Jerusalem City will be open during the

West Racine Art Walk

Saturday, April 25

Everyone is welcome!

     Our scale model of Jerusalem City will be open to the public throughout Holy Week.  This is very exciting news for the congregation and for the 27 people who worked so hard to build this remarkable scale model of the City of Jerusalem.  It will be the first time it is open to the public.  The event will be well publicized in the Racine Journal Times and the West Racine Neighborhood News.  This is a great opportunity to share this wonderful piece of art, to publicize our Holy Week worship services, to extend a welcome to Gethsemane, and to raise money to feed the hungry.  

     Frank Smith, owner of ASAP (previously the Irish store in West Racine), has given us permission to use his now vacant store to display Jerusalem City and set up a Labyrinth (see next article) during Holy Week.  We also plan to have a PowerPoint presentation of the life of Christ and the passion story.  There will be a self-guided tour of Jerusalem City, a display showing the construction of the city, and a map of key locations that have significance to the Passion Story.  Flyers with our Holy Week Services will be handed out.  There is no admission to this, but we will be accepting a free-will offering for Outreach Ministry Food Programs.

     We will need two or three people to sign up to be at the store for each of the afternoons for two hour shifts.  No experience necessary; you will be welcoming our guests.  We will also need people to sign up for the continuous prayer vigil.             

     Saturday, April 4 from 12 - 4

     Palm Sunday, April 5 from 10:30 - 11:30
          (after church for the congregation only)

     Palm Sunday, April 5 from 12 - 4

     Maundy Thursday, April 9 from 12 – 4

     Good Friday, April 10 from 12 – 4

     Holy Saturday, April 11 from 9 – 6

(Gethsemane members and friends are invited to continue throughout the night to complete a 24 hour prayer vigil if there are enough people willing to participate)

God has blessed us with so many gifted people and has afforded us this opportunity to reach out to the community and share the Good News of Salvation.

    Co-sponsored by Gethsemane’s Outreach Ministry Team
                & Thrivent Financial For Lutherans

     We are all on the journey... exactly where we need to be. The labyrinth is a model of that journey.
      A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.
     A labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It is a metaphor for life's journey. It is a symbol that creates a sacred space and place, and takes us out of our ego to "That Which is Within."
     Labyrinths and mazes have often been confused. When most people hear of a labyrinth they think of a maze. A labyrinth is not a maze. A maze is like a puzzle to be solved. It has twists, turns, and blind alleys. It is a left brain task that requires logical, sequential, analytical activity to find the correct path into the maze and out.
     A labyrinth has only one path. The way in is the way out. There are no blind alleys. The path leads us on a circuitous path to the center and out again.
     A labyrinth is a right brain task. It involves intuition, creativity, and imagery. With a maze, many choices must be made and an active mind is needed to solve the problem of finding the center. With a labyrinth, there is only one choice to be made.  A more passive, receptive mindset is needed. The choice is whether or not to walk a spiritual path.
     At its most basic level, the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of our deepest selves and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who we are as God’s children and as part of God’s creation.   

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