St. John's Episcopal Church - Centreville, VA
|
|
Parish News - August 11, 2021
|
|
Dear St. John's Parishioners and Friends:
Just when we thought that the end of COVID was in sight, it is rearing its ugly head again, this time in the form of variants. Once again, hospital ICU beds are being filled to overflowing is several areas of our country. More small children, who cannot be vaccinated, are getting sick. As schools begin to reopen, there is an ongoing controversy about whether students and teachers should be required to wear masks. There is growing anger toward those who are choosing not to be vaccinated as the virus continues to spread.
So what can we, as a community of faith, do? We can get the vaccine and encourage friends, family members and others to do the same. That is the best way to fight this virus and to protect ourselves and others. We can call those we know who are again feeling that they cannot go out in public and are lonely. We can offer to bring groceries to them.
Bishop Susan Goff said this at a webinar with clergy on Tuesday. "The ambiguity is exhausting." Not knowing the path that this virus will take wears us out. We are tired and frustrated. But we do need to protect our children and the most vulnerable among us which is part of our Christian calling to love one another.
Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry put out a short video about the importance of getting the vaccine, for the health of ourselves and of our children. Click on this link to watch:
The Rev. Carol Hancock
Rector
|
|
PARISH NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
A newly formed Garden Committee will meet for the first time on Thursday, August 12 (tomorrow) at 2:00 PM at the church. We'd love to have any interested parishioners join us. We will discuss the possibility of starting a garden in Gilead Green, perhaps next year. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered as we see if this is even possible. Many churches who have land available are planting vegetable gardens to provide fresh food for themselves, their community, and those in need.
The numbers for June are in!!! Each month we track the number of people who watch the Sunday morning and Wednesday evening services online. In June, between 15 and 26 people watched the Sunday service online each week. When added to the 19 to 29 people who attended Sunday services in person each Sunday, our attendance was between 42 and 45 people each Sunday in June. We are reaching a good number of additional folks by posting our Sunday services online. Our Wednesday evening services are only online and we average between 8 and 11 people who watch the service. Having both in person and online services is the wave of future to reach the most people. Many thanks to our IT folks and video recorders who keep our services online.
Bishop Porter's class for the laity - Begins late August/early September
Weekly one-hour sessions via Zoom
In Bishop Porter's fall online class for laity, he'll explore "remembering our Christian calling even as we confront the difficulties we face." To structure the conversation, the group will use a book by Ron Rolheiser, Wrestling With God: Finding Hope And Meaning In Our Struggles To Be Human. Day and time of sessions are to be determined. If you wish to participate, please contact Anita Lisk. See full class description.
21 backpacks collected
Once again, St. John's parishioners go above and beyond to help others. Western Fairfax Christian Ministries had asked us to donate 15 backpacks for Lees Corner Elementary School. We collected 21! Many thanks go to all who donated backpacks for children who need them. Thanks also goes to Denise McCarthy who delivered them to the school.
Our bell - The bell that has graced the front of St. John's for about 60 years will be taken down on August 19 and returned to the Navy. If you would like to take any pictures of the bell, please be sure to do it before August 19. (For a short history of our bell, please see below, or you can read about it in our St. John's history book, "St. John's at the Crossroads", on page 96).
We are searching 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 Carol at St. John's (703-803-7500). We need to spread the word as widely and as quickly as possible. There are flyers on the back table in the church if you know of someone to send it to or a public bulletin board to post it.
We need YOU!!! Do you like children and want to share your love of Jesus with them? Can you read a story to a few children? Can you help them with a craft if all the directions are provided? Can you play a DVD? If so, YOU can be a Sunday School teacher! We want to start our Sunday School class on the first Sunday in October and the class will meet on the first Sunday of every month. You can sign up to do it just one time....or several times. But we can't have this class without your help. All we need is you! Please tell Carol if you can help. (So far, no one has offered to help with our Sunday School. If we don't have any teachers, we can't have a Sunday School for our youngest members.)
