|
|
Gracias! Lots of Notes of Thanks that We Should Share ...
| Thanks to Hal and Gordon for their gracious (and delicious) hospitality Sunday at coffee time. We look forward to Karen and Marty's hospitality this Sunday.
Thanks to Don Hodgen for clearing ice from sidewalks and ramps in the wee hours of Sunday before worship.
(Coffee time hosts are posed on the CPC web calendar.)
|
Celebrations &
Concerns
| |
We hold elder Cindy Bolbach, moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and member of Arlington Presbyterian Church,in the light. Cindy undergoes surgery Friday to address anemia concerns.
Please hold Barbara Allen's mother, Mildred Allen, in the light as she continues to have difficulties transitioning to life in a nursing facility.
|
| Ash Wednesday Worship | |
The season of Lent begins next Wednesday, Feb. 22, with Ash Wednesday.
We'll mark the beginning of the 40 days of Lenten observance with a simple meal at 6:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall, and then gather in the sanctuary for worship.
The Ash Wednesday service asks us to reflect on our own journeys, and offers us the opportunity to mark renewed commitments with the ancient sign of ashes.
The ash, from the burned palm branches of last spring's Palm Sunday celebration, remind us of the cycles of our lives and God's constant presence at ever stage along the way.
We welcome everyone, as always, to join us for worship.
|
| Unchurch! Returns! | |
Sunday evenings through the season of Lent join us at the Unchurch!
Beginning Sunday, Feb. 26, at 5:30 p.m. we'll gather for supper, and some good conversation, followed by a brief closing worship.
Through Lent we'll be talking about stages of life and stages of faith, as well as the circles of our lives in which we express that faith in service to family, neighborhood, school, work, church and broader community.
We'll be tapping resources in the broader community to help us better understand both the stages of our own lives as well as the matrix of gift, call and need that we experience differently at different points along the way.
There will be programming for our young people each of the Sundays, and it will help us prepare that if we know who's coming! Please let me know what children to expect.
|
Mark Your
Calendars! | |
Coming soon to the wee kirk:
Session, Sunday, Feb. 19, 11:30 a.m.
AFAC grocery bagging, Monday, Feb. 20, 7:00 p.m.
Ash Wednesday meal and worship, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 6:30 p.m.
Nominating Committee, Sunday, Feb. 26, following worship.
Unchurch returns!, Sunday, Feb. 26, 5:30 p.m.
Liturgical leadership workshop, Sunday, March 5, 11:30 a.m.
Pancake breakfast, Saturday, March 10.
Rebuilding Together! Saturday, April 28. |
|
|
|
|
|
Letting Go of Lent
Progressive ... Inclusive ... Diverse |
February 2012
|
Greetings!
Please take a moment to look through this note. There's so much going on in the life of the wee kirk, and we really need to hear from you on several of the opportunities detailed in this week's e-blast. Thanks!The season of Lent begins next week with Ash Wednesday. Purple is the color for the season, thus the tinted text! For much of Western Christianity through the years Lent has been a season of repentance marked by such practices as fasting and giving things up. Fasting and abstaining from something are fine practices if they deepen your spiritual life and draw you closer to the source of all life. On the other hand, if giving things up does not draw you deeper and closer to God then perhaps letting go of Lent is what you need. I don't mean ignore the gift of a time of intentional reflection by any means, but I do mean letting go of any guilt that comes with the all but inevitable breaking of a fast and often simply with the craving to break it even when it is kept. We do not need more guilt or shame in this life, for guilt and shame are pathways to spiritual death. Instead, we need people who are fully alive! Consider this Lent what you might take on as a new practice in your journey of faith that will bring you more fully alive. Personally, I am taking on a writing discipline with a commitment to myself to write a song each week of Lent. This is a deeply personal commitment, and I may never share any of these with another soul but I do know from experience that when I submit to the discipline of writing creatively I find myself living more creatively and fully alive in other parts of my life, as well. So I encourage you this season of Lent to take on a practice that brings you more fully alive. Maybe you've been thinking about singing with the choir, for example. Join us for Lent! I look forward to hearing about your practice, and how it re-shapes you over these 40 days. "A human being fully alive is the glory of God," said 2nd-century bishop Irenaeus. We do not need more people on paths of death; we need more fully alive human beings!
peace, David PS: We'll mark the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22. We'll gather for a simple soup supper at 6:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall, and move upstairs for a quiet time of worship at 7:15.
|
|
CPC Presents:
An Opportunity to Improve Our Liturgical Skills
The life of a vibrant congregation begins in worship that fills our spirits and challenges our hearts and minds. Such worship involves all of us, and taps a variety of leadership gifts. The liturgical arts -- presenting scripture, leading prayers, preaching, music -- form the foundation for such worship, and we want to do all of these as well as we possibly can.
