Highlights of this issue include:
- M L King Weekend of Action events
- Adult Formation: Spiritual & Emotional Light in the Dark continues Sunday, January 17
- Winter Newcomers' Class continues Sunday, January 17
- TFCE Annual Meeting Set for Sunday, January 31: Vestry Nominees Announced
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The Second Sunday after the Epiphany
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Please join us for our digital, live-streamed worship service of Spiritual Communion on YouTube, Sunday at 9:00 a.m.
If you cannot join us for the live streaming at 9:00, you may watch the service on your own schedule. If you are not watching live, fast forward through the first five minutes to the start of the service.
The Rev’d Canon Rosemari Sullivan is our guest preacher on Sunday, January 24. Rosemari is no stranger to The Falls Church Episcopal and served here in 2014-2015 as the Associate Rector. We look forward to her joining us in our live-stream worship and on-line!
To get notifications of our services and other posts to our YouTube channel, go to our page and click the red Subscribe button.
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Coffee Hour with Adult Forum beginning at 10:00 a.m. Join here
Curt Thompson, M.D., is a psychiatrist in private practice in Falls Church, VA and founder of Being Known, which develops teaching programs, seminars and resource materials to help people explore the connection between interpersonal neurobiology and Christian spirituality which lead to genuine change and transformation.
This week's forum focuses on how shame distorts reality, our perception of ourselves and others. Curt will also offer his view on racism as an example of how shame works and prevents us from becoming the people we are intended to be.
Father Andy will facilitate two additional sessions on February 7 and 14.
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This week's Youth Forum activity is available here
Youth Groups meet Sunday, January 17, on Zoom
High School group meets at 1:00 p.m.; Middle School group at 2:00 p.m. Please email John for the link or to register your youth.
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Virtual Formation Classes
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Sunday Jan 17th Formation Classes Stories
Preschool - 1st Grade: Godly Play Story - The Ark and The Ten
2nd- 3rd Grade: A Basket Life
4th-5th Grade: Jesus' Dangerous Life
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What Can We Do?
Considering the events of January 6 at our nation’s Capitol and all of the rhetoric and rumors coming at us from news sources, it is easy to feel angry, scared, discouraged and shocked among so many emotions. I hate to think about what might happen this weekend, next week at the inauguration of President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris, and the following days in light of what is being reported. We all know it’s bad, but I feel like I’m spinning my wheels repeating how I feel. What can I do to get out of this muck? What can we do as God’s people? MORE
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Sunday, January 17 – Saturday, January 23
Sunday, January 17:
- 9:00 am – Live-streamed Service of the Word and Spiritual Communion (www.thefallschurch.org/e-services)
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9:45 a.m. – Children's Formation (contact Lauren for more information)
- 10:00 a.m. – Coffee Hour with Adult Formation (click here to join)
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1:00 p.m. – High School Zoom (email John for link)
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2:00 p.m. – Middle School Zoom (email John for link)
- 5:00 p.m. – Winter Newcomers' Class #2 (click here)
Monday, January 18: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (TFCE office closed)
Tuesday, January 19:
Wednesday, January 20: Inauguration of the 46th President, Joseph Biden, Jr.
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2:00-3:30 p.m. – Buildings & Grounds Meeting
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6:30 p.m. – Vestry Meeting
Thursday, January 21:
Friday, January 22:
Saturday, January 23:
- 10:00-11:00 a.m. – Foyer Group led by Christine Cordes
- 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. – Historic Church open for quiet prayer
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Please do not donate expired or opened items. We cannot use them.
All volunteer slots have been filled for this drive. We sincerely thank everyone for the generous gift of their time and treasure.
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Silent Witness Against Racial Injustice, Saturday, January 16 Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Members and friends of The Falls Church Episcopal are invited to join Falls Church Presbyterian Church for the next Silent Witness protest on Broad Street. Participants are asked to wear masks and maintain social distancing. Protests are held on alternate Saturdays, rain or shine.
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Service of Readings of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Monday, January 18, 11:00 a.m.
Please visit our YouTube channel for this special intergenerational service of readings and prayers that commemorates the legacy of Dr. King.
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Tinner Hill History Remembered,
Monday, January 18, 1:00 p.m.
