St. John's Episcopal Church - Centreville, VA
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Parish News - June 30, 2021
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Dear St. John's Parishioners and Friends:
As we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July this Sunday, we give thanks to God for this country and the many freedoms that we enjoy. We give thanks for the countless men and women who stood up in times of tyranny to insure our freedoms would not be lost. We are a rich and powerful country. But not all have some of the freedoms and wealth and power that others enjoy. We continue to struggle with the inequality and hatred of racism, the large gap between the rich and the poor, the have and the have-nots, the lack of equal access to education, health care, housing, and food. In such a great nation as this, we need to address the disparities, such as the lack of resources and opportunities, that keep people from becoming all that God wants us to be.
While we enjoy family get togethers, parades and fireworks to celebrate our independence this weekend, may we also pray for those who do not enjoy the full freedoms that others have and keep working for the love and equality of all God's children.
The Rev. Carol Hancock
Rector
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PARISH NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
The office will be closed on Monday, July 5 in observance of Independence Day.
This Sunday, July 4, we will be able to receive the consecrated communion wine, in addition to the bread. The wine will be consecrated in the cruet at the altar and then poured into small individual cups. When you come up to receive communion, you can take one cup with the wafer and one cup with the wine. Due to COVID, we cannot yet use the common cup.
Do you have an extra box fan or window AC unit we could borrow? The AC unit that provides cool air for the classrooms is working at less than 40%. The new unit has been ordered but it will take several weeks for the unit to be brought from Tennessee (right now there is a truck driver shortage) and installed. The children in the daycare center that uses the classrooms are hot with the current high temperatures. If you have an extra box fan or window air conditioning unit that we could borrow until our new unit is installed, we would greatly appreciate it. Please call David Thompson or Carol in the church office if you can help (703-803-7500).
Arirang, our adult daycare Ministry Partner, has found it necessary to close its doors as of this week. We are beginning our search for a new non-profit group to use the parish hall during the week. If you know of any group looking for space, please tell them to contact David Thompson at St. John's (703-803-7500). We'd like to spread the word as widely as possible.
Many people will be going on vacation this summer. Please remember to pay your pledge before you go. Even during the summer, bills for the church continue to come in and need to be paid. Thanks!
Debt Reduction Envelopes - In January, the Vestry decided to put all contributions contained in the Debt Reduction envelopes toward the principal of the facility loan rather than the principal of the mortgage loan, unless otherwise specified, as the interest compounds daily and was determined it is best for St. John's to pay that loan off first. If donations from January to June were mistakenly misdirected to the facility loan and should have been directed to pay the mortgage, please contact Catherine Packard in the church office and corrections will be made.
Going forward, all funds contained in the Debt Reduction envelopes will go toward the principal of the facility loan, unless a notation is made in the memo line of the check that it should go to the principal of the mortgage loan.
Although it is only June, we are beginning to plan for the fall. We want to re-start our Sunday School class for our younger children but we need to have teachers who are willing to teach. If we can get several volunteers, no one would have to do it every week. The curriculum contains the story, craft and video. All we need is you! Please tell Carol if you can help.
Education for Ministry is a four year program of study and theological reflection. Each person signs up for one year at a time and different years can be combined in the same class. We have four people who are interested but we need to have at least 6. The cost is $375 per year. The class would start in September and meets once a week for 9 months. Registration is needed by early August. Please see Carol for more information and to look at the curriculum.
We need YOU! We need people to sign up to be lectors, crucifers and ushers every Sunday. The link to the sign up sheet is below and is in the E Notes every week. If you are new, training will be provided. Each person plays an important role in our worship services. Please sign up for the Sundays when you can help. We REALLY need your help!
Would you like to honor or remember someone with an engraved brick in our Walkway of the Saints? Bricks are available for $75 each. Forms are on the back table. You can choose what you would like to have engraved on the brick. Please return the form and the payment to Carol by July 5.
Do you like to garden? If so, might you be willing to join a committee to look at the possibilities and costs of perhaps starting a small community garden on a corner of Gilead Green? This would be just a fact finding mission to discuss all that this would entail, with a garden not becoming a reality until at least next summer. Produce could be given to local food banks or to a farmer's market hosted at St. John's. Lots of possibilities and lots of questions. Please let Carol know if you are interested.
Sacred Ground is a 10 week class on racism, sponsored by the Episcopal Church. It consists of readings and online videos as homework for each session. The class of not more than 12 people, discusses the readings and videos, connecting them to what they might have experienced or think about racism. There is no cost for the class, except the purchase of two books. The class would start in the fall. Please let Carol know if you might be interested in attending. For more information, go to www.episcopalchurch.org and search "Sacred Ground".
