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Zion Lutheran Church livestreams our Sunday Worship services in order to accommodate those who are unable to join us in person. Please be informed that by worshipping in the sanctuary your image may appear during our online broadcast. If you do not wish to appear on camera, please speak to an usher so that they may direct you to our “no filming” seating area.
Join us for a delicious evening featuring Oma’s Gulasch with egg noodles, red cabbage, and carrots, plus a decadent Chocolate Cherry Cake for dessert! 
Friday, March 21, 2025
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
NEW LOCATION: First United Methodist Church, 55 Fenn St, Pittsfield
Adults: $20 | Children under 12: $12
Beer & Wine available for dine-in
Take-out available
Handicap accessible
Reservations encouraged – Get your tickets now!
Online: www.zionlutheranpittsfield.org
Call: (413) 442-3525
Email: office@zionlutheranpittsfield.org
Scan the QR Code on the flyer
Don’t miss out on this authentic German feast – spread the word and bring your friends! 
Lent and Holy Week at Zion
Lent opens with God’s call to “return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). This is not something we can easily accomplish in a matter of minutes; the church gives us 40 days to try, and even that is probably not long enough. But still, we are called to return to God through the discipline of Lent: “self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love,” as the Ash Wednesday liturgy puts it.
This Lent, we want church to be a place to gain strength and inspiration for your journey of returning to God with all your heart.
On Sundays, worship will reflect both the beauty and sparseness of the season. We will read (rather than chant) the psalm and the communion liturgy, and there will be a little more space and silence in each service. As a reminder that Lent is about our hearts returning to God’s care, we will sing a setting of psalm 51 (“Create in me a clean heart, O Lord”) as our offering prayer.
We are also using Sunday worship to build a bridge into your prayer life at home. Each week, Pastor Joel will give an object for you to take home and build into an altar. Each of these tangible items will remind you of an element of Christian spirituality, and – we hope – will draw you into more robust prayer and deeper faith in God.
On Mondays 3/10-4/14, we will gather on zoom to examine the Christian concept of welcome and how we might give and receive it in our context.
On Wednesdays starting 3/12, we will share a simple soup supper at church at 5:15 followed by singing Holden Evening Prayer at 6pm.
Throughout the season, along with the Pittsfield Campus of Downtown Churches, we will mark several Lent and Holy Week observances together out in public in downtown Pittsfield: Ashes to Go on 3/5, a Good Friday procession at noon on 4/18, and an Easter Vigil at 7pm on 4/19.
The Pittsfield Campus of Downtown Churches invite you to observe the beginning of the church season of Lent by receiving ashes on your forehead at various locations in downtown Pittsfield.
Find clergy and pastoral staff:
- 8-10am: Fenn St outside First United Methodist Church (Rev. Steve Dale, First UMC)
- 9am-12pm: South Community Food Pantry (Rev. Mike Denton, UCC Pittsfield, and Rev. Steven Canfield, First Baptist)
- 11am-1pm: BMC Cafeteria (Rev. Joel Bergeland, Zion Lutheran)
- 12-1pm: Intermodal Transportation Center (Rev. Jenny Gregg and Becky Crane, Cathedral of the Beloved)
- 12-2pm: Allen St: drive-up, outside St. Stephen’s Episcopal (Rev. Nina Pooley, St. Stephen’s)
- 4:30-5:30pm: South Community Food Pantry (Rev. Mike Denton, UCC Pittsfield)
- 5-7pm: Price Memorial AME Zion Church on Bank Row/Park Square (Rev. Don Harris and Rev. Connie Harris, Price Memorial)
For Christians, the 40 days before Easter comprise a season called Lent, which is marked by the spiritual practices of prayer, fasting, and generosity toward those in need. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent; people are invited to begin this season of repentance by receiving a cross of ashes on their forehead while someone reminds them of their mortality, saying “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The Pittsfield Campus of Downtown Churches is a collaboration of Cathedral of the Beloved, First Baptist Church, First United Methodist Church, Price Memorial AME Zion Church, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ Pittsfield, and Zion Lutheran Church.
Facebook Event – https://www.facebook.com/share/1UYgyhyEqu/
We make our Lenten journey together. Gather in to be nourished by food and prayer each Wednesday night during Lent. 5:15pm soup supper followed by a 6pm worship service of Holden Evening Prayer, a brief, simple, and beautiful sung prayer service.
Please consider bringing a soup or bread to share. Each week, we hope to have 3 people bring soups (at least one vegan) and 1 person to bring bread.
To sign up to bring soup or bread, email Christiana Greene (christireliv@gmail.com) or look for the signup sheet at church. Soup and Holden will run Wednesdays 3/12-4/9.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the church’s 40 day journey with Jesus to his saving death and resurrection. In response to God’s call to “return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12), we observe this season with prayer, fasting, and generosity. Lent is a time of self-examination, of struggling against sin and evil, and of letting go of all that keeps us from God. In our faith, we are never alone, and so we accompany each other on this journey and find comfort and strength from God’s presence with us.
More about Ash Wednesday from Sundays and Seasons (ELCA worship planning resource): “On Ash Wednesday we begin our forty-day journey toward Easter with a day of fasting and repentance. Marking our foreheads with dust, we acknowledge that we die and return to the earth. At the same time, the dust traces the life-giving cross indelibly marked on our foreheads at baptism. While we journey through Lent to return to God, we have already been reconciled to God through Christ. We humbly pray for God to make our hearts clean while we rejoice that “now is the day of salvation.” Returning to our baptismal call, we more intentionally bear the fruits of mercy and justice in the world.”
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/share/1GpQcQ2P2f/
Mondays 3/10-4/14, 7pm, Zoom.
Zion has always thought of itself as a welcoming congregation. Welcome is indeed something we do on Sundays, and this year we are also mindful that our building is welcoming new neighbors through the apartments and housing resource center. Scratch beneath the surface of this common word with us as we examine this rich Christian concept from a number of angles – personal, spiritual, social, and practical. There may be light reading between sessions some weeks.
Tentative schedule (subject to change):
- 3/10: Who’s Welcoming Who: “The Lunch Date” and the Communion Table
- 3/17: Welcome – or not: stories from Scripture with John Kidd
- 3/24: Las Posadas, Monks, and Christian Hospitality
- 3/31: Welcoming our neighbor when they’re looking more for money than for God, featuring Zion’s Accompaniment and Response Team
- 4/7: Immigrants, Sanctuary, and the Church in America 2025
- 4/14: Knowing ourselves as welcomed.
Zoom link provided upon registration.
Attendance: Come when you can, skip when you must – sessions do not build on each other, so it’s not necessary to be at all of them.
Who we are
Organized in 1859, Zion Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest theologically-progressive Lutheran body in the United States. Since its inception, Zion has worked for the common good of our neighbors by connecting in community, nourishing spirits, and inspiring lives of joy and service.
Martin Luther wrote that “faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace,” and Zion takes this to heart:
What we do
Blessing Box
Stocked with tissues, deodorant, feminine hygiene products and more, our Blessing Box provides a variety of personal care items to those in need.
The Common Room:
A Common Room for the Common Good
acommonroom.org
Music
We make a joyful noise together, sharing our gifts through our 'pick-up' choir, our Handbell Choir, and The Replacements (our occasional worship band). Contact Amy Renak, our music director, to join in!
Building Calendar
Please note: This calendar shows building use (i.e. total time of events, including setup and takedown), not event start times. Please verify start times with event organizers.