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The Season After Pentecost
ECD Board Update
The Rev. Maria Isabel Santiviago, Vicar of St. Ann's Church for the Deaf, New York, NY has been elected to fill the vacant Member At Large seat on the ECD Board.
2008 ECD Convention
To view a slide show photo album of the 2008 ECD Convention click
HERE
The photos are courtesy of the Rev. Roy Brown.
Congratulations to the newly elected Board of Directors!
President
The Rev. Barbara A. Allen
First Vice-President
The Rev. Roy F. Brown
Second Vice-President
The Rev. Marianne Stephens-Kroll
Secretary
Cass Martensen
Treasurer
Steve Holst
Members At Large
David Early
The Rev. Maria Isabel Santiviago
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The President's Message
PENTECOST
Pentecost is the Greek word meaning “fiftieth” or “the fiftieth day”. “The Greek term for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, so named because it fell on the fiftieth day after the ceremony of the barley sheaf during the Passover observances. It marked the beginning of the offering of the first fruits. The New Testament uses the term to refer to the established Jewish feast. But since the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church occurred on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1), Christians reinterpreted the meaning of it in terms of the event.” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible p. 727).
The Church celebrates Ascension Day two weeks before Pentecost.
Jesus had been crucified, died and buried but he had risen! The disciples and others had seen him alive! A crowd had stood on Mt. Olivet, according to the second chapter of Acts and watched him as he was taken up into the clouds.
What were they to think? Just before he ascended he told the disciples that “not many days hence” they would receive a Comforter, the Holy Spirit. “Not many days hence?” When would that be? He did not specify the number of days, he only told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait. Wait where? He did not say specifically.
And so this little band of disciples with very mixed emotions chose to wait in an upper room. They gathered there in fear of being found by the Jewish authorities and perhaps suffering the same fate as Jesus. They wanted to believe, they really did! But, what a strange man this Jesus was. He claimed to be the expected Messiah but he had failed to liberate them from Roman rule as they had expected. Yet, he had done and said many things that indicated that he was from another realm. He was love personified and that was something they had not expected. They had expected a military type of Messiah! Hmmmm?
But, they waited patiently to see what would happen. To see if this Holy Spirit would come! To see what this Holy Spirit was and what that would mean for them. They sat, perhaps huddled together, behind locked doors. They probably spoke in whispers and low voices so as not to be detected should anyone come. There they sat! Waiting!
Suddenly, the book of Acts says, “from heaven there came a sound ‘as of a violent wind’” and as they watched, terrified, they saw what seemed to be “tongues of fire” resting on each one’s head. They all began to speak in other languages. Here was the “Holy Spirit” in all of its wonderful strength and power and they were filled it. Jesus had not described this event but they knew what it was.
On that day Peter stood and preached boldly to the people of Jerusalem. And according to Acts 2:41 (NRSV) about three thousand were added to the church.
Barbara
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