On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” ~John 7:37
Monthly Archives: May 2023
Verse of the Day – May 26
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. ~Psalm 34:8
Pender UMC Spring Concert 2023: Joy Ringers
On May 13, 2023 Brian Stevenson, Pender Music Director, produced our annual Spring Concert.
This wonderful evening included music by Heidi Jacobs, pianist, the DC Harp Ensemble, the Pender Joy Ringers Handbell ensemble, Sean Wittmer, violinist, and an Irish music session.
The Joy Ringers played Streams of Life by Jason Krug and Fantastica by Ron Mallory.
Streams of Life Review: This exciting original tune from the pen of Jason Krug is not to be missed! Featuring alternating measures of 4/4 and 3/4, the joyful, memorable melody moves throughout the ensemble. Frequent interludes take the piece off in different directions before coming back to the melody once more. A slower, introspective middle section gives a respite before the driving feeling returns once more to close the piece out in explosive, festive fashion!
Fantastica Review: Inspired by the scores to epic fantasy films, this original composition will take your listeners on a journey into their own imaginations while keeping your ringers engaged with its intertwining melodies and multiple handbell techniques.
Donations received went to the REACH International foundation in support of two Sri Lankan orphanages.
Verse of the Day – May 25
Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time. ~Deuteronomy 4:40
Aldersgate Day
Aldersgate Day is celebrated on May 24 (or the Sunday closest) to commemorate the day in 1738 when John Wesley experienced assurance of his salvation. Wesley reluctantly attended a group meeting that evening on Aldersgate Street in London. As he heard a reading from Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, he felt his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley wrote in his journal that at about 8:45 p.m. “while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Charles Wesley only a few days before had also had a conversion experience in a building that still stands on an adjacent block (John Bray’s house on Little Britain). We do not know whether the building where John Wesley’s experience took place still exists, nor exactly in which building on Aldersgate Street it may have been if it still stands. A monument at the London Museum on Aldersgate Street marks where some believe the building may have been.
Over time, Aldersgate Street has been shortened by common Methodist usage to simply Aldersgate. The word has come to represent both the place and John Wesley’s experience.
From https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-what-is-aldersgate-day?
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