St. James Fall Fundraiser
Soup & Sandwich Sale – Saturday, October 23, 2021, 10 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Please help to spread the word to other friends and family members throughout our community – thanks!
UPDATE: New COVID guidelines effective June 20, 2021—Masks are optional, social distance seating as you feel necessary, we will be singing and using hymnals, Communion will be celebrated down front with hand sanitizing, Sunday School will resume as normal for all ages. Please be aware that masks maybe still be worn depending on the supply Pastor. Please bring one along just in case.
April 2021 – Message from Pastor Swanson
Dear Friedens and St. James Friends:
As I sit and look out the office windows at the parsonage, I can hear the sound of chain saws cutting more limbs off the trees on the property. The trees that are being trimmed were planted long ago, when the parsonage was constructed back in the late fifties and early sixties. I’ve been told that at one time there were many more trees gracing the parsonage lawn. “Like a small forest”, said one neighbor. “Leaves and branches fell everywhere”, said another. I can honestly say that I’m glad that the leaf and branch clean-up is more manageable now and, to tell the truth, I’m saddened that those trees, now mature and in their elder years of life, are dying away. And that is why the tree trimmers are here. They have come from the power company, just doing their job, cutting a limb here and snipping branches there, and in the worst cases, taking down all that remains of once grand creations of a loving God who brings life to this fragile world.
By the time you receive this newsletter, Lent will be in its waning days, perhaps Holy Week is behind and Easter has arrived. Whatever the time or season, God is with us, walking ahead and beside, even behind us, through all the changes and chances, alterations, trimmings and pruning that our lives need. As we grow and mature, facing the challenges of our lives, we often fail to see that God is blessing us along the way. Like a tree that grows in the soil, sometimes facing drought, sometimes enduring blight, sometimes neglected and in need of a hearty pruning, God still brings rain and sun in due season.
I will be leaving you soon. My days as your Pastor are coming to a close earlier than expected. I will move on to a new place, with new challenges and new blessings. Just as you will find the days ahead filled with challenge and change, so will I; we will be linked that way, as God’s people always are. In our baptism, we are daily faced with the burdens of living and daily we are given the abundant grace of God. Every day we live like trees on the lawn that die a little with each passing year, but always nurtured by a loving God. And when our days reach the end, we still belong to God as part of the Lord’s great harvest of righteousness.
While I have been with you, I have wanted you to hear this Good News of our Lord’s grace. Even in the most difficult time, when you feel as though you are the lone tree, left to blow in the wind, our loving Savior sees and knows you are there—like a good gardener—tending to you always.
I thank God for giving me this time to be planted among you, to spend these months growing in faith in your midst, on your lawn, in your backyard. I trust that now, as I am transplanted to a new place and place my roots in new soil, God will be nurturing you with every blessing that you may grow into the fullness that God has planted you to be.
Pastor Swanson
March 17, 2021 – Note from Pastor Swanson
Dear People of Friedens and St. James:
This letter is to inform you that I have tendered my resignation as Pastor of the Friedens-St. James Lutheran Parish, effective April 30, 2021. I have accepted a call to serve as Pastor in Upstate New York. This new call allows me to live in closer proximity to family and friends in a place with which I am familiar.
My wife, Pastor Laura Csellak, will continue to serve at Christ’s United Lutheran Church in Gordon for the foreseeable future, until such time as she finds a call near our new home. She will continue to reside in the Friedens parsonage (paying all utilities, of course) until a new pastor is called to serve in Hegins/Pitman. Our eldest son will also live with her in the parsonage.
Please know that my resignation has nothing to do with our marital relationship; we are more happily in love than ever. Rather, the opportunity to return to my roots presented itself sooner than I had ever expected.
I thank God for giving me the chance to serve as your Pastor, and I thank you for kindness, care and, above all, the forgiveness shared with me during my time among you. My last Sunday leading worship will be April 11; I look forward to greeting you on that day to bid you farewell and Godspeed.
I pray that God’s richest blessings be yours—the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Most sincerely yours,
Pastor Mark
The Rev. Mark E. Swanson, Pastor
March 17, 2021
Click below to download a Mid-Week Lenten Prayer for the Home
March 10, 2021
Click below to download a Mid-Week Lenten Prayer for the Home
March 3, 2021
Click below to download a Mid-Week Lenten Prayer for the Home.
February 24, 2021
Click below to download a Mid-Week Lenten Prayer for the Home.
This series of weekly prayers looks at each major section of the Small Catechism in turn: the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, and Holy Communion. Studying the Small Catechism offers a way of growing closer to God by thinking on God’s word and the basics of our faith. This simple service can be used as a private devotion or for a small group at home.
February 6, 2021
UPDATE: Please be aware that we will resume in-person worship at St. James beginning next week, Sunday, February 14, 2021 at 10:30 am. St. James will continue to record and post on-line worship services for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as we resume in-person worship services. However, as we will record our in-person services on Sunday mornings, the recordings and the accompanying bulletins will not be posted on our website until Sunday afternoon.
