One of the things I like best about Pleasantville people is their willingness to try something new. We value our traditions but we don’t make an idol out of them. I have heard the leaders among us say more than once, "Well, let’s try it and see how it goes!" It’s a great approach that can lead to so much creativity.

This year, we are in a position of having to try some new things. The space we ordinarily use for our Church Picnic has been transformed: it is now a building-under-construction and we are greatly excited about it. For some churches that might be enough to cancel this year’s picnic…but not for Pleasantville. The can-do spirit of this community continues to inspire me!

So we are having a picnic this year! And we are having it in new and creative ways – with clever methods of transporting food all the way from the kitchen to the far end of the cemetery where there’s plenty of grass to enjoy our time of fellowship together. And we are having tours through the new building. And we are finding new ways to be the people of God gathered at Pleasantville Church – even as the contour of our church is changing. You inspire me!

One of the traditions of the Church Picnic that I will want to share and continue is the practice of honoring and remembering beloved friends. By decorating their graves, we borrow that tradition from what used to be known as "Decoration Day" and is now known as Memorial Day. Decoration Day began after the Civil War. It was designated "for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land." Whether you lost anyone in that war or not, the day was meant for remembering and signs of remembrance in the strewing of flowers.

It pleases me that when we gather for our annual picnic we are in good company – adjacent to the churchyard, surrounded by the Communion of Saints. On Sunday June 6^th , in addition to the salads and the cakes and the deviled eggs that we’ll bring to the church picnic, let’s bring one thing more: let’s bring flowers! Without organization or Committee, let’s just strew flowers – to celebrate the continuity of life, to thank God for those who have gone before, and to honor the Communion of Saints that surrounds and sustains us on our way.

                                                                                                                                                                                               Blessings, Pastor Hilary