Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, June, 2026

OUR SAVIOUR LUTHERAN CHURCH

3301 The Alameda
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.235.9553
June, 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The beginning of the Trinity season focuses 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. These 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. As is our local custom, we will on the last Sunday of this month remember God’s grace to his church in the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. On June 25, 1530 seven Lutheran princes and two free imperial cities presented this Confession of their faith to Emperor Charles V in the City of Augsburg. We remember and give thanks for this great Confession of the one Faith of Christ’s one holy Church, and we pray that we may through all our days remain steadfast in this Confession. For a look ahead to July, see this months ‘The Month Ahead’ feature at the end of this newsletter.

At the May meeting of the Voters Assembly, a resolution was unanimously adopted asking Scott Jones to enter the SMP program, if at all possible in the Fall of 2026. Unfortunately, we are past the application deadline for the fall semester. This was unavoidable as there was no reasonable way to act on such a resolution prior to the regular Spring voters meeting. However, we are working with the district and Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN to get an exception to the normal deadline for the fall semester. We are arranging for Scott to have a vicarage interview with the Southeastern District and are in contact with the seminary admissions office to make this happens. It is a work in progress and we will endeavor to keep you informed of any new developments.

We recently received an inquiry from St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Meherrin, VA. Our Saviour has a special relationship with St. Matthew as many of the members of St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Baltimore, came from Meherrin. St. Matthew, Baltimore merged with the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in 1973 to form our present congregation of Our Saviour. Saint Matthew Church, Meherrin is in the process of major renovations to repair termite damage. Our Saviour made a donation to this effort in April. Per a request at the May Voters Assembly, we are including this information in the newsletter in case any members would like to make individual contributions. Checks should be made payable to Saint Matthew Lutheran Church and mailed to PO Box 91, Meherrin, VA 23954. You can note ‘Restoration Project’ on your check.

At this meeting we also elected the members of the church council for the coming year. They will be installed at Divine Service on June 26. A budget for the 2027 fiscal year that starts on July 1 was adopted which has some challenges. Please see Gabe Purviance’s note at the end of this letter for more information and how you can help.

The Sunday Bible class is continuing 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. In addition, we will continue the 8:30 AM Sunday spoken Matins services throughout the summer.

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.

We are continuing with our Free Flea markets each second Saturday of the month through September (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, Albert Bell, Christopher Bell, Bertha Buchanan, Dana Carmichael, Elizabeth Coats, Timothy Doswell, Quilla Downs, Frank Ford, Iris Ford, Sean Fortune, Lynne Funck, Sherry James; Gloria Jones, Byron Masterson, Beth McClean, Julia Silver, Robert Siperek Jr., Lawrence Smallwood, Paul Swank, George Volkman, Gary Watson, Marvalisa, Sierra, Jonathan, and Steven Gibson.

When you come to the church, you will see that a lot is happening. We have fresh paint and new artwork is several parts of the building. This is thanks to the efforts of Scott Jones and his family. We are grateful for their efforts to help beautify our building. And we also want to thank Merton Masterson for his going above and beyond the call this past week. As some of you know, we had a little issue with the organ last weekend which turned out not to be the organ at all, but rather it was a BGE problem with our electrical supply. Merton gracefully agreed to spend more than twelve hours at the church waiting for a BGE crew to become available to fix the problem, which was accomplished this past Wednesday (June 11).

See you in church!

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

Stewardship and the Our Saviour FY2027 Budget

Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”  has always been one of my favorite hymns. When we sing the words, “a bulwark never failing,” I think of Our Saviour Lutheran Church standing watch at the corner of 33rd Street and The Alameda — a fortress of faith, hope, and protection for all of God’s people.

At the May Voters Assembly meeting, a budget for FY2027 (which starts July 1) was adopted that shows $106,575 in expenses against an expected income on the order of $95,000. This obviously is a deficit budget. While we have made every effort to minimize costs and hope to find additional savings as the new fiscal year progresses, the costs of maintaining our beautiful church, our fortress, never diminish. Thus as you consider your offerings for the coming year, we would ask that you consider this situation and, if at all possible, increase your weekly or monthly giving. In this way you can help strengthen our bulwark and keep Our Saviour as a beacon of the Gospel here in Baltimore for years to come.

