Sunday Night Details

This Sunday night we’ll be focusing on contemplative prayer and listening to God. One of the stations will be using paint, glue, and articles/images depicting suffering, sadness, and pain to create an image of Christ on one of the canvasses we have.  I’m trusting that we have enough artistic people that something cool will come out of the materials, but I’m in need of more articles/images. If you can bring news magazines and newspapers on Sunday night it would be incredibly helpful.  Let me know so I can figure out how much I need to chase up myself.

Also, Sunday night we’ll have a planning dinner after worship (since it will be a contemplative worship time, we will get out earlier than we have the last few weeks). In the midst of all our planning for lent, we’ll need to layout a skeleton for the time after Lent as well.

Some agenda pieces:

• Movie Series on Fridays
• The last Sunday we are planning the Stations of the Cross (Karen Vroom is coordinating this).
• Erin has planned some other events to express love of self (fasting), love of God (praying), and love of other (serving).
• Kim and I have spoken about our overnight plan before Easter morning (we’re looking at expanding it and we’ll share details of what this could look like).

Talking with everyone, there seems to be a ton of excitement about our plans for lent. It’s going to be great!!!

An Opportunity to Support the Stikkers

We have a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Dave Stikkers at his new residence – Sunrise on Duke Street.

As most of you know, Dave Stikkers is a 41 year old leader in our congregation with frontal lobe dementia. This transition has not been easy as the staff at Sunrise cannot provide 24-hour minute to minute oversight.

If you would like to spend An Evening with Dave for a 3PM-7PM or a 7PM-7AM shift sometime over the next two weeks, please contact me at jan@fpcusa.org. We already have volunteers for tonight and tomorrow night.

The overnight shift involves simply sleeping in the recliner in Dave’s room and spending time with him if he awakens. The 3PM-7PM shift involves just hanging out and having dinner with him if you wish. There is no physical or medical care required at all. No administration of medication, etc. Just stay with him and make sure he isn’t disturbing the other residents.

It is a blessing and a pleasure to be able to share this time with Dave. And it will give Dave’s family and the compassionate Sunrise staff some peace of mind.

Is there a shift you would like to offer in the next two weeks?

Thanks and blessings this Lenten Season – Jan

Peter Rollins in Arlington this Thursday Evening (February 26)

Well-known Emerging Church author, brilliant thinker, and all-around good bloke Pete Rollins will be in Arlington this Thursday evening (February 26)! If you don’t have plans, I highly recommend going to see Pete. He’s like a personal trainer for your theological brain – and rather manic, borderline sadistic personal trainer, at that. He’s da bomb.

Details are in this Facebook event; please check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=75070866272

Prayer and Fasting for Lent

Hi all:
Something we mentioned a few weeks ago in our Lent discussion was the idea of taking a couple days outside of HG to celebrate the three original intentions of Lent: Justice to God, Justice to Self, and Justice to Others.

I have thought it through and unless there are big conflicts/better suggestions, here’s my proposal. Rachel Olsem has offered her house (slash Margie’s house) in Old Town as a place for us to meet. For those who wish to partake in this event in any part, this is the plan:

For Justice to Self (we will celebrate this through group fasting) and Justice to God (we will celebrate this through prayer):

Fast from Wednesday March 4 at sundown to Thursday March 5 at sundown. Meet at Rachel’s house Thursday night (120 S Fayette Street in Old Town, Alexandria), we’ll say 7:00 PM, for prayer and a meal. How about we all bring one item potluck style?

Fasting can be what you feel is best for you, whether it’s the whole 24 hours or just part of the day. It’s a time for you to recognize the sacrifice God made on your behalf and be grateful for the coming resurrection. And really, whatever else it means to you. We will meet up to thank God and share what we’ve thought about or experienced throughout the day. I encourage you to pray throughout your day of fasting as well. I have had some really great experiences with God while fasting because you’re sort of humbled by your hunger. He’s revealed a lot to me in these times.