Visit facebook.com/novaparksva for an hour-long event in commemoration of Dr. King, including the unveiling of a special plaque
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Invite - Welcome - Connect at The Falls Church Episcopal:
Newcomers' Class Continues Sunday, 5:00 p.m.
Are you new to The Falls Church Episcopal and interested in learning more?
We invite you to join us this Sunday, January 17 for the second of our three winter Newcomers' Classes. You'll meet with our clergy, vestry members and staff to learn more about the history of the Episcopal Church, the history of TFCE, and how to get connected to a group or ministry. To register, contact Parish Administrator D'O Dillard. The final class is Sunday, January 24.
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The Annual Meeting of The Falls Church Episcopal is set for Sunday, January 31st at 10:00 a.m.
During the meeting the membership will vote on four new Vestry members and will hear from church leadership how the church has weathered the unique challenges of 2020.
Meet the 2021 Vestry Nominees!
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Scott Cole: Finding the right church for you and your family is no easy task! There are many options on a whole range of levels. For us however, TFCE does the best job we've seen keeping eternal in our faith that which is meant to be eternal, and evolving that which must evolve in order for us to stay true to the eternal principles in our time and place on earth. We discovered TFCE in November of 2019, and my wife Sofia and I decided to become members of the church in 2020. We also had our baby daughter Clara baptized here last November. Since joining, we have been active primarily with the 20's and 30's ministry, having hosted a Neighbor Group for that ministry in our home. The pandemic has unfortunately limited our continued exploration of all that TFCE has to offer, and we cannot wait for it to end so that we can resume our exploration.
I am running to serve on the Vestry because I very much wish to not only see this church continue to grow and thrive but contribute what I can to that mission. I am a manager of an internal data science consulting team at Lockheed Martin. This position has given me experience both with applying digital technologies in many different organizational contexts and running a business. I believe I can serve the church using both of these sets of experience, by updating some of the ways we benefit from use of our own data and critically analyzing the organizational decisions before us. In addition, I hope to be a voice representing the wants and needs of those at the church in their 20s and 30s.
Thank you for taking the time to read about me! I look forward to getting to know all of you much better once the pandemic subsides. Until then, I hope and pray that you and your family keep safe.
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Krista Gauthier: I feel incredibly blessed and grateful that the Vestry has given me this opportunity to serve! For the past year, I have been the Registrar on the Vestry and after working with this amazing group of people I am honored to be considered for a three- year term to continue that work. Dave, Lia, Katy and I joined TFCE in January 2018 after a long and winding spiritual journey. Dave and I were raised Catholic and for a number of reasons felt, when we were pregnant with Lia, that we wanted to find a spiritual home that spoke more to our own beliefs. After spending seven years at an Episcopal church in Alexandria, where we were officially received into the Church and where our two daughters were baptized, we decided it was time to find something a little closer to our home in Annandale. So, in January 2018 we walked into TFCE for the first time. Although already devoted Episcopalians, it was not until we walked through these doors that we felt that we had found our communal home.
When not at TFCE, I work as the founder and Executive Director of SDSquared, an educational, non-profit organization that helps students with dyslexia reach their full potential in STEM. Through that work I have acquired knowledge and experience on every aspect of non-profit business development and having built the organization from the ground up I have led the company through a myriad of changes and transitions. That is why I feel especially called at this time to join the TFCE vestry so that I can share what I have learned during this critical time and give back to the place that has become so important to all of us.
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Geoff Kannan: I am honored to be considered by you to join the Vestry of our beloved Falls Church Episcopal for the 2021-2023 class. Along with my wife Veronica and my now five-year-old son George, I joined TFCE in the fall of 2016, when we moved to the area for me to practice medicine as a pediatric hematologist/oncologist, with a sub-specialty in pediatric brain tumors. I now work in oncology drug development. Relatively new to the Episcopal tradition, we were looking for a vibrant church deeply rooted in Anglican traditions. When we first attended the Falls Church Episcopal with a baby in tow, seeing other small children running around was a joy. We heard meaningful, thoughtful preaching, and glorious music, and knew that we had to stay.
