Glad Tidings March 2023
The Monthly Newsletter of Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery of Tampa Bay
Calendar:
Thursdays in Black to raise awareness of violence against women and children through the World Council of Churches.
RED Fridays Remember Everyone Deployed
Every 25th Wear Orange Day
Raising awareness about violence against women worldwide through the UN.
PWP Annual Gathering March 4, 2023 10:00 AM at Temple Terrace Presbyterian.
Churchwide Gathering Aug 8-11, 2024 Meet Us in St. Louis! at the Marriot St. Louis Grande Hotel, St. Louis, MO. Who is planning to go with us?
Friday, March 3 is World Day of Prayer – how are you acknowledging this?
Saturday, March 4 is our 2023 Annual Gathering of Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery of Tampa Bay. It will be nice to see our PW sisters, worship with the new general presbyter Rev. Dr. Holly Dillon, attend our business meeting, and break bread together.
Have you written your Annual Report? Have you created yours for your church? Other members need to know what your women have been up to. Please send a copy to silviar1021@gmail.com?
How are you going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Do you have your green clothes ready? How about that corned beef and cabbage?
I feel like I am emerging from Covid. Do you? What things are you keeping in your life, what things have changed, and what are you not preserving?
Take some time to really think things through, hold the event, and evaluate regularly and move forward.
So what marvelous plans or new traditions is your PW group making for 2023? Great ideas are much appreciated to share with our readers – please send them to me so we can share them!
I have heard Tea Times are back with a few PW groups!
Maybe you are planning a Salad Luncheon with a Birthday cake in May to end the year, install your new leadership, and collect the Birthday Offering?
An invitation for Lent:
Beloved people of God: every year at the time of the Christian Passover we celebrate our redemption
through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lent is a time to prepare for this celebration
and to renew our life in the paschal mystery.
We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance, and for the mercy and forgiveness
proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes. This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and marks the penitence of this community.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of Christ, to observe a Holy Lent by self-examination and penitence,
by prayer and fasting, by works of love, and by meditating on God’s word.
It is still the beginning of Lent. How is your Lent observation going? Did you decide to give up something or add something to your emerging world?
A different approach to Lent:
Jesus might laugh at us for giving up things like chocolate, beer, coffee...all the things that actually bring us joy and make us happy.
What He might suggest is giving up the things that make us miserable in God's Paradise. Things like self-doubt, our insecurities, jealousy, greed, gossip and anger - you know the things that move us away from Him.
Honor Him by giving up a darkness in your life. It is not too late to start right now –
Welcome Spring!
What are you planting now to enjoy in a while as the flowers bloom and the trees sprout new leaves?
Enjoy and appreciate all God’s creation brings to our lives.