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Thanks
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Thanks to Carol DeFord for a great coffee time Sunday.
This week it's pot luck, so please bring something to share with the community.
If you'd like to help out with coffee hour, please contact Cheryl at cledster@gmail.com.
Big thanks to Amber Hodgen and Molly Demaret-Tahu for organizing the relief kits for Haiti. We need lots of nail clippers to finish the kits this week.
Special thanks to the creative folks on the worship team who continue to lead us in new dimensions of worship. |
Offering of Letters
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People of Faith for Equality Virginia asks that we offer letters to our state representatives in Richmond urging them to support several bills aimed at prohibiting hiring discrimination based on sexual orientation. We plan to have copies of these letters on and Sunday. All you have to do is sign and include your address. PoFEV will make sure it gets to your representative.
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Inconclusive Conclusion to Marriage Task Force
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The General Assembly Special Committee on Civil Unions and Christian Marriage issued its final report earlier this week without reaching any firm conclusions or offering any changes to the church's current directory for worship or its guidance to pastors concerning same-sex marriage. For details see the report of the Presbyterian Outlook.
Last year CPC's session forwarded an overture asking for changes in the language of the directory of worship to make references to partners in a marriage gender neutral. That overture comes before National Capital Presbytery next month.
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Mark Your Calendars for Music in March
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Saturday, March 20, at 10:30 a.m., CPC hosts the annual free youth concert of the IBIS Chamber Music Society. Seating is first-come, first-serve, so come early.
The IBIS ensemble is well known to chamber music lovers in the region, and we are pleased to take advantage of the fact that their founders have a child in the Clarendon Child Care Center!
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Call to Elders to Serve Communion
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m. If you an elder ordained in the Presbyterian Church you carry that ordination with you for life (unless you renounce it or do something really naughty!)
This means that you are always welcome to preside at table during the sacrament of communion, and we'd like to extend an invitation to you to do so.
Honoring the continuing ordination reminds us that we are all connected, and that connection works in many ways. Having elders not currently on session serve at table reminds us all of the many gifts of leadership we are blessed to have at CPC.
If you'd like to serve, let Marit Simenson know at: marithans@hotmail.com. |
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This Week @ CPC
Come and Be Fed
Progressive ... Inclusive ... Diverse
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January 2010
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Greetings!
Grace and peace, 
A community that breaks bread together breaks barriers together: barriers of ignorance, fear, hostility or simple difference ... of age, gender, sexual orientation, belief, background.
So come and be fed in body and in spirit, and come to feed others as well.
First, come and feed your spirit of laughter and joy this Friday evening at 6:30 with the first Wii Kirk of 2010. Drop in during the evening for some of the best pizza in Virginia (courtesy of Cheryl and Clark Pizza). We'll plug in the Wii, roll out other games and simply enjoy the company of friends.
This is also a great opportunity to welcome a friend to the community.
Then Sunday come and be fed in spirit during worship and in body over a potluck brunch following the service. The potluck is also an opportunity to feed others, so show off your culinary talents! Over lunch we will conduct a bit of the business of the congregation as the members receive the 2010 budget approved last week by session.
One final opportunity to feed: The Open Doors/More Light Presbyterians board is calling on MLP congregations in the area to provide snacks for the Feb. 9 meeting of National Capital Presbytery. This special meeting, at which NCP will vote on Clarendon's overtures (to revise the Book of Order constraints on the ordination of partnered same-sex couples and to ask the denomination to engage in a period of discernment about peacemaking).
Presbytery leadership called this special meeting and scheduled it from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. without lunch. The Open Doors board is calling MLP congregations to express the practice of Christian hospitality to the entire presbytery by providing a bit of sustenance. We're looking for cookies, fruit and other snacks to be brought to CPC Sunday, Feb. 7. If you can help out with a contribution, or with delivering food to National Presbyterian Church on the morning of the meeting, please let me know.
Grace and peace,
David
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Worship Week 
This Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Epiphany on the liturgical calendar.
We will welcome several new members during worship this week, so come and celebrate and welcome them.
The lectionary cycle of readings draws two interesting texts together: Paul's famous riff on love from 1 Cor. 13 and Luke's tale of what happens after Jesus first public teaching. Here's a hint: he ticked people off.
