St. John's Episcopal Church - Centreville, VA |
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Parish News - December 16, 2020 |
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Dear St. John's Parishioners and Friends:
Grief. Grief is caused by many different things – the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of important traditions. I think it’s important for us to name the grief we may be feeling when it happens. At this time of the year, many of us are grieving the loss of being able to gather with family and friends for Christmas. We are grieving the loss of beloved traditions. We are the grieving the loss of being able to gather together as a community of faith on Christmas Eve, to smell the sweet scent of the wreaths and the poinsettias, to sing our beloved Christmas carols in a church full of people of faith singing in celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus in the manger in Bethlehem, and to enjoy the candlelight shining in the dark night.
Christmas will be different this year and we will grieve the loss of many traditions. But God’s light shines through the darkness and the darkness, or grief, or COVID, will NOT overcome it. Jesus is the light of the world. As we celebrate his birth, we need to look for the light that shines through the darkness. Because it is there. We have lost a lot this year. But there is still much to celebrate and to be thankful for. No matter what is happening in the world, Jesus is born again and lives in our hearts. That is where we see the light – the light that Jesus gives us every day.
We will celebrate Christmas this year with an online service on Christmas Eve. The link to that service will be in the E Notes on Wednesday, December 23. At 5:00 PM on Christmas Eve, we will gather on Zoom, and with our organist Mandy Hull providing the music, we will sing our favorite Christmas hymns. The hymns will be posted online so everyone will have the words and the music. However, because a lot of people will be singing from different locations, this causes chaos as not everyone hears the music at the same time. So each person will need to mute themselves, except for Mandy, so we will sing our hearts out in our homes. But we will be able to see each other and be in community. And we will have an opportunity to unmute ourselves and talk with each other at the end. I hope everyone will join us. The link to the Zoom Christmas carol singing will also be in the E Notes on December 23.
We are unable to meet outside the church, as we had originally planned, as Bishop Goff has recently restricted outdoor gatherings due to the soaring rates of COVID throughout Virginia. Her biggest concern is to keep everyone safe and healthy, especially the most vulnerable among us. So we will gather on Zoom, staying safe and warm. Perhaps everyone can light a candle when we come online, as we all remember that Jesus is the light of the world.
Please join us on Zoom at 5:00 PM on Christmas Eve for prayers and singing, and again later that evening for a recorded service of Holy Eucharist from St. John’s.
The Rev. Carol Hancock
Rector
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The Rev. Carol Hancock
Rector
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Looking ahead... When we have our Annual Parish Meeting in February, we will need to elect several people to serve on the Vestry. We are now looking for people to run for the Vestry for three year terms and we can have up to 12 people on the Vestry. The Vestry currently meets online at 7:00 PM on the third Sunday of the month. If you are interested in serving on the Vestry, or have questions about what it entails, please contact Carol or Susie Pike, Senior Warden. Please prayerfully consider serving on the Vestry with your time and talent.
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Food Drive...Thanks to the generosity of St. John's parishioners, the food drive for Western Fairfax Christian Ministries, held last Sunday in our front parking lot, was a great success! We collected 859 pounds of food for those in need. Financial contributions were also collected for the WFCM Christmas baskets. If you would like to contribute, you can write a check to St. John's and put WFCM Christmas Contribution in the memo line. Many thanks go to our Outreach Committee for organzing and staffing this event. (Food Drive volunteers shown below.)
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cookie baking & spreading cheer! delivery |
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Many thanks go to all who made this event of taking bags of cookies and Advent materials to our parishioners possible. Our bakers, assemblers of the bags and bag deliverers were Susie Pike, Ann Goldberg, Lisa Heller, Mimi Spear, Val Tucker, Dick Griffith, Carol Hancock, Angela and Julia Hadfield, Lori Wade, Kristen Tucker, David Thompson, Denise McCarthy, Andrew Wade, Steve Busch, and Craig Staresinich. Thanks so much! It was good to check in with all our parishioners so they know that St. John's is thinking about them. Bags were delivered to 72 households. |
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Santa's helpers...the Wades |
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Denise, Carol, Susie, and Dick helping out with packaging |
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Be a Sunday service reader, from anywhere!
During this time of covid, St. John's holds a Sunday morning prayer service....
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...which is "aired" on Sunday mornings at 9 AM.
