By John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all 
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance. 

From ‘Telephone Poles and Other Poems’ © 1961 by John Updike.

For more on John Updike’s theology, please visit PBS.

Announcing an exciting new feature of the Powell Episcopal website: Sermons are now available in MP3 format. You may listen to recent sermons or search by date or preacher or subject to find older sermons. Sermons are not often available on the same day, but we might get there! In addition, you can subscribe to the sermons and get notifications when a new one is uploaded. To begin, click the “Sermons” tab above.

Our Schedule page has the St. John’s calendar with church events listed. Clicking on an event reveals the list of people assigned duties for that day, or other information. This Google calendar can be sorted by week, month, or in “agenda” format, and can be imported to your computer’s datebook using the links on the page.

If you’d like a short tutorial on any of this website’s features, please contact Scott Larsen.

Lent is a season of penitence and fasting in preparation for the Paschal feast, lasting forty days in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. Lent extends from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (BCP, p. 265).

If you need some help establishing a good Lenten discipline, check out 

old.shipoffools.com/lent

for some creative ideas. Day 1 provides links to a few good sites for daily worship at your computer, including

northumbriacommunity.org

which offers Morning, Midday, Evening and Compline prayers.

at their homepage, click on “Praying the Daily Office”

Other suggestions include Don’t Moan Day: “Stop complaining for a whole day. Don’t complain about the weather, the bus being late, your boss, your lack of sleep, the coffee being lukewarm, the state of your daughter’s bedroom, the government… you name it. Instead, smile, pray, or just change the topic.” And Kettle Prayers: “Make something in your ordinary life a prayer time. Try saying the Lord’s Prayer while the kettle boils. Or pray for someone while you’re waiting at the photocopier, or when you’re pulling weights at the gym. Try using prayers that are familiar to you, but in a place where you don’t normally pray.”

Special observations during Lent

At St. John’s, the sanctuary will reflect Lent’s call for simplicity. The chalice on the Altar will not be veiled, and the bread served at Eucharist will be homemade.

Our observances in Holy Week begin Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum novum, “new commandment,” from John 13:34. Maundy Thursday celebrations include hand washing, and commemorating the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus on the night he was betrayed with an Agape meal. Following this, the altar is stripped and all decorative furnishings are removed from the church. A sign-up sheet for meal provisions will be posted as Holy Week approaches.

Maundy Thursday Prayer Vigil

A prayer vigil begins immediately after the supper, following Jesus plea to “stay here and keep watch with me.” You are encouraged to sign up for a time to be with Christ through the night. You may pray and sit with a partner; the outside doors will remain locked through the night so each person will allow the next one in at the appointed time. Meditative music will be provided to help with your journey inward, if you choose. The vigil will continue through the night and morning until the Good Friday service at noon.

Good Friday is the solemn remembrance of Jesus’ death on the cross. The liturgy of this day is marked by austerity and silence, and includes a unique responsive prayer called the Bidding Prayer. Holy Saturday observes a simple Liturgy of the Word, with readings commemorating the burial of Christ.

Our principal service for Easter Day will include Baptism and the Eucharist. Easter Day is the annual feast of the resurrection, and the season continues for 50 days, or a week of weeks.

Wondering how we can utilize the latest in websites, blogs, twitter, and other innovative technologies? “Getting out the Good News” is a half-day workshop offered March 9, from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at Thomas the Apostle Center. It is designed for church clergy and vestry leaders as well as leaders in small community organizations that work closely with the churches. Leaders for this workshop will be Werner and Pam Noesner who both have extensive knowledge in making complex communications work for small organizations.

There will be discussion on how to reach the greater community so that what happens in local congregations and organizations can have an impact community wide. Churches have long sought to spread the “good news” to both their parishioners and the wider world. If you have something important to say, this workshop will give you the tools to say it more effectively.

Cost for the workshop is $25 per person at the Thomas the Apostle Center that includes lunch. To register please contact TAC at

thomap@tritel.net 

or call them at 307-587-4400.

Wyoming Diocese Youth Event

Calling all young Episcopalians grades 6 through 12! There is a Diocesan youth event at St. James Episcopal Church in Riverton Feb. 22nd to Feb. 24th.

