Dear Friends, Lent is upon us and this week we mark Ash Wednesday. What are you going to give up? Hopefully pride, anger, malice, and unforgiveness; hopefully we have given them up already!
Self-denial has its place: it may be good for our discipline to give up chocolates, wine, or candy and sweets, but Lent is really a time for getting right with God and our fellow human beings as we prepare to celebrate the good news of Good Friday and Easter Day!
Please join us if you can at 7 p.m. as we mark Ash Wednesday and receive the Ash crosses on our foreheads as a mark of our mortality and repentance. The readings will be Psalm 51:1-17 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, and we will be singing the hymns Abide with Me; O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go; and The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended!
The readings for the First Sunday of Lent will be from Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-17, and Matthew 4:1-11, and we will be singing the hymns When I Survey the Wondrous Cross; Forty Days and Forty Nights; Bless the Lord oh my Soul; and Shout to the Lord! Our Choir will be singing Still!
Last week’s Sermon in Thai and English, “Transgender, Transfigured, Transparent!”, is now available here! The preacher was Father Iain Baxter, and the Thai translation was by Rev. Deacon Wattana Jaengyim.
Pancake Potluck – Last Sunday!
Our annual Pancake Potluck to mark the beginning of Lent was held last Sunday! Many thanks to Christa and Ruthie who between them produced 175 pancakes!!! The lunch was a great success with over thirty people in attendance! Almost all the pancakes were devoured!
Chili Night
Some of the group!
Chili Night will continue next week at the usual time of 6 p.m. Come and join us at the vicarage as we share chili followed by ice cream!
Weekly Offering to All Saints
You can still donate in person or online. Thank you for your support and love for All Saints and all we are trying to do together. God has shown that he is mighty and we are in his hands!
Lent is almost upon us, we will celebrate “Pancake Sunday” this week, but on the Sunday before Lent the Gospel reading is always the story of Jesus’ transfiguration. Before his all to human temptations and death on the cross are remembered, we remember Jesus shining with the glory of God!
What is the Transfiguration about? It is the revelation of who Jesus really is – the Son of God! And Moses and Elijah appear to testify about this on behalf of the Law and the Prophets. What about us? How do we see Jesus? And are we prepared to reveal who we really are too? Do we even know who that is?
The readings this week will be Exodus 24:12-18, 2 Peter 1:16-21, and Matthew 17:1-9, and we will be singing the hymns Praise to the Lord, the Almighty; Shine, Jesus, Shine; Transfiguration Hymn, and Christ be our Light! Our choir will be singing Days of Elijah.
This was held following the morning service last Sunday and was a very positive meeting. Hannah Alexander-Herrick, Paddy Davis, Sarah Sensamaust, and Shasta Sickinger, were elected to serve as council members for 2023. Katie Wierenga was also chosen to fill one of the clergy nominated positions until she leaves in August, and Mark Crawford and I are the two other council members, as Congregational Pastor and Vicar.
Pancake Potluck – This Sunday, 19th February
Our annual Pancake Potluck to mark the beginning of Lent will be held this Sunday!
Please bring toppings to share and join us at the vicarage following the morning service. Please ask if you need a lift. All are very welcome!
The address is:
The Vicarage, 9/65 Ban Ing Doi, Kan Klong Chonprathan Road, Tambon Chang Phueak, Chiang Mai
This will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd February including the imposition of ashes. Join us for this solemn service marking the beginning of Lent. All Welcome!
Chili Night
Some of the group!
Chili Night will continue next week at the usual time of 6 p.m. Come and join us at the vicarage as we share chili followed by ice cream!
Weekly Offering to All Saints
You can still donate in person or online. Thank you for your support and love for All Saints and all we are trying to do together. God has shown that he is mighty and we are in his hands!
Dear Friends, This week our Old Testament reading is from the first chapter of Genesis. Christa Crawford will be unpacking this important Hebrew text and exploring what it means for us today! Perhaps the key line is “And God created…” but we will see what Christa has to say.
In preparation for our Annual General Meeting, our worship this Sunday will include the Methodist Covenant Prayer in which we commit ourselves to God and each other for another year. You can read it below:
The Methodist Covenant Prayer
I am no longer my own but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, exalted for you, or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing: I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.’
The readings this week will be Genesis 1:1-2:3, Romans 8:18-25, and Matthew 6:25-34, and we will be singing the hymns All Creatures of our God and King; Still; For the Beauty of the Earth; and Praise with Joy the World’s Creator.
We mourn the passing of Ivan Hall, founder member of All Saints, Chiang Mai. Our deacon, Gene Bourquin, shares this message:
A word of my friend Ivan on his passing, partially excerpted with information from his nephew’s recent letter.
