At This Time of Year
At This Time of Year
We warmly invite you to explore what the Companionship is like.
I am the current chairwoman of the Communications Committee, and responsible for overseeing our websites. I am aware that we need a blog post for Easter, and I didn’t recruit a writer when I should have.
“What is it like to be a Companion?” is the perennial topic for this blog, so I ask myself, what is it like to be a Companion at this time of year?
FLOWERS ON OUR MINDS
Around the turn from winter to spring, depending on where you live, Companions on social media seem to be fixated on finding early blooming flowers—even at the edges of snowbanks.
One Companion, who has helped bring back areas of wild native prairie to coastal Texas, teaches us to recognize blue-eyed grass and other beauties. One draws charming pen and ink and watercolor journal records of spring buds and bulbs. One relates the delights of doing your own Ukrainian-style Easter Eggs in flower colors. Several are probably writing spring poems right now.
SUDDENLY EVERYTHING GOES QUIET
And then, is it my imagination? Everything quiets down. Fewer emails about Companion business arrive. Fewer posts appear on social media. Fewer phone calls. Ah! Everything has gone quiet for Holy Week and Easter Day One. Things will pick up again as the Easter season continues.
Companions are currently, for the most part, Episcopalian and very involved in their parishes during Holy Week through (first) Easter Day, busier than any other week of the year. On Palm Sunday, they tell the whole story of Jesus’ final trip to Jerusalem and the crucifixion—and maybe they process around the block outside the church.
Maundy Thursday they wash feet with Jesus. Good Friday they feel his death with Mary, his mother, and Mary Magdalene; Holy Saturday they remember desolation. Then on Easter they begin with primordial fire, and read through highlights of the entire history of God’s covenant with God’s people, and finally ring bells to proclaim resurrection and triumph over death.
Add to this, the collective cleanup of the church. Setting tables for meals together in the parish hall. Draping crosses in black veils. Special sleepovers at the church for Sunday school children so they can attend the sunrise Easter service in their jammies. That’s why the Companionship goes quiet for a few days.
DOES THAT SOUND LIKE YOU?
If you have read this far, you are probably also a Christian woman. You probably are also very busy at your church in Holy Week, remembering the story of redemption and grace in parallel ways.
The SCHC changed its bylaws a couple of years ago to open our membership to any Christian woman who wishes to live by the aims and vows of Companionship after a year or so of participation and discernment.
We warmly invite you to explore what the Companionship is like. If what you see on this website appeals to you, get in touch with a Companion by way of the contact form on the Find a Chapter page.
As we become more denominationally diverse in our membership, it will be exciting to see how the spiritual growth we all seek is cultivated and our “soil enriched” by points of view from outside our historical denomination.
A joyous Easter to all of you who seek to live as disciples of Jesus!
Photo by Lynn Adams
