MWR : Prayer shawls and choirs

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June 15, 2009 issue

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Tags: Congregations

Prayer shawls and choirs

First Mennonite Church, Berne, Ind.

By Rick Sprunger

The church hosted a prayer seminar on April 17-18. The featured speaker was Dwane Reitz from Lancaster, Pa. Reitz is the prayer coordinator for Creative Access Associates.

A group of women met April 22 to begin a “Prayer Shawl Ministry.” The purpose of the ministry is to crochet or knit prayer shawls and baby blankets to give to individuals from our church who are seriously ill, to those who are on the prayer list for an extended period of time, and to babies who will be in the nursery. Participants will work on Wednesday nights during the summer or at home. Usually, a stitcher will not know the recipient of the prayer shawl but will nonetheless be praying for the eventual recipient while working on it.

The Mennonite Choral Society, directed by Brent Hyman, gave its spring concert May 3. A choir of about 55 voices was accompanied by organ, piano and an eight-piece brass-and-timpani ensemble in a variety of sacred anthems predominantly from the 20th century.

We held our mother-daughter banquet May 9 with “Gospel Music with Elvis” as the program.

A new wrinkle in the church’s ministry to Swiss Village Retirement Community was added on May 17 when the chancel choir traveled to the site to present a sacred concert. While many residents of Swiss Village attend church regularly, others view the Sunday services in their rooms on closed circuit television. This concert gave those residents, for whom travel is difficult, an opportunity to see and hear a service live and in person.

Wedding anniversary: Rod and Sandy Lehman, 50th, April 12.

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