The season of Lent is drawing us toward Holy Week, and though the weather feels like mid June the liturgical calendar reminds us that we are still in the season of lengthening days.

How goes it with your Lenten commitments? Have your practices drawn you closer to God, to your loved ones, to the community?

We've shared a great deal about "stages of life and stages of faith" in worship and in Unchurch through Lent, and we'll continue that through this weekend.

From the early stages of life, the young people remind us of their energy, imagination, and love as they host a pancake breakfast Saturday morning (9:00-10:30) to support Heifer International. Come out and eat for a good cause!

Sunday morning worship will invite us to consider the promises that God inscribes on our hearts, and what those promises compel us to promise in response at this moment in our lives.

Sunday evening we'll wrap up this segment of Unchurch looking at living into post-career vocations. A good number of CPC folks are at or nearing that stage of life, and many others of us have parents who are there. This conversation provides insight and support for the faithful decisions that come with that stage of life.

So, this weekend come out to eat, pray and ... be church in all kinds of ways!

peace,

David

PS: If you'd like to honor or remember someone through the gift of sanctuary decorations for Easter we'll be accepting donations at church for the next several Sundays. Your $10 contribution will be acknowledged in the bulletin on Easter as a memorial or honorific, and the money will be used to purchase a variety of seedlings for our Plot Against Hunger garden and flowers to decorate the sanctuary.

Please join us for the CPC Kids' Second Annual Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, March 24th from 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. in Wilson Hall.  All donation proceeds will go to benefit the Heifer Project. If you don't know what that is, feel free to ask the kids to fill you in! An RSVP to mollydemaret@hotmail.com is appreciated but not required

The community that breaks bread together is a healthy one! Toward that end, we'd like to have a round of "Dinners for Six or Eight" during the season after Easter.

Would you be willing to host one dinner gathering at your home some time between Easter (April 8) and Pentecost (May 27)? If so, please contact me about setting a date for your party. Thanks for considering. David.

At the congregational meetings in October and January CPC members expressed a desire to have opportunities to study the Bible and to have additional worship opportunities.

In response, during the season of Easter this spring, David will lead a 3-part Bible study looking comparatively at the four gospel accounts of Easter. What do these stories tell us? How are they similar? How are they different from one another? What is important in the differences, and in the similarities?

We'll meet at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays (April 18, May 9, May 23) in the chancel area of the sanctuary. We'll spend about an hour with the text, and close with a 20-minute Evensong worship.

Please let me know if you plan to join us for these evenings.

Saturday, April 14, join us as we plants seeds of hope -- and vegetables -- in a new and expanded garden at CPC. We'll start at 9:00 a.m., rain or shine, and aim to finish by midday.

This year, with funds from a community garden grant, we'll be constructing raised beds for our Plot Against Hunger.

Work has already begun with the removal of the dying tree on the Jackson Street side of church. The beds will be build on either side of the stump, in what is now a full-sun slope. (Thanks again to Sam Foulke for wielding the chain saw to remove the tree!)

If you have questions about the garden project, please contact Gillian Burgess.

As many of you know, I was ordained in Transylvania Presbytery in Lexington, Ky. Last week's storms tore through that part of the country, leaving at least 20 dead and hundreds injured. The following note from Transylvania Presbytery was sent to churches there over the weekend.

"We have received a number of calls and emails from around the presbytery concerning the storms Friday evening and how we can respond. Let me tell you what has happened thus far, and what plans we are putting in place to respond in the weeks ahead. As you know from the news media, the town of West Liberty suffered terrible destruction, but that community is not alone. Rev. E.G. Clark, pastor at Jackson and Ezel, reports that Ezel was also hit hard by the storms.

"I have been in contact with John Robinson from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and we are processing an immediate financial response of $10,000. (By the way, these monies come from your offerings last year to the One Great Hour of Sharing - a fact that you might use in promoting this year's Easter offering). John Robinson is also working through the PDA program to put together an emergency response team which will be traveling to the region and will coordinate with E.G. Clark the Presbyterian response on a longer term basis.

"Presbyterians are well known for our quick response, but also for our staying power. Long after a disaster drops from the front pages of our papers, the Presbyterian efforts continue.

"Our Mission Committee is also organizing Transylvania's immediate and continuing response, and, as we know more about the needs, we will communicate with you about the exact kind of help that you can provide.

"Disaster kits are always needed. Here is a link that has information regarding what is included in those kits: http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/pda/making-gift-heart-kits/#baby."

CPC's staff design group continues its work this month according to the principles laid out fully in the attached document.

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:

1. Ensure effective and efficient stewardship of the congregation's human, financial, and physical resources.
2. Develop more diverse and interactive ministries, particularly with respect to music and Christian education.
3. Facilitate better identification and harnessing of congregational time and talents.
4. 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.