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December 2 | Speaker Series - Rabbi Jesse Paikin
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Rabbi Jesse Paikin will begin the Advent Speaker Series this Sunday, December 2 at 10:00 a.m. with a discussion of
Ethics in the Public Square from a Jewish Perspective.
Rabbi Paikin is a Fellow at the Sixth and I Synagogue. He was educated at York University in Toronto and at NYU and Yeshivat Hadar in New York. Rabbi Jesse brings the perspective of the Torah and the Prophets to the subject of the moral authority of communities of faith.
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December 5 | First Wednesday Concert
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Music of the Season
Episcopal High School Chamber Choir
12:10 p.m.-12:45 p.m., Nave
Singing works by Moses Hogan, Ralph Vaughan Williams, David Willcocks, and Ray Charles under the direction of Brent Erstad with organist Bobby Stubbs. Please consider joining us during your lunch break on the First Wednesdays of the month,
through June, and bring a friend. See full season details on the church website at www.stjohns-dc.org. Each concert is ticketless, free of charge, and held in the nave of our historic church.
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December 5 | Latrobe: Holiday Dinner and White Elephant Gift Exchange
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7:00 p.m. at St. John's Parish House
Celebrate the holiday season with your young adult family! Join us at 7:00 p.m. for a service of Holy Eucharist followed by a holiday feast! We will also have a white elephant exchange, so bring a fun or silly wrapped gift ($10 or less, please!). To RSVP or to get more information about the Latrobe Fellowship,
please contact the Rev. Andy Olivo
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December 6 | St. John's Book Group
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The St. John's Book Group will meet on December 6 at 6:45 p.m.
The next meeting dates and books are as follows
- December 6: Fire in the Lake:
The Vietnamese and The Americans in Vietnam by Frances FitzGerald
- January 3: News of the World by Paulette Jiles
- February 7: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
If you like to read and meet with others who like to read and
talk about books, the Book Club is for you. The meeting will
be held in the Togo West Parlor.
If you have questions or would
like more information,
please contact Leila Taaffe
.
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December 9 | St. John's Advent Party
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Hark! Join St. John's for Advent Revelry on Sunday, December 9 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Togo West Parlor. There will be food, fun, and entertainment for all ages. Holiday music presented by the St. John's Choir Quartet and all carolers present. Nursery care will be available from 4:45 p.m. until 7:15 p.m. Adults, please sign up to help with children's activities during the Advent party!
YOUR RSVP IS REQUESTED BY DECEMBER 2.
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Throughout Advent | Flat St. John
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- Help you light the candles of your Advent wreath?
- Say compline or bedtime prayers with you?
- Help make dinner?
- Come along to church?
- Go with you on a trip to see friends and family?
Directions
- Decorate and cut out Flat John.
- Bring him with you on your journey through Advent.
- Take a photo with him on your journeys.
- Send them to Savannah, Assistant for Ministries to Children, Youth, and Families by email or mail to the church.
- Watch for your fellow St. John's community members' photos to be shared in e-news. Post on social media with #flatstjohndc and tag St. John's Church.
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St. John's Refugee Committee
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Opportunities to be involved
Sunday, December 9
Following the 11:00 a.m. service, there will be a
meeting of St. John's Refugee Committee. Please attend
if you want to learn more about St. John's work in this
The Sunday before Thanksgiving, members of the St. John's Refugee Committee and friends participated in ECDC's Annual Refugees' First Thanksgiving Dinner in Arlington. We prepared food and helped to set up for the event where over 200 newcomers to the U.S. participated in a traditional Thanksgiving celebration.
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Walking in Welcome: An Advent Series with Episcopal Migration Ministries
Leading the webinars will be Lacy Broemel, Episcopal Church Refugee and Immigration Policy Advisor; Allison Duvall, Episcopal Migration Ministries Manager for Church Relation and Engagement; and Kendall Martin, Episcopal Migration Ministries Manager for Communications. Registration is required.
- December 5 at 4:00 p.m. - Mapping the Way: Tools for the Journey will provide the current state of play in refugee resettlement, a brief exploration of how to assess community gifts and assets, guidance on communicating the message of welcome, and next advocacy steps for supporting the work of refugee ministry.
- December 13 at 4:00 p.m. - The second installment of the webinar: One Community's Journey to Welcome: The Story of West Virginia Interfaith Refugee Ministry will offer listeners the opportunity to hear how one interfaith group of local leaders have come together to educate, advocate, and provide welcome to refugees and immigrants.
- December 18 at noon - The final webinar is Partners in Welcome: Join Us on the Way, which will include an overview of the Partners in Welcome program that Episcopal Migration Ministries is actively involved in developing, building, and recruiting. Registration is required.
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By December 12 | Annual Christmas Gift Drive
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The annual Christmas Gift Drive is here! As in past years, we are
partnering with Advocates for Justice and Education, Bishop Walker School, Southeast White House, and St. John's Community Services to bring joy to children in need this holiday season. Each child h
as provided a wish list of toys, books, or clothes that he or she is hoping to find underneath the Christmas tree this year. If you prefer to shop for your own gifts, please pick up an angel with a child's wish list from the tree in the Parish House. Alternatively, you can select from a number of preselected gifts on our Amazon Wish Lists and ship the gifts directly to the church.
