All posts by OSLC

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, July/August, 2025

Audio

OUR SAVIOUR LUTHERAN CHURCH

3301 The Alameda
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.235.9553
July/August, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In my sermon this past Sunday, the Festival of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, I noted that the festivals of the apostles remind us that the Church’s life and work rests on the witness of the apostles to the resurrection of the Savior, the ground of all our life and hope. “I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church” – as we say in the Nicene Creed. In this Church Year three of the apostles’ days happen to fall on Sunday: August 24th is Saint Bartholomew the Apostle’s Day and September 21st is Saint Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist’s Day. And the light we see in their life and witness is the light of the risen Lord. So just as every Sunday is a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection, in the same way every saint’s day is a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection and so, like the Lord’s Day, a day of joy. How we 21st century Christians need to recover that sense of the Lord’s Day as a day of joy! We gather on Sunday morning not to remember some long departed friend, we come to meet our risen Lord and Savior in the Sacrament of His love:

O sacred banquet
in which Christ is received,
the memory of His passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory is given unto us.

In the prayer that is frequently prayed following the distribution of Holy Communion, a prayer written by Dr. Luther for his German Mass of 1526, we pray that God would strengthen us through the Sacrament “in faith toward You and in fervent love toward one another.” We pray that the love we have received may be reflected in how we live among ourselves, how we live in our families and the people we work with and all the people who come into our lives, especially those who are in need – often in desperate need! So remember to keep bringing food items for the GEDCO Food Pantry and personal items for the Helping Up Mission in its work with homeless men and women. As the terrible wars continue in Ukraine and in the Middle East and other parts of the world, remember that you can help through our Synod’s Contributor Care Line (888-030-4439) or by sending a check to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, PO Box 66861, Saint Louis, MO 63166-6861. Make your check payable to the LCMS and mark the check for LCMS World Relief and Human Care. You can also donate through the secure website lcms.org/givenow/mercy.

And do remember our Free Flea Markets on July 12th and August 9th, 9:00A.M. – 12 Noon. They continue to meet a real need, and we always need help in welcoming our visitors and distributing the items they choose.

I urge you to read and take to heart Gabe Purviance’s Note, which appears at the end of this newsletter. Over the last year or so we have been in the process of converting all (most all) fluorescent lights in the church to LED. This will reduce electricity usage and also simplify maintenance, since we can expect these lights to last a very long time. Our members have been doing this themselves by removing the ballast and old lights from the fixtures and replacing them with LED tubes. The project is now nearly complete with just a few more lights in the kitchen in need of updating. Many thanks to those who have helped with this project including Andy Layman, Merton Masterson, Gabe Purviance, Paul Techau, Gary Watson and Wayne West. We owe them a great debt of gratitude! Our congregation is certainly blessed with willing workers!

We continue to remember in prayer Bridget Bauman, James Bauman, Christopher Bell, Bertha Buchanan, Dana Carmichael, Timothy Doswell, Quilla Downs, Bunny Duckett, Joyce Eaves, Albert Ford, Frank Ford, Iris Ford, Yolanda Ford, Sean Fortune, Thurman Frey, Lynne Funck, Katherine Gray, Sherry James, Gloria Jones, Mary Mokris, Elliott Robertson, Julia Silver, Robert Siperek Jr., Lawrence Smallwood, Paul Swank, George Volkman, Gary Watson; Marvalisa, Sierra, Jonathan and Steven Gibson. Yolanda Ford remains at Future Care, 1046 North Point Road, Baltimore, MD 21224.

I hope that during these summer days you will find time for rest and refreshment. I also hope that you will not take the Church for granted. But it seems that in so many parts of the world – thankfully not all! – there is a deplorable neglect of worship on the Lord’s Day which can in no way be justified or excused. Every Lord’s Day Christ provides a heavenly Banquet for us as we continue on our pilgrimage through this present world to the life of the world to come. Will you ignore His gracious invitation or will you come gladly to the Feast?

Affectionately in our risen Lord,

Pastor McClean

As Christians we know the Church is everlasting. Unfortunately, church buildings are not and require maintenance and repair to weather the winds of time. As members of Our Saviour Lutheran Church we have been blessed with a house of worship that was built with the highest quality and craftmanship of its time! However, that time was almost a century ago. Although she still stands triumphant at the intersection of 33rd & The Alameda, welcoming all to worship, she needs our help!