February 2021
Pastor’s Message:
We all have milestone moments, those times of significance that mark our lives and remain in our memory. February is a milestone month for my family, both good and bad.
My dad was born in February. It was the 22nd of the month, Washington’s birthday, so his parents named him George. Like many other immigrants, it was a way to show their patriotism. 81 years later, my dad died in February, on the 2nd of the month. He died on the day my sister-in-law celebrates her birthday. I recall that it was a very bittersweet day, blending sorrow and celebration. My younger son also celebrates his birthday in February, on the12th, which is Lincoln’s birthday. Our son has often thanked us for not naming him Abraham, although we don’t know why, since it is such a noble Old Testament name. Forty years ago, my grandfather died in February. I remember that it snowed a lot on the day of his funeral and that we couldn’t get to the gravesite. It was a cold and solemn day; my mother was in no mood for all the “lovey-dovey” stuff of Valentine’s Day, which was fast-approaching on the calendar, but we still gave her cards and flowers anyway. I know pastors that have officiated at a lot of weddings in February, but I can’t make that claim. Rather, over the years, I have buried a lot of parishioners in February and baptized a whole bunch, too. All of these times, for someone, are milestone moments. And, nearly every year, February is when Ash Wednesday rolls around, the season of Lent begins, and we spend forty days of fasting and repentance and rather somber talk that might seem to make our condition even worse. This year, Ash Wednesday is just three days after Valentine’s Day, which means that just three days after we pass out hearts and roses we smear ashes on our forehead.
Not as many of us take part in this little ritual anymore. As our lives have moved in new directions and we have found other things to do with our time, going to church and having the pastor put a smudge of palm ash on your face seems a strange and depressing thing to do. But I pray you will come this year, this February, even if you have never been to worship on Ash Wednesday before. I can’t promise that it will be a milestone moment that will transform you into a saint or even make you a better person. I can’t even tell you that we will send you out with gleeful happiness and a spring in your step, but I can tell you that we will proclaim that God is with us, forgiving and healing our sick and divided world. We need this very much, especially this year. I know my mother needed it those many years ago, when she wept over the death of her father. When death comes, we need a reminder that God still holds us in his loving arms. It’s hard to see when we smear ash that reminds us how hard life can be and that we are human and we die.
And yet, as I recall the day long ago, when my family stood in the cemetery chapel, bidding goodbye to my beloved grandfather, the pastor reminded us: “The cold winter wind may blow, but Spring will come and the light of Jesus, the true sun, will shine and warm us again, and the deep blanket of February snow that buries the grave will melt away.” Indeed, it does. But it was hard to see and hear amid our grief; the ashes sprinkled on the coffin seemed so deathly and final.
Only with time and a lot of help from the Holy Spirit have I been able to understand differently. I know now that the ashes are a reminder of a milestone moment, baptism, when God promises to lift us from death to life. It is a promise that never fades away and remains with us for eternity, through every season and every day, even in February, from birth to death and to life again, marked with the love of a Savior who gave his heart for us all, in a milestone moment, on a cross.
Pastor Swanson
January, 2021
In-person services at St. James are suspended through the month of January 2021 (including January 31st). Please join us in watching pre-recorded services available on this site each Sunday. View the Recorded Services tab to view the latest service.
Note from the Pastor:
St. James will continue to record and post on-line worship services for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Plans are being made to continue recording and posting these services even after the pandemic has lost its grip on our lives. Our desire is to reach persons in our community that are physically unable to attend worship at St. James. Please inform friends and neighbors of this ongoing opportunity to hear and partake in God’s Word.
While our congregation calendar is in flux these days and planning is very difficult, this website and our newsletter will serve to reach out with information that is known to the editors of our publications. Your assistance is necessary in order to make our communication accurate and up-to-date. If you would like to add names to the prayer list, have news to share, or need further information, please contact the pastor at: prmeswanson@gmail.com, or our webmaster, Kendra Hepler at: hepler.kendra@gmail.com, or our newsletter editor, Mel Lesher at: melodee.lesher@yahoo.com. You may also call the pastor at 570-652-1951.
December 12, 2020
Due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in our area, in-person services at St. James are suspended through January 4th, 2021. The St. James Council will meet on January 7th, 2021 to reevaluate the situation and make a decision for future services. During this time, we invite you to worship with us online. Beginning December 20th, services will be posted on the “Recorded Services” page of this website for the Christmas season.
June 6, 2020
Dear People of St. James:
It has been twelve weeks since we last gathered for worship, causing our hearts to yearn for that day when we assemble again as a community of faith. At the meeting of the Church Council on June 4th, much of the discussion focused on when that day might become a reality. This alone is a difficult thing to determine, but the severity of this Pandemic has added the element of how we will open to our decision-making.
Please know that the guiding principal under which we make decisions is the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” With this command from our Lord Jesus Christ in mind, the Council determined that we will wait until the “green phase”, which will be determined by the Governor, and then begin the process of setting a date to re-open. Adding further weight to the Council’s decision is the fact that our insurance policy does not provide coverage in the event of disease, in this case COVID-19. For these reasons, our doors remain closed until the risk lessens.
