St. John's Episcopal Church - Centreville, VA
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Parish News - June 16, 2021
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Dear St. John's Parishioners and Friends:
Agitated. Out of sorts. Lack of control. Anxiety. On edge. Irritable. Tired. Have you or people you know been feeling like this? I know I have from time to time. I don't have as much patience with my two year old granddaughter and I get more irritated with my daughter than I would like. And I wonder where all this is coming from.
Bishop Susan Goff addresses these feelings in her meditation this week (see the article and video link below). This pandemic has kept us on edge, pivoting from one way of doing things to another as more information about the disease and how it spreads is known. We just get comfortable with certain rules and then they change. We just learn these and they change again.
All of us want an official end to this pandemic so we can "get back to normal". But as Bishop Goff says, there is no going back. There is only moving forward, following God's lead.
We have lost alot during the pandemic - 600,000 people have died; people have lost their jobs and sometimes their homes; favorite restaurants and businesses were forced to close; travel has been restricted and difficult; births of grandchildren, graduations, anniversaries and other celebrations were missed.
We lost alot, but we gained some things as well. We learned that we are dependent on each other. Our behavior affects the health of others. We found new ways to keep in touch with each other and meet through Zoom. Even those of us who are technologically challenged learned the basics of meeting online. We found that we reached more people by having services online - people who couldn't get to church or who just wanted to see what "church" was all about. We met the challenges of COVID in creative ways that will continue.
As we move forward toward the end of this pandemic, we hold before God all that we have lost, and we thank God for all that we have learned.
The Rev. Carol Hancock
Rector
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PARISH NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
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.
There are flyers at the back of the church with additional information. Please take one and consider this ministry opportunity.
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!
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 materials.
As we return to in-person worship, we will also resume collecting food for Western Fairfax Christian Ministries on Sundays. Please bring your non-perishable food donations and put them in the basket by the front door.
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.
Church nursery re-opens - Our favorite nursery attendant, Gluay Zimmerman, has returned to staff the nursery during the 9:30 AM service. She has been re-certified in CPR and first aid. Children are always welcome in church, but if parents would like to have some quiet time to worship, please know our nursery is available.
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".
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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
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 16
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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
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Last Sunday's recorded service: The Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 13, 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
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 20, 2021
The First Reading: 1 Samuel 17:57–18:5, 10-16
Saul welcomes David into the royal household, but soon he grows angry because God’s favor has left him and now rests upon David.
The Psalm: 133, page 787, BCP
The Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Paul remembers the hardships he has endured for the sake of the gospel, and urges disciples to open their hearts to a relationship with God.
The Gospel: Mark 4:35-41
By calming a storm on the sea, Jesus shows his power as Lord of all creation.
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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 sjeccentreville@aol.com.
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A Meditation for the Fourth Week in Pentecost
A Message to the Diocese of Virginia
As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic
Friends in Christ,
Yesterday in our lectionary reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, we heard these words:
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
A new creation! What a marvelous promise, and a timely one. Because as we emerge from the pandemic and gather again in groups, we want to go back to the way things were, to the old creation. Of course we do! So, how do we as people who follow Jesus acknowledge our human impulse to go back to the old, even as Jesus beckons us forward into the new?
When the pandemic first began, we fasted from in-person worship and from the Eucharist. We made sacrifices for the sake of those over age 65 and those with compromised heath, since they were infected and were dying at alarming rates. We made sacrifices for the sake of black, indigenous and persons of color who were dying at disproportionate rates. Our actions helped protect our communities, our families and ourselves. Even with those sacrifices, some 600,000 people died of COVID-19 in this country alone. May they rest in peace and rise in glory. May their families and loved ones know God’s peace in their grief.
At first we thought the sacrifice would be for a few weeks. Little did we know that those weeks would stretch on for over a year. Now, fifteen months later, we are finally experiencing release from many pandemic restrictions. Congregations across the Diocese are making their best decisions about regathering. Since we bishops began formal parish visitations again in the Easter season, I’ve visited congregations via ZOOM, in person outdoors, and in person indoors. People are returning to in-person worship slowly, many choosing to continue to tune in to live streamed services. Congregations seem to be embracing hybrid worship -- a combination of in person and virtual worship -- in order to reach and nourish as many people as possible. Church staff members are returning to work in Church buildings. Preschools, outreach programs and other activities are re-engaging in their mission and ministry in groups again. The faithful are being faithful yet again, as they were throughout the pandemic.
Because we did not worship in person for over a year, young people and adults who prepared to made a commitment through Confirmation, Reception or Reaffirmation were not able to receive that sacrament. To give them an opportunity to make their commitment and receive the laying on of hands of a bishop, we will hold a Day of Commitment on Saturday, September 18. We will do services of Confirmation in four or five locations around the Diocese that morning. We look forward to great joy as people come together from different congregations and different regions to celebrate our life in Christ. Watch for details in upcoming diocesan communications.
Now that we are emerging from pandemic time, we so long to get back to the old, familiar ways of doing things, the ways that feed our souls. But there is no going back, not completely, because we have been changed by this pandemic in ways that we are only beginning to understand. We have lost much, in addition to those who have died. Many have lost health as they continue to live with long-term effects of COVID-19. Many have lost jobs. We have lost favorite restaurants and shops and other services. We have lost some confidence in ourselves and in each other.
And we have gained much as well. We have learned new ways to worship and new ways to connect with people who didn’t come to worship before. We have rediscovered our resilience. We have discovered ways of being family when the activities that kept our calendars overly full were cancelled. We were Church when we couldn’t worship in person. People joined our churches during the pandemic. There have been many COVID calamities, and even more COVID keepers, things we’ve learned that we want to hold onto.
As we reflect on what we have lost and what we have gained, we continue to exercise some restraint for the sake of the most vulnerable, including children under the age of 12 who cannot be vaccinated. Rates of infection and rates of death are decreasing in our Commonwealth and in our country, but the virus is still active and people are still dying. So we continue to wear masks indoors public places. We do well to follow the two out of three rule -- outdoors, distancing and masks. If we do two out of three of those each time we are with people beyond our household, we protect the children and others who remain vulnerable.
Throughout the pandemic, we pivoted many times, each time responding to the latest change. With so much pivoting for so long, with so many changes from week to week, even day to day, it it not at all surprising that we are a little dizzy right now. Some people are frustrated that a complete end to pandemic living is not coming quickly enough. Some people are in grief over the things that were lost. Some are angry. Many are exhausted, just plain exhausted. We all are feeling some combination of those experiences as we come out of the disruption, challenge and trauma of the past year. It’s ok to name and acknowledge all the feelings before God and each other. And it’s ok to rest a bit as we move toward the new normal.
Because we who are in Christ are a new creation. The old has passed away, God is making everything new. The old normal is gone. The new normal is still being shaped. And we are a part of the shaping.
What are you feeling in this time as we emerge from a difficult 15 months? What died in your life during the pandemic? What new things did you learn? What do you hope for? What do you fear? What will you take into the next chapter of your personal life, your family life, your parish life? When you wish you could just go back to the way things use to be, how is God leading your forward?
As we go forward to Church, forward to the new normal that is emerging, remember that God is holding you tight in arms of love. And God will never let you go.
Bishop Susan Goff
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Work
Everyone, including Jesus and Martha and Mary, has been called to some fruitful, ordinary work. The work we do is not an end in itself. Our daily tasks, even very good and important ones, are not themselves eternal, and so derive their worth from how much they facilitate our encounter with Jesus, the eternal living God.
-Br. Lucas Hall
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My email address is stjohnscvpriest@gmail.com,
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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