Mechanical systems and materials have extended beyond expectation, but now are coming to need repair, updating, or replacement. A short while back the heating system blower had to be replaced to maintain warmth in the sanctuary. Unfortunately, we have had a couple of additional significant maintenance issues that have come up:

  • First is the roof over the education building, which is mostly slate and in good condition. However, we have had some water leaking in the upstairs hallway. The leak has been traced to the top center section of the roof, which is a flat and needs to be replaced to prevent additional water damage to the church. The replacement cost is $4,500.
  • Additionally, the window in Pastor’s study has deteriorated, and is barely functional. It does not open properly, and is not sealed well, making it hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The window needs to be replaced with an updated vinyl window. The replacement cost is $3,282.

Through faithful stewardship the church has been able to advance these repairs, but in order to be prepared for the next substantial repair we need your help to restore these funds as soon as possible! Your contribution will allow us to address needed repairs before they become even more costly catastrophic failures.

Please ensure that Our Saviour continues to stand steadfast and triumphant by making a donation to help defray these costs. Please note your checks memo “Building Maintenance.”

Thank you very much,
– Gabriel  Purviance, Stewardship Director

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, June, 2025

OUR SAVIOUR LUTHERAN CHURCH

3301 The Alameda
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.235.9553
June, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In his letter to his young co-worker Timothy, Saint Paul says, “Great indeed is the mystery of our religion, God was manifested in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16). Although God has from all eternity been the one God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – it was only in the coming into this world of God the Son that the mystery of the Holy Trinity was clearly revealed: at Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River the Father declares Him to be His beloved Son and the Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove. The Holy Trinity is an inscrutable mystery, and three hundred years passed before the Church found words to safeguard the mystery. This Year of Our Lord 2025 is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea which did just that. A great controversy had broken out when Arius, a presbyter in the Church at Alexandria in Egypt, denied that Jesus is truly God. To resolve the increasingly bitter controversy the Emperor Constantine summoned a council to meet in the City of Nicaea – present-day Iznik in Turkey – about 90 miles southwest of Constantinople – present-day Istanbul. The Council of over 300 bishops met from late May through July of the year 325 and finally adopted a Creed which confesses that Jesus is “of one substance” with the Father, meaning that Jesus is truly God. Only God can save this lost and fallen world! The Creed adopted at Nicaea, which safeguards the truth that Jesus is truly God, was expanded at the Council of Constantinople in the year 380 in a way that safeguards the truth that the Holy Spirit is truly God the Lord. And so the great mystery of the Holy Trinity was safeguarded and confessed. And the Creed adopted at Nicaea (as expanded at Constantinople) has for a thousand years been confessed at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist as it is to this day in the Divine Service. The Holy Trinity is the God who made and saved us! The Holy Spirit leads us to Christ who leads us to the Father. And so in the Introit for Trinity Sunday (which this year falls on June 15th) the church sings: “Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity: let us give glory to Him because He hath shown His mercy to us.”

The May issue of our Synod’s periodical, The Lutheran Witness, has some excellent articles about the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea which I highly recommend. You can subscribe to the Witness by calling  800-325-3040 (option 2) or by emailing lwsubscriptions@cph.org.

Three of the five Sundays in June are festivals of the Church Year. June 8th is the Feast of Pentecost which together with Christmas and Easter is one of the three chief festivals of the Church Year. June 15th is Trinity Sunday and June 29th is the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul..

The Sunday Bible Class will be suspended for the summer beginning on June 15th and will resume on October 5th. We have been studying the Smalcald Articles, one of the documents in which the Lutheran Church confesses its faith in the truth revealed in the written Word of God.

David Dowdy fell asleep in the Lord on Tuesday May 27th. His funeral will be held in church on Tuesday, June 10th, at 11:00 A.M. May the Light perpetual ever shine upon him and may the Savior comfort all who mourn His departure with the hope of the resurrection.

At the spring voters meeting the budget for fiscal year 2025/26 was approved and the Church Council was elected: Bernie Knox, Merton Masterson, Gabe Purviance, Paul and Mary Techau, Gary Watson, Wayne and Jean West. Andy Layman, who was our lay delegate to the recent Southeastern District convention, gave a brief report on the convention. The repairs to our heating system are expected to be completed this month but we are still trying to replenish our cash reserves.

Remember to bring food items for the GEDCO Food Pantry and personal items for the Helping Up Mission. The need remains great as does the opportunity to help as we are able. Those of us who know nothing of food insecurity and homelessness are obligated by the Law of Love to help those who suffer want. Remember too that you can help people suffering from war and all kinds of disasters through our Synod’s Contributor Care Line (888-030-4439) or by sending a check to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, PO Box 66861, Saint Louis, MO 63166-6861. Make your check payable to The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and mark the check for LCMS World Relief and Human Care. You can also donate through the secure website lcms.org/givenow/mercy.

