One Service at 10 This Sunday

Join Us This Sunday at 10:00 AM!

Come worship with us this Sunday,

The Second Sunday of Advent

Our preacher will be

The Rev. Sarah Duggin, Associate Rector

The service begins at 10:00 AM

All are welcome!

Tuesday Evening Centering Prayer

Tuesdays at 5:30 pm

Join us on Tuesday evenings at 5:30 pm for a contemplative Eucharist with Centering Prayer. Services take place

in person and over Zoom.

As we prepare to celebrate the joy and hope of Christmas, we invite you to contribute toward the cost of the altar flowers. Donations may be made in honor or memory of loved ones, and their names will be listed in the Christmas Service bulletins. It is hoped that your generosity, in any amount, will also help fund the altar flowers in the new year. To donate, please use the link or contact the parish office.

Sign Up HERE:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B044EABAC28A6F94-60992788-christmas

Terresa Orrison Beal

Jamie & Kristina Cartwright

Thayer Caskey & Rev. Charlie Caskey

Thomas & Julie Cooke

Tammy & Sam Cox

Carol Dawson

Roxana Day

Jean-Louis & Kate Delayen

Mark Duer & Julio Leonard

Jocelyn Dyer & Michael Flanagan

Andrew Fiske & Daniel Lyons

Phillip & Elena Fletcher

Rev. Gini & Joseph Gerbasi

Aaron Goen & Matt Register

Tom Grooms & Rodger Streitmatter

Brandon Hemmelgarn & Shelby Rudd

Shirley Hibbitts

Raymond Honeycutt

Margaret Huckaby & Carmel Keilty

Ronald & Laura Ivey

Jim Johnson

Susan Johnston

Alphonse & Ann La Porta

Robert Laycock & Thomas Vogt

Joan & David Maxwell

Tyler Metteer

Avery Miller & Gregory Mocek

Sarah Moore

Rev. Dr. Laura Natta & Kathryn Wood

Sally Ostad

Andrew & Chelsea Overton

Jen Page

Garrett Rasmussen

Robert Rea

Kirk Renaud & Rev. Sarah Duggin

John & Judy Ryan

Leigh & Carol Seaver

Howard Spendelow

Craig & Elizabeth Talbot

Holden & Patti Thorp

Jay Tuttle & Meghen Miles Tuttle

Julie van Steenwyk

Reuben Varghese & David Wacaster

Anthony Vernon

Robert E Wallace & Eileen Gallagher-Wallace

James Warren & Stephanie Bothwell

John Wise

David & Barbara Wolf

Kenneth Wong & Andrea Kramer

Wilbur Wright

Thus far in our Stewardship we have raised over $201,000 in pledges for 2026.

St. John’s needs to raise $265,000 in pledge income in 2026.

Your financial support is essential to building the St. John’s community.

If you wish to financially commit to supporting the work of the church in 2026 (in any amount!) please submit your pledge online at stjohnsgeorgetown.org and set up online giving to fulfill your pledge for the year ahead.

There’s Something About Hope…..

“Real hope immediately makes you vulnerable. That real hope has scars. It has wounds. It’s been fractured over and over, and yet, every single day, it stands up and hopes again. Real hope is the active conviction that despair will never have the last word.”

Senator Cory Booker in conversation with Historian Jon Meacham at a forum at Washington National Cathedral, October 27, 2025.

In uncertain and tumultuous times, some things remain steady - and in these uncertain days, the conscious choice to hope becomes more crucial than ever. When it seems as if everything we know is beyond our control, hope is still ours to have – if we choose it. Our choice enacts hope as an internal tool —turning our hearts toward our values and possibilities – even as the World seems murky, dangerous, and out of control. Hope necessitates us to keep our hearts and minds open to other ways to be, resist the pull of despair, and to trust that new life can emerge.

Advent has long been a season of waiting, but waiting does not mean standing still. Hope does not simply drift into our lives; it is cultivated through intention. When we stay connected to one another, when we take small yet meaningful actions, when we pay attention to our inner world, when we care for our bodies and spirits, and when we draw courage from the resilience of those who came before us – we strengthen hope.

This Advent, we commit to choosing hope on purpose: seeking it, practicing it, nurturing it within ourselves and among our community. Grow hope with us in our Hope Rope, our Finding Hope journey of the 3 Kings, and our annual Hyde-Addison Angel Tree. Give hope in our Christmas Food Drive or Gift Drive for Justicia Alimentaria.

In a world that feels fragile, hope remains one of the most unshakeable gifts we possess.

Lord of light,

hold me in Your promise.

Let hope rise in me

like morning sun,

until my heart rests in You. Amen.

Advent Parish Activities

12/6/25 CHRISTMAS DECORATING 2.0 Volunteer to join our festive Bedeck, Bauble & Beautify Band on Saturday December 7th at 10:00 a.m. We’ll finish dressing the church inside and out with garlands and bows, trim the tree, and joyously connect to all the things that signal love coming down among us at Christmas including a tasty breakfast noshes. Rev. Laura asks that we sign up here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B044EABAC28A6F94-60783099-help

TODAY, December 7^th Holy Moly for Advent 2

It’s a Holy Moly Sunday! This fabulous curriculum uses joy and just a wee bit of humor to help kids engage with the Bible and some of our foundational stories and ideas. This Sunday we shift to the stories of Advent and Christmas, and then we’ll be back to our Old Testament family in January! 

Holy Moly meets on the 1st and 3rd Sundays at 10:00 in the parish hall. You can drop off the kids (or stay if you’d like) and everyone will go back into the service at the Peace for communion! If you’d like to learn more about Holy Moly, click here, or contact Gini.

