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Gracias! Lots of Notes of Thanks that We Should Share
| Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Souper Bowl of Caring last week. We raised more than $200 for AFAC through your generosity.
Thanks to Mike Holloway for providing a delicious spread for coffee hour Sunday!
If we are to have coffee hour this Sunday someone needs to step up. Please let me know if you can do this.
Help Wanted!
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 open beginning with Feb. 13.
(You can check the schedule each week on the calendar on the CPC web site.)
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| Mark Your Calendars! | |
Coming soon to the wee kirk:
Christian education/spiritual formation discernment group, Feb. 13, 11:30 a.m.
Session meets Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m.
Family Circle Sunday School, Feb. 20, 11:30 a.m.
AFAC bagging night, Feb. 21, 7:00 p.m.
Heeding God's Call, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.
Wii Kirk pizza and games night, March 11, 6:30 p.m.
Rebuilding Together, April 30.
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| Musical Invitation | |
Clarinetist Peter Mika, who played during worship last month, shares this invitation:
I'd also like to invite everyone in the congregation to the Alexandria Symphony's Feb. 12 concert at 8:00 p.m.
If you order tickets online type in "friend" in the discount bar and get half-off tickets. The orchestra is bringing in a counter-tenor soloist -- a rare breed of male singer who sings very high -- should be very interesting.
I'll playing and it would be great to see you there. Here's the link to the concert.
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| Pick Up Your New Directory | |
The 2011 CPC directory is out! Copies are available at church. They are in one of the plastic mailboxes hanging on the wall right outside of the church offices on the main floor. Please pick one up.
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Love and Power
Progressive ... Inclusive ... Diverse |
February.2011
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Greetings!
 Next week brings the feast of St. Valentine, a feast day named after a bunch of guys named Valentinus about whom not much is known. Ah, well, celebrate the gift of love in whatever fashion suits you. At Clarendon we'll celebrate the gift of God's love, and remind ourselves that we are, first and foremost, children of God and that God loves us just as we are. Sunday morning in worship we'll read a pair of passages that speak of love: some passionate words from Song of Solomon and some inspiring ones from Ephesians. The meditation is called "Love and Power." Come and worship! peace, David PS: this week's news includes a couple of invitations (Lenten series and a Sunday post-worship gathering). It will be incredibly helpful to those of us planning these things if you will let me know whether or not you plan to participate. Thanks. |
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Information Please! Lent Plans Up to You
The small group gatherings last fall communicated to session a desire on the part of many members of the community for greater opportunities for education and spiritual formation. We plan to offer several such opportunities during Lent (see below) and later this spring, but we want to go deeper and develop a sustainable capacity for doing so for both adults and the young people of the congregation. We need your help to make is happen.
Marit Simenson and I are pulling together a group to think about the way we approach education and spiritual formation at CPC for the whole community. This Sunday following worship (and over a simple lunch) we'll spend one hour sharing some of our relevant experiences. We'll use a provocative piece from Quaker educator Parker Palmer to prompt our conversation, as together we seek to discern the initial outline of a way forward for CPC.
Being part of the gathering this Sunday is not a commitment to being part of any group going forward. We're trying to get a diverse group together to think about what the way might look like, both in terms of more or less traditional "Christian Education" offerings as well as other paths to deeper spiritual lives for young people and for adults.
We will use a discernment model of listening for the Spirit's movement in our midst. I've used these practices numerous times, and so I can promise that whatever else Sunday may bring, it will be moving because the Spirit rarely sits still! Come and see. If you are interested in deepening your spiritual journey, we want you to be part of this conversation.
It will be immensely helpful for planning and for cooking if you let me know that you intend to join us this Sunday for this exciting hour of discernment. |
Information Please! Lent Plans Up to You
We are working on a couple of Lenten study opportunities, and need you input to make final plans. Your answers to a couple of brief questions will help a great deal.
Would you participate in a Lenten group focusing on the practice of Christian hospitality? We talk a great deal about how important hospitality is at CPC. This Lent we'd like to deepen our understanding of this foundational spiritual practice, and think creatively about the ways we can express it in our lives.
Would you like to learn more about our confessional heritage, especially as the denomination considers adding the Belhar Confession to our Book of Confessions?
These are not mutually exclusive opportunities, so you can certain say "yes" to both of them. They are, however, being imagined quite differently. The hospitality series will be more experiential while the confessions study will be more of a traditional intellectual study group.
Finally, it will help us logistically to hear from you about scheduling options. Understanding that no time works for everyone, and that the final call will have a great deal to do with the schedules of facilitators, which of these times would work for you?
* Sunday mornings before worship.
* Sunday mornings immediately after worship.
* Sunday afternoons before dinner time.
* Sunday evenings after dinner time.
* A weekday evening.
* Saturday mornings at 9:00.
Send me a note with your preference, and we'll use the feedback as we complete plans for Lent.
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Prayers of the People
Our Seasons of the Spirit prayers for the coming week include medical personnel working in war zones; our own health care providers; and these members of the CPC family: Gordon Hawthorne and Hal Logsdon. Please let them know that you are holding them in the light.
Our texts for the week include the Song of Solomon. If you've never read this sexiest of all scripture, curl up with it this Valentine's week. It's beautiful poetry, and always fun to read with a very close friend.
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AFAC Needs Your Help Going Green
In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, AFAC is providing its clients with reusable bags for carrying groceries. We have some 50-pound rice bags (empty) that can be converted into grocery bags with a little bit of creative stitchery. If you'd like to try your hand, let me know. We will have the bags at church this Sunday.
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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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