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This Sunday is the First Sunday in Lent, where we will be exploring our first Lenten theme -- "Listen." Communion will be served, and all are invited as we begin this reflective season!
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MESSAGE FROM PASTOR TIM
Dear Friends,
These are the worship words we use on Ash Wednesday:
Friends in Christ, every year at the time of the Christian Passover we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lent is a time to prepare for this celebration and to renew our life in the paschal mystery. We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance, and for the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes. This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and marks the penitence of this community. We are invited, therefore, in the name of Christ, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination and penitence, by prayer and fasting, by works of love, and by reading and meditating on the Word of God.
Specifically we are inviting each other to:
- Regular worship on the Six Sundays of Lent
- Mid-week Taize Worship
- Daily prayer
- Read five chapters of Word by Word by Marilyn McIntyre: Listen, Let Go, Resist, Be Still, Dare (seven readings each, one per day)
- Participate in an Adult Small Group on Word by Word (sign up at church)
- Catch up on Generous Stewardship
- Understand and participate in One Great Hour of Sharing (take a look at this MAP)
- Engage in acts of mission, mercy and justice like being trained to welcome refugees this Wednesday evening at church (6:30 to 9:00 with a break for Taize worship at 7:00)
Lent is the Christian Pilgrimage towards forgiveness, joy and resurrection. Our prayer is that we all make enough prayerful stops on our Lenten journey that we are truly ready to sing alleluias on Easter with bright joyful hearts and renewed faith.
Peace of Christ,
Pastor Tim
timsstern@gmail.com
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VERSES AND PRAYERS
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. -Matthew 4:1-2
Let anyone with ears listen! -Matthew 13:9
The Cross of Christ
The Cross of Christ
Upon your brow
The Cross of Christ
Protect you now
The Cross of Christ
The Cross of Christ
Upon your mind Upon your head
The Cross of Christ
The Cross of Christ
Make you kind
Save from dread
The Cross of Christ
Upon your face
The Cross of Christ
Give you grace
The Cross of Christ
Upon your heart
The Cross of Christ
Set you apart
The Cross of Christ
Upon your soul
The Cross of Christ
Keep you whole
- from
Tides and Season by David Adam
In this purple-hued season of introspection, God of mercy, we need the light of your Word to break forth like the dawn. If you will guide us continually, then even the parched places in us will be like a watered garden. If words of blame are replaced with your Word of grace and truth, then our crumbling foundations can be rebuilt for generations. By the power of your Holy Spirit, speak to us this season of Lent and do not hold back. In Christ's name, we ask it. Amen.
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FOUND: wedding band. If you have lost (or know someone who has lost) a wedding band, please contact Pastor Tim or the admin office. Thank you!
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Trivia Game and Spaghetti Dinner
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YOUTH GROUPS CELEBRATE 25!
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ARK AND DOVE TRIVIA
Our church youth groups would like to create an Ark and Dove Trivia game as a way to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We are looking for some awesome questions (and answers!) to include! If you have any cool, interesting, trivial, well-known, or little-known facts about our church that would be fun to ask as part of our game. Please email them to nicolehowe123@gmail.com by April 14th. Thanks for your help! Also.. save the date for our Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser on Friday, April 28th!
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DEACON ALL CALL and NAME TAG SUNDAY
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DEACON ALL CALL -- RESCHEDULED -- On Sunday, March 12th, the Board of Deacons will be conducting their annual all-call. They will be reaching out to the congregation to see how everyone is doing! Be on the lookout that afternoon for a call from your deacon. Bonus Deacon Activity! In order to support even more reaching out among the congregation, March 12 will also be NAME TAG SUNDAY at the worship services. Greg Makar, Moderator of Deacons, glmakar@juno.com.
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REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT TRAINING
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REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT TRAINING
A few weeks ago, we shared the news that our local World Relief office in Glen Burnie was closing due to the Executive Order regarding refugees from certain countries. We have since heard from James Sunday, director of World Relief Anne Arundel, who states that the office will close in May and that he would still be able to train us in welcoming refugees. Therefore, this training will be offered on Wednesday, March 8 from 6:30-9:00 in the Marshall room (we will break from 7:00-7:30 to attend the Taize service). I know many of you have expressed an interest in helping refugees, so I hope you will be able to attend this training and enable us to move forward with our refugee welcoming ministry. A sign-up sheet will be in the lobby.
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CAP WEST COUNTY'S FOOD PANTRY Featured item for March is RICE (wild rice, short grain brown rice, brown basmati, etc.) Please drop off food items in the Mission Zone bin. Thank you for your donations!
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CLOTHING AND HOUSEHOLD DONATIONS NEEDED
Comunidad Presbiteriana la Trinidad is in need of a few items for one of the families the mission has been assisting. The family are refugees, who arrived in Annapolis this past fall, and all of the family income is only enough to provide modest food and shelter. If you have any of the following items, please drop them off in the Mission Zone (across from the coat rack) in the last bin on the left or, if a larger item, please leave in the cribbery.
- A set of full sheets and a comforter
- Pots/pans for cooking (the family has only one pot currently)
Spring and summer clothes:
- Size 32 pants (men's); small or medium shirts (men's)
- Size 5/6 and 7/8 clothes (for two girls)
- Maternity clothes (4/medium/petite women's)
- Spring and/or rain jackets and umbrellas
Shoes (each member of the family currently has one pair of shoes):
- Water-resistant shoes with tread for work (9.5 men's)
- Tennis shoes (6 women's)
- Girls shoes, sizes 1 and 13
For questions and clarifications, please contact Laura Willoughby Perry at ljwilloughby@gmail.com or 410-507-7129.
