To enter the Lenten season, The John Street United Methodist Church, 98 John Street, Camden,held a combined solemn Ash Wednesday service with the Aldersgate United Methodist Church.  As Lent began, six purple candles and one Christ candle were alight on the altar.  During the “Day of Darkness” call to worship each week one candle is extinguished successively and not relit the following week.  By Good Friday the Christ candle, the only remaining light, will be extinguished, but re-lit on Easter Sunday. 

Following the worship service each Sunday of Lent the congregation is gathering in the fellowship hall for homemade soup and bread followed by a monologue by costumed a reader speaking from the points of view of Judas, Peter, The Thief on the Cross, Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. 

Throughout the season, the congregation has kept Lent with daily scripture readings and contributed to our “We Can” collection of canned goods for the Camden Area Christian Food Pantry.  We also have posted “Kindness Cards” relating kind experiences in our everyday lives.  Thursday mornings a group gathers for lively discussions based on the study of idolatry in our 20^th century lives, by Curtis Zachary.  

The 17^th anniversary of being a Reconciling Congregation was celebrated March 1, with members  testifying what it has meant in their lives to be part of a church that welcomes all persons regardless of age, economic status, race, sexual orientation, religious background and social standing, each of whom is a recipient of God’s unconditional love.

The church will celebrate Palm Sunday on March 29, with song, praise and the waving of palm branches.  The meal after the service will be pot-luck, in the tradition of sharing a simple meal each 5^th Sunday throughout the year.  Following the meal, the final monologue will be read, words from the thief who believed. 

Starting at midnight April 3, Good Friday, members of the congregation will keep prayer vigil for an hour at a time.  A somber service is planned for that evening at 7 pm.  We will have scripture from Isaiah and John read by six different readers and reflective music of hymns, and selections by the organ and choir.

At 9 am Easter morning, April 5, the public is welcome to join parishioners at its pot-luck breakfast.  Guests do not need to bring an item for the meal as there is always plenty of hearty and delicious food to share.  At the end of breakfast, there will be an egg-dying station for young and old to try their hand at glorifying a hard-boiled egg, then sharing it with someone special in their lives. 

Easter worship in the sanctuary starts at 10:30 with lots of alleluias and praise.  Communion will be celebrated as well as a special Thanksgiving for Baptism.  The John Street United Methodist Church, 98 John Street, Camden, invites the public to all of its services and programs.  Please call 236-4829 for more information.