Update on the St. John's By-Laws - The Vestry would like to add an amendment to the by-laws to add an Executive Committee. This needs to be approved by a vote of the parish. We will take this vote on Sunday, July 25 at the 9:30 AM service during the time of the announcements. The Executive Committee by-law is as follows:
1. There shall be an Executive Committee consisting of the Rector and three members of the Vestry. Members of the Vestry on the Executive Committee shall be the Senior Warden, the Junior Warden, and one other Vestry member. If the Parish Treasurer is a Vestry member, he/she shall automatically become the final member of the Executive Committee. If the Parish Treasurer is not a member of the Vestry, the final member shall be elected by the Vestry with the Parish Treasurer attending Executive Committee meetings with voice but no vote.
2. The Executive Committee shall develop the proposed agenda for Vestry meetings, making proposals on policy, planning and other matters, as appropriate, for Vestry consideration, and will be responsible for the oversight, integration, and implementation of all activities of the parish.
Executive Committee Resolution of Empowerment
The Vestry empowers the Executive Committee to exercise plenipotentiary rights in making decisions on behalf of the full Vestry when the Executive Committee deems it necessary to act in a timely fashion, including where necessary by conference call, email or a scheduled virtual meeting.
Any decisions that, at the discretion of the Executive Committee, can reasonably be postponed until the next meeting of the full Vestry, shall be so postponed.
Should the Executive Committee require a timely decision, but wishes to consult the entire Vestry, a special meeting of the full Vestry may be called for that purpose.
All items considered and all decisions made by the Executive Committee will be reported to the entire Vestry at its next meeting and recorded in the minutes.
Interested in being Confirmed or Received into the Episcopal Church? As the bishops have not been able to visit churches in person during the past 16 months due to COVID, they will be offering some regional services of Confirmation and Reception into the Episcopal Church on Saturday, September 18. The closest service to us will be at The Falls Church. Please let me know soon if you or a family member is interested as classes will need to be scheduled ahead of time.
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Online Service Videos
As we return to in-person worship, it will be important for us to continue our ministry of having our services online for those who cannot or choose not to come to church. Our videos are also sent out by parishioners to friends and family in other states. We need several people to take turns recording the service on Sunday mornings. Instructions will be given. Please join us if you can help with this ministry. We need several people so it doesn't fall on the shoulders of one person every week. Please let Carol know.
You may be on YouTube. As we are now recording our services in the church and posting them on YouTube, you might be recorded in the service, particularly when you are going up to communion or returning to your seat. If this is a problem for anyone, please let Carol know.
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OUTREACH
Outreach Opportunity to Help Our “Neighbors”
Drivers are needed to help assist the Shepherd’s Center of Western Fairfax. Volunteer drivers provide rides to people in the Centreville/Chantilly area to get to appointments, shopping, and/or food delivery to their clients who are unable to drive due to medical or other verified reasons.
It is a very flexible way to get involved in supporting the needs of our community. The Shepherd’s center sends out a weekly list of requests for rides and e-mails it to the volunteer drivers. You can “accept” as many requests as you want or none, there is no requirement to accept X number of rides per week or month. After accepting a ride request, you call the client to confirm the time and place and take them to their appointment or shopping trip. Sometimes you may accept a request to deliver food from the Western Fairfax Christian Ministries to a client. In that case you go to the WFCM food pantry, and other volunteers load the food into your car and you take it to the client.
This a very flexible and useful opportunity for St. John’s to support members of our community. To get involved send an e-mail to [email protected] and copy Steve Busch at [email protected] .
There are flyers at the back of the church with additional information. Please take one and consider this ministry opportunity.
Outreach Opportunities - At the Outreach meeting on June 21st, the committee agreed to do an “initial” outreach to the homeless who tend to congregate (or live) at the intersection of Braddock Rd. and Fairfax County Parkway. Deacon Steven and one other member of St John’s will take water and sandwiches to this location and as they distribute these to the people try to “hear” their needs and concerns particularly regarding how we, St John’s, can help them with similar support in the future.
The Outreach Committee also approved a Food Drive to support the Western Fairfax Christian Ministries Food Pantry on Sunday, July 11th after services from 11:00 – 1:00. A current list of FCM Food Pantry current needs will be provided in the E Notes on 7 July.
WFCM requests backpacks for the fall
Western Fairfax Christian Ministries has asked St. John's to provide 15 girls backpacks for Lees Corner Elementary School. These backpacks would be for elementary school girls. Solid colors are preferred in pink, yellow, purple or turquoise. The backpacks are not needed until early August but you can drop them off at the church anytime.
WFCM is hiring for four part-time positions. For more information, go to wfcmva.org and click on "Now Hiring".
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Can you be a Sunday service reader or usher? We welcome, need, and value your help! The lector will read the 2 lessons and the psalm. The usher will hand out bulletins and bring the elements and offering to the altar. If you would like to do either of these, CLICK HERE to sign up on SignUp Genius.
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Altar Flower Sign Ups - Flowering plants are welcomed.
The Sign Up is designed for you to enter your name, and how you wish your flower donation to appear in the Sunday bulletin. (Wedding anniversary, in memory of someone - something special you want to remember by providing flowers.)