This is the first of four quarterly diocesan-wide youth events for 2013. The event will begin at 7 p.m. Friday night and will include fun activities, reflection, a service project on Saturday, planning time for our next gathering, and worship with St. James on Sunday morning.

This event is built upon the framework of the popular Happenings program. Leaders for this first event are Trent Moore, St. John’s, Jackson; Syd Johnson, HR Camp Director; and Tristan English. The cost for the event is $10.

February 12 marks the celebration known as Shrove Tuesday. At St. John’s we clean out the cupboards with a traditional pancakes-and-sausage dinner. We’ll begin serving at 5:30 but welcome help in the kitchen beginning at 5. Invite your friends; there’s no cost but donations are accepted. Proceeds are forwarded to the Cathedral Home for Children in Laramie. If you can’t make it at 5, please come whenever you can. We stop serving at 7 and clenup usually is finished by 7:30.

St. John’s Thrift Shop has had another successful year. The dedicated Thrift Shop volunteers are very grateful to all those who donate items to the shop and especially to all of the wonderful customers! It is because of them that we are able to “give back” to the community! The following contributions have been made thus far in the year 2012:

• $1200 to St. John’s Outreach Committee
• $1000 to the Heart Mountain Volunteer Medical Clinic
• $ 200 to the March of Dimes (Justine’s Drive)
• $ 500 to EACH of the following:
• Habitat for Humanity
• Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Northwest WY
• Boys & Girls Club of Park County
• Loaves and Fishes
• Crisis Intervention Services
• Powell Valley Hospice
• Northwest WY Family Planning
• Thomas the Apostle Center
• Powell Council of Community Services for Christmas Baskets
• $ 100 for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner

Mentors and fellow students look on as Carra receives her EfM completion recognition.

Congratulations to Carra Wetzel for completing Education for Ministry.  Members of her EfM group from Christ Church Cody were at St. John’s on Sunday, August 19, to present a certificate of completion.  EfM is a unique certificate program of theological education under the direction of The School of Theology in The University of South in Sewanee.

Carra joined the group when her late husband, The Reverend Ed Wetzel was starting the program.  No group in Powell was available at the time.  After Ed’s death, Carra continued to travel to Cody weekly through the years and formed close bonds and a support network that was present for her during her darker days.

An EfM group is defined by its harmony of purpose. It is not simply a Bible study group, nor a religious study course, but a small community of practice focused on study, worship, and intentional theological reflection. Karen Meridith, director of EfM, describes the program this way, “EfM graduates become persons of faith who have internalized a way of looking at the world through a theologically informed lens, who can articulate the call to ministry as baptized members of the Body of Christ, and who are prepared to work humbly with others with different experiences and perspectives. I believe these are just the kind of lay leaders the Church needs as we move forward in mission together.”

The program takes four years to complete and is broken up into these courses of study: • Year One: The Old Testament • Year Two: The New Testament • Year Three: Church History • Year Four: Theological Choices

EfM at St. John’s is underway for the this fall.  Year 3 students include Sue Woods, Jane Woods, Diana Anderson and Megan Nickles.  Charlotte Patrick and Laurel McKeen are in Year 2; Genny Bettger and Susan McEvoy are in year 1.

Congratulations to the newly baptized and confirmed at St. John’s Episcopal Church!

Bishop Smylie and the members of St. John’s celebrate and welcome the newest members to the family.

Article | First Things.

Fearful Symmetries

Science seeks the elegant, elusive simplicity of the universe itself

M. Barr

Since the time of Newton, science has advanced by a strategy rightly called “reductionism.” This method, which explains things by analyzing them into smaller and simpler parts, has yielded a rich harvest of discoveries about the natural world. As a means of analysis, then, reductionism has certainly proven its value. But many wonder whether science is reductive in a more radical and disturbing way—by flattening, collapsing, and trivializing the world. For all its intellectual accomplishments, does science end up taking our sense of reality down several notches? One could well get that impression from perusing the writings of certain scientists. Francis Crick famously asserted that human life is “no more than the behavior of . . . nerve cells and their associated molecules.” Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, once described people as “machines made of meat.” Neuroscientist Giulio Giorelli announced that “we have a soul, but it is made up of many tiny robots.” And biologist Charles Zuker has concluded that “in essence, we are nothing but a big fly.”

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