In the meantime, St. James members are invited to attend the outdoor services that will begin at Friedens Lutheran Church, Hegins, on Sunday, June 21, at 10:30 am.These services will be conducted in the Friedens parking lot. Worshipers need to bring a lawn chair OR you may stay in your vehicle as the services will be transmitted on FM frequency, so you may use your vehicle radio to listen to the service.
It is advised that you bring bottled water for refreshment. If you sit outside your vehicle, you must wear a mask and maintain social distancing. There will be no social hour at this time. Above all, I urge you to remain at home if, in any way, you feel it might be unsafe for you to attend this or any public gathering at this time.
The St. James Council has appointed a Safety Committee to begin meeting to establish guidelines for how we will go about re-opening St. James for worship. This is no easy effort, as there is much to consider, most importantly your safety. Simply, worship will not resume until Council has determined an appropriate time and appropriate measures are in place to lessen the spread of COVID-19.
Be aware that when worship resumes, either outside or inside, we cannot assume that life will return to “normal.” I must be candid with you so that you do not develop an illusory hope that nothing will change. The reality is that this pandemic has already brought great change to our lives, including that of the Church. Wearing masks, maintaining distance, frequent hand washing and sanitizing facilities have become the norm. How these changes will play out in the long run is known only to God, but for now we must assume that COVID-19 is still a threat, necessitating prudent action on our part.
The Council appreciates your constructive feedback. Our leaders are named below if you choose to offer your opinion to them.
The Council and Safety Committee will keep you advised of plans and procedures and asks for your prayers that the Holy Spirit may guide them in this most difficult time. In turn they pray for you, as do I.
Now, may the same Spirit who led the people of Israel out of a plague-ravaged land into the Promised Land of hope and freedom, keep you also in Gods loving care and guide you into peace.
Pastor Swanson
St. James Council
Gwen Ney
Bill Simons
Josh Hepler
Rick Miller
Joyce Deeben
Melodee Lesher
Lyndon Hepler
Ruth Snyder
Gloria James
Steve Mattern
April 2020
Dear friends: As this is being written the coronavirus continues to expand across our land. Soon we will surpass all other nations with the most people afflicted by this dread disease, a distinction that no one will boast about. The uncertainty of all this can lead to fear and doubt, perhaps even a loss of faith, which I talked about in my earlier letter to you.
Now, questions arise about what we should do as we wait for this trouble to end. The human need to act, to get busy, to take charge and assume control of our lives, has caused some among us to insist that we get “back to normal” sooner rather than later. I confess that I admire such courage. Those who are bold, while others sit and watch, are people that act decisively and get things done. In this day and age, there is a tendency to put such a leadership style up on a pedestal and bestow upon it a sort of saintly virtue. I’m not so sure. Being bold should never be reckless. And making decisions without consulting advisers and people who are better informed and who possess a greater degree of common sense is more likely a prescription for disaster.
For this reason I am very reluctant to rush back to our usual activities, as if we can scare away coronavirus and the wiles of the devil by our brash displays of grit and fortitude. I think neither disease nor the devil is much impressed by our rugged individualism. Shouldn’t we be asking why we need to rush back to our old ways? Is this for us? Who is being served by our actions? Is it not the purpose of the Church to serve our neighbor? Scripture is clear in stating that the Church is God’s mission, the embodiment of Christ, to live and die for the world. Simply, the Church lives to serve as Christ served. We do not exist for ourselves, but for others.
This means it would be wise for us to consider how our actions will affect those most vulnerable in our community, yes, even in our own congregations. I know this is a very trying time. The financial strain is enormous. Savings and retirement accounts have plummeted. Churches will face an uphill climb to recover. Our congregation councils approach this with eyes wide open.
I know some will remain unconvinced. I appreciate that you want to gather again in assembly and worship as God’s people. I want the same. Yet, we need to think of how others may be at risk. So, I remind you that our worship service is on-line at www.stjamespitmanpa.com. You can watch me and Pastor Laura leading worship at Friedens. Pray, sing, and listen to the word of God. The promise of the Gospel is never silenced.
“Whether One May Flee form a Deadly Plague” by Martin Luther, 1527
What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body? You ought to think this way: “I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God. Moreover, he who has contracted the disease and recovered should keep away from others and not admit them into his presence unless it be necessary. Though one should aid him in his time of need, he in turn should, after his recovery, so act toward others that no one becomes unnecessarily endangered on his account and so cause another’s death. “Whoever loves danger,” says the wise man, “will perish by it” [Ecclesiastes 3:26]. If the people in a city were to show themselves bold in their faith when a neighbor’s need so demands, and cautious when no emergency exists, and if everyone would help ward off contagion as best he can, then the death toll would indeed be moderate. But if some are too panicky and desert their neighbors in their plight, and if some are so foolish as not to take precautions but aggravate the contagion, then the devil has a heyday and many will die.
May Christ our Lord and Savior preserve us all in pure faith and fervent love, unspotted and pure until his day. Amen.
Pastor Swanson
St. James Lutheran Church 