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Sunday Snacks?
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We've run to the end of the coffee hour sign up sheet! If you'd like to provide coffee time this Sunday, please let me know. Also, please look for the new sign up sheet on Sunday and take a week.
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Session
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The long-delayed February meeting of session will happen Sunday following coffee time. We are receiving new members during the meeting, and will celebrate that in worship on March 7.
Speaking of worship: the worship planning team also meets this Sunday following coffee time. They will gather in the purple parlor/church library.
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Thanks
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Thanks to Ron Bookbinder, James Fisher, Karen Kimmel, Martin Lederle-Ensign and Michele Hoyos for rearranging the sanctuary after the Ash Wednesday service.
Thanks to Carl Layno and Reg Mitchel for snow removal Sunday afternoon.
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Prayers
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We are particularly mindful of the entire Regetz family, who have given so much of their lives to this church and community. Fred has moved into hospice care at Arlington Hospital. We hold him, Jeannette, Suzann and Jonathan in the light in these days of journey and passage.
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Journey Through Lent
Progressive ... Inclusive ... Diverse
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February 2010
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Greetings!
 We gathered in worship last evening to mark the beginning of Lent. The season is a journey whose destination is Jerusalem, waving palms, a Roman cross, an empty tomb. It is also a journey of self discovery, and we will take that journey together through these 40 days.
Join us this evening (7:00 p.m.) if you are able, to embark on a Lenten journey of peacemaking. Jesus calls us to make peace, and thus we gather to study, pray and act for peace in our community and in the broader world.
Jesus spent his life in ministry calling forth a new movement of the spirit, and a new way of being together that his first followers called simply, The Way. In time The Way became the church, and grew into a global institution that often seems even further removed from Jesus' way than 2000 years. On Sunday afternoons during Lent we will explore together the future of this Way. Join us on Sundays at 4:30 p.m.
Lent will not be all study. We'll mix in some fun, fellowship and service as well. We'll welcome new members on March 7. The next Wii Kirk will be March 19. We'll have a third-Sunday brunch on March 21, and we'll bag groceries at AFAC on the 15th.
The heart of it all, though, is worship. Come and see.
peace,
David
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Worship Week
Worship Sunday morning will be rich and full as we begin the season of Lent. 
Our text for the day is the challenging story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:1-14).
The sermon is "Journey to Myself," and it begins a series of reflections on the nature of God's calling in scripture, and in our lives.
Through the season worship will also include reflections on the central role of mission in the life of the church. Elder Travis Reindl kicks it off this Sunday with "why mission is part of our lives as Christians."
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Presbytery Meets Saturday
National Capital Presbytery meets this Saturday to vote on proposed overtures to this summer's General Assembly.
The session at CPC offered three of the five overtures being considered Saturday, including:
- One to removed from the Book of Order the restrictions limiting the ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.
- One to reword the directory of worship's section on marriage to make the language inclusive of same-gender couples.
- One calling the entire Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) into a season of discernment on peacemaking, and, in particular, to consider the possibility of the denomination aligning itslef with the historic peace churches.
Saturday's meeting is at Falls Church Presbyterian Church, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Please hold the presbytery in your prayers as we gather.
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The Discipline of Lent
"Presbyterians don't do Lent!"
So say some folks. Indeed, for Presbyterians of a certain age (like, oh, 50) Lent is not something that we grew up with. But the liturgical renewal of the church during the 1980s brought the observance of the season of Lent into our tradition. 
Nevertheless, we often still do not know what to do with it. Should we give up something? What? Why? Should we fast? Should we sit in sackcloth and ashes?
Jesus did not seem to think much of sackcloth and ashes, and Isaiah insisted that the fast pleasing to God consists of doing justice, feeding the hungry and welcoming the homeless.
Personally, some years I take on a new discipline and some years I abstain from something, but I don't do either for the sack of doing it. There has to be some purpose beyond the mere action or inaction. For example, one year I gave up buying mochas for the season and donated the money I saved to a cause that was important to me.
This year I am taking on the discipline of daily writing. Much of this will take place on the blog I maintain, but I hope some of it will be directed toward a book I've been working of for a very long time. The point for me is to tend to and deepen a gift I have been given, and to use it for the kingdom's sake.
I hope that you will take on a practice these 40 days that deepens your own faithful living. I look forward to hearing about it as we journey together through Lent.
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