This year, Ash Wednesday fell on Valentine’s Day. The secular holiday of love coincided with the beginning of Lent, the Christian season of prayer, personal transformation and charitable giving. It was a positive coincidence. The season of Lent will last until late March, giving people weeks to reflect on the love that beats at the heart of the Christian life.
At Mountain Shadows Presbyterian Church (mountainshadowschurch.org), we are spending Lent discussing a book by Jacqueline Bussie called “Love Without Limits: Jesus’ Radical Vision for Love with No Exceptions”. All are welcome to our book discussions, held on Thursdays at 4:15 p.m. and at our 10 a.m. Sunday worship services. We are striving to co-create a congregation that puts the all-inclusive love of Jesus into practice.
When it comes to LGBTQIA+ people, some faith communities practice limited, conditional love. That’s not the kind of love Jesus practiced or preached. As Jacqueline Bussie points out, “Jesus lived and taught a love so wide and wild, deep and disorderly, it struck terror in the hearts of all those who normally wielded the power to decide who was loveable and who was not.”
Mountain Shadows Church will welcome guest preacher Rev. Dr. Alex Hendrickson, who works with the Covenant Network of Presbyterians at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 11 at 10 a.m. The Network’s mission is to “seek an equity still not fully realized for LGBTQIA+ people in church and society.”
Following the 10 a.m. worship service on Sunday, March 11, Dr. Hendrickson will make a public presentation on ways that faith communities can promote equity and the full inclusion of all people—without exception. Mountain Shadows welcomes our neighbors to join us in practicing the kind of love that dismantles unjust barriers, heals hearts and creates communities of blessing and belonging for all.
Longtime Tucson bar sold, to be redeveloped
