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Gracias! Lots of Notes of Thanks that We Should Share
| Thanks to everyone who brought food to share for the potluck, and special thanks to Carol, Cheryl, Grant, Gillian, James, Mike and Suzanne for helping set up or clean up.
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Wii Kirk Returns!
| The first Wii Kirk pizza and games evening of the fall is coming Friday, September 30, at 6:30.
Come for an evening of fantastic pizza courtesy of Clark Chesser and Cheryl Lederle, aka Mr. and Ms. Pizza.
Bring anything you'd like to share.
We'll have the Wii set up with all manner of games to test your video chops against the young ones. They promise to be kind!
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| Open Doors Board Member Needed | I have announced to the board of Open Doors/More Light Presbyterians my intention to step down from the board next month after five years, including three as co-moderator.
The end of my time on the board will leave an opening for a CPC representative. If you would like to serve on the board, please let me know.
The board organizes various activities throughout the year, including participation in Metro Pride events, advocacy within National Capital Presbytery concerning GLBT issues, community education programs, and an annual worshipful celebration. The board meets monthly (about 90 minutes). At this point the meetings are at Westminster Presbyterian in DC.
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| A-SPAN Servicep | We're feeding our neighbors in need with A-SPAN on Friday, September 30.
Join the crew that will gather at church at 5:45 p.m. to distribute food at two sites. Please let me know that you can help out.
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Milestones
| Birthday Bash!
Dave Norman celebrates a birthday September 23! Happy birthday, Mr. Norman.
We celebrate with you!
Continued prayers for Ditty Boaz, who has returned home under hospice care. Cheryl Lederle asks prayers for her colleague, Uhuru Goss, who is facing surgery and is the primary caregiver for her mother, who is being treated for cancer.
In this space we celebrate moments and milestones in the lives of members of the community. So, if you have a birthday, an anniversary, a graduation, a promotion, a retirement, or other milestone to celebrate send me a note and we'll shout it out right here.
Likewise, if you have a prayer concern that you'd like lifted up in the prayer lives of the the community, let me know and we'll list that here, as well.
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Mark Your
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Coming soon to the wee kirk:
Session, Sunday, Sept. 18, 11:45 a.m.
Unchurch! Sunday, Sept. 18, 6:00 p.m.
AFAC grocery bagging, Monday, Sept. 19, 7:00 p.m.
Choir, Thursday, Sept. 22, 7:00 p.m.
Facilities & Finance discerning group, Sunday, Sept. 25, 11:30 a.m.
A-SPAN meal serving, Friday, Sept. 30, 5:45 p.m.
Wii Kirk, Friday, Sept. 30, 6:30 p.m.
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Responding to You;
Now It's Your Turn: RSVP!!!
Progressive ... Inclusive ... Diverse |
September.2011
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Greetings!
 As most of you will recall, last fall we held a series of small-group gatherings hosted by session members to hear your suggestions and concerns for our common life. This fall we are continuing to live into the ideas that grew out of those listening sessions. Unchurch, which makes its debut Sunday evening at 6:00, arose from the expressed desire to have more opportunities to gather as a community, share meals, and learn about issues and ideas related to our faith in ways that are spiritually grounded but that don't simply repeat traditional Sunday morning worship. Invite a FriendOver the years, we've spoken often about ways we might reach out and grow our community. Unchurch is an opportunity for doing just that, especially for people who don't connect with traditional church services. All of which is to say, "invite a friend to join us this weekend." I've invited several friends directly, the childcare center families as a group, and I've circulated a flyer to several hundred households in the neighborhood. That's all well and good, but according to the folks who study church growth, most people who become part of a faith community do so not because the pastor invited them but because a friend did. Please Let Us KnowI've heard from some of you noting that you intend to be at the unchurch this Sunday. With as many invites as we have out, it is critically important that you let me know you're coming. We can do loaves and fishes, but it sure is easier if we know how many loaves to get! grace and peace, David PS: I sent an actual, old-fashioned, snail-mail letter to the church community this week with a preview and update on plans for the fall. If you did not receive such a letter it's because we do not have an address. Send it my way and we'll make sure you're on the real mail list as well as the virtual one. |
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Come to the Unchurch! And Bring a Friend.
