Lea Perretta
St. Matthew's is a Safe Sanctuary Church
Lea Perretta
Vaction Bible School and God's Great Love
Lea Perretta
The Meaning Behind Living Up To the Rainbow

On June 11 at 9:30 am we will celebrate the third year of our “Living Up to the Rainbow” worship service. Each year in this special worship service we celebrate the diversity of God’s people and we affirm the sacred worth of all persons, not determined by their sexual orientation or gender identity, but by their identity in Christ. Through music and liturgy, we affirm the expansive love that God has for all persons and God’s call for us to do the same. 

This service is marked with rainbows because the rainbow is a deeply significant symbol in the Bible. In Genesis, the rainbow represents the covenant of love God initiates with Noah after the flood: 

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis 9: 12-13). 

Lea Perretta
St. Matthew's is a Safe Sanctuary Church

St. Matthew’s is a Safe Sanctuary Church. A small sentence on the front of every bulletin that St. Matthew’s creates. What does it mean and why is it even there?

Lea Perretta
I Am: Journey with Jesus through Lent - 4/2

A Lenten Reflection - Key Events of Holy Week

Since Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent we have been journeying with Jesus and his disciples to Jerusalem for the events of Holy Week and Easter. The events of Holy Week recount the Passion Narratives in the Gospels that describe the suffering (passio in Latin), death and burial of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week with Palm Sunday and with it our Lenten journey slows down and affords us a more detailed look at the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.

Here are the key events of Holy Week

Church

Patience in Advent

Nowhere is this impatience more on display than the Christmas season for which retailers now start decorating the week before Halloween. My boys didn’t have a chance to collect their candy and come down from the resulting sugar buzz before Santa, Christmas lights and holiday music appeared in stores.