We'll reflect on those readings under the heading, "All You Need Is Love."
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Continuing Help for Haiti 
We have received more than $500 in contributions for Haiti relief efforts and filled about 100 hygiene kits as well. We will continue to receive contributions of both money and supplies this Sunday.
You can donate online to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance efforts to assist in rescue and recovery efforts in Haiti by clicking here, or make out a check to Clarendon Presbyterian with a memo to PDA/Haiti Relief and it will go through us to PDA
Our young people will continue assembling hygeine kits for Church World Service relief
efforts. We have more than 150 one-gallon ziplock bags to filled with
hand towels, wash cloths, soap, bandaids and assorted other sundries.
We need additional nail clippers for the bags.
Together
we are the body of Christ in the world. Sunday presents an opportunity
to be Christ's hands filling bags with much needed supplies for our
sisters and brothers in Haiti.
We are richly blessed, and it is our deepest joy to be able to give back.
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If We Feed Them, They Will Vote? 
National Capital Presbytery holds a special meeting at
National Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, February 9, vote on proposed overtures
to send to the General Assembly this coming summer, including three overtures
from the session of CPC: - a renewed overture to amend our Book of Order and
eliminate restrictions on full participation of gay, lesbian, and transgendered
people in our churches;
- an overture to make the Directory of Worship more
amenable to same-sex marriage;
- an overture asking the entire denomination
to engage in a season of study and discernment about our call to be peacemakers.
Presbytery has scheduled this special meeting from 10:00
a.m. - 2:00 p.m. but made no provisions for lunch. Our local More Light Presbyterians chapter
will be preparing snacks for the meeting.
You can help by bringing snacks to worship Sunday, Feb. 7.
Each snack package should include enough for 6 people. MLP suggestions for the packages:
6 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (lunchmeat, cheese, etc. can't be
refrigrated)
6 pieces of fruit -- apples, clementines, bananas :-)
6 bags of chips -- preferably a mix to emphasize how the combination of many
different flavors, textures, etc. is pleasing
veggies -- small carrots, snap peas, finger veggies
"Rainbow cookies" -- recipe here
Valentine candy hearts for snacking
Nuts for snacking
The contents of each package should be gathered in one bag or box. Each
package should include the following message -- taped on the box or folded
over the bag opening:
"Prepared for you by More Light Presbyterians -- dedicated to promoting
openness in our churches and welcoming of all people in our
community."
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Book Study and Peacemaking in Lent 
The season of Lent, which begins with Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, has traditional been a time of reflection in the church, and this year at CPC we will reflect together on two critical challenges to the Christian movement as it begins its third millennium.
Clearly Jesus' call to his followers to be peacemakers is of paramount
importance if we are to follow the bloodiest century in human history
with a more peaceful one.
As evangelical scholar Tony Campolo puts it, "Jesus does not call us to be peace lovers; he calls us to be peacemakers."
But
how? In the current climate of war, how are we to be peacemakers? With
violence in our community a given on the nightly news, how are we to be
peacemakers? When a murder happens literally on our block, how are we
to be peacemakers?
Using a new lectionary-based curricul published by Christian Peace Witness, we will listen for Christ's call to make peace in our context. Details on meetings times coming soon.
The Rev. John Green will join me in facilitating a book study group focused on Harvey Cox's new work, The Future of Faith. The publisher's blurb apty describes what Cox attempts in the book:
In The Future of Faith,
legendary Harvard religion scholar Harvey Cox offers up a new
interpretation of the history and future of religion. The author of When Jesus Came to Harvard and The Secular City,
Cox explains why Christian beliefs and dogma are giving way to new
grassroots movements rooted in social justice and spiritual experience.
Does Cox's interpretation ring true? Does it provide wisdom for the church at this critical juncture? Can it help us as we work together to be faithful followers of Jesus in the 21st century? The answers to those and other intriguing questions awaits. Details on meeting times coming soon.
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A Note of Gratitude to CPC 
I received this note last week, and it reminds me of the importance of our ministry at Clarendon beyond the walls of the church. I thought it worth sharing one more time:
"I was just on the Presbytery website and notice that Clarendon put
forth some awesome overtures for consideration for endorsement. Just
wanted to commend them and you in leading the church in this way. I'll
keep the presbytery in my prayers on February 9th."
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