March Newsletter 2019

Called to Serve

MARCH | 2019

300 GOVERNMENT STREET | MOBILE, ALABAMA 36602 | 251.432.1749 | GSPCMOBILE.ORG

Thank you for your warm hospitality. Coming to Mobile in time for Mardi Gras has been a marvelous way to experience the city. Standing on the sidewalk at the corner of Jackson and Government Streets to watch parades has been a wonderful experience and an education. I have met bikers, multi-generational parade watchers and the friendly-neighborhood policeman.

I have a more than adequate collection of beads – particularly since I don’t wear them but plan to give them away to friends and family. Of course, I also have Moon Pies and other assorted “goodies” caught while watching parades.

When the search team for the “bridge interim” interviewed me, I knew that I would be a shorttimer at GSPC. All interims are transitional pastors. In fact, all pastors are transitional. None of us stay forever. One of the goals for ministry is for clergy to do our best to get the congregation ready for when we are gone. The question for clergy is, “How will this congregation continue after I am gone?”

Paul Phillips did a grand job getting GSPC started with your transition after George Sinclair’s retirement. I hope to keep the momentum going for your new installed pastor. This is one of those times when I can say that I hope and pray that my time with you will be short. I already love you and would love to stay, but there is one coming who is more permanent than I. Lent is coming. We will be observing Lent with Weekly Wednesday noon worship. We begin on Ash Wednesday (March 6, 2019) with communion and the imposition of ashes. This year the theme for the Wednesday Lenten services will be the “Seven Last Words.”

We begin Holy Week with Passion Sunday (April 21, 2019). We continue solemn observances with our final Wednesday noon service, then Maundy Thursday communion at 6:00 PM and Good Friday service also at 6:00 PM. All of our Lenten and Holy Week services lead us to the glory of the resurrection on Easter morning.

Cary Bridge Interim

Dear GSPC family, Thank you for the wonderful reception, the love gift and the many heartfelt well-wishes you gave me on my departure. I have grown accustomed to your generous hospitality and your love for God's created ones.

Keep the faith, which I have no doubt you will, and bless one another through your love and compassion.

In Christ, Pastor Paul Rev. Paul Phillips 924 Van Buren Avenue Oxford, MS 38655

Lucy Belle Baker and Haney Jones had a great time at the CE Picnic and parade on February 24.

The Christian Education Committee will meet on Monday, March 11, at 5:30 at Starbucks, corner of Government and Catherine Streets.

gspcmobile.org @gspcmobile

The Circle of Joy will meet Monday, March 11, at 6:15pm at Guesnard House. All women are welcome.

The Circle of Hope will meet Thursday, March 14 at 10:00am in the Tent Room.

The Session will meet Tuesday, March 19 at 5:30pm. No dinner will be served.

The Women’s Bible Study meets every Tuesday at 10:00am in the Frist Room, and is led by Mary Elizabeth Perry. They are now studying the book of Luke from the Interpretation Bible study series.

Visit gspcmobile.org to view the full calendar.

Sharing the Faith Journey of Deacon George Oswalt At the February Session meeting, seven Officer Candidates read their one-page Faith Journeys to our Elders.

Each was outstanding. We have chosen to share Deacon George Oswalt’s Journey because it is an eloquent tribute to (Miss) Margaret Sue Oswalt whom we all respected and loved: “It is difficult for me to separate church memories from family memories. I grew up going to this church. I went to Sunday School here. I was confirmed here. And I am at least the fourth generation of my family at GSPC. My grandmother was devoted to this church, and she came—almost every Sunday—to reinvigorate her faith. Even in her late eighties, she would be sitting quietly in her pew, having beaten us there, waiting for us to join her, when we got to our pew upstairs.

When I was seven or eight, I rode with Nan, or Margaret Sue as most people knew her, as she delivered Meals on Wheels to people in need. She would pull up to those houses, and I would hop out to deliver the food to the door. At each house, Nan would tell me the names and the backgrounds of the folks inside. She personally knew each person on her route; she told me once that “food is love.” By delivering food to those who couldn’t leave their homes, she was exercising her faith, delivering a small token of love to her community.

Another place that always reminds me of Nan is our house at Point Clear. Growing up on the water and living in a place of such bounty and beauty had a major impact on me. Rather than one specific memory, it is the collection of lessons learned from growing up Over the Bay that shaped the foundation of my faith. The bay can be slick as glass, then it can rise with a hurricane and tear down houses. You can sail smoothly over the waves, then they can flip and sink your boat. And you can have nothing to show for a full day of fishing, then one morning all the fish come right to the shore to be picked up by hand. Faith is not about being rewarded, it is about being grateful for the good, DATES and patient with the bad. These are lessons learned with the OF ebb and flow of the tide, and I can’t think of a place that IMPORTANCE shaped my faith more than Point Clear.

When my grandmother passed away, Dr. Sinclair asked my father and his siblings, “What was your mother’s guiding principle of faith?” Later, at her memorial service, Dr. Sinclair revealed to us that they had all agreed: it was to practice your faith. This struck me as uniquely powerful. It would have been easy to say something about her beliefs or something about love or maybe repeat one of her humorous mantras. But it wasn’t about that; it was about life. It was about reinvigorating, exercising, and practicing your faith.

Faith is not a fluid that can fill up a container; it’s not stagnant or immobile. Faith is like a cast net: only with maintenance and practice will it yield bounty.”

SUNDAY, MARCH 3 JOE CAIN DAY Worship will begin at 10AM. No Sunday School Travel passes will be available two weeks prior.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 ASH WEDNESDAY Communion with Imposition of Ashes at Noon.

No rehearsals will be held in the evening.

LENTEN COMMUNION Wednesdays at noon, March 13—April 17 Organ Recitals at 11:30AM HOLY WEEK PALM SUNDAY, APRIL 14 | 10:45AM Palm Procession and Service of Scripture & Anthems MAUNDY THURSDAY, APRIL 18 | 6PM Communion & Stripping of the Church GOOD FRIDAY | 6PM Passion Narrative RESURRECTION OF THE LORD | 11AM Easter Sunday

GSPC NEWS (USPC 736150) is published monthly by GSPC, 300 Government Street, Mobile, AL 36602.

Periodical: postage paid at Mobile, AL. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to GSPC NEWS, 300 Government St., Mobile, AL 36602

Called to Serve

300 Government Street Mobile, AL 36602

USHER CAPTAIN SANCTUARY PREPARER SUNDAY ASSISTANTS

MARCH 3

MARCH 10

MARCH 17

MARCH 24

MARCH 31

Ashford Kettler

Ashford Kettler

Ashford Kettler

Brent Ericson

Brent Ericson

Harriett Boster

Dot White

Harriett Boster

Harriett Boster

Ted Burke

Jarrett Callaway

Charlotte Crocket

Blair Schoenvogel

Linda Dealy

Sallye Irvine

Sue King

Margaret Vidmer Hutchison

Nicole Riis

Harriett Boster

Linda Reynolds

Bradley Headrick

Beth Holbert

Ashley Oswalt

Charlotte Crockett

Elizabeth Smith

NURSERY No Volunteer Needed WEE WORSHIP No Volunteer Needed

Called to Serve

Bligh Jones Trisha Hawkins

Dewey Parsons

WE ARE CALLED BY THE SPIRIT TO GLORIFY GOD, SO THAT ALL MAY BECOME JOYFUL DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST.