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This week's Youth Forum activity is available here

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.

Sunday, January 31:

Wednesday, February 3:

Please Join Us for The Annual Meeting of The Falls Church Episcopal this 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And so it is with a spirit of gratitude for the opportunity to worship with the music that is part of our spiritual life, that we come to you, the parish, to ask for your help in preparing us all for our return to the physical church. Today, we are announcing a campaign for the restoration of the Shantz Organ (click link for video) in the Historic Church. This will be an undertaking that will cost the church $30,000. The repairs will start very soon, taking advantage of the fact that we are not currently using the space. However, we ask the parish to consider what the musical tradition of this church, and of our faith, mean to each of you, and we ask for your financial help to achieve this goal.

Please join the Falls Church faith community in a Silent Witness against racial injustice and adultification bias against Black girls on Saturday, January 30 from noon to 1:00 p.m. along Broad Street.

According to the Georgetown University’s Law Center on Gender and Inequality, adultification bias is a perspective where “... adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, devoid of any individualized context …” Their recent report, Listening to Black Women and Girls, surveyed a wide range of women and girls from ages 12 to 60 on their experiences with adultification. The respondents reported harsher treatment and higher standards in school than their white peers. They reported adults classifying them as stereotypically “angry” or “hypersexualized.” Educators also treated them in developmentally inappropriate ways and with less empathy. We raise up better awareness and call for educators and other authorities to end adultification bias, so that we can increase gender and racial equity in the classroom. For more information, read their report here.

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 ssmyth@newhopehousing.org for more information.

·       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 250^th birthday that was just celebrated in 2019.

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?

E-mail Parish Administrator D'O Dillard.

If you have any questions about Realm or eGiving, please reach out to D'O Dillard at ddillard@thefallschurch.org or Claire Hardie at accounting@thefallschurch.org.

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 

click here to add us to your account! 

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

Weekly meditations by our Bishops. This week's mediation is by Bishop Jennifer: Truth

Here are some ways to enhance your spiritual journey at home as suggested by the Washington National Cathedral.