I’d like to draw your attention to three seasonal changes in our worship service this week, some of which will continue throughout the summer months. First, June 1 is Ascension Sunday, one of the “five evangelical feasts” which are celebrated in most Christian traditions (along with Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, and Pentecost). This day commemorates the events of Acts 1:6-11 when Jesus completed His earthly ministry by ascending into Heaven, as mentioned in the hymns A Hymn Of Glory Let Us Sing, O Christ, Our Hope, and Alleluia! Sing To Jesus. Second, we’re taking a break from the book of Acts and returning to Psalms for our sermon series, picking up right where we left off last summer. Each Sunday during this series, the final hymn of the service will be a setting of the psalm the pastor has just preached. Finally, in the center of the service where we profess our faith, we’ll shift from saying the Apostles’ Creed to the Nicene Creed. This year is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, where this great statement of faith was first adopted, and we’ll take these summer months to familiarize ourselves with this foundational document of the early church.
—Henry C. Haffner