The Gospel According to St. Mark's

Many people tell me that what they're seeking in a church is community. They want to know and be known, not just become another anonymous face in a town full of transience. Church can be a place where we meet friends and dig deeply into issues and ideas that feed us. But just coming to church on Sunday is usually not enough to build that kind of community. Vital friendship and significant conversations take a bit more of a personal investment.

The Life, Community and Faith class is designed to build tight knit community; it can, if you let it, create the kind of place where you can take your big questions, your doubts, your hopes and find others who are willing to do the same. Over the past several years, I've participated in several Life, Community, and Faith classes and I always love seeing friendships form and groups grow closer to one another. Every Sunday, I can look around at the congregation and see graduates of Life, Community, and Faith who have found relationships and ways of participating in our community that sustain them.

The teaching team for this spring class has a ton of experience at St. Mark's and with this class. They are eager to get to know you and learn from you. Yes, it takes some time and some money, but what was the last really worthwhile experience you had that did not take time and some money? Give yourself the gift of an opportunity to explore the community of St. Mark's and your place in it. Contact me if you are interested or have any questions.

Peace,

Justi

Class Details:

Tuesday nights, February 16 through April 19, 7:30 pm

Weekends away, March 4-6 and April 8-10

Cost $250

From Jeff Kempskie, Director of Music

Dear St. Mark's,

Please join us for a lovely Choral Evensong Service sung by the Chancel Choir this Sunday, February 7th at 5:00pm in the nave. The Magnificat & Nunc dimittis will be by Gerald Near and the anthem will be "Transfiguration" by Craig Phillips. A small reception will follow the service. If you're planning to watch the Super Bowl, know that the service itself will finished by 6:00pm. That should hopefully allow enough time for you to get home (or wherever) and still see the opening kick off if that's your thing.

Looking ahead, the Cantate Chamber Singers will be presenting a unique concert at St. Mark's on Saturday, February 27 at 5:00pm. Cantate will collaborate with the Bowen McCauley Dance Company ("Metro D.C.'s premier contemporary dance company," the Washington Post) for a spirited joint performance of Brahms's Liebeslieder Waltzes as well as the premier of newly commissioned choreography to Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb. Cantate will also perform Bach's double choir motet Singet dem Herrn. General admission tickets are $35, $15 for students. A reception will follow the performance.

Peace,

JEFF

From The Worship Pillar

This Lenten season at St. Mark's we will experience the Taize (tay-ZAY) style of worship during several of our Sunday services (with the exception of Laetere Sunday, March 6, when we will have a sung Mass). We experimented with Taize last year for one service, and based on feedback decided to try the Taize style again for the Lenten season over a prolonged period.

The Taize style of ecumenical worship was pioneered in the 1940s by a Swiss monk, Br. Roger Louis Schutz-Marsauche, who founded the Taize monastic community in the Burgundy region of France. This style of worship emphasizes silence, repetition, and sung prayer to create a contemplative atmosphere. It asks us to slow down, stay quiet, and listen to the voice of God that comes during silence, to pay attention to breath as we sing repeated refrains.

Bringing in this style of worship is one of the many ways we are continuing our tradition of creative, challenging liturgy at St. Mark's. You may enjoy it, or you may not. But we hope each of us will enter into the experience and be open to what it might reveal. We encourage you to provide feedback to our Worship Co-Chairs, Jessie Babcock and Valeri Byrd, either in person or at stmarkslpt@gmail.com. For more information on the Taize community, we encourage you to visit www.taize.fr.

Best,

Jessie

From Caroline McReynolds-Adams, Director of Youth & Family Ministries

Dear Families,

This Sunday at 10am parents and guardians of all ages of St. Mark's youth are encouraged to join us in the Adams Room for a Parents Meeting. This is a time to meet and mingle with fellow parents, receive information about upcoming programming, and hear about ways that you can help support this ministry. Be sure to bring your calendars- there are many exciting opportunities for community-building, outreach, and spiritual growth for our youth in the coming months!

Youth ministry is an inherently communal act. Raising, guiding, and supporting our children on a spiritual search for belonging is the responsibility of all of us--clergy, staff, and parents alike. Join us this Sunday to not only hear more about this community but to actively be a part of this community as well.

Hope to see you all you St. Mark's parents there!

Peace,

Caroline

From Doris Burton, Junior Warden

Around the House...notes from the Junior Warden

No snow to worry about this Sunday (at least, not as of Friday morning!) but do take note of the huge truck in our lot: the Vassar Art Show and Sale, which opened Friday night, continues until 2 pm Sunday. Proceeds go to the Vassar Haiti Project run by an Episcopal priest in a small mountain village. http://www.thehaitiproject.org/

Lost and Found: The right-hand closet above the sale desk in the foyer holds items left behind. Please check it for anything missing. Valuables, like cellphones, are held by Green's Maintenance but I do collect upwards of a half-dozen water bottles/commuter mugs in the course of a month: these are nice, runners' bottles that aren't cheap. Please take yours home!

And...could someone please come up with a name for the sales desk? It really needs to be called something catchy and I know one of you has the mind to come with a zingy name...one Starbucks gift card for the cleverest name submitted to the Fabric Committee!

New Subcommittee: The Junior Warden has a new 'advisory' group: Historic Preservation Committee. Created by the Vestry in November at the request of the Junior Warden along with the Archives and Parish History Committee, this small group (which has its initial meeting this Sunday) will work with the JW on projects to preserve but also enhance the historic nature of our nave as well as its functionality. Janice Gregory, Mary Cooper (long-standing parishioners), Hester Ohbi (arts), Don Lipscomb (architect), Wayne Johnson (engineers), Michael Knipe (parishioner-at-large) meet the established criteria for membership stated in our charter.

Did you know...February, 2017 will be the 150^th anniversary of the founding of "Memorial Parish", as we were originally known, by The Rev. Mark Olds, Rector of Christ Church+Capitol Hill in the Sewall-Belmont House on Constitution Avenue and 2^nd St., NE, now the Women's Suffrage and Equal Rights Museum. The name change came in 1870 after 93 parishioners petitioned the Vestry to honor Rev. Olds after his death; we are, in part, named for him.

It's one year away: How do you think we should celebrate this noteworthy event?

Send your suggestions to stmarksjuniorwarden@gmail.com

Service Notes and Music

Prelude

Herr Jesu Christ, Dich Zu Uns Wend, Georg Böhm (1661-1733)

Opening Hymn

123 Alleluia, song of gladness, Tune: Tibi, Christe, splendor Patris

Offertory Anthem

O Splendor of God's Glory Bright, Words by Ambrose of Milan,

tr. Robert Bridges, Music by Peter Mathews - Chancel Choir

Presentation Hymn

119 v. 1, adapted, Tune: Dix

Sanctus S 128 William Mathias

Fraction Anthem S 152 Ambrosian chant, adapt. Mason Martens

Music During Communion

LEVAS 58 The Lord Is my Light, Words & Music by Lillian Bouknight

LEVAS 115 Spirit of the Living God, Words & Music by Daniel Iverson

(9:00) This Little Light of Mine, African American Spiritual

Closing Hymn

618 Ye watchers and ye holy ones, Tune: Lasst uns erfreuen

Postlude

Epilogue on 'Dix,' William H. Harris (1883-1973)

Schedule of Services

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Last Sunday after Epiphany

9:00 am Holy Eucharist + Laying on of Hands

The Reverend Michele H. Morgan, Presider

The Reverend Rebecca Justice Schunior, Co-Presider

9:00 am Children's Chapel

The Reverend Rebecca Justice Schunior, Leader

10:00 am Sermon Seminar

The Reverend Michele H. Morgan, Preacher

11:15 am Holy Eucharist + Laying on of Hands

The Reverend Michele H. Morgan, Preacher

The Reverend Rebecca Justice Schunior, Presider

5:00 pm Contemplative Eucharist

The Reverend Michele H. Morgan, Presider and Homilist

About the Gospel

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