We continue to remember in prayer Bridget Bauman, James Bauman, Christopher Bell, Bertha Buchanan, Dana Carmichael, Timothy Doswell, Quilla Downs, Bunny Duckett, Joyce Eaves, Albert Ford, Frank Ford, Iris Ford, Yolanda Ford, Sean Fortune, Lynne Funck, Katherine Gray, Sherry James, Gloria Jones, Mary Mokris, Pastor Elliott Robertson, Julia Silver, Robert Siperek Jr., Lawrence Smallwood, Paul Swank, George Volkman, Gary Watson; Marvalisa, Sierra, Jonathan and Steven Gibson. Yolanda Ford remains at Future Care, 1046 North Point Road, Baltimore, MD 21224.

Remember that our second Free Flea Market of this year will be held on Saturday, June 14th, 9:00 A.M. – 12 Noon. We always need volunteers to help and greet our visitors.

I suspect that everyone will agree that for a great many years now we have been living in a time of increasing moral disintegration. Marriage as ordained by God in creation is increasingly in danger as some people even question the created reality of human beings as male and female. These problems will be addressed in a workshop In His Image: Christian Sexuality According to God that will be held on Saturday, June 28th, from 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. at Calvary Church, 2625 E, Northern Parkway. The cost is free and lunch will be provided but you must register by emailing Berealutheran2999@gmail.com by June 13th. If you have any questions you may call Calvary Church at 410-426-4307. The workshop will be led by Doxology which is a ministry funded by Synod’s Office of National Mission.

This month of June brings to an end the festival half of the Church Year when we have remembered and celebrated all that God has done for us in the birth and life and death and resurrection of His Son and by sending to us the Holy Spirit. But because every Sunday of the year is a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection, Christians have from the very beginning of the Church’s life gathered to meet the risen Lord as He comes to us every Lord’s Day in the Holy Sacrament. If you are unable to come to church, I am always glad to bring the Sacrament to you. I am always glad to hear from you either by telephone (410-554-9994) or by email (charlesmcclean1942@gmail.com). If you or a loved one are sick or in some other kind of need, never hesitate to let me know.

In the words of the Divine Service, “For the peace of the whole world, for the well being of the Church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.”

Affectionately in our risen Lord,

Pastor McClean

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, May, 2025

OUR SAVIOUR LUTHERAN CHURCH

3301 The Alameda
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.235.9553
May, 2025

Thursday, May 29
Ascension Day
Festival Divine Service

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

May 5th will be the 12th anniversary of my installation as pastor of Our Saviour Church. As I look back on these twelve years I am filled with happiness and with gratitude for all the ways in which our gracious heavenly Father has blessed me through these years. I think especially of all the many ways I have experienced the love and kindness of the members of this congregation. I am also acutely aware of your forbearance toward my limitations, weaknesses, indeed your forgiveness of my sins, my failure to love as I have been loved by God – and by you. Like any Christian, I can only live trusting in the cleansing blood of Him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification. I thank you and I ask your prayers. We do not know what the future holds for us as individuals or as a Christian congregation. But we do know Him who holds the future in His hands which still bear the marks of the nails, the marks of His love for us – though unworthy. In that sure knowledge we can face each new day with sure faith and certain hope.

On the second last day of this month we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord, a celebration of our sure and certain hope that where He is there we too shall be – as Bishop Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885) sings in his wonderful hymn (LSB 494) for Ascension Day:

He has raised our human nature
On the clouds to God’s right hand;
There we sit in heav’nly places,
There with Him in glory stand.
Jesus reigns, adored by angels;
Man with God is on the throne,
Mighty Lord, in Thine ascension
We by faith behold our own.

Like Christ’s incarnation and atonement and resurrection, His ascension is also one of the great mysteries of our faith. In a sermon for Ascension Day Pastor Ferdinand Walther (1811-1887), the Father Founder of our Synod, says that “the ascension of Christ is like the sun – the more intently one wants to look into it, the more blinded our eyes become, so that at last we cannot see anything at all; this work therefore belongs to those which are not to be fathomed at all but simply believed in childlike faith. The more simply we hold to what Scripture says about it, however, the more strengthening to our faith this mysterious article of Christian belief will become.” Come and join in celebrating this glorious mystery as we meet our risen and ascended Lord as He truly comes to us in the Holy Sacrament on Ascension Day!

The Spring Voters Meeting will be held on Sunday, May 18th, following the Divine Service. The Church Council will be elected and the budget for the new fiscal year approved. Every member of Our Saviour Church, eighteen years and older, is eligible to participate. Do come to the meeting and let your voice be heard!

