The Word from St. John's Church (Week of July 26, 2020)

Join Us on YouTube this Sunday for a Service of Morning Prayer

Sunday, July 26

Facebook live at 9:00 a.m. and on YouTube anytime

Worship with us on Sunday, virtually! Click on the YouTube image above to participate. There will be music, prayer and preaching.

Watch it together "live" with others at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on our Facebook page or you may choose to participate at your usual service time (7:45 a.m., 9:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m.), or any other time you like.

Feel free to share the link with others.

Virtual Coffee Hour

Sunday, July 26, 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. | Online via Zoom

Join us Su nday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., for a Zoom coffee hour, to socialize, catch up, and talk about the service. Send a message here for the link to participate.

Bible Study

Sunday, July 26 at 10:00 a.m. | Online via Zoom

The Bible Study led by Jack Reiffer will be held on Sunday, July 26 at 10:00 a.m. online via Zoom . Please contact Jack Reiffer and the Rev. Jane Hague for the links to participate .

Summer Christian Formation for Children

Sunday, July 26, 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. | Online via Zoom

Join us this week for our monthly LIVE Zoom Church School session from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. We will sing, pray, and hear a Godly Play story about the Parable of the Leaven from Matthew's Gospel. Please contact the Rev. Savannah Ponder for the links to participate .

Service of Evening Prayer

Sunday, July 26, 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. | Online via Zoom

For more information, please contact the Rev. Savannah Ponder .

Click here to join Evening Prayer.

Click here for a copy of the Evening Prayer Bulletin

Service of Compline

Monday to Friday, 8:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. | Online via Zoom

Click here to join the Service of Compline.

For more information, please contact the Rev. Savannah Ponder .

Click here for a copy of the Service of Compline Bulletin

Centering Prayer

Wednesdays at 7:00 a.m. | Online via Zoom

Interested in joining a Centering Prayer Zoom gathering on Wednesdays at 7:00 a.m.? Experience a few moments of peace and comfort through the contemplative practice of centering prayer. Newcomers welcome! Contact the Rev. Jane Milliken Hague for more information.

Book Group

Thursday, August 6 at 6:45 p.m. | Online via Zoom

The St. John's Book group will meet on Thursday, August 6, at 6:45 p.m. via Zoom . August is "free read" month. Come to the book club and tell us what you are reading . If you love to read, please join us for an evening of discussion and socializing.

For more information and for links to participate, contact Leila Taaffe .

St. John's Youth

Monday, August 10 at 6:30 p.m. | Online via Zoom

The youth are currently on break from meeting and will begin meeting again on Monday, August 10 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. In the meantime, youth are encouraged to read a book that will be part of the class discussion in August. Please contact the Rev. Savannah Ponder to receive a copy.

St. John's Speaker Series Schedule

Sundays, 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. | Online via Zoom

(August 23, September 13, September 20, September 27, and October 4)

Zoom invitation to come

August 23: Marc Morial , President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation's largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization, and former mayor (1994-2002) of New Orleans.

September 13: John Barry , award-winning author of several books including the best-selling The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History . An advisor to the Bush and Obama White Houses and to the United Nations and WHO on pandemic preparedness and response, he is a professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He will speak on The Great influenza Pandemic of 1918: Lessons Learned and Not Learned--and Where We Are Now.

September 20 : Christian Appy , Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He will speak about the Vietnam War.

September 27: Elaine Pagels , American religious historian and the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She will speak on her book, Why Religion, A Personal Story .

October 4: Jim Tankersley , c overs economic and tax policy for The New York Times . Over more than a decade covering politics and economics in Washington, he has written extensively about the stagnation of the American middle class and the decline of economic opportunity in wide swaths of the country. He will speak on his upcoming book, The Riches of This Land: The Untold, True Story of America's Middle Class.

Pastoral Care

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our St. John's community in many ways. St. John's parishioners have expressed the desire to help their neighbors during this difficult time. Please use this form to let us know if you:

Can provide support for someone in need or
Are in need of support.

We will do our best to connect those in need with those who are able to help. If you are not comfortable using this form, please send us an email at help@stjohns-dc.org with your name, contact information and details of the type of support you can give or the support you need.

In addition to this direct support from parishioners, our Rector, the Rev. Rob Fisher, has an emergency fund for those who may be in need of financial assistance. If you are in need of financial assistance or would like to contribute to the emergency fund, please reach out directly to the Rev. Rob Fisher .

Prayer List

Our prayers are requested for the special needs and concerns of this congregation, especially:

Those who are sick or recovering:

From our parish: Eve Atkeson, Bill Brownlee, Bobbie Falk, Susan Herrington, Nelda Johnson, Bob Patchell, Dace Vidins, and Jeff White.

Friends and family of our parish: Niels Beck (Michelle Mangrum), Diane Bender (Peter Odom), Rachael Buckley (Chrystal Martin), Tom Burkart (Pamela Venzke), John Frew Carter (Margo Arnold), Bill Clark (Clark Ervin), Brian Cohen (Jane Hague), Harry Davis (Mary and Carl Raether), Karl Dornemann (Deb Dornemann), Bobby Doyle (Alex Pappas), Geri Lucas Haji (Judy McKevitt), Courtney Jordan Hillman (Erika Northcutt), Lucas Hunt (Matthew Taylor), Vera Hyncik (Holly Sukenik), Tom Kiernan (Joanne Hutton), Amy Lowenthal (Andrew Tomlinson), William Markiewicz (Matthew Taylor), Tammy McCleaf (Matthew Taylor), Kevin Milstead (Andrew Tomlinson), Timothy Mullins (Jim Mullins), Zach Newton (Andrew Tomlinson), Judy Nicola (Cynthia Walker), Ginger Parra (Leila Taaffe), Lloyd Poplin (Joy and Dick Nathan), Cawley Scott (Robyne Johnston), Zoe Taaffe (Leila Taaffe), Garland Treadway (Karen Zachary), and Gabriel Van Oyen (Carolyn Crouch).

