PARISH NEWS
for Wednesday, November 13, 2019
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Update on our 2020 Pledge campaign
As of today, we have received 37 pledges totaling $180,100. Last year, we had 46 pledges totaling $198,326, but we are still waiting to hear from some of last year's pledgers. If you have not yet returned your pledge card for 2020, please do so as soon as possible. It is important for us to know our income so we can plan our expenses for next year. Extra pledge cards are on the back table.
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St. John’s Men’s Fellowship Breakfast and Sign Install/Fall Clean Up:
Saturday, November 16th, starting @ 8:00 a.m. until 10/11:00 a.m.
Round 2:
A few years ago we installed the St. John’s sign at the corner of Route 29 and Braddock Road. That sign was cut down and now we have a replacement sign to put up. If it is anything like last time; there may be one or two workers for the half dozen consultants hovering nearby to make sure the installation gets done correctly
😊
The Plan:
Fellowship Breakfast at IHOP at 8:00 a.m. (across the street) from where we will be working followed by the sign installation about 9:00 a.m. Depending on our numbers, we may break into two groups; one group will be the ‘Sign Crew’ and the second crew will be for ‘Fall Clean Up crew’ as we have a ton of leaves around our campus. The division will be based on your perceived skill set.
If you cannot stay for the morning chores, please join us for breakfast, the more the merrier!
Sincerely, Andrew Wade
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The organization
Our Neighbor's Child
, has asked St. John's again this year to participate along with many other churches, in providing gifts to children in need in our area.
We will receive 15 paper ornaments, each bearing the gender, age, and interest of a specific child, and the ornaments will be hung on the Gift Ornament Tree set up in the Breezeway this Sunday, November 17.
The gifts will need to be purchased, labeled with the paper ornaments, and returned to the church, unwrapped, by Sunday, December 8. [We are glad to receive them any time before that date.]
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Bonnie is gone and Raphael is installed!
The air conditioning and heating unit that provides heat and air to the office area, otherwise known as "Bonnie", laid down and died several weeks ago after well over 20 years of service. A new air conditioner and heater, named Raphael (after one of the archangels) was installed this week. Tom McDermott provided these wonderful pictures of Bonnie being taken off the roof and Raphael being installed. Many thanks to Tom for overseeing this project and to Dick Griffith for background research and the offering the names of the archangels that were selected for the new air conditioners and heaters.
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Thanksgiving Altar Harvest Ingathering
On Sunday, November 17, if you would like to contribute to the Thanksgiving altar arrangement, please bring one non-perishable fruit or winter vegetable to be arranged on the 11/24 Altar. Some suggestions are:
Fresh Fruit: Apple, Pear, Orange, Lemon, Lime, Pomegranate, Pineapple
Fresh Vegetable: Potato: Russet, sweet potato, yam, Onion: Red, White, Cooking yellow, Squash: Acorn, Butternut, Spaghetti.
Place it in the basket by the back table 11/17. After the Thanksgiving servic
e,
the donation items will be taken to WFCM pantry.
Photo below from 2015.
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Thanksgiving Eve service
- We will have an Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service with some of our Ministry Partners on Wednesday, November 27 at 7:30 PM in the church. Please invite friends and neighbors to join us in giving thanks to God for all that God has given to us. Bring a can of food for the Western Fairfax Christian Ministries. The offering collected will also go to WFCM.
Coffee Hour -
As this Sunday is the third Sunday of the month, the Vestry will provide the Coffee Hour snacks.
This Sunday, November 17
, we will welcome into God's family through the sacrament of Holy Baptism the children of Robert and Kelsey Crossett, and Sarah and Cedric Short, grandchildren of Meg and Jim Crossett.
Thanksgiving donations
- Again this year, we will be providing food for 12 families in need for Thanksgiving. The names have been given to us by Western Fairfax Christian Ministries. This year, we will be providing gift cards so families can select what food they would like. Many other churches are doing gift cards rather than food baskets. Envelopes are on the back table for your donations.
This Friday and Saturday, November 15-16
, Walt Cooner and Carol Hancock will represent St. John's at the Annual DIocesan Convention which will be held at the Marriott Hotel in Crystal City. We will hear reports from our bishops and diocesan committees, discuss resolutions, approve the budget, and hear "stories from the diocese". Carol will give the report from the Standing Committee, having served as its President for the past year, and she will finish her three year term on the Standing Committee on Saturday.
