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Even though it is summer and warm outside, we have lots going on at PWC!
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Bible Fellowship
This Saturday, June 14: 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Please note: We are also meeting on Saturday, June 21
All women are welcome to attend.
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Father’s Day Cereal Drive
to aid Matthew’s Crossing
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From now until Father’s Day, June 15, bring boxes of cereal to PWC to care for those families who are struggling economically and find it difficult to provide for their families.
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Visit the Cross Shop
for Father’s Day
We have some great gift ideas for Dad!
What a wonderful way to honor Dad
and spiritually bless him!
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We had an incredible
Pentecost service!!!
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Adult Education
with Fr. Dale
Join Fr. Dale in going deeper!
An extension on the Pentecost preaching!
A.W. Tozer on Authentic Worship
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Wednesday, June 18:
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
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ALSO…
Fr. Dale and Carl Herrgesell
Worship Night: Wednesday,
June 25 @ 7:00 p.m.
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Blood Drive @ PWC
Monday, July 28:
9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
To schedule your appointment or for more information, please call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767)
or visit redcrossblood.org and use Sponsor Code: PraiseandWorship
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Check out information about RideChoice
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RideChoice is for ADA paratransit certified people with disabilities and seniors age 65 and above who reside in participating communities. Here is a link to the RideChoice website for more information:
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Check out the
PWC Summer 2025
Calendar!
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Blood Pressure Checks take place at PWC on the first and third Sundays of the month from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Our medical team is providing the blood pressure checks.
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Our weekly online reflections are ministering to our community each week through the written word. Check out the new reflection from Pastor Mark. Next week there will be a reflection by Kevin McGloin. Be supported in your faith life. You can even check out past reflections!
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Your generosity allows us to minister to so many who come through our doors with their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. Thank you for your tithing and commitment to PWC! From pastoral counseling to grief support, to bible study and adult education, to providing food through Matthew’s Crossing for families who are economically struggling, to marriage enrichment and our funeral ministry -- your consistent giving makes a difference, a big change in people’s lives!
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Here are the different ways you can tithe to PWC:
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• Mail in your gift to: Praise and Worship Center, 2551 N. Arizona Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85225.
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• Sign up for monthly giving with a credit card or voided check. Just call the office at 480-649-0300 or stop by the office.
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Do you want to be inspired again by Fr. Dale or Pastor Mark? You can listen to Fr. Dale or Pastor Mark’s sermons on our podcast page. Here is the link:
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Fr. Mike Lessard is available for pastoral counseling on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Please call the church office to make an appointment at 480-649-0300.
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Are you homebound? If so, Deacon John Null can bring you communion. The only exception is if you have or are recovering from COVID. The best way to get in touch with Deacon John is by contacting the church office, at 480-649-0300, and leaving a message.
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A Reflection
by Ronald Rolheiser
The Fading of Forgiveness
In a recent issue of Comment Magazine, Timothy Keller, theologian and pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, wrote an insightful essay entitled, The Fading of Forgiveness, within which he highlights how, more and more, forgiveness is being seen as a weakness and a naivete.
He begins by pointing to a couple of highly publicized incidents of forgiveness. In 2015, Dylann Roof shot nine members inside an African American church in South Carolina and was publicly forgiven by the relatives of his victims. And in 2006, when a gunman shot ten Amish children in a school room in Pennsylvania and then killed himself, the Amish community there not only forgave him, they went to visit his family and expressed sympathies to them for their loss. What was the general response?
Admiration for extraordinary selflessness and virtue? No, not that. More generally, these instances of forgiveness were judged as naïve fundamentalism and as unhelpful. Why? Why would these instances not be recognized instead both for what is most noble within humanity and for what is highest within religious virtue?
Keller suggests that there are a number of reasons for this, but he singles out two in particular. We are a “therapeutic culture” (where only our own truth and feelings matter) and a culture that has a “religion without grace” (its vision and virtue go no further than what echoes in our emotions and willpower).
Hence, our culture sees forgiveness more negatively than positively. For it, forgiveness allows oppression to maintain its power and thus permits the cycle of violence and abuse to go on. Like a family refusing to stand up to an alcoholic member, it enables rather than stops the abuse and allows a sick situation to continue. Forgiveness then is a further injustice to the one who has been violated and can lead to a form of self-loathing, an acceptance of humiliation destructive of one’s self-image, a further loss of dignity. Moreover, the moral pressure to forgive can be a further burden on the victim and an easy escape for the perpetrator. Is this logic correct?
From a purely emotional point of view, yes, it feels right; but it is wrong when scrutinized more deeply. First, it is evident that vindictiveness will only produce more vindictiveness. Vindictiveness will never soften a heart and help change it. Only forgiveness can take violence and hatred out of a relationship. As well, in the words of Martin Luther King, anyone devoid of the power of forgiveness is also devoid of the power of love. Why? Because each of us will get hurt by others and will hurt others in every one of our relationships. That is the price of community inside human inadequacy. Hence, relationships at every level, personal and social, can only sustain themselves long term if there is forgiveness.
Moreover, with Jesus, forgiveness becomes singularly the most important of all virtues. It decides whether we go to heaven or not. As Jesus tells us when he gives us the Lord’s Prayer, if we cannot forgive others, God will not be able to forgive us. Why? Because the banquet table, eternal community of life, is only open to everyone who is willing to sit down with everyone. God cannot change this. Only we can open our hearts sufficiently to sit down with everyone.
Recently, given some of our ecclesial infighting, various groups have attempted to single out one specific moral issue as a litmus test for Christian discipleship. For many, this litmus test is abortion; others pick church attendance or some other issue. What might serve as a litmus test for Christian discipleship? Precisely this: the willingness to forgive. Can I forgive someone who has wronged me? Can I forgive someone whom I hate and who hates me? That challenge lies most central in Jesus’ teaching.
Desmond Tutu once said, “without forgiveness there is no future.” True – on both sides of eternity.
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Have a blessed week rooted in the joy of the Lord!
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Love,
Fr. Dale & Pastor Mark
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Keep up with all your PWC friends on Facebook
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Please do not reply to this email;
the sending address is not monitored.
Please reply to: [email protected]
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