The Ward Hill Church Bell Ringer – April 25, 2021 – Good Shepherd Sunday
Midweek Meeting for Prayer – 7 pm on Zoom – Wednesday, April 28 and Ascension Thursday, May 13
Ascensiontide Season of Prayer: 10 Days from May 13 to 22 – We humbly beseech you to commit yourself to one hour of prayer each day, asking the Holy Spirit to renew the church and reconcile the world.
Church Calendar & Lectionary
This Season: Easter – 50 days concluding with Pentecost
(Apr 4 – May 23, 2021)
Color: White – for the glory of Christ’s resurrection
This Sunday: 4th Sunday of Easter – Good Shepherd Sunday
Sun, May 2: 5th Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8
Hymns: 284 – This Joyful Eastertide; 648 – My Jesus, I Love Thee
Monthly Prayer Focus for April
Local Church Focus: April – Armenian Apostolic Church at Hye Pointe, Ward Hill – Fr Vart Gyozalyan, pastor; Missions Focus: Barnabas Ministries
Community Resources – Food, Clothing, Shelter, & Other Help www.communityactioninc.org/phocadownload/resource_guide_english_october_2017.pdf National Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
Refugee Ministries: Interserve USA (interserveusa.com); Emmanuel Gospel Center’s Greater Boston Refugee Ministry (http://www.egc.org/refugee)
Global Crisis Help: World Relief – worldrelief.org
Information on Persecuted Christians: Open Doors USA – opendoorsusa.org
Monthly Scripture Memory for April
Romans 10:9-13 (ESV) – 9 Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Catechism: An Outline of the Faith
Q. What is Holy Baptism?
A. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.
Q. What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism?
A. The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?
A. The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is required of us at Baptism?
A. It is required that we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
The following two questions are for those in our congregation who believe that the children of believers should be baptized. Like many churches in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, Ward Hill Church affirms as biblical and proper both this traditional Congregationalist understanding as well as the Baptist view that children of believers should wait to make their own profession of faith prior to baptism.
In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.
Q. Why then are infants baptized?
A. Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God.
Q. How are the promises for infants made and carried out?
A. Promises are made for them by their parents and sponsors, who guarantee that the infants will be brought up within the Church, to know Christ and be able to follow him.