Directions for accessing and using the Amazon Wish Lists are as follows:
- From the Amazon home page (www.amazon.com), select "Accounts & Lists" (top right of the screen) and then "Find a List or Registry"
- Search for "St. John's Church-DC"
- Click on an organization name (left side of the screen)
- To select the gift(s) you would like to purchase, select "Add to Cart"
- When you have finished shopping, select "Proceed to Checkout"
- During checkout, be sure to select the shipping address for the church.
Please ensure that your gifts are delivered by Wednesday, December 12. Gift distribution will begin on Monday, December 17, so it is important that all gifts are delivered in time. You can also help by joining us to wrap the gifts on the weekend of December 15 (details to follow). If you have questions, please contact Jeff and Katie Hantson. Thank you in advance for your generosity this holiday season! |
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December 15 | Bethlehem Christmas Simulcast Service
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Celebrate the joy of Christmas with Christians in the Holy Land. Congregations at Washington National
Cathedral and Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem join together to remember the Birth of Jesus Christ.
The two congregations alternate in leading prayers and hymns. The service is December 15 at 9:30 a.m. EST.
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December 16 | Coat Drive with
Communities
in Schools
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WINTER IS HERE, but many of the students at Cardozo School do not have adequate winter outerwear. On Sunday, December 16, parishioners working with Communities in Schools will be collecting donations of new or gently used winter jackets in adult sizes small, medium, and large. The school is also seeking new socks, gloves, hats, and blankets. St. John's was not able to hold a clothing drive during the Parish House renovations, so now is the time to clean out your coat closet!
Donations accepted at the Parish House on December 16, 8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. For further information,
please contact Livy More (202-291-8783).
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December 16 | Festival of Lessons and Carols
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St. John's Choir will sing a selection of seasonal anthems, and the congregation will join in for traditional hymns and carols of the Advent and Christmas seasons at the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, December 16,
followed by Holy Communion.
Invite your friends to join us for this annual St. John's tradition!
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December 24 |
SAVE THE DATE for the Christmas Pageant
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The annual Christmas Pageant will take place on Christmas Eve at 4:00 p.m. (NOTE NEW TIME)
The service prelude of
anthems and carols will begin at 3:30 p.m. Children ages three and up are invited to participate in the Pageant as an Angel, Shepherd, or Friendly Beast. All children who wish to participate must attend the rehearsal on Saturday, December 22 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Contact Savannah Ponder, Assistant for Children and Youth for more
information. Register for the Christmas Pageant here.
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Update from the Rector Search Committee
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The Rector Search Committee has completed its initial webcast interviews and has progressively narrowed the list of candidates in order to perform site visits across November and December; subsequent in-person interviews are expected to occur thereafter in order to recommend finalists to the Vestry for ultimate consideration. The progress of the committee can be followed on the Rector Transition page of our website. Please continue to pray that the Holy Spirit guides us throughout the Rector Search process.
Rector Search Committee
Hilary West (Chair), Krista Becker, Betsy Danello, Clark Ervin, Wendy Fibison, Andrew Hunt, Powell Hutton, Frank Klotz, Michelle Mangrum, Sara McGanity, Ralph Olson, and Lisa Russo. |
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Sunday Parish Lunches Return in January 2019!
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We are happy that our Sunday Parish Lunch tradition will resume on January 13, 2019. If you have not participated in the past, please begin a new tradition of your own and plan to come to our Parish lunches at 12:15 p.m., after the 11:00 a.m. service. It is one of the best fellowship opportunities at St John's and a way to meet new friends, both members and guests, and to catch up with old friends. Hosts are needed. Gather your friends and family to help plan, cook, and serve in our new kitchen!
To sign up or ask questions, contact Holly Sukenik, the lunch coordinator at 202-347-8766 or by email to Kaye Edwards.
There will be no Parish Lunch on the following dates: April 14 (Palm Sunday), April 21 (Easter Day), and May 12 (Mother's Day).
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Stewards of Life Abundant: Transformative Generosity
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You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God.
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2 Corinthians 9:11
As Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann points out, the Bible starts out with a liturgy of abundance
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a song
of praise for God's generosity. It keeps saying, "It is good, it is good, it is good, it is very good." Filled with God's generosity, Jesus went around to people suffering from scarcity-
of health, of acceptance, of power, of understanding
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and replaced it with a gift of abundance. Jesus is well-schooled in the transformative generosity of God and in the conviction that if you share your bread with the neighbor, the world will be
made new. He knows that generosity isn't something you just think about, it's something you do.
Stewardship presumes blessing and abundance. Jesus sums up the purpose of his ministry this way: that we
"may have life, and have it abundantly." Our job is discernment of the ways in which all of us, including the church, already have "far more than all we can ask or imagine." Then the real work of stewa
rdship becomes embracing generosity
in the spirit of Jesus
as a way of life. How is this way of life transformative for you?
Have you prayerfully and carefully considered making a pledge to St. John's for 2019?