The readings are pre-recorded, and several parishioners have been doing a great job doing them, from different venues - no matter where they are! We welcome, need, and value your help! If you would like more information on how to do this, click here for the info page on SignUp Genius. Please sign up a week before the Sunday you would like to read, so we can get the readings to you and you can get your recording to David Weir by Thursday.
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Every Wednesday, St. John's has a Service of Evening Prayer at 6 PM. 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:
December 16, 2020
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Many thanks go to Susie and Larry Pike and Andrew Wade who bundle up the firewood and keep the breezeway well stocked for people to buy it. Tell your friends and family this firewood is for sale ($5 per bundle, $20 for 5 bundles). One man told me stores treat their firewood with chemicals; ours has none. |
If you or someone you know is in need of a male caregiver with excellent references, please contact Carol for more details. |
We encourage you to please stay current with your pledge and contributions to St. John's. Our bills continue to come in and need to be paid. You can mail your contributions to St. John's at 5649 Mt. Gilead Road, Centreville, VA 20120. If you would rather give online, please use the Tithe.ly button below.
Free COVID Testing
COVID Testing is done at the Centreville Regional Library for those who have symptoms or who have been in contact with someone who has COVID. For more information, call 703-267-3511 for hours and other restrictions.
"A Christmas Festival of Lessons and Music" will be a diocesan service on Sunday, December 27. This will take the place of our regularly recorded service from St. John's as we will join the diocesan family in worshipping together.
Vacation - Carol will be on vacation from December 25 - January 2. In case of an emergency, please call Susie Pike, our Senior Warden.
(571-275-4744)
Many thanks go to all who have made a pledge to St. John's for 2021. We have received $207,540 from 41 pledging units. If you have not yet returned your pledge card, please do so as soon as possible.
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The link to the Sunday service is sent out each Saturday as usual. Then join us for the coffee hour from 10:00 - 10:30 and the Adult Lectionary Class at 10:30 AM on Zoom. The links will be sent out in Saturday's email to all.
Advent Resources
The season of Advent, which is the four weeks before Christmas, began on Sunday, November 29 and concludes on Christmas Eve. Below are some resources to prepare ourselves in heart and mind for the birth of the Christ child.
I recommend the following:
AdventWord sends daily emails from people around the world on various Advent themes.
Prophetic Voices is a podcast that discusses the Advent readings through the lens of social justice.
Advent Calendar is based on the 7 areas of the Way of Love: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, and Rest.
Forward Day by Day is a daily devotional booklet that is published every three months. Different writers contribute for a month at a time and reflect on the daily readings. Those daily devotions are now online. Go to www.forwarddaybyday.org to see the daily devotion. Because we are not having in-person worship, we have stopped our subscription of the printed booklets. If you would like the printed booklets, you can order a personal copy on their website that can be mailed to your home.
Experience the same joy of Christmas, even if a little differently this year, at the National Cathedral! Register for a Christmas Season Pass with your email address, and they will deliver every Christmas service and concert directly to your inbox.
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If no one is around to receive your money for the firewood, you may put it into the secure black mailbox adjacent to the firewood stack. |
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SUNDAY WORSHIP & EDUCATION |
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The Adult Lectionary Forum
Now being held virtually via Zoom. All are invited to join in, following the virtual Sunday service. The links to the Forum and the service are sent out in a separate email on Saturdays.
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We can prepare our hearts & minds by reading ahead
for the Sunday Service lesson
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 20, 2020
The First Reading:
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
The prophet Nathan receives a word from the Lord for King David, professing the great things which God commits to do for the house and family of David.
The Second Reading:
Romans 16:25-27
God works through the witness and testimony of his saints throughout the ages, through the prophecies of old, through the secrets, mysteries and questions of all time, through all these things, to reveal himself in glory to his people throughout all the world.
The Gospel:
Luke 1:26-38
To a young woman, God sends the angel Gabriel to tell her what God has planned for her life. Mary submits to this call.
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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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Sermons from the Bishop's Online Chapel
Each week, one of our bishops or a member of the diocesan staff prepares and posts a sermon based on the Sunday's readings that can be used for online services. Here is the sermon posted for this past Sunday.
