Glenwood churches to combine for ecumenical service
Four long-established Glenwood Springs church congregations are joining together for a combined ecumenical worship service in Sayre Park Sunday morning.
“In the midst of widening and deepening divisions in our culture, our communities, our families and our churches, we are making a public statement of unity with a shared worship,” said Jeff Carlson, pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Joining in the shared service will be the First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church and St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church. The outdoor service takes place at 10 a.m. Sunday near the gazebo at Sayre Park. A community picnic will follow.
“One of the Bible readings for the day includes the call to make ‘every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3),’” Carlson said. “We believe that our unity is deeper than our divisions and that our unity does not require uniformity, but is instead strengthened by our diversity, working together toward a shared commitment to serve in love.”
Added the Rev. Wendy Huber, priest at St. Barnabas’ Episcopal, “the community worship is a great way for our faith communities to come together to worship and share fellowship with one another.
“We are all on the same team and it’s a great reminder that Glenwood has a wide variety of faith communities to choose from,” she said. “As we say — we do a pretty good job tending our physical and intellectual gardens around here, but have moments when it’s good to tend our faith gardens a little more.”
The Biscuit Truck, a new local business, will be set up at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church for people to purchase food. A portion of the proceeds will be donated on behalf of the churches to the area’s interfaith poverty relief agency, LIFT- Up.
Two of the four congregations, Good Shepherd and St. Barnabas, also are founding institutions of the valley-wide community organizing group called Manaus Valley Project. The project is aimed at community organizing around various social justice issues, and includes multiple churches, synagogues, and other nonprofit groups.
Other churches involved in the Manaus project include St. Stephen’s Catholic, The Orchard in Carbondale, Snowmass Chapel, and Aspen Jewish Congregation,
Pastors from the four churches that are part of the ecumenical worship Sunday also participate monthly in the Roaring Fork Interfaith Clergy group.
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