I find music to be the most important way that I worship, and I’ve gained so much while giving of my time and talent to the music program at TFCE, as a chorister in the Historic Church Choir, occasional accompanist, and during this past year also as video editor for the Falls Church Virtual Choir. It was my honor to play a part in making sure that although we could not meet together, we could still worship together in song. I am also assisting Julie Tucker on the organ during the live-streamed service. I’ve also had the good fortune of serving on a lay committee for our most recent seminarian, Jared Grant, a deeply moving experience.
It would therefore be an honor and a sacred duty to continue to worship with you as a member of the Vestry of this church. There is so much good we can do in a world that needs us. We can strengthen our bonds with each other through worship. We can plan for meeting back in person, we can rejoice in Rev. Andy’s ministry while welcoming our new Rector. There is so much to do, and I humbly thank you for considering my hands as one of the many that will be available to do that work.
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Barb Mantegani: My name is Barbara Mantegani and I have attended The Falls Church Episcopal since summer of 2013, with my husband Dave Raglin joining me a year later. I sing in the 9 am choir, I serve on both the Children’s and Youth Committees, and teach Sunday School and assist John Wunderlich with Middle School Youth Group. I am also involved in outreach, specifically the Bailey’s Shelter meal and our periodic food drives. I feel that TFCE has been life changing, both for me and for Dave, and would like to serve on the Vestry as a way to give back in some small way for what I have received from this amazing community.
A bit about how I got here: I was raised Catholic in NH in the 1960s, attended Catholic elementary and high school, then graduated from Boston College in 1976. I came from a family that was very active in our parish and believed strongly in giving back to the community to the best of your ability, and while I left the Catholic church as an adult, I did miss that shared community. Once having stumbled into TFCE (my attendance really was a happy accident) I realized right away that this was where I wanted and needed to be, I took the classes and was received into the Episcopal Church in 2017.
My day job, which I am winding down, is as an international tax attorney who advises multinational companies how to stay out of trouble with various and sundry tax authorities. I have a degree in dispute resolution from GMU and feel like my analytical and negotiating skills could be an asset to the church community.
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The Falls Church Episcopal historic church is more than 250 years old, and the grounds on which it stands carry vestiges of the entire sweep of American history.
The Falls Church Episcopal welcomes you to our church grounds to “Hunt for History,” a scavenger hunt list that offers you, family, friends, and neighbors a way to get fresh air while maintaining vital social distance. You can:
· Spend time together as a family or friends, or or visit in contemplative solitude on the picturesque and historic grounds of The Falls Church Episcopal.
· Learn American history, and pass it on it to children and newcomers in our community.
“Hunt for History” features 19 items that mark the life of the church and the nation, from their beginnings in colonial America to the pre-revolutionary era, to the building’s 250th birthday that was just celebrated in 2019.
The brochure is available in three locations around the church grounds. Thanks to Paul Allvin for his wonderful work on this project!
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TFCE Nave Open for Private Prayer Saturdays
The Historic Church is open for silent prayer each Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We ask everyone to wear a mask, and use hand sanitizer when entering and leaving the Sanctuary. Please click here for rules and expectations. Questions?
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Make sandwiches for those in need
Make sandwiches or bag lunches for drop-off at the Bailey's Crossroads Shelter or New Hope Housing's Eleanor Kennedy Shelter near Ft. Belvoir.. Please see the attached flyer and contact Sami Smyth at 703-799-2293 x11 or [email protected] for more information.
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The Little Free Food Pantry
On Fairfax Street near the church’s Thrift Shop is a small “take some food, leave some food” pantry (like the “little libraries” where people can take or leave a book). We are definitely seeing people use that pantry to supplement their groceries, and you can drop off non-perishable food items there at any time.
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We are still checking the mail and depositing checks!
Please mail your check to:
115 E. Fairfax Street
Falls Church, VA 22046
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Donate safely and securely through our website.
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Text “TFCE” and the amount to 73256.
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Are you shopping more online these days? If you’re buying more items from Amazon, please consider adding The Falls Church Episcopal to your AmazonSmile account. With every purchase you make, the church earns a small percentage. Simply
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Parish Prayer List: Prayers & Transitions
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Please use the Prayer List in your prayers for each other and the world.
Praying for each other and the needs of the world is a powerful way to love our neighbors as ourselves! THIS WEEK’S PRAYER LIST
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Here are some ways to enhance your spiritual journey at home as suggested by the Washington National Cathedral.
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