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A Meditation for the Third Week of Advent: Rejoice
The third week of Advent is upon us. The rose-colored candle has been lighted, many of us have done our Christmas decorating and are doing what we can with whatever holiday traditions we can manage. Candles and cocoa have been deployed. And still the world grows darker, as we move nearer to the winter solstice. An enormous snowstorm, they say, is on the way. The COVID map of Virginia is mostly red. Our political scene is -- well, I don't have an adjective for it, not even one of the unprintable ones. We will not be able to worship in person on Christmas in the usual manner, crammed into bright candlelit sanctuaries stuffed with poinsettias and French horn players and fidgety children. Most of us will not gather with extended family. Some of us confront illness, unemployment, or even death.
That's the way things are.
And, our ancient lectionary (and our Advent wreath traditions) tells us, "Rejoice!" Most years, we just -- rejoice! We acknowledge that some people are having a "blue Christmas" and make space for them, but the dominant mood is merry. This year, it just sounds -- well, exhausting, like we are supposed to "fake it till we make it," and we were done with that sometime around the Fourth of July. We need the treasure hidden in these texts, usually overlooked, but ours to excavate. We need something that feels like more than just going through the motions.
There are keys in this week's readings from Isaiah and John, but it's Paul who says, "Rejoice!" in the present tense:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. [i]
Behind the greeting-card sentiment, there's a small church in conflict, whose future is uncertain. They've written to ask the bishop - well, the apostle - to speak to the vestry and straighten it all out. Paul isn't writing a Christmas sermon; he's writing in response to people who are frustrated and upset. Paul gives some advice and some encouragement about the specifics, and then he says: most importantly, rejoice. Rejoice because Christ has risen from the dead. The rest comes and goes, but hope cannot be killed -- though politicians and mobs and priests tried, and good people ran and hid. God had the last word. Rejoice, and (continues Paul) behave like the bearers of that really good news:
Try to get along with each other. My friends, we beg you to warn anyone who isn't living right. Encourage anyone who feels left out, help all who are weak, and be patient with everyone. Don't be hateful to people, just because they are hateful to you. Rather, be good to each other and to everyone else.[ii]
One optimistic letter to a fledgling church is good, but it's not what makes Paul inspiring in these times. It's that he sticks to this theme, playing variations on it over and over, in very challenging circumstances. It is not the optimism of a beginner; it's the wisdom of one who has endured, and for years. From an imperial prison he later writes to the Philippians in almost identical words,
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.[iii]
Paul acknowledges in the letter that his joy is not the result of comfort and plenty in the moment:
I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. [iv]
From his cell, in this same letter, Paul uses the word "rejoice" seven times. And the same expression, the same admonition, comes up in his final letter, written in Rome at the end of his career and his life. in anticipation of his execution:
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.[v]
I commend all of Chapter 12 of the letter to the Romans to you - a template for how to live the Christian life in times of imperial madness and chaos. But for this Third Sunday in Advent, the point is this: "Rejoice" points to hope, not to current material comfort or pleasant times. "Rejoice" is Paul's persistent reminder that our present troubles, in any time, are not the final story. "Rejoice" is Paul's shorthand for, "Yes, I am sorry for your pain. I feel it, too, believe me. But -- Christ rose from the dead! Rejoice!"
These are the days for remembering that God delivers us in ways we cannot imagine, let alone predict. God comes among us in a workingman's family in a town people laugh at. God uses feisty teenage girls to bring his justice and mercy into the world. God brings sight to the blind, sound to the deaf, words to the mute, justice to the prisoner, mercy to the marginalized. As his mother will sing next week, the Lord brings down the haughty from their thrones and fills the hungry with good things. And best of all, we are all invited into the project.
Where is our hope? Our hope is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, and he is about to be born - in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in Rome, in Richmond, in Nomini Grove. If you can remember to leave your heart open -- in you.
It's not just a rose-colored candle. It's the way things REALLY are, if we have eyes to see it.
Every blessing in this crazy, confusing, holy season. May God's love invade your heart, your home, your life, keeping the flame of hope burning brightly in your soul through the dark of winter and into the promise of springtime in this life and the glorious habitations of light in the next.
Faithfully,
Bishop Jennifer Brooke-Davidson
[i] Thessalonians 5:16-18 NRSV
[ii] Thessalonians 5:12-15 CEV
[iii] Philippians 4:4-9 NRSV
[iv] Philippians 4:11-13 NRSV
[v] Romans 12:12. NRSV
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Child
Take comfort that God calls you “child.” No matter your age, you are a child of God: as precious, as vulnerable, and as needy as the child, Jesus. God will give you the strength you need. You need not be afraid.
-Br. Curtis Almquist
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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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