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This Lent Harbor will be using the symbolic, insightful, and moving worship program created by A Sanctified Art. Read here about the theme and Harbor's Lenten events.
about the theme—
seeking: honest questions for deeper faith
The lectionary for Year A offers us many stories of Jesus encountering people who are seeking: Nicodemus comes to him in the veil of night, he approaches a Samaritan woman at a well, he heals a man born without sight. In these stories, each person is seeking a new beginning, a different life, a deeper faith. What unfolds is an exchange filled with questions and exploration. Often, an unveiling occurs—assumptions are disrupted, a new perspective is revealed, mystery grows. And so, we’ve crafted a Lenten series founded on questions.
Many of our weekly questions feel restorative (“Can these bones live?”). Some feel like a charge or challenge (“Who will you listen to?”). Some questions are hopeful and curious (“How do we begin again?”).
Our questions won't necessarily lead to answers, but they can help us find clarity and a new perspective.
Ultimately, we pray they lead to a new beginning, a restoration, a wider grace. Like the characters in our Lenten scriptures, we are also seeking many things: clarity, connection, wonder, justice, balance. We are seeking our calling, the sacred, and how to live as a disciple. Throughout the turbulence of the past few years, many of us are asking big questions about our lives and our faith. If you are returning to church, you are probably returning with more questions and a critical lens. We hope this series will help us unpack some of those big questions in ways that are honest and faithful. Throughout this season, we hope you will continually ask yourself: what am I seeking? What is God seeking?
This Lent, we invite you to engage in the spiritual practice of seeking. We encourage you to stay curious, open, and nimble. We hope you will soften your assumptions and expand your perspectives. We pray that these questions will create a safe space to explore—to be drawn more deeply into the fullness of life, into the heart of God.
Words written by A Sanctified Art
about the logo—
words from the designer
An eye feels like a recognizable and even predictable image for the general theme of Seeking, however, there is nothing all that simple or straightforward about this Lenten theme. As I studied the texts, I found there was repetition in visual imagery that held the texts together.
The viewing of the logo itself is a process of seeking meaning.
As I sketched, the logo became layered with imagery that formed more shapes and meaning, sometimes obscuring and revealing more as I went. It was a balance of maintaining the legibility and clarity that is necessary in a logo, while connecting to a theme that is about being unable to find understanding or even tangibility. I wanted the logo at first glance to be somewhat obvious, but at closer inspection, I wanted it to expand, confuse, and surprise.
--Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman
To read more about the logo's layered and intricate symbolic meaning, click the arrow (>) below to expand a logo imagery key.
Logo Imagery Key - what do you see?
about the theme song—
Land of the Seeking
This worship program is accompanied by a theme song that Harbor's Praise and Worship team has been learning. Our community will hear this song often at our Sunday Gatherings and other Lenten events. It is an original song composed and written by artist Spencer LaJoye. The lyrics are copied below and we encourage you to read them.
Each time we read through these lyrics, may we feel grateful for the refreshing messaging coming from inspired segments of the church-body. We may experience a sense of grief that these words have to be written at all, but let's not forget the hope that emerges as we recognize that areas of the church-body are putting these words into action. Harbor is one of those places that creates space to dig deep into our faith by voicing uncertainties, and encouraging questions as a way of seeking.
--Lauren Graham, Music Minister
Song Lyrics to Land of the Seeking
Harbor's Lenten Schedule
Ash Wednesday
Join us for a self guided prayer experience. This unique experience will allow you to work with story pieces from our Children Worship & Wonder sanctuary. You will see the stories of the season come alive in a whole new way.
Lenten Devotional Study and Dinner
Join us for a Lenten Study, exploring the theme Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith. We will be gathering on zoom every Wednesday beginning on March 1 @ 6:30pm. Please bring your dinner to the zoom meeting so that we can share a meal together as we study our Lenten theme.
Youth and Children’s Sunday
Join us this week as our youth and children lead worship. Directly following worship, you are invited to participate in a fundraiser that will help pay for our youth and children to attend summer camp!
Palm Sunday
Join us for a special service where we remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.
Maundy Thursday
Join us as we explore the night that Jesus gathered with his dearly beloved friends in the upper room. This will be a night filled with prayer, meditation, communion, candle lighting, reflection, and collective grief. If you would like to experience the grief of the season and spend time in personal reflection, we hope you will come.
Good Friday
Join us on zoom for a guided prayer experience. We will spend time reflecting on each of the stations of the cross, and we will end with a guided meditation. Please bring a candle to light, and communion elements.
Easter Sunday
Join us for our Easter worship. We look forward to welcoming you for this joyful celebration where we will explore deep questions about resurrection and hope.