Toward that end, the Rev. Walter Green will offer a liturgical arts workshop Sunday, March 4, following coffee time. This simple workshop is designed for everyone who is interested in any aspect of worship leadership, from sharing scripture to leading prayers to preaching.
Please take this opportunity to help us make our worship experience more compelling.
|
Clear Vision Requires Research: It's Your Turn
Last Sunday we took another step in the research phase of our visioning process, and now have a set of basic questions to pose to various community organizations that we identified in January.
We have named more than a dozen organizations from whom we'd like to solicit this general information:
- What are the greatest challenges facing your organization today? What are the challenges facing our community?
- How could CPC play a vital role in addressing these challenges?
- When you look out five years, what challenges do you foresee for your organization? For our community?
- How could CPC play a vital role addressing those challenges?
We envision brief phone (or in-person) conversations to gather this information. While we also have a few more specific questions for several of the organizations, the information interviews should take no more than 15 minutes.
What we need now is you! We have a few volunteers for some of the organizations, but we need folks to step up and contact AFAC, A-SPAN, BRAVO, the department of Human Services, GLBT youth organizations, People of Faith for Equality VA, the Arlington Free Clinic, Occupy Faith DC, nearby assisted living facilities, and CPC tenants.
If you are willing to take on one of these interviews, or if you have another group to whom we ought to speak, please let me know.
We would like to complete these conversations during the next two weeks. The information we gather will be used to help us refine the outward-focus aspect of our refocused vision.
|
Ron & James Stand Up for Marriage Equality
 Elders Ron Bookbinder and James Fisher led a public witness for marriage equality at the Arlington County Courthouse on Valentines Day morning as they applied for a Virginia marriage license.
Arlington County Circuit Court Clerk Paul Ferguson received the application and apologized for being unable to process it.
"I am prohibited from processing this request but not from accepting it," Ferguson said. He promised to keep the application on file until that day when same-gender marriages are recognized by the Commonwealth and the clerk's office can issue a license.
The witness was part of a broader effort coordinated by People of Faith for Equality Virginia that included public actions in Fairfax County and in Richmon on Valentines Day.
The Arlington effort was covered by several local media outlets including the Arlington Mercury. Pastor David also posted a reflection on his blog.
|
Plant Your Rows Straight and Long!
CPC Gets Garden Grant for 2012
 Clarendon has been awarded an Arlington Community Garden grant of $776 to develop our Plot Against Hunger garden this year.
The grant will fund purchase of raised beds to increase the garden's capacity this year, and also to increase our composting capacity.
Food from the garden is contributed to the Arlington Food Assistance Center. Kudos to Gillian Burgess for taking on the extremely last-minute grant writing work.
The grant includes a session with the Virginia Ag Extension Service, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 9:00 a.m. - noon, at the Fairlington Community Center. If you are available to represent us that morning, please let me know. |
Staff Design Group Articulates Principles
CPC's staff design group continues its work, and will present an update to the congregation at Sunday's congregational meeting.
The group's work is being conducted in relationship to the broader visioning work of session and the congregation, and will proceed according to a set of broad goals and principles that emerged from the group's conversations and guidance from session.
To maintain and expand a vibrant congregation, the staff design group will ensure that staffing at Clarendon be designed to:- Ensure effective and efficient stewardship of the congregation's human, financial, and physical resources.
- Develop more diverse and interactive ministries, particularly with respect to music and Christian education.
- Facilitate better identification and harnessing of congregational time and talents.
- Complement the strengths of existing staff and lay leadership.
The group has reviewed data from National Capital Presbytery and from the broader Presbytery Church (U.S.A.) on staffing patterns of similar-size congregations, and will present those findings Sunday. Elders Travis Reindl, Karen Kimmel, and Gordon Hawthorne, and members Dave Norman and Grant Mandsager are serving on the staff design team.
|
|
|
|
|
