On Pentecost, Elsa M. Tranfaglia starts with a kindergartner waiting for Jesus to come and clean his room, then turns to the day the church was born: a rush of wind, flames like birthday candles, and a promise that everyone will dream dreams. As the Old Sloop begins its time between pastors, it’s an invitation to dream about where the Spirit is leading.

Rev. Judy takes on one of the most troublesome lines in the Gospels, ‘No one comes to the Father except through me’, and reads it as John meant it: not a test of who’s in, but a picture of the cosmic Christ in whom every seeker is one with God. To believe is to give your heart to, and the way is to love one another.

With the congregation between pastors, Rev. Judy turns to Jesus’ promise of an advocate: ‘I will not leave you orphaned.’ The Holy Spirit is love itself, as the First Letter of John puts it: a God we carry with us and give away, and a love that casts out fear.

In a last sermon before retiring, Rev. Derek van Gulden tells of a congregation that lost its building to fire and found itself again in an old Grange hall, where sunlight on a worn stone floor became a living mosaic. The Old Sloop is one too: everyone who gathers, all different, together reflecting the image of God.

Rev. Derek van Gulden tells a story from Kenya: a muddy ten-kilometer procession, a barefoot girl in a torn school uniform who appeared on the road, and the blessing that sent a doubting seminarian back to school. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, sometimes we only recognize who walked with us afterwards.

On Low Sunday, a week after Easter, Rev. Derek van Gulden returns to the locked room where the risen Jesus twice greets frightened disciples with ‘Peace be with you’ and breathes the Holy Spirit on them. We’re sent out the same way: to bring hope, love and peace, and when we can’t go, to pray.

On Easter Sunday, Rev. Derek van Gulden asks whether the resurrection really changes anything, and answers with the people it brings hope to, among them an elderly couple in the mountains of El Salvador who knew God had not forgotten them. The women in Mark’s gospel fled the empty tomb and told no one; we’re asked to do the opposite and share our hope.

On Palm Sunday, at the end of a Lent spent walking the Camino together, Rev. Derek van Gulden sets two parades side by side: Pilate’s soldiers entering Jerusalem in imperial splendor, and Jesus on a young colt, feet dragging in the dust. Two parades, one choice: which will we join, and where will we be by the end of the week?

Expectations, Rev. Susan Moran warns, can be premeditated resentments, but set too low they shrink our lives. The woman who touched Jesus’ cloak expected to be healed against every reason and social rule, and was: healing came from what both of them brought to the encounter, so don’t forget your power.

A piece written from the youth’s perspective on being a part of the church.