As we draw to the close of the festival half of this church year, we have three major festivals of the church to celebrate this month. On May 14, we will celebrate the Ascension of our Lord with Divine Service at 7:30 PM. Ten days later, on May 24, we will celebrate Pentecost. The word Pentecost means “fiftieth;” it is the fiftieth day after Christ’s resurrection and marks the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s church through his apostles and is generally regarded as the birth of the church. We note that this Spirit was present at the creation of the world as we sing in that ancient hymn:

Creator Spirit by whose aid
The world’s foundations first were laid,
Come, visit every humble mind,
Come pour Your joys on human kind;
From sin and sorrow set us free;
May we Your living temples be.

The following Sunday, May 31, is Trinity Sunday, and the concluding celebration of the festival half of the church year. As we have noted previously, we are planning a farewell for Pastor McClean that day at the 11:00 AM Divine Service with a luncheon to follow. If you are able to attend and plan on staying for lunch, please sign up on the piano at church or call the church office and leave a message so we can plan for the luncheon. If you would like to send a card or note to Pastor McClean, his address is 4 Upland Rd., Apt. 21, Baltimore, MD, 21210.

As we discussed in the April newsletter, Our Saviour is not in a financial position to call a regular full-time pastor. The salary we paid Pastor McClean represents only a fraction of what a full-time pastor would ordinarily be paid. The Specific Ministry Pastor program was introduced by our church body, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), to help congregations in our situation. This program is meant to be used by congregations for whom calling a full-time pastor is problematic due to location, finances, or other considerations.

This is a four-year program, administered by the synodical seminaries, that begins with the candidate taking courses (mostly online, but with some on-campus intensives) while beginning his service as vicar in the church. Ordination occurs at the end of those two years, and an additional two-years of study are then completed. It is ‘specific ministry’ since the candidate is authorized to serve only in that specific place. This is all done under the supervision of a local pastor as well as the district president, the Rev. Dr. William Harmon.

At our May Voters Assembly meeting (May 17, immediately following Divine Service) we will consider the question of asking Scott Jones, a member of Our Saviour and life-long Lutheran, to enter this program so that he can serve Our Saviour as pastor upon completion of the program and thus we may continue to have Word and Sacrament ministry. He has the time and the theological formation to pursue the SMP program. He has been clear in stating that he wants no compensation for this service and that he would bear all the educational expenses himself. Scott has lived in the Baltimore area his entire life, growing up in Towson, Maryland and joined Our Saviour in 2016. He holds without reservation the confession this church was built on, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, and he desires only to be a faithful steward of the rich liturgical tradition Pastor McClean has instilled in all of us. For additional information about Scott and the SMP program, please see the April newsletter. Pastor Eric Bednash, our circuit visitor, will be with us that day to preach and celebrate the sacrament and also to guide us in our discussions regarding the SMP program during the Voters Assembly meeting.

At this meeting we will also elect the members of the church council and adopt a budget for the 2027 fiscal year that starts on July 1. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending that day so you can be a part of this path forward. If you would be interested in serving on the church council or would like to nominate someone, please contact Gabe Purviance (gpurviance@comcast.net).

The Sunday Bible class is concluding a study of the risen Christ from the empty tomb to His throne in heaven on May 17. After taking a week’s break for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the class will resume on May 31 with a study of selected readings from ‘Series A’ of the three-year lectionary (Our Saviour uses the historic one-year lectionary at its Sunday services). The class meets each Sunday morning at 9:45 AM.

Also, starting May 3, we are providing the opportunity to pray Matins at 8:30 AM. This is a spoken service, led by Scott Jones. While this is not a substitute for Divine Service  and there is no sermon, it is still an excellent way to prepare for the Divine Service as we pray the Psalms and Canticles of Matins, hear a reading, and pray for the church and the world. Please join us if you are able.

We are continuing to support the GEDCO Food Pantry and for the Helping Up Mission. Boxes for items for both are found inside the door from the parking lot north of the church. Needless to say, the need remains great. And remember that you can provide help for suffering people around the world through our Synod’s LCMS World Relief and Human Care. You can call our Synod’s Contributor Care Line: (888)930-4438 or you can give online through this secure website: lcms.org/givenow/mercy or you can send a check to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, PO Box 66861, Saint Louis, Missouri 63166-6861. Make your check payable to “The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod” and write “LCMS World Relief and Human Care” on the memo line.

With Frank Ford, we mourn the recent death of his daughter, Yolanda. There will be a memorial service for Yolanda on June 6 at 11:00 AM, with a repast to follow. Pastor Elliot Robertson has agreed to conduct the service.

We are continuing with our Free Flea markets each second Saturday of the month through September (May 9, June 13, July 11, August 8, September 12), 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Please see Judy Volkman for details or to volunteer to help.

