Calendar News

It’s Lent

Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These disciplines can clear out the noise that is all around us, so that we are more able and ready to hear Jesus’ voice intimately. Listening, at its deepest level, is a spiritual practice, a sacred practice that deepens our capacity for love.

 

The practice of Lent, of going inward and of contemplating our own mortality, is a necessary solitary experience. Whatever your personal practice, the purpose is a retuning, as if we were instruments, a reorienting of your heart and soul. Lenten practices help us return to a life abundant with God, through death to new life.

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Lent Reflections

It’s not too late. Try this meditation series written by Sister Monica Clare, an Episcopal nun, author and unlikely TikTok star. The 2026 meditations offer an invitation to rediscover—or deepen—holy habits of prayer, worship and engagement with Scripture. A few of you reached out to say Sister Monica Clare’s book is a delight: A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun.

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Discover contemplative wisdom and practices that are easy to understand and apply to your everyday life at the Center for Action and Contemplation: https://cac.org/practice-with-us/

 

At Church: Listening to Neighbors

During weeks of Lent, we will listen together to other voices from our wider community. Guest speakers will come from our Powell, Cody and Park County area to speak about the people or greater purpose they serve, their mission and purpose, and ways that we at St. John’s can more deeply respond to neighbors we might not know we had.

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These voices will give us food for thought and action, to discern how we are called to lay down our lives for others, living more fully into the New Commandment, the call to love each other as Jesus loved us, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

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Through these encounters with our guests who are engaged with the hands-on work of helping others, our hope is to learn ways that we may be able to help as a faith community, to hear a deeper call to action in places we might never have expected, in our ever fragile and wounded world.

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Last week: Linda Dalton, Senior Citizens Center and Debbie Black, Homebound Senior Essentials Debbie Black.

This week: Erin Welty, Greater Yellowstone Conservation District; Olivia Bergeron and Mary Caucutt from the Park County Citizens for Sustainability.

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Taking Up Your Cross: Wyoming Episcopal Justice Summit

Wyoming Episcopalians are invited to gather in Rock Springs April 24–26 for Taking Up Your Cross: Wyoming Episcopal Justice Summit, a weekend of prayer, learning, and reflection at the intersection of faith and justice.

Grounded in Scripture and history, the summit will include a historian’s presentation on the Chinese Massacre of Sept. 2, 1885, civil discourse training with Allison Duvall, a memorial service and Holy Eucharist at the massacre site, and a Sunday workshop on asset-based community development.

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The cost is $150 per person, and the registration deadline is April 17, 2026. Space is limited.

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For questions or to inquire about financial assistance, contact the Rev. Bobbe Fitzhugh, Canon for Transitions and Equal Justice at bobbe@episcopalwy.org or 307-359-3311. St. John’s also has financial support available for travel.

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More Henry Nouwen: Reaching Out

Registration closes April 27 for the diocesan book study of Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out.

Over eight weeks beginning in May, participants will explore what it means to live a life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ through reading, conversation, and prayer practice.

Weekly Zoom options are:

• Thursday, 5:30–6:30 p.m.

• Friday, 5–6 p.m.

 

Each participant will receive a copy of the book, a study booklet, and a journal.

 

Questions may be directed to the Rev. Lara Gilbert, Canon for Discernment, lara@episcopalwy.org or 307-267-2617.

 

Local Spring Small Groups

The Book of Forgiving, written together by the Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and his daughter The Reverend Mpho Tutu, offers a deeply personal testament and guide to the process of forgiveness.

The path to forgiveness is not easy. How do we let go of resentment when we have been harmed, at times irreparably? How do we forgive and still pursue justice? How do we heal our hearts, and move on? How do we forgive ourselves for the harm we have caused others?

 

Small groups will begin to meet the week of April 12. Times to be determined by need. Let Meg Nickles know if you are interested: megannickles@gmail.com or text 307.254.0811.

 

Notable Dates

• March 11, 11:30 AM Meditation - Please join us Wednesday next in the sanctuary for about 30 minutes. If you have any questions, please ask Susan McEvoy (307-271-1289).

 

• April 2, 5:30 PM Maundy Thursday

 

• April 3, 12:00 Noon, Good Friday

 

Pantry

The Pantry serves the public in our sanctuary on Tuesdays from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

 

Thrift Shop

Shop hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 1:00-3:30 PM.

 

The Anglican Tradition

Episcopalians and Lent: Compassion

Finding compassion in Lent involves transforming the traditional pillars of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving into active, heart-centered love for others, moving beyond simple self-denial to suffering with those in need. Instead of fasting solely for self-discipline, use it to build empathy for those who live with lack. Fast from Complaining/Judgment: Actively replace negative speech with kindness or silence. Unplug: Fast from social media or news, using that time to pray for or connect with others. Pray for Compassion: Lord, help me see You in those who suffer. Make me concerned enough to help, by word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted. Lord, teach me to love as You love.

 

Ultimately, a compassionate Lent transforms the heart to be more gracious, patient, humble, and aware of the needs of others.