Join our weekly newsletter:
Support our church:
Let us know how we can pray for you:
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.
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.
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.
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.