N. She is one of our high school graduates this year and will also appear in our picture show on Sunday. I remember this year’s St. Peter’s senior high school class from the two confirmation years I had with them. It was the quietest and most polite and reserved group I ever had! (And one of the smaller groups.) That group initially consisted of Sarah, Sam W., Tyler T., Nolan R. and Jake H.. I often had to draw pulls things out of them, but they are all good kids. Here is what Sarah wrote for us:

“I graduated from North Penn and will be attending Temple next fall as a bioengineering major. Since quarantine started it really affected my senior year. Classes were moved online and I found it difficult to stay focused. I wasn’t able to enjoy the “senior experience”, with prom and the traditional graduation being cancelled. I will be officially graduating on June 5 with my friends via a car lineup. Hopefully I can experience college life next year. I’m staying connected with my friends by FaceTiming them frequently and I can’t wait for quarantine to be over so I can hang out with them before college starts. I hope you and your family are staying safe and healthy.”  (Best, Sarah Nguyen)

We are looking forward to our service recording this afternoon with several of those graduates and some others participating. Please do remember that this Sunday we will offer Virtual Holy Communion again. When you watch the service, please have a plate with some bread and a cup with wine or grape juice ready before you. If you don’t have either, you may use water. Our Lord has been known to turn water into wine, you know!   

We will continue to record services over the summer even as we plan to open the church for small in-person church services by July 5. If you have technical expertise or video skills, please let us know. We are looking to expand our tech team so we won’t have to rely on the same wonderful people all the time! Early next week, you will receive the re-opening documents. They will also be posted on our website, and they will be sent out as part of a special Steeple Views edition.

Be blessed and be safe! Pastor Andreas Wagner

Friday, June 12

Good morning church,

Today is the big graduation day of Mr. Carl K.  He is graduating from 50 years of working oil truck routes for various area companies. Now he can go to the school of retirement, and boy – does he deserve it! Anyone who knows Carl is familiar with a man who possesses a relentless work ethic. Several attributes come to mind, but they all point in the same direction: loyal, steady, reliable, faithful, calm, that’s Carl. I have often placed the communion waver in his hands, a hand that was still a little bit grimy from the work he did all week long. And I always felt a special honor in doing so, because it was God’s work he did, keeping people’s homes warm. Carl is one of those people who don’t draw attention to themselves, but chances are you have seen him because he is tall, has a beard that could rival any orthodox Rabbi’s beard, and he has ushered in just about 10,000 church services, no exaggeration! So, the big question all of us are asking is this: What in the world is Carl going to do now?  No more truck deliveries… No church bells to ring right now… No bulletins to distribute right now… His children’s homes are done… Can you picture him in a beach chair??? (I can’t.) Whatever he decides to do, he deserves it. God bless you, Carl!

We are busy preparing another edition of Steeple Views for you. It will be a thicker edition than what I would have expected, containing various picture pages from our special services (Mother’s Day; Graduation Sunday, etc.), the re-opening document and several other updates from church ministries. It will fly out some time next week. We hope you will enjoy it. Lisa has been working hard in the office and at home and we have all benefited from her passion and creativity in putting all these things together. Thank you, Lisa! This coming Sunday we will celebrate our graduation students. We have invited a number of them to join us for the church service recording on Saturday. And you will see a graduation picture show at the beginning of the service. It’s not as long as the virtual school graduation services (thank God!) but we have well over 25 pictures.     

Diana S. shared good news about Monday’s blood drive: We had a very successful “COVID-19” blood drive. ”We had 97% of the people show up for the appointments, great job!  We also hit 120% of our quota!  So that means that we saved 90 people’s lives with our donations all while keeping everyone safe & healthy.  Please know that these donations stay local to our area. Our next drive is later this summer  Monday – August 17th – from 2 PM to 7 PM.  So please keep us in mind!” (Diana)

We will continue to record services over the summer even as we plan to open the church for small in-person church services by July 5. If you have technical expertise or video skills, please let us know. We are looking to expand our tech team so we won’t have to rely on the same wonderful people all the time!

Finally, I am also attaching the eulogies for Bill L. Kane Jr. (service earlier this week) and  Charlene’s mom Doris Moyer (two weeks ago). I always find it interesting to learn about the lives of not so famous, yet interesting people in our midst. Enjoy, and please keep all those who have recently lost a loved one in your prayers, including Susan D. who lost her husband Dave Greger less than two weeks ago, the Kane family and Charlene B. Thank you!

Be blessed and be safe!

Pastor Andreas Wagner

Thursday, June 11

Good morning church,

The oppressive humidity from yesterday has dropped a little bit with the blessing of rain showers overnight but it’s still humid enough that the dog takes a pass at going outside. Our situation in June of 2020 in the United States of America could be described in similar terms. Things are opening up literally, as some restaurants now offer limited seating and outdoor dining and more businesses resume activity. Things are opening up figuratively as well. Old ways of thinking are being challenged and a debate is raging out there about things like racism, criminal justice and law enforcement. For some it is a very scary time. For some it is a time of hope. The two quite often appear together (fear and hope). Let us pray that as a country and as a people we navigate the important questions of this time and come out a better and more just society on the other side. There is still plenty of humidity in the air. There will be a few more storms this summer, and perhaps we need those storms. Kyrie Eleison, Lord have mercy! And remember the song:

“No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I’m clinging.
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?”

