When you walk into St. Silas Lutheran Church, this is what you see. The space is done and we had our first Divine Service there this past Sunday. The day before this we had our first major snowfall of winter. Did that stop us from moving in? Nonsense! A couple of families actually braved the roads from Cedar Rapids simply because this was our first service in the new space. It was great to be there.
I'm glad to finally have a picture of the following:
One of the very first people I talked with upon arriving in North Liberty was Jon Rinderknecht from Atkins, IA. He wanted to know how he could help this budding congregation. I heard from a couple of people that he was fabulous at wood-working, so I asked him if he would build us a portable altar and pulpit and give his time if we paid for the materials. He agreed and has had them ready to go since this past Easter. He also built a lectern and a cross with a stand. All of it is easily disassembled because we didn't know what our situation would be, whether we would have a permanent space or whether we would be setting up and tearing down each week. We're glad to have the permanent space for one more reason now: we get to use these beautiful pieces of liturgical furniture without worrying about damaging them by moving them around. The pieces are built from walnut with spalted maple paneling. The pattern of the spalted maple on the altar quite resembles blood dripping, calling to mind the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus that we receive each Lord's Day. And to top it all off, Jon requested that we pay him absolutely nothing. He's been one of the unsung saints who has supported our congregation, and I'm glad to finally be able to see and share his work. This past Sunday the congregation stood to hear the Holy Gospel read from that lectern, heard the Word of God preached from that pulpit, and received the body and blood of Christ from that altar.
We will be having a Service of Carols and Lessons this evening to celebrate the Eve of the Nativity and Divine Service tomorrow for the Nativity of Our Lord. The space came at the perfect time, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to meet today or tomorrow. We have a bit of settling in to do, which hopefully won't take more than a month. After that point we'll be celebrating our one-year anniversary as a congregation and turn our attention to our community to bring people in to receive the Lord's gifts with us.
On January 19th we will be having a formal dedication of the building, welcome of the congregation into synod, and installation of a pastor. We'll be in touch, probably through the district, to give the specifics when we have everything ironed out.
In Christ
Pastor Andrew Richard
St. Silas Lutheran Church
www.stsilaslutheran.org
www.facebook.com/stsilaslutheran
stsilaslutheran@gmail.com
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