For those of you who have already pledged, our Committee and our Church thank you!
For a pledge card, please contact Evangeline Gravina (202-347-8766 ext. 301). |
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Our prayers are requested for the special needs and concerns of this congregation, especially:
Those sick or recovering:
From our parish:
Dick Ellison, Jimmy Lowe and Bob Patchell.
Friends and family of our parish: Yvonne Allen (Nikki
Allen), Bonni Ashburn (Kaye Edwards), Jim Bailey (Mike
Becraft), Rachael Buckley (Chrystal Martin), John Frew Carter
(Margo Arnold), Lane Carter, Ellen Cromwell-Cecrle (Carolyn
Becraft), Bill Clark (Clark Ervin), William Frew Conderman
(Margo Arnold), Dona Coultice (Betty van Iersel), Sambar
Datta (Ashley Culbertson), Henry Farrington (Samuel Watson),
Ted Fibison (Wendy Fibison), Elisabeth Fisher (Ellen Parke),
Nancy Francisco (Ellen Parke), Allison Gardner (Elizabeth
Gardner), Tyrone Gayle (Jessica Sanchez), Anne Harrington
(Anne and Robert Harrington), Joe Heitzler (Mike Becraft),
John Linton (Cay Buser), Linda Linton (Cay Buser), Rosemary
Mariner (Carolyn Becraft), William Markiewicz (Matthew
Taylor), Tammy McCleaf (Matthew Taylor), Hattie McDowell
(Ellen Parke), Timothy Mullins (Jim Mullins), Judy Nicola
(Cynthia Walker), Jerry O'Hagan (Lance Jensen), Jonathan A.I.
Olowu (Elizabeth Leach), Susie Pappas (Alex Pappas), Lisa
Pell (Mike Becraft), Moon Sa (Richard Metzger), Elizabeth
Soyster (Debby Hailey), Jim Tatosian (Pat Dalby), Dick Van
Orden (Ellen Parke), Henry and Sandy Welles (Donna Welles),
and Peter Winkler (Betty van Iersel).
Those who are in the hospital:
From our parish: Max Hudgins, Gordon Richmond, and Dace Vidins.
Friends and family of our parish: Beth Graham (Ellen
Parke), Robert Hohman (Wendy Fibison), Julie Howell
(Cynthia Walker), Aiden Mylnikov (Lindsey Bowen), Conyers
Thompson, Jr. (Joanne Hutton), and Larry Watson (Catherine
Outten Olivo).
Those in our parish celebrating a birthday this week: Ted
Atkeson, Shea Bader, Andrew Clarke, Henry Coxe V, Carolyn
Crouch, Diana Duncan, Le Evans, Amanda Eversole, Eric
Eversole, Karen Jeffers, Kristin Josey, Sara Josey, Ross
Leckow, Victor Obregon, Anthony Pegues, Avo Reid II, Annie
Simonds, and Matthew Sipala.
Those in our parish celebrating an anniversary this week: Sarah and Jeff Agnew and Brandon Montgomery and Stevan
Johnson.
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7:45 a.m.
Holy Eucharist-Homily - The Rev. Andy Olivo
8:15 a.m.
Parish Choir Rehearsal (4th Floor Choir Room)
8:30 a.m.
Nursery (Parish House Lower Level)
9:00 a.m.
Choral Holy Eucharist-Sermon - The Rev. Andy Olivo
10:00 a.m.
Speaker Series-Rabbi Jesse Paikin (Togo West Parlor)
10:10 a.m.
St. John's Choir Rehearsal (Nave)
10:45 a.m.
Church School (2nd Floor, Parish House)
11:00 a.m.
Choral Holy Eucharist-Sermon - The Rev. Andy Olivo
12:15 p.m.
Hospitality Hour
Tour of the Church
12:30 p.m.
St. John's Choir Rehearsal (4th Floor Choir Room)
1:00 p.m.
Oraciόn Vespertina |
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December Speaker Series Schedule
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The Speaker Series is held at 10:00 a.m. on the following Sundays in the Togo West Parlor:
The Sunday Speaker Series for December will concentrate on "Ethics in the Public Square."
December 2
Rabbi Jesse Paikin, Rabbinic Fellow, Sixth and I Synagogue
December 9
Danielle Brian, Executive Director, Project on Governmental Oversight
December 16
Dr. Timothy Sedgwick, Professor of Christian Ethics, Virginia Theological Seminary
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Vestry Nominations Now Accepted
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The next dates for
Holy Baptism are:
* December 9, 9:00 a.m.
* January 13, 9:00 a.m.
* February 17, 11:00 a.m.
* April 28, 11:00 a.m.
* June 9, 11:00 a.m.
If you are interested in having a child baptized, or in baptism for yourself,
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Help brighten the day of parishioners who can't be with us by taking them flowers, located in the side chapel. A card is attached to each vase with contact information. Thank you for checking to see if a delivery address is convenient for you.
Flowers need to be delivered on Belvoir Woods Parkway, Ft. Belvoir, VA and Parkers Lane, Alexandria, VA.
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Listen now
to past Sunday Sermons and Speaker Series.
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