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LENTEN DEVOTIONS Join us this Lenten season for an opportunity to deepen your spiritual life with daily devotions! As a congregation, we are reading sections from "
Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice" by Marilyn McEntyre. The book guides us on daily meditations on one word or phrase for a week. The meditations are rich and illuminating. Here are our weekly words to meditate upon for Lent:
March 5-11
Listen
March 12-18
Let Go
March 19-25
Resist
March 26-April 1
Be Still
April 2-8
Dare
We are putting together small groups throughout Lent that will discuss these themes each week. You can sign up for those in the lobby. Starting this Sunday, we will have books available to you. They are $14 dollars a book. They can also be found on
Amazon. If you cannot commit to a small group, you are still encouraged to pick up a copy of the devotional book and read along with us. If you are looking for a Lenten discipline or spiritual practice, this is a great opportunity to enrich your faith. Questions? See Pastor Jon (jgnelson1985@gmail.com), or Linnie Girdner (lkgirdner@comcast.net).
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WORD BY WORD A Daily Lenten Spiritual Practice, beginning March 5th. $14 per book and sign-up in the lobby.
- Sundays, 11:00 am, March 12th - April 9th. Contact: Betsy Baer, bbaer1216@aol.com.
- Wednesdays, 10:00 am, March 8th - April 5th. Contact: Linnie Girdner, lkgirdner@comcast.net.
- Thursdays, 7:00 pm, March 9th - April 6th. Contact: Tim Stern, timsstern@gmail.com.
- Fridays, 7:00 pm, March 10th - April 7th. Contact: Shelley and James Franklin, shelleyfranklin@vwrld.net.
- Saturdays, 9:00 am, March 4, 18 and April 1. Contact: Kim Champagne, kim.champagne@gmail.com.
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 PHOTO DIRECTORY Smile for the camera! It's that time again.... Although it's hard to believe how quickly time passes, it has been five years since our last photo directory for the church. Julia Kirby is building a team to help us self-publish a new photo directory. What does it mean to self-publish? First it means that volunteers from the church will be doing everything related to preparing to print - from organizing and selecting the dates, greeting and helping manage people flow on picture days, taking the pictures, writing and organizing the content, and compiling the file to send to a printer. We need LOTS of help to do all of these things. It also means that you will NOT have to pay to get a digital copy of the photos that are taken of you or your family or your kids, if applicable. You will be able to download the digital file for your personal use. There will be no pressured sales tactics following your photo shoot - yay! We will be asking for a donation to help offset the costs of the printing the physical directories and each member or household will receive a copy. Our goal is to have 100% participation!
Our current timeline is to start taking pictures in late April and finish with pictures in early June. We are hoping this allows for families with kids away at school to find a time when everyone is in town. As soon as we can confirm dates, we will provide a link to everyone to register for a time slot. You can start planning now about who should be included in your picture.
How can you help now? If you are interested in joining our team to help in any of the aspects of producing the photo directory, please see Julia Kirby (jukirby@deloitte.com), Donna Anderson (donna.anderson30@aol.com) or Ryan Stavely (ryan@stavely.org). Our team will share more information on dates for photos as soon as we can.
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 PRAYERS OF HEALING AND SUPPORT for Dot Bruno; Mike Davie's stepmother, Reverend Kathleen Davie; Lori Kronser; Lori Kronser's father, Cliff Corn; Donna Anderson's mother, Martha; Adell Gaurin; Cliff Wellington's father, Roy; the Held family; Joshua Anthis; Zach Murray; Ray Mosella; Lance Bergersen; Ann Hirschy; Rob Yeager's mother, Rebekah Jennings; Christy Yeager's mother, Linda Jordan; Barbara Reynolds mother, Ruth Campbell; Chip Burnett; Laura Talbert; Fred Barrow's nephew, Sam Jackson; David Chidlow's mother, Betty Jayne Chidlow; Dot Forloines; Henry Duncan; Helene Marchand-Stancil's parents, Paul and Mimi Marchand and nephew Alexis Morin; Judy Cooper's sister, Barb Eardley; Mary Benson; Mary Stum's sister, Barbara Kendig; Pat Stanton's aunt, Evelyn, uncle, Hallie Hawn, and nephews, Eli and Andy; Ellen Makar's father, Don Erickson; Janet Dabbs' sister, Diane Maloy; Paul Doughty's mother, Ruth; Scott Howe's father, Ron; Laura Willoughby's father, Norman; Laura Doughty's cousin; Tracy Churchill's friend, Roger Pratt; and Dick and Carol Baily.
PRAYERS OF SUPPORT AND STRENGTH go out to a mother in treatment for addiction.
THE LOVE AND PRAYERS OF THE CONGREGATION go out to the Marchand and Stancil family on the death of Mimi's uncle, Joseph Marchand.
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND JOY Kelsie Noelle Ocloo was born to Nicolette and Thomas Ocloo on February 27. Mother and baby are doing well.
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE Adell Gaurin is doing well after her procedure.
PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE Reverend Kathleen Davie is doing well after her surgery.
If you have prayer concerns or blessings that you would like to share, please contact Deacon Sue Hanburger at avongypsygal@gmail.com, and she will add your concern to the prayer partners email chain.
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