1932 – 2023 Dr. Ivan P. Hall, died February 1, in Hoenow, a remote suburb of what was once East Berlin, after a professional life spent primarily in Japan. Ivan was born to American missionary parents in Bulgaria in 1932.
He lived mostly overseas during his adult life and in his later years he was here in Chiangmai, having an apartment in my building where Kong and I now reside and worshipping at my church. Ivan was a graduate of both Princeton and Harvard. He served in the U.S. Information Service in the 1950s in Pakistan and in the future Bangladesh. And he was special – a cultural attache in Afghanistan, a professor in Japan . . . a solitary intellectual. He was an amazing linguist, fluent in Japanese in addition to Continental languages, who, after retiring, took the opportunity to teach in China – in Chinese. Author of histories and politico-cultural criticism published in journals, a cultural diplomat, university professor, U.S. Government official, a journalist, and a musician. He published books critiquing the Japanese for their xenophobia, and the West for its persistent ignorance. His nephew recalled how he engaged politically in multiple countries – bringing a landmark civil rights lawsuit in Japan and, after half a lifetime as a Rockefeller Republican, resigning loudly from his federal position in protest of Reagan policies.
Ivan was a friend and confidant to me in Chiangmai. He always said how he appreciated our long social, political, and cultural discussions, which he found too few and far between in the local community, but he was by far the superior intellect, and I the beneficiary in those chats. We shared many Sundays in church and dinners of Thai-Italian foods at Andy’s Place, one of his favorites. Visits on his balcony looking out to the northern mountains of Thailand were always, always interesting.
After he left for Germany we tried to kept in touch by emails, but Kong and I thought of him often and regretted the infrequent updates. We only knew each other for a small part of his many years on the earth, but some wonderful years I think. I’ll treasure the books of his which I bought or he gifted.
May he rest in the Lord’s eternal peace and rise in Glory.
All Saints Annual General Meeting – This Sunday!
This will be held following the morning service this Sunday. All are welcome to attend and members over the age of 16 will be able to vote.
The meeting will receive reports, approve the budget for 2023, and elect a new Church Council for the next year. Nominations are now closed and four people have been nominated for the four elected positions on the Church Council. They are:
Hannah Alexander-Herrick Paddy Davis Sarah Sensamaust Shasta Sickinger
Pancake Potluck – Next Sunday, 19th February
Our annual Pancake Potluck to mark the beginning of Lent will be held on Sunday 19th February!
Please bring toppings to share and join us at the vicarage following the morning service. Please ask if you need a lift. All are very welcome!
The address is:
The Vicarage, 9/65 Ban Ing Doi, Kan Klong Chonprathan Road, Tambon Chang Phueak, Chiang Mai
This will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd February including the imposition of ashes. Join us for this solemn service marking the beginning of Lent. All Welcome!
Chili Night
Some of the group!
Chili Night will continue next week at the usual time of 6 p.m. Come and join us at the vicarage as we share chili followed by ice cream!
Weekly Offering to All Saints
You can still donate in person or online. Thank you for your support and love for All Saints and all we are trying to do together. God has shown that he is mighty and we are in his hands!
We are called to be salt and light to the world, but are we? Salt brings flavour and healing, light shows us the way to go and illuminates the darkness, but do we do this in our daily lives? Find out more at All Saints this Sunday.
The scripture readings for this Sunday will be Isaiah 58:6-9, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, and Matthew 5:13-20, and we will be singing the hymns Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty; Salt of the Earth; A Little Bit of Salt; and Tell Out My Soul!
This will be held following the morning service on Sunday 12th February. All are welcome to attend and members over the age of 16 will be able to vote.
The meeting will receive reports, approve the budget for 2023, and elect a new Church Council for the next year. Nominations are now closed and four people have been nominated for the four elected positions on the Church Council. They are:
Hannah Alexander-Herrick Paddy Davis Sarah Sensamaust Shasta Sickinger
Pancake Potluck – Sunday 19th February
Our annual Pancake Potluck to mark the beginning of Lent will be held on Sunday 19th February!
Please bring toppings to share and join us at the vicarage following the morning service. Please ask if you need a lift. All are very welcome!
The address is:
The Vicarage, 9/65 Ban Ing Doi, Kan Klong Chonprathan Road, Tambon Chang Phueak, Chiang Mai
This will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday 22nd February. More details to follow!
Chili Night
Some of the group!
Chili Night will continue next week at the usual time of 6 p.m. Come and join us at the vicarage as we share chili followed by ice cream!
Weekly Offering to All Saints
You can still donate in person or online. Thank you for your support and love for All Saints and all we are trying to do together. God has shown that he is mighty and we are in his hands!
All Saints' Chiang Mai 