Sunday, September 18, at 6:00 p.m. CPC kicks off an intergenerational experiment in community formation, education and spiritual development for all.
The Unchurch opens its doors that evening with an art show and a conversation with artist Rusty Lynn. Rusty is a long-time friend of More Light Presbyterians, and is retired from a career as a pastoral counselor with the Center for Pastoral Counseling. In his retirement, Rusty has returned to his for love: visual arts, painting and sculpture.
Long practiced in the art of centering prayer, Rusty will share with us some of his insights and experience in and through the spiritual practice of creativity. A show of his work will be hanging in Wilson Hall.
Click here to download an unchurch flyer to share with friends! Sunday, September 25, singer-songwriter and peacemaker Blair Pettyjohn will come to the Unchurch and to share his music and his thoughts about the nonviolent way of Jesus.
October 2, Cindy Bolbach, current moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will drop by to share from her experience as moderator.
Future visitors to the unchurch include DC poet Rose Berger (a longtime staff writer for Sojourners), and the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, director of the denomination's Washington Office). Rose will be joined by poet Joseph Ross for a joint reading. J. Herbert will talk with us about the spiritual practice of public witness.
In November we'll devote the unchurch to further explorations of the spiritual practice of hospitality. Picking up where we left off last winter during our Lenten soup series, Clark Chesser and Cheryl Lederle will guide us deeper into the art and practice of Christian hospitality.
Unchurch will feed your body and your soul. The evening will begin with a community meal at 6:00, followed by about 45 minutes of program time, and a brief prayerful closing time of worship in the style of the Taize community in France -- lots of candles, simple songs, the evening psalm and community prayers. There will be childcare available for the youngest members of the community during the program time, and there will be programs for the elementary-middle school children as well.
Unchurch is for everyone, but it's especially for folks for whom the traditional Sunday morning worship time (even as nontraditionally as we do it at CPC) does not work. All of which means, it's a great time to invite friends who might otherwise shy away from church. Unchurch will be an open space to build community, share ideas and experiences, learn from each other and from artists, poets, activists, musicians, theologians and leaders in the larger church. If you have an idea for a leader, or if you've a topic you'd like to lead, please let me or Marit Simenson know.
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Exploring Membership at CPC this Fall
Sundays in October we will convene our next "exploring membership" gatherings. We'll be meeting in the church library/purple parlor following coffee time beginning Sunday, Oct. 2.
The gatherings will give folks who are new to the community an opportunity to learn about Clarendon, about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and about each other.
All are welcome! If you'd like to be part of this fall's exploration, please contact David.
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AFAC Hits New High in Clients
Last month, AFAC served 1,450 families, a 19 percent increase from one year ago and a new record high for a single month. AFAC sites two key reasons behind the increase. First is the continuing economic stagnation, and second is new distribution sites. With more families struggling to secure adequate income the strain on food budgets continues. CPC continues to "fill the gap" for these families by filling the bags at AFAC every month. We meet up next Monday at 7:00 p.m. at AFAC and then gather for a simple meal at the Lederle-Ensign house when the bagging is complete. |
New Form of Government Takes Effect in PC(USA)
This summer the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) entered a new era as the new form of government approved by last summer's General Assembly (and ratified by a majority of presbyteries in voting since the assembly) to effect. The effective date, July 10, coincided with the 501st anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. If anyone knew where his body was buried the grave could be checked for signs of rolling over or not. NFOG includes the new ordination standard (the now ratified amendment 10-A) which makes the way clear for ordaining gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons to church office. The new form of government also changes the titles of two of those offices: elders are now ruling elders and ministers of word and sacrament are now teaching elders. It remains to be seen what practical changes will result for Clarendon, but at the very least you can anticipate voting on a few clerical changes to our congregational by-laws at the October congregational meeting as we move to align those by-laws with the new numbering system in the revised denominational constitution. |
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