-the little white church on the corner-
March 2026
THE CLERGY CORNER
Holy Lent, People of Epiphany!
As I write this to you from my chair overlooking my garden, it is a gray and rainy day. I’ve come from church where we had a flock of brave souls who weathered the puddles to gather for our first Sunday of Lent.
We worked our way through a new liturgy: Rite 1. Actually, it isn’t new at all. Rite 1 uses the Elizabethan language that would be closer to what the folks at Epiphany would have used in the 1920s, at the beginning of our parish’s story. We’re getting in touch with our roots before we move into a season of listening for how the Holy Spirit might be inviting us – in our time – to shine the Christ Light on our little corner of Lafayette-Winona.
In my sermon, I preached about Jesus inviting us in Lent to follow him into the wilderness. Through fasting, prayer, and alms giving, we seek to connect more deeply with God. To get sand on our feet. To go to an away place to learn to listen to how the Evil One works to sow harm in relationships: our relationship with God and our relationships with one another. In the wilderness days, Jesus is going back to tend to that whole Adam & Eve problem. They didn’t have a human coach. Jesus made sure we do.
We’re in a season of storytelling. And in these weeks of Lent, I’ll be weaving our story of God. We’ll be singing a sequence hymn that names this journey to Easter as one, ” from ashes to the Living font.”
Life with God promises – LIFE will always have the last word.
I talked about how St. Luke’s Church seeded us – only to be scorched the next year by a freak lightning strike to their steeple. From the wreckage was pulled pews, choir stalls, altar, pulpit, and lectern, that came to live with us. At that time, we didn’t have money to even cover the inside brick walls. We were blessed out of the ash.
St. Luke’s was graciously taken in by Christ Church in Ghent. And God blessed them too! They would eventually (together) build the beautiful and flourishing parish of Christ & St. Luke’s Church.
In our Lenten Wednesday Evening Programs, we’ll explore more stories as we visit some of the wonder questions that appear in my sermons.
Faithfully,
Anne+
HAPPENING AROUND EPIPHANY
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper was a pleasant evening with 50ish guests enjoying a plate of warm pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, and sauteed apples with each other in fellowship. This was not a ticketed event, and the donation basket was quite a generous one.
A shout out to the kitchen team of Mary Shaffer, Gail Irby, Kathy Moore, Mike Diaz & Kevin LaPointe for all the work that made this a wonderful evening. And special thanks to our resident Girl Scout Troop 5032, Artemis, Gabby, & Starr for their help serving and clearing the tables. Thank you all!
Ash Wednesday
A nice turnout – with lovely weather – of the noon Ashes-To-Go and 6:00 service. During the day, workers on Versailles and two of Norfolk’s finest received ashes (some of them being encouraged by Jackie). The evening service also had a nice turnout.
Wednesday Bible Study
Noon to 1:00pm in the parish hall.
Bring your own lunch or snack.
Three Lenten Wednesdays
“Potluck & Program”
6:00 pm
March 4, 11, 18
Funeral- Saturday, March 7th @ 11:00am
for Palmer Rutherford, Anne Zobel’s father.
Following the service a ” good ole fashioned” reception with the congregation, family and friends providing a potluck table of fellowship.
Celebration for Father Richard Bridgford+
Sunday March 8th
Following the service, please join us in the parish hall where we can enjoy each other, stories of Richard and something to eat from among the potluck items being requested to you.
We will also be honoring Richard with a dedication.
GIRL SCOUT COOKIE SALES
Our resident Girl Scout Troop 5032 will be selling cookies along the walkway on Lafayette Blvd and church tower walkway/sidewalk.
- March 1st noon to 4:00
- March 7th 1:00 to 4:00
- March 8th noon to 4:00
You know those Thin Mints are calling you!
EASTER LILY FORMS
Can be found at the back of the church on the table or next to bulletins. Please return by Wednesday, April 1st. Thank you in advance.
HOLY WEEK
Palm Sunday – March 29th
Maundy Thursday with Agape Meal – April 2nd, 6:00 p.m.
Good Friday with Stations of the Cross – April 3rd at Noon, self-led, & 6:00 p.m. with service.
Holy Saturday – April 4th-Noon
A brief, quiet “Liturgy “of the Word, pg. 283 of the BCP. Focusing on waiting, rest and Jesus’ descent to the dead.
A Wardens “things to make you go hmmm” moment
A lot of people pray for the blessing but forget to pray for the discipline to keep it. We ask for the relationship but, not the maturity to actually sustain it. We ask for the opportunity but not the wisdom to actually steward it well. We ask for the door to open but, not the character to stay in the room once it does and yet sometimes God answers the prayer anyway. Not because we’re ready but because He’s teaching us.
There are moments where God will hand you the very thing you ask for just to reveal what still needs work in you. Not to shame you, not to punish you, but to show you the truth because He knows that we won’t be truthful with ourselves. Because He has given us every opportunity to do so. And we continue to avoid it. Because scripture shows us this pattern over and over again.
Blessings without wisdom turn into burdens, Favor without discipline becomes downfall. Provision without preparation leads to loss. That’s not God failing you, that’s God revealing you. Sometimes we lose what we pray for because it wasn’t meant for us. We lose it because we didn’t yet have the mind to hold it. And that’s the part nobody likes to talk about or be honest about.
Your body can walk into a blessing before your mind is trained to live there. Your hands can receive something that your habits are not ready to protect. Your life can change faster than you’re thinking. And when that happens, we don’t always get exposed by people. We get exposed by responsibility, because the bible teaches that renewal starts in the mind because you cannot keep what you’re thinking if it hasn’t been renewed to manage.
That’s why discipline matters. That’s why wisdom matters. That’s why growth matters. God doesn’t just want to give you something. He wants to grow you into someone who can keep it, multiply it, and not self-sabotage it. So, after the Blessing, pray again. Pray for the restraint. Pray for the discernment. Pray for the consistency. Pray for a renewed mind that can believe differently, move differently, and choose differently. Because sometimes the lesson isn’t God didn’t answer your prayer. Sometimes the lesson is He did. And now He’s preparing you, so you don’t lose it the next time.
With thanks for the inspiration of my brother-in-Christ, Jay Jay
Regards –
Jim Fisher, Sr. Warden
VOLUNTEER SCHEDULE
March 1st The Rev. Anne Zobel
- Organist: Pat Spoettle
- Altar greens: Guild
- Altar: Kevin LaPointe
- Lector: Brian Pritchard
- Usher: Kathy Moore
March 8th The Rev. Anne Zobel and The Rev. Julia Ashby
- Organist: Pat Spoettle
- Altar greens: Guild
- Altar: Kevin LaPointe
- Lector: John Childers
- Usher: Susie Pedigo
March 15th The Rev. Anne Zobel
- Organist: Scott Foxwell
- Altar greens: Guild
- Altar: Ariel Fernandez
- Lector: Jerry Cronin
- Usher: Jackie Rochelle
March 22nd The Rev. Anne Zobel
- Organist: Scott Foxwell
- Altar greens: Guild
- Altar: Kevin LaPointe
- Lector: Marcie Kidd
- Usher: Kevin LaPointe
Palm Sunday – March 29th – The Rev. John Baldwin
- Organist: Joe Ritchie
- Altar greens: Jim Fisher
- Altar: Kevin LaPointe
- Lector: Jim Fisher
- Usher: Tommy Gilleland
“March bustles in on windy feet
and sweeps my doorstep and my street.”
Susan Reiner