Many thanks
go to those who answered our call for heaters for the parish hall. The heater for the parish hall which is on the roof (called "the beast") stopped working and we needed to keep the space warm for our Ministry Partners. Your heaters worked well and the beast has been fixed (for now). You can pick up the heater you loaned us on Sunday or next week. They are in the office.
Special thanks go to Tom McDermott
who has worked tirelessly to get heat working in the parish hall and has had all the technical conversations with our maintenance provider. Thanks also goes to David Parker, John Tucker, David Thompson, Susie Pike and David Weir for all they did during our heating crisis.
Interested in becoming a Lay Eucharistic Minister?
We are in need of several more LEM's to serve at the altar on Sunday mornings. LEM's lead the psalm and the Prayers of the People, help prepare the altar for communion, and administer the chalice. Training will be provided. Please contact Walt Cooner or Carol Hancock if you are interested. We need your help!
Did you know???
Did you know that the Diocese of Virginia puts out a quarterly magazine called "The Virginia Episcopalian"? The most recent issue just came out. If you do not receive this magazine, with stories and information about things that are going on in the diocese, and you would like to, please contact Catherine Packard in the church office. The yearly cost is $5.
Altar Flowers
- When you sign up online (by clicking on "Altar Flowers" below) please include your intention for the flowers. Are you giving them in memory of someone, or in thanksgiving, or in honor of someone? Please include that information when you sign up to give flowers. (Please know that we have greens only on the altar in Advent and Lent, so we will not be using flowers.)
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Blood donation opportunity on November 23
- According to the LifeServe Blood Center, an average of 90 percent of people who live to the age of 72 will need at least one whole blood or other blood product transfusion in their lifetime. I know that you understand how important it is. I hope you will consider making an appointment to
donate blood on
Saturday, November 23rd at Rec Center 2 in Little Rocky Run
(6201 Sandstone Drive, Clifton).
Appointments are available every 15 minutes from 7:45 AM to 11:45 AM and can be made here:
Make an Appointment
or you can email me (
[email protected]
) with your preferred time and I can make an appointment for you. Drop-ins may be permitted, but you may have to wait for an opening so that we can honor the time commitments for people who make appointments.
Thanks, as always, for supporting PantherPints and Inova. Hope to see you on November 23rd.
Brent Kiefer (Brent is a high school student whose older brother has needed blood transfusions in the past for a medical condition. He and his family are known to many in the congregation.)
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Make an Online Pledge Offering!
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The new way to send your pledge offering! You can download the app to your phone, or you can click the link below, and use your credit card!
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We can prepare our hearts & minds by reading ahead
for the Sunday Service lesson
The Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost
November 17, 2019
9:30 AM
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The First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-25
The holy city of God, the seat of his realm from of old, will be redeemed and remade, a place of light and blessing, despite the suffering that the city and its people have endured.
The Canticle:
9, page 86, BCP
The Second Lesson: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
It is a mark of faithfulness to work tirelessly and to be fully devoted to the kingdom of God. The work of a Christian is to live with integrity as an aspect of sharing the truth of the gospel.
The Gospel:
Luke 21:5-19
We know that the fate of the world Jesus prophesies lies ahead of us, maybe even in our own future. Jesus urges his faithful followers not to be afraid, but to respond with courage, knowing that God will provide strength, restoration, defense, and comfort for trials ahead.