There’s something about Hope: Discussion with Millennials & Gen Z

This second week of Advent, a coffee hour panel invites us to listen to the hope-formed wisdom of Millennials and Gen Z—generations who have come of age amid rapid shifts, climate anxiety, political volatility, and constant information overload. Speaking honestly about the world’s fractures, they will give us insight as to their viewpoints regarding the current social climate and imaging new futures. As a community, listening to their experiences will broaden our own views of what hopeful living looks like today.

GRATE PATROL 12/7 and 12/8

This is the last sign-up for 2025! Grate Patrol at STJ is working incredibly well because of the devotion and generosity of our parishioners. All of you are so wonderful working to make 200 sandwiches and assemble the meals and toiletry kits. We also need two people to bring fresh fruit - tangerines, bananas or apples are good choices. Thank you! JOIN US by signing up here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040F44A9A92AAAFA7-60802131-grate

Sunday, December 21 There’s something about Hope: Setting the Table for Justice

As Advent nears its culmination, we turn toward hope expressed through justice—hope that is chosen, embodied, and lived. This Sunday we welcome Denise Woods from our outreach partner Justicia Alimentaria (Food Justice DMV), whose work with immigrants offers a vivid witness to hope in action. As a reminder that we can always choose our response, Denise and her colleagues choose compassion, dignity, and solidarity each day. She will share how JA began, what she has seen in the field, and where hope rises in the midst of exhaustion, resilience, courage, and community. Through JA we glimpse the Advent promise that hope is not only a feeling but a practice—a justice-shaped way of being in the world that makes God’s love visible.

Advent Music

TODAY, December 7, 3:30pm Christmas in Harmony

Dominican Embassy Concert

We’re thrilled to be hosting a unique and special embassy event here at St. John’s! Come hear all Dominican artists in a lyric evening featuring Latin Grammy-nominated soprano, Natalie Peña-Comas, with composer Darwin Aquino and the Trinity Chamber Orchestra. Come one, come all! Bienvenido a todos!

Please let Mark Duer know if you’re attending: office@stjohnsgeorgetown.org

December 14, 5PM There’s something about Hope: Lessons & Carols

“We Need a Little Christmas – Right This Very Minute!” A different kind of Lessons & Carols Service

In a season when the world feels strained and uncertain, we are gathering because we need a little Christmas—right this very minute—not as an escape, but as nourishment for the spirit. The Advent theme, “There’s something about Hope,” highlights that hope is an active choice we nurture. In Lessons & Carols, we embrace the idea that music can powerfully inspire and deepen our sense of hope.  Christmas music, especially the beloved hymns and carols we carry in our bones, has a way of cracking open our hearts, helping us remember who we are, whose we are, and what God is still doing in the world.

Lessons & Carols is more than a tradition; it is a communal act of hope. When the written word, melody, memory, and community are woven together with the amazing voices of our choir, something sacred happens. Music invites us to breathe deeply, to imagine boldly, and to trust that light still shines in the darkness. Community reminds us that we don’t walk this journey alone. Tradition grounds us in the resilience and faith of those who have sung these same carols across generations.

Lessons & Carols is a journey toward hope—through story, song, and the simple grace of being together. As we listen, sing, and allow the music to carry us, let’s rediscover the joy that has been waiting within us, and may we leave renewed in our commitment to choose hope – right this very minute – in a world that needs it more than ever! Parish Christmas party to follow, please join us!!!!

Advent Volunteer Opportunities

Justicia Alimentaria Christmas Gift & Food Drives 12/19

We are inviting anyone able and willing to share more deeply this year by donating food and/or gift items to our immigrant neighbors in crisis. GIFTS of lovingly cleaned and folded second-hand clothing , diapers, household items, cleaning supplies, and new or like new unwrapped toys can be dropped off at St. John’s . We know that shopping in bulk is not everyone’s cup of tea so we are making it super easy - unlike paying retail prices, we can buy 25 pound bags of rice for 25 dollars. Masa harina can be bought at 3.50 per 5 lbs bought in cases of 10 5lb bags. We are accepting rice, beans and masa harina FOOD donations. Drop off your gifts and food to the church office between 10am – 4pm. Or donate funds and we’ll do the shopping for you! Donations can be made under the GIVE button/1-time Offering/Memo: Food Justice on our website or by check/cash here at the church office.

Wrapped and tagged gifts for those who took a card off the tree are due by Sunday December 14 for the Hyde School Angel Tree in Blake Hall. Brighten the holidays for a child from Hyde-Addison. Contact Ann La Porta: a_laporta@yahoo.com with any questions. 

Advent Coffee Hours

Help us welcome and nourish one another by supporting Advent coffee hours! Each Sunday of Advent will be a themed coffee hour. We invite anyone to contribute food for the spread. Please use the following Sign-Up to indicate what you will bring: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E044CADAF23A75-60415698-advent#/

Any questions? Please contact Parish Life Committee chair Andrea Kramer at ac_kramer@yahoo.com.

GMC Extends Dinners in early January!

Our annual hosting of Georgetown Ministry Center’s Extends Dinners will be weeknights from January 5^th through the 16^th. We joyfully cook and serve hot meals and meaningfully engage in fellowship with our dear neighbors. The host hours are from 3:00pm – 6:30pm. Whether you cook, serve, prep or clean up, the joy of providing a hope-filled moment is deeply moving and healing for all involved. Each night requires a team of 8. We also need folks to bring individually wrapped cookies, brownies or handheld fruit for our Grab-n-Go table. Please drop those items off at a time that works best for you. Questions? Contact Rev. Natta, laura@stjohnsgeorgetown.org.  

Sign Up HERE:https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B044EABAC28A6F94-60988540-gmcextends