If anyone is interested in the Education for Ministry program, which meets once a week for 9 months and is a four year program, we WILL be starting a class in September. Please let Carol know soon if you are interested in joining the class or want more information. The tuition is $375 per year. We will meet on Thursdays from 3:30 - 6:00 PM at the church.
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. If you are interested in joining an online class, Virginia Theological Seminary will be hosting two classes starting on September 21, one during the day and one at night. Go to www.vts.edu and type "Sacred Ground" in the search box.
No nursery - There will be no nursery provided on August 8 and 15.
David Thompson, our Ministry Partner Administrator, is on vacation and out of the office until August 17.
A short history of our bell - In the early 1960's, Admiral Ronald Woodaman thought St. John's needed a larger bell than the one that was currently being used, which was a small railroad bell. He contacted the Historical Department of the US Navy and asked for their help in locating a bell for our use. The curator authorized the bell from the USS Whitney to be given to us on an "indefinite loan". The USS Whitney was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. In 1948, the Whitney was sold for scrap and the bell was put in storage. The bell has graced St. John's Church for almost 60 years. It has called people to worship for several generations. With the Navy's policy of protecting its more recent artifacts, we must return the USS Whitney bell to the Navy to be preserved for decades to come.
|
|
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.
|
|
OUTREACH
Western Fairfax Christian Ministries has put out their list of the foods that they need the most. You can bring your non-perishable items to the church on Sunday mornings, or drop them off in the box outside the door by the breezeway during the week and they will be delivered to WFCM.
· Canned garbanzo beans (low salt preferred)
· Canned kidney beans, red beans, and black beans (low salt preferred)
· Canned pasta
· Pasta Sauce (low salt preferred)
· Canned Tuna and Canned Chicken
· Flavored pasta/rice
· Mashed Potatoes
· Oatmeal (Quaker Oats Healthy Old Fashioned Oatmeal)
· Canned vegetables (corn, carrots, spinach, beets) (low salt preferred)
· Canned Pineapple (no sugar added preferred)
· Tomato Paste (low salt preferred)
· Toiletries: Toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, feminine pads, deodorant, baby wipes, shaving cream, mouth wash (NOTE: we are not currently in need of diapers due to our partnership with Greater DC Diaper Bank. Please only donate larger size pull ups or wipes if you want to donate items for babies.)
At our last Food Drive we collected and donated to WFCM over $800.00 which goes directly to buy lunch meat, cheese and fruit. These are particularly needed/used at their youth summer programs.
Outreach Opportunity to Help Our “Neighbors”
The Western Fairfax Shepherd Center is still accepting volunteer drivers to support clients who need help getting to appointments, shopping trips (for food), and to deliver food from WFCM to clients. Please contact the Shepherd Center at 703-246-5920 or email [email protected] and copy Deacon Steve at [email protected].
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
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.)
|
|
|
|
|
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, August 11
|
|
|
|
|
THE ADULT LECTIONARY FORUM - IN PERSON & ON ZOOM
|
|
|
|
|
Last Sunday's recorded service: The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, August 8, 2021
|
|
|
|
SUNDAY WORSHIP & EDUCATION
|
|
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.
|
|
We can prepare our hearts & minds by reading ahead
for the Sunday Service lesson
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 15, 2021
The First Reading: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Solomon, well aware of the weighty responsibilities before him, asks the Lord for wisdom.
The Psalm: 111, page 754, BCP
The Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Paul calls Christians to live in sobriety and wisdom amid the trials of evil.
The Gospel: John 6:51-58
Jesus speaks to the heart of the Eucharist: the body and blood of Christ transform us.
|
|
Online Contributions
to St. John's
|
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.
|
|
|
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)
|
|
The Facility Campaign button may be used only for any contribution for the facility's buildings and grounds, or special facility campaigns.
|
|
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].
|
|
A Meditation on
Humility — Kindness — Justice: A Rearranged Sequence
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you
I have read, meditated, taught, and preached on this passage many times, but it is only recently that I am beginning to understand what it has to teach me.
