Although Independence Day is not a festival of the Church Year, it has been our custom to conclude the Divine Service on the Sunday nearest Independence Day with the singing of the hymn, “God Bless Our Native Land,” a poem written by Charles Timothy Brooks (1813-1883) while he was a theology student in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The tune is the very familiar melody of the patriotic song, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” which is also the tune of the British national anthem, “God Save the King.” Saint Paul exhorts us to make “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks…for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (I Timothy 2:1,2). And so the Church has always included prayers for the civil authority in the Divine Service every Lord’s Day.

This year the first Sunday in July is July 2nd which in the calendar of the Church Year is the Festival of the Visitation of Mary. Having received the astonishing news that she was to be the mother of the Savior, Mary “went with haste” to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the expectant mother of Saint John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ (Luke 1:39-56).

Our newly elected Church Council will be installed on this first Sunday in July. The members of the Church Council are Bernie Knox, Merton Masterson, Gabe Purviance, Paul and Mary Techau, Wayne and Jean West. Ben Orris has served on the Council as director of worship but he will be moving to Washington as he takes up a position at the National Institutes of Health. Ben has now completed his doctoral studies in biochemistry at Johns Hopkins and so we congratulate him and wish him well in this new chapter of his life. We also thank Jake Mokris who has been making the bulletins and the newsletter for the past three years.

The July and August free flea markets will take place on July 8th and August 11th, 9:00 A.M.-12 Noon. We always need volunteers to greet those who come and hand out items.

Remember to bring food items for the GEDCO food pantry and personal items for the Helping Up Mission. When doing your grocery shopping, why not purchase a few items to donate to the food pantry?

At the Voters Meeting on May 21 it was decided to proceed with the purchase of a new organ console. The Church Council had recommended the acquisition of a new console as the most cost efficient solution to the problems presented by a console which was installed in 1930 when our present church building was dedicated. Although we have in hand the funds to do this, contributions to the organ fund are of course very welcome. Be sure to mark your check for “organ fund.”

Debbie Lewis has informed us that she will not be continuing as our organist following her summer vacation. And so we are again looking for an organist. We thank Debbie for her service and wish her well.

We continue to remember in our prayers James Bauman, Louis Bell, Dana Carmichael, Maggie Doswell, Quilla Downs, Bunny Duckett, Albert Ford, Frank Ford, Iris Ford, Yolanda Ford, Sean Fortune, Helen Gray, Queenie Hardaway, Gloria Jones, Althea Masterson, Mary Mokris, Julia Silver, Lawrence Smallwod, George Volkman, Dennis Watson, Gary Watson, Marvalisa, Sierra, Jonathan, and Steven Gibson. Maggie Doswell continues to recover at Cadia Healthcare, 4922 LaSalle Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782. Yolanda Ford remains at Future Care, 1046 North Point Road, Baltimore, MD 21224; Louis Bell at Autumn Lake Healthcare, 7 Sudbrook Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Queenie Hardaway at Augsburg Village, 6825 Campfield Road, Baltimore, MD 21207.

The triennial Convention of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will meet in Milwaukee July 29th-August 3rd. Our Synod is divided into districts and the districts into circuits. Each circuit chooses a pastor and a layperson to represent the circuit. The circuit we belong to has chosen Paul Techau to be the lay delegate and Eric Bednash, the pastor of Saint James’s Church in Overlea, to be the pastoral delegate. Pastor Matthew Harrison has again been reelected President of Synod. He has been a good and faithful chief pastor, a true shepherd of this part of Christ’s flock here on earth. You may remember that two years ago he spoke at the Saint Mark’s Conference here at Our Saviour. Remember in your prayers all the leaders of our synod and all the delegates to the synodical convention.

Please let me know if you are unable to come to church and wish to receive Holy Communion at home. Email me at charlesmcclean42@gmail.com or call me at (410)554-9994. If you are in need of a ride to church, please let me know and I will see to it that that need is met.

Please remember me in your prayers. You are in mine.