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Service of Evening Prayer - Virtually
Every Wednesday, St. John's has a Service of Evening Prayer. It is a peaceful way to end the day, and it's now being held virtually. Here is the link to this evening's service:
Wednesday, June 30
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THE ADULT LECTIONARY FORUM - IN PERSON & ON ZOOM
All are invited to join in, following the Sunday service. Here is the link to the Lectionary Forum via Zoom, in case you cannot attend in person: CLICK HERE Note: No Lectionary Forum, Sunday July 4
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Last Sunday's recorded service: The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, June 27, 2021
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SUNDAY WORSHIP & EDUCATION
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THE ADULT LECTIONARY FORUM - HELD EACH SUNDAY
All are invited to join in, following the Sunday service, in the library. Or use the link to the Lectionary Forum via Zoom, in case you cannot attend in person, found above.
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We can prepare our hearts & minds by reading ahead
for the Sunday Service lesson
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 4, 2021
The First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
The Israelites, in accord with God’s choice, ask David to serve as their king, and he begins his four-decade reign.
The Psalm: 48, page 651, BCP
The Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Paul tells the Corinthians that he could boast but he refrains because he knows that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.
The Gospel: Mark 6:1-13
Jesus has divine power to heal afflictions but the people of Nazareth turn him away by their disbelief.
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Online Contributions
to St. John's
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St. John's now offers three buttons for online donations via Tithe.ly. You may use the buttons below to go directly to Tithe.ly, or you may download the Tithe.ly app on your phone or tablet.
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The Pledge payment button may be used only to make your pledge payment (after signing up to be a pledger, which may be done at any time in the year. See Carol or Vestry)
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The Facility Campaign button may be used only for any contribution for the facility's buildings and grounds, or special facility campaigns.
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The Donation button may be used for any other type of donation to St. John's. To designate a special purpose (i.e. Organ Fund, Ministry Partner payments, etc.) please send a note to [email protected].
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We Remember, We Celebrate, We Tell the Truth: A Reflection from Bishop Goff on Juneteenth
Bishop Susan Goff delivered this reflection during the Juneteenth: Freedom Day celebration at St. Peter's and St. John's churches in Richmond on June 19, 2021. Juneteenth became an official national holiday known as Juneteenth National Independence Day by law on June 17, 2021.
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A Meditation for the Fifth Week of Pentecost
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
-- Wendell Berry
It’s so easy to forget who we are and why we are here. Even as Covid 19 diminishes, the habits we have developed about social distancing, masks, and limiting exposure don’t disappear overnight. After a year of being vigilant and minimizing so much of our lives, it’s hard to relax into a new way of being.
Then there’s the turmoil in our country: our struggle to deal with the embedded racism in an effective manner; the political divide; as well as the deaths and the economic toll of Covid 19.
As Christians, we are commanded to embrace Sabbath. Walter Brueggemann, the Hebrew Bible scholar, writes “the observance [of the Sabbath] is an act of resistance against having one’s life defined by one’s productivity…. Sabbath is not merely rest from work, but a day to renounce autonomy and self-sufficiency.”
As I write this, I am preparing to be at the beach, to “rest in the grace of the world,” and to try to find freedom from defining myself by my title or job or accomplishments. I hope to rediscover that I am more than what I do, what I own, or what people say about me: power, possessions, prestige. For a time, I intend to be a shell finder, a walker, a reader of mystery novels, and simply me.
Sabbath is part of our week, part of our year, and part of our lives. It’s more than recovering from a difficult Covid riddled year. It’s about remembering who we are and who God is. Someone once said to me, “It’s up to you to think of God and up to God to think of you.” As I walk on the beach, I am hoping to focus on the waves and the wind; to think about the shells in front of my feet, and let the rest go. My aim is to give thanks for the present moment instead of revisiting the past or trying to predict the future.
My deepest hope is that this time is not a “one off.” I don’t intend to return to where I was in my works righteousness mode. Instead, I hope and pray to live into the reality that my external self doesn’t define me, nor does my inability to make the world behave. Once when I was spiritually confused, my spiritual director said to me, “Just do the next right thing.” I thought that was kind of lame advice, but it has turned out to be very helpful. I am not responsible for making the world work. Instead, my task is to live in the present moment and rest in the grace of the world and be free to do the next right thing. It doesn’t mean we disengage from the issues of the day; it means we do our part and try to be open to what God is doing. The freedom the poet speaks of in the poem’s last line is being open to the future God has in store and inviting ourselves and other people to align themselves with it. Disengaging from our routines and our ways of interpreting the world gives us a chance to see the world new and inviting others into newness.
We don’t have to go to the beach for this to happen. Wherever we are in the months ahead, may we all find the time and means to “rest in the grace of the world” and to be “free” as well.
Bishop Porter Taylor
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Ready
To be a witness requires that we know what we are, and what we are not. We are not Jesus. We are simply voices, calling out to get people ready, to prepare them to meet him when he comes. Our purpose is not to draw attention to ourselves, but to him. We are to point people to Jesus.
-Br. David Vryhof
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and the office number is 703-803-7500.
May our ministry together spread God's love to all whom we encounter.
- Carol
The Rev. Carol Hancock, Rector
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