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Gracias! Lots of Notes of Thanks that We Should Share
| Thanks to James Fisher for hosting coffee time, and thanks to Cheryl Lederle for extending gracious hospitality to the exploring membership gathering.
We look forward this Sunday to the hospitality of Gwen Wray-Samans, who is hosting coffee time.
The sign up sheet for hosting coffee hour is posted on the bulletin board outside of the church office, and there are plenty of dates remaining.
(You can check the schedule each week on the calendar on the CPC web site.
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Session Endorses New Music Position, Approves Budget for 2011
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At its planning retreat last weekend, CPC's session endorsed the recommendation from the music ministry task force to create a new quarter-time director of congregational music position, and budgeted $6,400 for a partial year.
The new position will be included in the budget as presented for congregational affirmation Sunday, Jan. 30. Following that meeting, session plans to create a small task force that will seek applicants for the new position, conduct interviews and make a recommendation to session.
The new position includes these responsibilities:
* Planning and overseeing the music program for all worship services.
* Directing the choir, and building it up.
* Growing the congregation's music ministry, including music with young people and children.
* Planning and providing for special music events.
The new position works within the approved budget, but the approved budget will work better if we meet our pledge goal.
We have received 30 thus far for the 2011 CPC budget, and the drive stands at $74,226. Our goal is $85,000.
Thanks so much to all those who have pledged already. It is tremendously helpful to the budget process. If you haven't offered your pledge yet, please do so now. You can simply send an e-mail to Reg Mitchell with your pledge amount. Also let Reg know if you plan to honor the pledge on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis or some other schedule that fits your own circumstance.
Give until giving makes a difference in your life.
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Come and Play
| The first Wii Kirk of 2011 is coming up Friday, Jan. 21, 6:300 p.m.
If you've never experienced the joyous gathering we call Wii Kirk, then mark your calendars and make it a date.
We get together on these evenings to share good food, good fun, and good fellowship.
Clark Chesser and Cheryl Lederle, AKA Mr. and Ms. Pizza, take over the church kitchen and fill the entire building with the beautiful scent of hand-crafted pizza. The rest of us bring other goodies to eat and drink. We roll of the big TV, hook up the Wii, and have an evening of fun for all ages.
It's a great time to build relationships, and it's a wonderful way to introduce new friends to the community at Clarendon.
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Responding to Tragedy
Progressive ... Inclusive ... Diverse |
January.2011
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Greetings!
 This week we share in the suffering and loss of the families whose loved ones were killed or wounded last Saturday in Arizona. We hold them all in the light of God's healing love. We also hold in that same light the young man who caused so much suffering, and his own grieving family as well. Prayer, said the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, is ethics, and in the face of senseless violence and overwhelming tragedy, prayer may be the most ethical response available to us. So we join our hearts in prayers for healing, for restoration, for comfort, for mercy, for understanding, for courage, and for light in the present darkness. Over on my blog this week I reflected at length on some of the questions the shootings raise for me. Writing is one of the ways that I process such things, and I'm interested in hearing how you process them. What helps you walk through such valleys? How do you come to some understandings of events that resist easy answers? I hope that the community gathered in worship is a community of understanding, and that worship itself is a time and place of light in the midst of days whose darkness often feels too deep for words. Whatever else we may be, we are a community of light and more light, and we will let that light shine brightly Sunday morning in worship and praise. peace, David |
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Making Peace By Working to End Gun Violence in Metro DC
Over the past few days, responding to the violence in Arizona, I have heard many of you say words to the effect of "this must end." If you would like to take some concrete steps toward that end, here's one promising avenue of action.
A small working group of clergy and laity in National Capital Presbytery is organizing a chapter of Heeding God's Call to address gun violence and illegal gun trafficking in our area. The working group meets this Friday at 10:30 a.m. at Western Presbyterian. If you would like to be a part of this peacemaking work, please let me know.
Heeding God's Call is an interfaith initiative begun by an elder at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church on the Mainline in Philadelphia. Heeding God's Call works to encourage gun sellers to be responsible community members by agreeing to a simple 10-point voluntary code of conduct developed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The code has been adopted by Wall Mart, the largest gun seller in the country.
As detailed by the Washington Post in a stunning series on The Hidden Life of Guns, the vast majority of guns used in crimes in the United States can be traced back to a small minority of gun dealers who regularly sell hand guns to "straw purchasers" who stand in for criminal entrepreneurs who sell the guns to people who would not be able to purchase them legally.
Heeding God's Call was launched three years ago with a campaign that led to the eventual closure of a gun shop in Philadelphia that was the source of 20 percent of all guns recovered at crime scenes in that city. At the time, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence had named the shop the fifth-worst gun dealer in the United States.
Locally, Heeding God's Call is gathering data on dealers in the metro area, including in Northern Virginia, and will be contacting those whose business practices do not meet the standards of the code of contact. The first step is to ask dealers to comply, and to celebrate with the community should they do so. Subsequent steps aim to bring public pressure to bear.
Heeding God's Call is endorsed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and is supported by the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
If you would like to get involved in this local effort to reduce gun violence, please let me know.
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New from AFAC: Reusable Bags ...
The Arlington Food Assistance Center is going green, or, at least, a little greener, by asking its clients to use reusable bags for groceries. Beginning the last week of February, AFAC will stop using plastic bags.
To make the change, AFAC needs reusable bags, so if you've got extras please add them to your food donations this Sunday. Last month we collected about 50 pounds of food, and through our Christmas Eve offering, contributed about $400.
Monday evening we'll meet up at AFAC (2708 S. Nelson St.) to bag groceries, then gather at our house for a simple meal and some good conversation. As always, it is helpful if you can RSVP to me.
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Prayers of the People
Our Seasons of the Spirit prayers for the coming week include the people of Ghana in their struggles, for the clients of AFAC, and these members of the CPC family: Jean Ensminger, Sam Foulke, David and Suzanne Fuller. Please let them know that you are holding them in the light.
Our texts for the weekinclude Amos 5:21-24; Genesis 18:14-19; 2 Chronicles 9:3-8; Psalm 9; Isaiah 32:12-20; Matthew 5:6.
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Come and See! Exploring Membership at CPC
We launched a new exploring membership gathering last Sunday with a half dozen adults (and two happy, beautiful baby girls) sharing our stories of faith and doubt and turning points in our own journeys. OK, the babies did not share too much beyond some lovely singing, but perhaps more than any of us, they seemed perfectly attuned to the core message: you are a beloved child of a loving God!
This Sunday we'll continue the conversation about what it means to be a member of the church. We'll share some simple food and good conversation.
If you'd like to join the fun, we're meeting in the purple parlor/church library after worship. The gathering will last about one hour. All are welcome, whether or not you could be with us last week.
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Come and Sing! John Bell Is Coming to Arlington
 John Bell, who led an evening of congregational song at Clarendon two years ago, is returning to Arlington to lead a series of workshops and worship services at Arlington Presbyterian Church, March 13-16.
John is a minister in the Church of Scotland and a member of the Iona Community, where he has helped to lead a broad renewal movement in congregational singing and global hymnody.
Details are available on the National Capital Presbytery web site, and there's a flyer on the bulletin board outside the office at church.
If you've never had the opportunity to sing with John, make sure you mark your calendars for Sunday evening, March 13, at 7:00, when he will lead a community sing. You will be part of making some beautiful music, and you'll have a blast while doing it.
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