At St. Peter’s we are working on a new edition of Steeple Views that will fly out next week and include special re-opening documents. I don’t want to attach them to my emails yet because they need one more council approval. The plan is to continue with our church service recordings through the summer and offer a small in-person Sunday morning service beginning on July 5. Stay tuned!  This coming Sunday is our designated youth and graduation service. The prelude will include a picture show of many of our graduates of all education levels. I am also planning to offer a virtual Holy Communion again. If you want to participate in that, please have some bread and wine or grape juice ready at you home when you watch this coming Sunday’s service. As the elements are consecrated in the recorded service, so let your elements at home be blessed by the Holy Spirit who breaks barriers of time and space. It is not an ideal practice from my point of view, but it will help us through this time.  Mr. James M. who has been our youth ministry leader, working together with J. Bodolus, will bring us a message.

Here is another one of our confirmation youth speeches! Kyrstyn was the oldest youth in this year’s senior confirmation class. She is finishing her junior year at North Penn High School and joined the confirmation group after she and her dad discovered our church two years ago. She went through a pretty fast and impressive development in her young faith journey. Last year she received her First Holy Communion.  On two youth service occasions, she took to the pulpit and spoke to the congregation (see attached picture). She is a comfortable speaker, and because of her unique circumstances came to the group with the accumulated wisdom of many counseling hours. Sometimes it is helpful to have a youth in the group that’s a little bit older than the rest, and that was the case here. She really helped us (the teachers) and related well to the rest of the confirmation group. We could always count on her. I hope you enjoy her reflection on the confirmation experience. Just click on the Vimeo link below.

Join us for today’s noon Bible Study via Zoom. We will tackle the 5th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. See the material attached. Here is the invitation:

Today, please pray again for our friend Dave S. He lost his nice shock of hair as a result of the chemotherapy. His prospects of beating his cancer (non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Stage 1)  are good according to his doctors. But those of you who have gone through chemotherapy and/or radiation know what it can be like.  Please keep Dave and his caring wife Linda in your prayers. Thank you!  

As always, be blessed and be safe! Pastor Andreas Wagner

Wednesday, June 10

Good morning, church!

The last week of school is wrapping up for most of our children. What are they going to do all summer long? It’s a question many parents are asking. So many summer camps have been cancelled, including the ones that usually take place at our church. Renee Erwin and Betsy Oeschger have been running art camps here for many years, two weeks of arts and crafts with up to 40 kids per camp toward the end of July and the beginning of August. Not this year! And so, parents have to become inventive. Walks in the park, maybe a trip to the beach as things open up, discovering indoor games, because you don’t want them to be on their devices all day long… maybe cooking or baking together… How are those parents going to get other work done? It’s going to be a different summer, and I can’t wait to hear how everyone manages. On nice summer nights like last night I often bike in our neighborhood, which has a few steep hills for good cardio-exercise. I frequently see and greet a young family with two children who came to our Vacation Bible School two years ago. I bet they have never taken this many walks together! One little thing that we are able to do is a “Children’s Hour” with Mrs. B., Jennifer Bodolus, our Director of Family Faith Formation. She is going to offer that every Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m., starting tonight!  If you haven’t received the Zoom from her directly, please reach out to dfm@stpetersnorthwales.org.

Meet Bryan A. (picture).  He is one of the people who attended our virtual new member orientation a few weeks ago. Bryan was born in Hayward, California, and spent his youth there without a structured religious upbringing. As a young man, he joined the Air Force and served from 2003 until 2014, when he medically retired for some shoulder problems. Bryan has two children from a previous marriage, which also brought him to Pennsylvania because his wife’s father was living here and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. So, the family moved. He has brought Blake (5) and Acyn (4) to church a few times.  How did he come to St. Peter’s. Let’s say, attending and joining a church wasn’t on his bucket list. He got introduced to the church by his girlfriend and companion Eve P. It was a new experience for him, and he has told me several times how much he felt welcomed and comfortable and how he thought the people were authentic.  Bryan recently participated in a virtual Adult Faith Class, which was also a preparation for Baptism. He will be baptized in a small circle of friends and supporters outside in our Baptismal Garden after the re-opening.  It has been a journey for him, but also a journey for us.  I enjoy the question he brings to the table and his life experience, with cracks and all. Bryan is also part of the Stephen Ministry Training Class which is still on hold. The training also helps him to understand the Christian faith more deeply.  I hope you will be able to meet him in the not too distant future if you haven’t already.               

Please do not forget that we are resuming our weekly food drive today!  Every Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. you can bring food donations for Manna on Main Street. It usually goes directly on Lisa’s truck or the truck of another volunteer. There are always signs that you can’t miss.

Join us for tomorrow’s noon Bible Study via Zoom. We will tackle the 5th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. See material attached. Here is the invitation:

This week, we are preparing for a big celebration of our graduates and involvement of our youth ministry in the service recording. I also would like to mention that Sunday (June 14) will be Lilia M. 13th birthday. I have asked you to pray for Lilia before.

Please also pray for Anita B!  Anita is the leader of our Prayer Team, which will be meeting tonight via Zoom.  She has dealt with chronic pain and health issues herself for quite some time. I don’t know exactly how to describe her condition, but it has to do with her blood vessels, and she has had several procedures done to stop the progression of the disease. She is one of the many people in our congregation who is always thinking about others. But she could use a prayer lift today!  

As always, be blessed and be safe!

Pastor Andreas Wagner