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CHILD CARE IS PROVIDED IN THE NURSERY
(Rm. 205)
During the Service
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JOINT SUNDAY SCHOOL: 10:30 - 11:30 AM
Each week, St. John's children join with our Ministry Partners:
Wellspring UCC & Grace Baptist Church
Room 207/208
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St. John's Sunday School
class for ages 2-4, Room 215
Meets the first Sunday of each month from 9:50 - 10:40 AM
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THE ADULT LECTIONARY FORUM
MEETS EACH SUNDAY IN THE LIBRARY, FOLLOWING THE SERVICE
FROM 10:50 - 11:50 AM
The Saint of the Week for Forum Discussion:
St. Hugh of Lincoln (d. 16 November, 1200)
Remorseful of his role in Archbishop Thomas a Becket’s murder, King Henry II founded the first English House of the strict Carthusian monastic order. When difficulties arose with its first two priors, a French noble recommended Hugh d'Avalon, who had been a monk at the Order’s mother house for 17 years. When he arrived in England in 1176, Hugh found the monastery had yet to be built & those destined to lose their property to make room for it had not been compensated. He refused to take office until they were paid "to the last penny." He intervened again on the builders’ behalf--they had also been stiffed. King Henry valued his candor. "I do not despair of you," Hugh said when they first met; "I know how much your many occupations interfere with the health of your soul." Impressed by such frankness, Henry swore Hugh would not leave England during his reign, taking such pleasure in his conversation, & paying such heed to his counsels, that rumors spread that Hugh was actually Henry’s son. Hugh's biographer wrote, "of all men, only Hugh could bend that rhinoceros to his will." When Henry was in danger of shipwreck, he cried out, "If only my Carthusian Hugh were awake & at prayer, God would not forget me." This affection never diminished, though Hugh dared to oppose Henry, particularly in the matter of keeping bishoprics vacant so that their revenues might go to the royal treasury. Lincoln was among the worst examples, having been without a bishop for 18 years. Hugh was elected to that post in 1186, and his monastic superiors ordered him to accept. After years of neglect, reform was necessary. Hugh employed learned, pious priests & made the fullest use of his authority in disciplining clergy. He took a stern view of royal foresters’ ill-treatment of the poor; once, when a Lincoln parishioner was victimized, he excommunicated the chief forester. Hugh also refused to appoint a royal favorite to a pointless but lucrative post. Henry was furious & summoned Hugh to explain himself. When he came, Henry turned his face away, would not speak, & while ignoring his presence took out a torn glove and began to sew it. At last Hugh said, "How like you are to your relations at Falaise,“ an allusion to the humble birth of William the Conqueror's mother, the daughter of a glove-maker. Henry laughed & the quarrel ended. When anti-Jewish riots swept England during the 3
rd
Crusade, Hugh boldly confronted armed mobs in Lincoln, Stamford & Northampton, compelling their submission. He refused to raise money for King Richard
the Lion-Heart’s
foreign adventures, calmed the king's rage with a kiss & stood his ground, the first clear example on record of the refusal of a money-grant demanded directly by the crown, and an important legal precedent. Richard said, "If all bishops were like my lord of Lincoln, not a prince among us could raise his head against them.“ His relations with King John were rocky at best. John showed him an amulet he insisted was sacred & would preserve him. Hugh replied, "Do not put your trust in lifeless stone, but only in the living and heavenly stone, our Lord Jesus Christ." The following Easter he preached on the duties of kings; King John slipped out partway through the sermon. Devout, tireless, & forgetful of self, Hugh also had a temper he described as "more biting than pepper" & great concern for children & the defenseless. He visited leper-houses & washed the ulcerous limbs of the inmates. He was fond of animals & they of him. Birds & squirrels came readily to his hand. He had a swan that would feed from his hand, follow him about, & keep guard over his bed--no one could approach it without being attacked. In 1200 the king sent him on an embassy to France. His mission was a success, but he became ill & returned to England to die on 16 November 1200. John Ruskin called him "the most beautiful sacerdotal (i.e., priestly) figure known to me in history."
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VOLUNTEERING AT ST. JOHN'S
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Sign Up Here
to be an altar server
*,
or to donate flowers for a Sunday service, or to bring refreshments for Coffee Hour after the service.
*
(if you're not an altar server, and would like to be a Lay Eucharistic Minister (LEM), a Lector, or a Crucifer, please see Carol).
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WESTERN FAIRFAX
CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES
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"We know that food can be one of the most expensive items on a household budget list. Our hope is that in allowing our clients to visit once per month they will save enough money to pay for other expenses such as rent or utility bills."
I
tems are collected weekly in the baskets at the front door of St. John's Church. For food list:
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Reminder
Every Wednesday evening, we have a service of Holy Eucharist and healing at 6:00 PM. The service is about 30 minutes. It is a perfect alternative for those who cannot come to church on Sunday mornings, as well as a good spiritual boost in the middle of the week. Come join us!
Inequality
It is very easy to give from on top of a white horse. It is more uncomfortable to dismount, to stand in the mud at eye-level with need, with hunger, with flagrant inequality, and let it pierce our hearts in a humble conversation between two children of God: without an agenda, without a presupposition that we know what the person before us really needs, but with an open heart and a listening ear.
-Br. Keith Nelson
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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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ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH | 5649 MT. GILEAD RD. , CENTREVILLE, VA | 703-803-7500
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