Those who are in rehabilitative care:

From our parish: Max Hudgins and Marcella Odom.

Those who are in the hospital:

From our parish: Barbara Johnston.

Friends and family of our parish: James Hodges (Matthew Taylor), Julie Howell (Cynthia Walker), Phyllis Lambert (Will Morris), Chase Madar (Rob Fisher), Gina Robinson (Matthew Taylor), Travis Rogers (Robert Carroll), and Mary Seidman (Nora and Hap Rigby).

Those who are in hospice care:

Friends and family of our parish: Judy Adams (Sarah Agnew) and Steve Heidenberger (Jane Hague).

Those in our parish celebrating a birthday this week: Lourdes Arriaga, Kate Benner, Martha Blalock, Rebecca Brown, Pete Carlson, Evan Corcoran, Margaret Depue, Steve Faris, Jamie Finch, Myles Jeffers, Jack Martin, Jody Moses, Allie Raether, Nate Rawlings, Larry Redway, Isabel Tierney, Christina Wilson, and Andrea Winchell.

Those in our parish celebrating an anniversary this week: Mary and Daniel Kroese, Susan and Pat Welch, and Alis Wang and Amy Stulman .

For those on the frontlines in the coronavirus pandemic, especially:

Friends and family of our parish: Janie Abernethy (Elizabeth Lewis and David Abernethy), Sandra Brown (Becca Brown), Nathan Cobb (Livy and John More), Chris Gardner (Ann Gardner), Yee Houston (Quin Woodward Pu), and Marta Kochanska (Livy and John More).

Email Whaling/Phishing Scams Persist

Be Aware and Don't Be A Victim!

Again, community members have received messages purporting to be from the Rev. Rob Fisher, asking for favors and gift card purchases. These emails are not from Rob!

Rob and the rest of the staff at St. John's Church will never email anyone asking for gift card purchases. Treat this as a red flag and report it to staff immediately.

Any email from clergy or staff will have an address that ends with stjohns-dc.org. Common phishing/whaling attempts use very similar looking email addresses from free services like Gmail or Yahoo.

Please do not open any suspicious emails that may come from any account. Delete them immediately. To learn more about whaling/phishing attempts, visit the Diocese of Newark's blog post on the subject .

St. John’s Mask Project Number Two Now Helps Needy Hispanic Immigrants

Since early Spring, the St. John’s Refugee Committee, in an effort to serve both those suffering with Covid-19 and those on the medical team at George Washington Hospital fighting Covid-19, commissioned an Afghan refugee family to sew surgery masks to supplement the hospital’s supply of N-95 masks. The refugee, a former translator for the U. S. Military, was furloughed due to the pandemic. Sewing masks gave the family some income and kept the masks flowing.

We were able to provide George Washington Hospital with 521 Surgery Masks through the hard work of our refugee friends and the generosity of St. John’s. The supply of N-95 is now adequate at most hospitals, so the project organizers, Gay and Bob Pasley, are seeking donations from St. John’s parishioners who would like to help keep the refugee family employed and see that quality masks can be donated to needy members of our community.

Around July 4th, a request came to us from the Outreach Committee of Christ Church in Alexandria, VA. Volunteers there had been delivering groceries to Hispanic immigrants in dire need. Volunteers discovered there was a severe shortage of adult and children masks. St. John’s has been asked to supply as many masks as it can. This community of Arlandria has been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the most recent test results indicating that these residents represent 50% of Alexandria’s Covid-19 cases. We appreciate your support for the project and ask that you continue to donate by clicking on the button below and choosing “Refugee Project” from the Fund drop-down menu. For more information, contact the Pasleys here.

Click here to donate.

Reflections and Updates from the Rector

Click on the image below

Episcopal Diocese of Washington Covid-19 Emergency Relief Appeal

Many of us are asking how we can help during this pandemic. In our Diocese, we are seeing members of our churches suffering from food insecurity and other hardships. Congregations in low-income communities are an essential part of an increasingly fragile safety net for their most vulnerable neighbors.

To support the most vulnerable parishes, the diocese has suspended the Annual Bishop’s Appeal for the diocesan budget and has replaced it with a Covid-19 Emergency Relief Appeal.

St. John’s parishioners have shown a desire to support others through this crisis. If you would like to help, supporting this relief fund would be an excellent way. You can make a gift on the diocesan website at this link: https://www.edow.org/about/giving .

St. John's on LinkedIn

As many of you know, LinkedIn is the top online business networking platform, with over 630 million registered members. While used primarily to list career and business interests, it also allows you to list (and link) outside interests, memberships and affiliations, including places of worship. As part of our outreach into the community and world of work, we invite you to list your membership (and roles) at St. John's. This will allow others who might be interested in St. John's to connect with you, and also show our interest in, and relevance to, the world of work.

We have set up a St. John's LinkedIn page , and would welcome congregational participation in building out and populating the page.

To help with that or with any questions, please contact the Rev. Will Morris .