We are truly blessed by God’s abundant grace and by the faithful generosity of this congregation. Thank you for helping keep our fortress strong.

– Gabriel Purviance, Stewardship Director

The Month Ahead: July, 2026

Services and Their Readings

The Season: Trinity V–VIII: Called and Kept by Christ

July’s four Sundays trace the life of the disciple from first calling to final warning. The Fifth Sunday shows Jesus turning a fishing boat into a pulpit and calling ordinary men to leave everything behind. The Sixth stands at Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount, where the Law that demands the whole inner life meets the Baptism that delivers what we cannot achieve. The Seventh and Eighth round out the month with God’s overwhelming provision for all nations and a sober reminder that the only true test of a teacher is the fruit of his doctrine.

July 5  Fifth Sunday after Trinity

1 Kings 19:11–21  •  1 Peter 3:8–15  •  Luke 5:1–11

After his great victory over the prophets of Baal, Elijah has collapsed in terror, convinced he is the only faithful person left. God meets him not in wind, earthquake, or fire but in a quiet whisper, then sends him right back to work with the assurance that seven thousand others still stand firm. In the Gospel, Jesus overwhelms Simon’s boat with a miraculous catch so vast the nets begin to break, and when Peter falls to his knees and confesses his sin, Jesus responds not with condemnation but with a calling: from now on, you will be catching people alive. Peter’s letter brings that same pattern into our own lives—called to bless when cursed, always ready to give a gentle account of the hope we carry.

July 12  Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Exodus 20:1–17  •  Romans 6:1–11  •  Matthew 5:17–26

The Ten Commandments open not with a demand but with a declaration: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt.” God delivers first and commands second. Jesus then takes those commandments in the Sermon on the Mount and drives them inward: to harbor anger is already to be guilty of murder, and to treat a brother with contempt is to stand in danger of judgment. Paul’s letter to Rome tells us what God has done about that: in Baptism, He buried our sinful nature with Christ and raised us to new life, so that sin no longer has the final word over who we are.

July 19  Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Genesis 2:7–17  •  Romans 6:19–23  •  Mark 8:1–9

Genesis 2 gives us an intimate portrait of creation: not the God of distant cosmic power but the potter who kneels in the dirt, shapes the man from the dust, and breathes life directly into his nostrils, placing him in a garden whose name means “delight.” In the Gospel, Jesus is in Gentile territory when four thousand people run out of food, and He feeds them all from seven loaves, giving thanks over the bread in language the Church will recognize at every Lord’s Supper. Paul puts the contrast plainly: sin pays a wage, and that wage is death; God gives a free gift, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

July 26  Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Jeremiah 23:16–29  •  Romans 8:12–17  •  Matthew 7:15–23

Jeremiah warns that false prophets feed the people comfortable visions from their own imaginations—straw instead of wheat. Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount with the same warning: false teachers look exactly like sheep from the outside, and the only reliable test is the fruit of their teaching, whether they confess the true Christ or quietly substitute something more agreeable. What protects the Church is not our own vigilance but the Word of God, which Jeremiah describes as fire and as a hammer that breaks rock. Paul adds the great comfort: the Spirit testifies alongside our own spirit that we are children of God and heirs with Christ, and no wolf can take that inheritance from us.

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, May, 2026

OUR SAVIOUR LUTHERAN CHURCH

3301 The Alameda
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.235.9553
May, 2026

Ascension Festival Divine Service
Thursday, May 14, 7:30 PM

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

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.

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, April, 2026

OUR SAVIOUR LUTHERAN CHURCH

3301 The Alameda
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.235.9553
April, 2026

Ascension Festival Divine Service
Thursday, May 14, 7:30 PM

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we are now into the Easter season, we look forward to the culmination of the season with the great Festival of the Ascension of Our Lord. This feast, in effect, celebrates that the victory over death and the devil won by our Lord on the cross and sealed with His resurrection from the tomb is turned into a rout. This is captured in the final stanza of Christopher Wordsworth’s great Ascension hymn:

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.
By our mighty Lord’s ascension
We by faith behold our own.

As is our custom, Our Saviour will celebrate the Ascension with Divine Service on the date forty days after Easter on May 14 at 7:30. Pastor Mark Esser, who has been with us several times this year, will be the preacher and celebrant. If you are at all able, please join us for this most important festival of the church year.

