Dear First Parish Church,

March is the month of the warming and greening of the earth. We get our seed catalogs back in December, and lose ourselves in the colors and textures that paint a beautiful picture of a hopeful Spring garden. It’s March when we start to turn the earth and prepare for the planting. And when the perennials that have slept dormant in the soil begin to stir and grow. It is a season of anticipation. And in our church life it is also a time of anticipation and preparation for the new life found in Easter.

Soon we will journey through Holy Week together, from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, to the meal of love shared in an upper room on Maundy Thursday, to the heartbreak of Good Friday and – finally – the glory of the resurrection. May our hearts be open to receive the gifts of this season.

Our theme for March is “service.” (We’ve gone from relationship → worship → service.) This month we’re going to look beyond our church walls and consider the ways in which Christ calls us to serve others. In mid-March we will have a Soup and Conversation about Outreach and Service, during which we will not only highlight the ways in which we’re already serving the community, but also brainstorm together about where we’d most like to make an impact and what new opportunities we might explore. In March we will also participate in a hands-on service project at the Open Door. We are meant to live our faith out in the world, helping to build up one another as we build up God’s realm of mercy and hope.

*** Something you probably didn’t know about Rev. Katherine ***

My favorite TV show, since I was a very young kid, is “Murder She Wrote”. I’ve seen each episode more times than I can count and we even visited Mendocino, CA (where fictional Cabot Cove, ME was located).

One of the first letters I ever wrote, as a precocious 2nd grader, was to Angela Lansbury, telling her how much I loved the show. She sent me back a very nice note and even used my name for a character in Season 10 (spoiler alert – Katherine Schofield murdered a character played by Alan Thicke).