Bert Buchanan’s sister, Marian Rollins, fell asleep in the Lord on Easter Monday at her home in El Paso, Texas, after a long illness, May the Light perpetual ever shine upon her and may Christ comfort Bert and all who mourn with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

Be sure to read Judy Volkman’s reminder at the end of this newsletter about our  Free Flea Markets which begin again on Saturday, May 10th. Judy also reminds us to support GEDCO and thanks you for your continued willingness to assist this effort through food donations. During the last fiscal year GEDO supported
– 4,679 households with food,
– 417 households with utility bills, 128 receiving financial assistance,
– 260 households with rental assistance,
– 2,673 children through CARES assistance,
– 378 people with assistance in finding jobs,
– 500 older adults with aid to avoid social isolation.

These statistics provide a window on the need which remains great indeed! Remember to bring personal items for the Helping Up Mission which has helped so many homeless men for so many years and now is also helping homeless women.

As we move toward summer, let’s not forget that, because of the recent expense of repairing our heating system, we are still asking for donations to replenish our cash reserves. We have received some very generous gifts! Let each of us give as we are able.

When we think about the tragic, ongoing warfare in Ukraine, in the Middle East, in Sudan and other parts of the world, as well as the recurring natural disasters here at home, we can so easily be overcome with a feeling of helplessness. So let me again remind you that one way we can help is through our Synod’s Contributor Care Line (888-030-4439) or by sending a check to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, PO Box 66861, Saint Louis, MO 63166-6861. Make your check payable to The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and mark the check for LCMS World Relief and Human Care. You can also donate through our Synod’s secure website: lcms.org/givenow/mercy.

We continue to remember in prayer Bridget Bauman, James Bauman, Christopher Bell, Bertha Buchanan, Dana Carmichael, Timothy Doswell, David Dowdy, Quilla Downs, Bunny Duckett, Joyce Eaves, Albert Ford, Frank Ford, Iris Ford, Yolanda Ford, Sean Fortune, Lynne Funck, Katherine Gray, Sherry James, Gloria Jones, Mary Mokris, Pastor Elliott Robertson, Julia Silver, Robert Siperek Jr., Lawrence Smallwood, Paul Swank, George Volkman, Gary Watson; Marvalisa, Sierra, Jonathan and Steven Gibson. Yolanda Ford remains at Future Care, 1046 North Point Road, Baltimore, MD 21224.

Although the world celebrates Easter for just one day – if it celebrates Easter at all! – the Church continues to celebrate Christ’s resurrection throughout the forty days of Eastertide and also on every Sunday throughout the year. Here at Our Saviour we continue to sing Easter hymns until Ascension Day, singing one of the oldest and most loved Easter hymns, Christ is Arisen (LSB 459), every Sunday. The Paschal (Easter) Candle burns throughout the Easter season. The five red wax nails in the Candle signify the marks of the nails and spear, still to be seen in the body of the risen Lord. As we sing in that wonderful hymn, Crown Him with Many Crowns (LSB 525): “Crown Him the Lord of love: behold His hands and side!”

In closing I want to thank Paul and Mary Techau, Jean and Wayne West, Bernie Knox, and Richard Brown who helped to make this year’s Saint Mark’s Conference a success; also Marlyn Williams, a member of Redeemer Church in Irvington who provided a delicious lunch on Monday, and Beth Skinner, a friend of mine and of the Techaus whom we’ve known since we were all at Immanuel Church in Alexandria. Dr. Edward Naumann’s presentation on the Mystical Meaning of Holy Scripture and Pastor Coats’s presentation on the life and work of Laurentius Petri (1499-1573), the first Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden, were well received, and we were all blessed by the preaching of Dr. Carl Roemer and Pastor Christopher Seifferlein. Pastor Brian Westgate’s work as organist – as always! – enriched our worship greatly. Video of the Conference services and presentations will in due course be available on Youtube.

I am always glad to hear from you at charlesmcclean1942@gmail.com or at (410)554-9994. Let us continue to remember one another in prayer.

Affectionately in our risen Lord,

Pastor McClean

Free Flea Market

On May 10th we will resume our annual Free Flea Markets. Right now we have a great inventory of both clothing and household items. We could use some summer clothing for both men and women in sizes small and medium. We have a faithful group of volunteers, but we welcome “newcomers.” Please let me know if you will be able to assist on the second Saturday May through September from 9-12 noon each time. This is our outreach to the community. We have been blessed with bounty and we need to share it.

– Judy Volkman

Heating System

Remember that we are still seeking donations to replenish our cash reserves which have been depleted by the cost of the repairs to the heating system. Please mark your checks: “heating system.”