Pastor McClean continues to recover at home. We are still planning a farewell for him on May 31 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 you may realize, Our Saviour is not in a financial position to call a regular full-time pastor. The salary we have been paying Pastor McClean represents only a fraction of what a full-time pastor would ordinarily be paid. Over the years, there have been programs introduced by our church body, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), to help congregations situated as we find ourselves. As mentioned in the March newsletter, one of these programs is the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program. This program is meant for congregations for whom calling a full-time pastor is problematic due to location, finances, or other considerations.

The SMP program 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; he is not authorized to take calls to another church or ministry. This is all done under the supervision of a local pastor as well as the district president, the Rev. Dr. William Harmon.

The following is from the Synodical By-laws: Section 2.13, “Membership Status and Limitations Specific Ministry Pastor Status and Limitations.”

2.13.1 A “specific ministry pastor” is a minister of religion—ordained who has completed the requirements for service as a specific ministry pastor and has been examined by one of the Synod’s seminaries, has received a regular call, and has been placed by the Council of Presidents into a specific Word and Sacrament ministry context.

He is eligible to serve only in that specific ministry context for which he has been trained and may not be offered or accept a call for ministry for which he has not been certified as determined by his district president. He shall serve under the supervision of his district president and another pastor who is not a specific ministry pastor.

(a) Because he is under supervision of another pastor and because a specific ministry pastor’s theological education has been formed in part by and for a specific ministry context, he may not be placed or called into ecclesiastical roles that exercise pastoral oversight outside the context of his call.

(b) A specific ministry pastor is not eligible to

(1) serve as a voting delegate to a national convention of the Synod—but may serve as an advisory delegate to national conventions and as a pastoral delegate to district conventions;
(2) hold any elected or appointed office on the district or national Synod level that is assigned by the Bylaws of the Synod to “a pastor” or “an ordained minister” (although specific ministry pastors may serve in all other capacities, especially representing the ministerial contexts in which they serve);
(3) supervise vicars; or
(4) serve as a circuit visitor.*

(c) The ministers of religion—ordained records maintained by district presidents as well as the official membership roster of the Synod shall distinguish between specific ministry pastors and other pastors.

As you can see, there are limits on what a specific ministry pastor can do relative to a pastor that has gone through the traditional route to ordination, but none of those limitations impact the ability of the candidate to do what is his foremost responsibility as an SMP, namely providing Word and Sacrament ministry in a given place. Entrance into the program is generally subject to the desire of the congregation to ultimately call the man to the pastoral office in that place and continuation as an SMP is contingent on the candidate’s successful completion of the program.

It just so happens that we are blessed to have a strong candidate for the SMP program. Scott Jones, who is a life-long Lutheran and member of Our Saviour has indicated his willingness to go through the SMP program so that 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. He attended Baltimore Lutheran High School and went on to earn an undergraduate degree from Loyola University Maryland and a law degree from the University of Maryland. He was baptized at Faith Lutheran Church and worshipped at First English Lutheran Church before finding his home in the LCMS at Calvary Lutheran. He joined Our Saviour in 2016. His background in law and accounting brings to the SMP program the same discipline and analytical rigor he has applied throughout his professional life. He has spent the better part of his adult life reading, studying, and teaching the Scriptures. 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.

This will be foremost of the topics at our upcoming Spring Voters Assembly meeting immediately following Divine Service on May 17. 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 our path forward focused on the SMP program. In addition to this discussion, we will elect the church council members for the coming year and approve an operating budget for fiscal year 2027. 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 has begun a study of the risen Christ from the empty tomb to His throne in heaven. The class meets each Sunday at 9:45 AM through May 17. After taking a week’s break for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the class will resume 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).

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 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.

We are asking everyone to update their contact information if at all possible. If you have email, you can send a message to oslbaltimore@yahoo.com or call the church office at (410) 235–9553 and leave a message. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to reach out via this phone number or email.

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

Free Flea Market

The first Free Flea Market was held April 11th and there were a number of new people who attended. So we are becoming a place to go! Two attendees gave us donations that totaled $22! We now are in need of household items and shoes. If you have something to donate, please let Judy Volkman know. Together we make a difference in someone’s life!