First, all three qualities must go together. If you do justice without kindness or humility, you are capable of being incredibly self-righteous as well as doing harm. If you do kindness without the other two, you will be nice, but ineffectual. Likewise, if you are humble without kindness or justice, you will devolve into a private ineffectual life.
Second, in my life, I have discovered that I need to reverse the sequence of this list because if I begin with doing justice, there’s a danger I never get to kindness or humility. I become a “Christian soldier marching on to war.” I focus on my own self-righteousness and can fall into a smugness about having the right vision for how everyone else should change their lives.
Therefore, we begin with humility. Bill W., one of the founders of A.A., wrote, “It was only by repeated humiliations that we were forced to learn something about humility. Where humility had formerly stood for a forced feeding of humble pie, it now begins to mean the nourishing ingredient which gives serenity.”
When we are humble, we realize we don’t have the answers, but through God’s grace we are connected to the One who is the answer. It’s why we walk humbly with our God. Humility reminds us that all of us are on a journey, and, therefore, our calling is not to blaze our own trail but to align ourselves with God’s desire for this broken world. We don’t need to be experts in how to fix the world; we need to be faithful people walking together in The Way. Norene Vest wrote that humility is “facing the truth about our human condition, accepting our limitations, and cheerfully depending on God.” If we cheerfully depend on God, we surrender our self-righteousness and get out of the answer business and into to the disciple business.
Humility enables us to love kindness because we have moved away from our egocentric pose to trusting in God and opening up to God’s mercy. The Hebrew word for “loving kindness” is “chesed” which means, giving oneself fully, with love and compassion. In the film “Dead Man Walking”, Sister Helen Prejean says to a man on death row: “I’ll be the face of love for you,” and she is. She reminds him that he is as a child of God regardless of his actions. This is why humility is the doorway to kindness. As the poet says, “Before you can know what kindness really is/ you must lose things/, feel the future dissolve in a moment/ like salt in a weakened broth.” (Naomi Shihab Nye, “Kindness”). Kindness enables us to realize that all of the gifts in our lives are grace and that everyone is a child of God worthy of our respect and attention.
Then we can do justice. Walter Brueggemann defines justice this way: “Justice is to sort out what belongs to whom and to return it to them…. So, God’s justice has a dynamic, transformative quality. It causes things to change, and it expects things must need to change if there is to be abundant life” (“Voices of the Night—Against Justice” in To Act Justly, Love Tenderly, Walk Humbly). Of course, justice is disruptive. Brueggemann goes on to observe that the work of justice is meant “to disrupt and dismantle the current ordering of things.” However, he adds that because God is “marked by steadfast love, compassion, faithfulness…God makes justice possible because there is a beginning again.”
As agents of justice, we must not only begin with humility and then turn to kindness as we engage this work, but we must also realize that this is a cycle that repeats itself over and over again. The work of justice is always about mutual conversion. It’s about knowing deep in our hearts that “All things come from Thee O Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee” and therefore a reallocation becomes possible.
Yes, let us be agents of justice, but let us realize at its root it’s about communal conversion. Perhaps beginning with walking humbly; then embracing loving kindness will enable us to do the crucial work of justice.
Bishop Porter Taylor
|
|
Love
Why would we chose to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us? Because that is the way of God. God never stops loving, never stops blessing. Only God’s love abiding in us can love in this way, only God’s strength at work in our weakness can make us God-like in our words and actions.
-Br. David Vryhof
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
Please note: If you choose to unsubscribe below, please be aware that you will no longer receive either St. John's sermons or E-Notes, which are sent weekly. If you do unsubscribe and later want to be added back in, that needs to be done through the provider, Constant Contact. Please email St. John's office with the request: [email protected].
|
|
|
|
|
|
|