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We have an exciting week planned at PWC, as we prepare for Pentecost. Please plan to attend our Pentecost Worship Night this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Also, on Pentecost Sunday, please wear red for our Sunday Service as we ordain four new deacons. We look forward to you being there by supporting and praying for our new deacons as they begin their ministry here at PWC.
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Pentecost Worship Nights
Tonight Wednesday, May 20
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Mark your calendar for this sacred event
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The Diaconate Ordination of:
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Bill Larew
Mike Hewett
Jenny Diaz
Rod Taylor
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This Sunday, May 24
@ the 10:00 a.m.
Service Pentecost Sunday
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Please keep these soon to be deacons in your prayers as they begin their ministry as a deacon to the PWC community.
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Deacon Assignments at PWC
With the addition of four new deacons here at PWC, some of our deacons have new assignments. Please pray for our deacons as they minister to our community.
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- Deacon Coordinator: Chuck Monroe
- Deacon of Worship: Sharon Trischan
- Deacon of Prayer: Mike Hewett
- Deacon of the Poor: Chuck Monroe
- Deacon of I-HELP: Fred Pratt
- Deacon of Membership: Peter Klemens
- Deacon of the Sick: Rich Anlauf, Rod Taylor
- Deacon of Children: Fred Pratt
- Deacon of Funerals: Jenny Diaz
- Deacon of Special Events/Fundraising: Bill Larew
- Deacon of Recovery Café: Rod Taylor, John Null
- Deacon of International Outreach/FMSC: Peter Klemens
- Deacon of Men’s Ministry: Chuck Monroe
- Deacon of Women’s Ministry: Cheryl Armstrong Null
- Deacon of Sunday Front Desk: Elizabeth James
- Deacon of Hospitality: Chuck Monroe
- Deacon of Prayer Retreats: John Null, Cheryl Armstrong Null
- Retired Deacons: Greg Fyten, Karen Klemens
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Please wear RED
this Sunday on Pentecost
Sunday, May 24
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Red is the color of the Holy Spirit!
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Upcoming
Memorial Services
Please remember those in our community who have passed away, as well as their families.
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+Tom Cutera,
Friday, May 22 at 10 a.m.,
PWC
+Bonnie Solmundson,
Saturday, May 23 at 10 a.m.,
PWC
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Our Weekly Online Reflections
Check out a new reflection from Monday, May 18 by Father Dale
Here is the link:
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Pastoral Counseling is available at PWC
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Fr. Mike Lessard is available for pastoral counseling on Wednesdays & Thursdays at PWC. Please call the church office to make an appointment at 480-649-0300.
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Important Children's Ministry Information
We will not meet on Pentecost
Sunday, May 24.
Our final meeting for the school year is on
Sunday, May 31.
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There will be no meetings in June, July, and August. We will start back up in early September.
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The church office will be closed on
Monday, May 25 for Memorial Day.
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Blood Drive @PWC
Monday, June 22,
9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
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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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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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At PWC
your tithing & generosity allow 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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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
Love in a Time of Opposition
How do you stay positive, preach hope, and remain loving and big-hearted in the face of opposition, misunderstanding, hostility, and hatred?
This is what Jesus did and that particular quality of his life and teaching constitutes perhaps the greatest personal and moral challenge to all of us who try to follow him. How do you remain loving in the face of hatred? How do you remain empathic in the face of misunderstanding? How do you continue to be warm and gracious in the face of hostility? How do you love your enemies when they want to kill you?
Virtually every instinct inside us works against us here. Our natural instincts are mostly self-protective, paranoid even, antithetical to self-abnegation and forgiveness. Our innate sense of justice demands an eye for an eye, a giving back in kind, hatred for hatred, distrust for distrust, murder for murder. And this isn’t just true for the big things, our struggle to remain loving in the face of death threats. We struggle to remain loving even in the face of irritation.
How do we handle opposition, misunderstanding, hostility, and hatred?
Sometimes our response is paralysis. We get so intimidated by opposition, misunderstanding, and hatred that we retreat and go underground. We retain our ideals but no longer practice them in the presence of those who oppose us. We continue to speak love and understanding, but not to our enemies (whom we don’t exactly hate, but whom we now stay away from).
Sometimes our response is the exact opposite, namely, in the face of opposition we develop a skin that’s so thick that we don’t need to care about what others think of us: Let them think whatever they want! They can like it or lump it! The problem with a thick skin is that our capacity to go on saying the right words and doing the right actions is partially based upon a certain blindness and insensitivity. In our mind, we don’t have a problem. Others do.
This insensitivity sometimes takes a more subtle form, condescension. This happens when we believe that we are big-hearted enough to love those who oppose and hate us, even as our empathy and love are predicated on a certain elitism, namely, on the feeling that we are so morally and religiously superior to those who hate us that we can love them in their ignorance: Poor, ignorant people! If only they knew better! This is not love but a superiority-complex masquerading as empathy and concern. That’s not how Jesus treated those who hated him.
How did he treat them? In the face of hatred and being put to death by his enemies, Jesus wasn’t intimidated, nor did he become thick-skinned or condescending. What did he do? He rooted himself more deeply in his own deepest identity and, inside of that, found the power to continue to be warmed-hearted, loving, and forgiving in the face of hatred and murder. How so?
As Jesus was being executed, he prayed: “Forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” Karl Rahner, commenting on this, astutely points out that, in fact, his executioners did know what they were doing! They knew they were crucifying an innocent man. So why does Jesus say they were acting in ignorance?
Their ignorance, as Karl Rahner points out, lay at a deeper level: They were ignorant of how much they were loved, whereas Jesus was not. When the Gospels describe Jesus’ inner state at the Last Supper, they say: “Jesus, knowing that he had come from God and that he was going back to God and that therefore all things were possible for him, got up from the table and took off his outer robe …”
Jesus was capable of continuing to love and forgive in the face of hatred and murder because, at the very heart of his self-awareness, lay an awareness of who he was, God’s son, and how much he was loved. He wasn’t thick-skinned or elitist, just in touch with who he was and how much he was loved. From that source he drew his energy and his power to forgive.
We too have access to that same powerful spring of energy. Like Jesus, we too are God’s children and are loved that deeply. Like Jesus, we too can be that forgiving.
Very few things, I believe, are more needed today, in both society and the church, than this capacity for understanding and forgiveness. To continue to offer others genuine love and understanding in the face of opposition and hatred constitutes the ultimate social, political, ecclesial, moral, religious, and human challenge. Sometimes church people try to single out one particular moral issue as the litmus test as to whether or not someone is a true follower of Jesus. If there is to be litmus test, let it be this one:
Can you continue to love those who misunderstand you, who oppose you, who are hostile to you, who hate you, and who threaten you – without being paralyzed, calloused, or condescending?
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Please pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our community!
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Love,
Fr. Dale & Pastor Mark
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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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Chris Pfund PhD, MBA, BSN, RN
President Homestead Health
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phone: (602) 755-4508
fax: (602) 691-0283
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Homestead Health is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to helping adults live safely and independently at home. We offer a range of in-home and virtual medical services, including concierge medicine, palliative care, transitional care, and geriatric care management. We believe everyone deserves access to compassionate and affordable healthcare.
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