We continue to remember in prayer Pastor McClean, Bridget Bauman, James Bauman, Christopher Bell, Bertha Buchanan, Dana Carmichael, Tim Doswell, Quilla Downs, Bunny Duckett, Joyce Eaves, Frank Ford, Iris Ford, Sean Fortune, Lynne Funck, Katherine Gray, Sherry James, Gloria Jones, Byron Masterson, Mary Mokris, Julia Silver, Robert Siperek Jr., Lawrence Smallwood, Paul Swank, George Volkman, Gary Watson, Marvalisa, Sierra, Jonathan and Steven Gibson.

Finally, we begin a new feature this month we are calling “The Month Ahead.” It is appended to this newsletter. In it, Scott Jones provides a summary of the major themes of each Sunday of the month. You can use this to prepare for service each week and develop a better understanding as to how the liturgical calendar unfolds.

In Christ and on behalf of the Church Council,
Paul Techau, Council President

The Month Ahead: June, 2026

Services and Their Readings

The Season: Trinity I–V: The Call to the Kingdom of Grace

With Holy Trinity Sunday and Festival Half of the church year behind us, the Church enters the long green season of Trinitytide, sometimes called the ‘Teaching Half’ of the church year. For the first five Sundays, the readings focus on what scholars call “the call to the kingdom of grace,” that is, God’s invitation to His kingdom, who is invited, and what it costs to refuse. The color green reminds us that faith grows steadily through the weekly hearing of God’s Word and the receiving of His Sacraments. June’s Sundays take us from the bedrock of salvation by faith alone, through the great feast God spreads for the undeserving, to the relentless mercy of a God who seeks out what is lost. We conclude the month with a special celebration of the day Lutherans put their faith on the line before the most powerful ruler in Europe.

June 7 First Sunday after Trinity

Genesis 15:1–6  •  1 John 4:16–21  •  Luke 16:19–31
The Old Testament reading gives us the single most important verse about how God saves people: Abraham simply believed God’s promise, and God counted that faith as righteousness. No works, no earning. Just trust. The Epistle unpacks what that does to us: when we truly know that God loves us, fear of judgment disappears, and that same love spills out toward the people around us. The Gospel drives the point home with the Rich Man and Lazarus. The rich man had everything and ignored the beggar at his gate. When both die, everything reverses. The parable ends with a sobering truth: even a miracle won’t change a heart that refuses to hear what God has already said in Scripture.

June 14 Second Sunday after Trinity

Proverbs 9:1–10  •  1 John 3:13–18  •  Luke 14:15–24
Proverbs pictures God’s Wisdom as a generous host who has set a magnificent banquet and is calling everyone to come, especially those who know they have nothing to offer. Jesus tells a parable with exactly the same shape: a man throws a great feast, his invited guests make excuses and don’t come, so he fills the hall with the poor, the blind, and the crippled instead, and then sends out to the highways to bring in strangers. The kingdom of God works like that: the people who think they are too busy or too important miss out, while those who know they need the invitation accept it. The Epistle reminds us that real love (the kind Christ showed on the cross) is not just words. It shows up in concrete acts of care for the people right in front of us.

June 21 Third Sunday after Trinity

Micah 7:18–20  •  1 Peter 5:6–11  •  Luke 15:1–10
Micah ends his book with a question: “Who is a God like you?” His answer is that God is unlike any other god precisely because He delights in showing mercy. He doesn’t just overlook sin. He buries it in the depths of the sea. Jesus fills this out with two of His most beloved parables: the shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that is lost, and the woman who sweeps her whole house to find one lost coin. In both stories, the finding ends in a party, because that is how heaven responds every time one sinner comes home. Peter’s letter brings it down to earth: we live under the care of this merciful God, so we can hand all our worries over to Him. But we stay alert, because the devil is real and prowls like a lion looking for someone to destroy.

June 28 Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

Isaiah 55:6–11  •  1 Timothy 6:11–16  •  Matthew 10:26–33
On June 25, 1530, Lutheran princes stood before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Augsburg and read aloud a confession of what they believed. It could have cost them everything. Martin Luther himself could not be there. He was under an imperial ban, so his colleague Philip Melanchthon wrote the document and led the presentation. At its heart, the Augsburg Confession declares that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, for the sake of Christ alone, not by anything we do or deserve. The readings appointed for this day speak directly to that moment: Isaiah promises that God’s Word never fails to accomplish what He sends it to do. Paul tells Timothy to fight for the faith publicly, just as Jesus confessed the truth before Pontius Pilate. And Jesus Himself tells His disciples not to be afraid of what powerful people can do to them, because God is with them in their witness. The Augsburg Confession was adopted into the Book of Concord in 1580 and remains the foundational statement of Lutheran teaching today. Our Saviour celebrates this occasion by local tradition on the last Sunday of June each year.