May 9th, 2025 | Rev. Dr. Mark Charles

It’s been a crazy few weeks at Memorial! We have had an amazing Easter Cantata, a blessed ecumenical Palm Sunday Processional downtown, Holy Week, a HUGE Easter Sunday, and then Shrimp Festival just last weekend. It’s a lot, and it has taken us all to pull together to make it happen. I want to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE who has helped along the way.  Whether you are a staff member, a regular volunteer, or someone who heard me make the call for help at church services and decided to sign up on a whim…whoever you are and wherever you fit in on that spectrum of involvement…THANK YOU. We could not have done all that we have done without your commitment, service, time, energy, and great love for God and the world.

With so much going on these last few weeks, you would think this might be a good season to slow down and take a well-earned break.  While that sounds lovely, it’s really not what we do though – the work of God continues in our community and world, and we are still invited day and daily to get in on it.  Over the next few weeks we have important opportunities for you to be a part of.

On Sunday, May 19th, we will celebrate our youth and graduating seniors. Youth will help lead worship throughout the morning and we will have three really special testimonies from some of our graduating students. You will not want to miss that.

Sunday, May 26th, is our Homecoming/Anniversary service in which we celebrate our 203rd anniversary by worshiping as ONE church family at 10:00am in Maxwell Hall. This will be a special time together in worship, and then we will continue celebrations by doing what we do best – serving our world by creating 203 flood buckets, and then taking some time to eat and fellowship together as a church family.  Memorial Day at Memorial going to be a great time together. Don’t miss it.

After all that we move into June and will have fun celebrating Pastor Rachel’s ordination, and then welcoming children to come learn about God’s love for them during VBS.

It’s been a full on few weeks and the weeks ahead will continue that way. Please join me in praying for continued success in all we do as we seek to join in on God’s work in our community and world.

Blessings

Pastor Charlie

May 2nd, 2025 | Rev. Rachel Williams

Dear Friends,  

In the famous words of Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue, “Shrimp is the fruit of the Sea.” Just as Forrest Gump’s “best good friend” Bubba knew “everything there is to know about shrimp”, I am pretty sure that our Memorial youth and Shrimp Fest volunteers know everything there is to know about making the perfect shrimp quesadilla. You can find this out yourself by stopping by the youth’s booth right on 6th Street anytime during the festival this weekend.

And if you want to become an insider to the whole process, there are still spaces for you to volunteer to make the quesadillas. Yes! You can become the bearer of the good and valuable shrimp quesadilla recipe.  

You will also have the opportunity to buy quesadillas after our ONE service at 10:00AM in the Sanctuary on Sunday (which will be livestreamed on YouTube at 10AM). Though this tends to be a smaller service, this is also a time when visitors enter our doors. Let us, as always, practice our holy hospitality for any who might be seeking sanctuary from their Shrimp Fest shenanigans.  

I love this time of year. Though it’s not quite summer it feels like the prelude to summer, and I love that Shrimp Fest is a time where we come together as a church community and support our youth in one of their most successful fundraisers of the year.

If you are reading this and would like to volunteer, but you have not yet signed up, I encourage you to come to the Multipurpose Room Friday evening, Saturday, or Sunday morning. We will surely give you a spot to serve! Have fun and be safe this weekend.  

With love and peace,  

Pastor Rachel  

April 25th, 2025 | Rev. Dr. Mark Charles

For many people, Easter is a one-day holiday. One single Sunday during which they might go to church and be reminded of Christ’s resurrection and afterwards gather with family to enjoy a special meal or give Easter baskets to the kids. It’s one special day and when it is over, it’s over and life goes back to normal on Monday.

For you and I, members of what Bishop Will Willimon calls “the community of the baptized” i.e. the Church – the community of people who have received new life from Christ and have chosen to follow in his ways. For us, Easter is more than just a one-day celebration. In the church calendar Easter is a 50-day season that runs from Easter Sunday all the way through to Pentecost. Eastertide, as it is known, is a season for us to focus on God’s resurrection power, to remember that the life of God is victorious over death, and that sins power has been canceled by Christ.

Easter is a good news season in which we are reminded of our call to live daily as resurrection people, bearers of God’s hope and carriers of God’s light; a people who embody peace and are willing to build peace in turbulent times. And here’s the thing: the call to be all those things does not end at Pentecost, because we are actually called to be resurrection people full time. Resurrection should be our defining mark all year round because Easter was and is decisive – a victory that changed everything forevermore. So, let’s continue to live into our calling as resurrection people, Memorial. Let’s do that in this Easter season AND all year round, living as beacons of light, hope, and peace in a community and world that needs it.

Blessings,

Pastor Charlie