As for Justice to Others, stay tuned. I am working on an idea for some type of community service project. It will most likely be a half day or so on a weekend, but I will let you know for sure soon. Thanks! I hope this is something we can share together. I think it will be a special time

Erin

Ash Wednesday

We will join the morning worship community and Fairlington United Methodist for an Ash Wednesday worship gathering on February 25 at 7:30 P.M. in the sanctuary of Fairlington United Methodist.

Chaplain Nathan Solomon (who is leading the Problem of Evil class Sunday mornings and who is also just generally amazing) will be preaching.

Margie in Jordan, Chapter 1 (Wahid)

Greetings to my friends at Holy Grounds! I am starting my third week here in Amman, Jordan and I know this is my place in this world (not a reference to Micheal W. Smith) for the time being. I am still living with my contact/host/boss which was really great the first weekend, okay for the first week, annoying the second week, and I’m scared of what this week brings. I thought I had an apartment lined up, but the landlord changed their asking price at the last minute. I’m trying not to be discouraged, as I’m not homeless and am saving a lot of money by living with Njoud, but I literally have to follow her around all the time. I do have two possibilities (one of which is living in my work’s basement) so please keep this situation in your prayers. I am so ready to talk to people, walk the streets, buy food, and explore ministry and Arabic lesson possibilities.

My work at PTEE is going well. The tasks I’ve been given thus far are very easy and I feel like I did them well. I hope that they will move me past administrative stuff and give me some grant writing and program planning experience, but it may be a couple months. I love the organization’s goal, and my coworkers are fantastic. About five are Jordanian, two are American (but lived here about 30 years), one Australian, and one woman who grew up here but has American citizenship.

The slow introduction to Jordan has allowed me to really think about what God has called me to here. Am I supposed to live in the outskirts of the city with the poor? Am I supposed to have community be a first priority? What life changes do I need to make to live appropriately? Do I make good friends with the other expats or do I keep my distance? Is earning money so I can stay, volunteering, learning Arabic, or something else my goal during this time?

I’ve had a lot of time to read, pray, keep in touch with my family, work out, and sleep. So besides a one night rebellion of the stomach last week, I feel great.

Thanks for all your prayers, I’ve been praying for you all too, and feel nostalgic when I see great events going on! Love to you all,

Margie

Canvases & Kicking off Lent

At the end of December we bought a lot of great canvasses that were on significant discount. The main problem is that we bought more than we need and we are needing to figure out which ones to return in the next week or so.  Would anyone with artistic vision like to help do this?

Also, Sunday March 1st we will be having a contemplative worship time for the Holy Grounds gathering.  The center of this time is to be the creation of a collage of Christ made out of paint, glue, and newspaper/magazine articles depicting suffering. Does anyone have a artistic vision for how this would actually work?

See you all at the concert on Sunday. 

Building up the Church: Exploration of New Monasticism

This Saturday (the 21st) there is a great event happening in DC!

Monasticism has always helped the church remember who she is. This event is designed to help local churches learn about what new monasticism is and what it means for the church. Come and explore five practices that are emerging from new monastic communities: reading Scripture as the story of God’ people, relocation to abandoned places, economic sharing, gospel peacemaking, and cultivating a culture of grace and truth. This is a single day event, hosted by the Servant Leadership School (1640 Columbia Road NW, Washington DC).

Lunch will be provided. Registration cost is $30/person for those who are able to pay. Register online at http://newmonasticism.org/events.php

As you may or may not know, I live in a New Monastic community, so this is something really important to me.  Let me know if you are going.  I’d love to carpool.

Healing Dinners

Anybody interested in preparing dinner for the Quinonez family next week? Wednesday and Friday dinners are needed.  Contact Alison if you can help: alisont@comcast.net

Thanks – Jan

Heath McNease in Concert

On Sunday, February 22nd, we will be helping with a concert in the Lower Level instead of our normal Holy Grounds Worship Gathering.  We’ll need EVERYONE’s help welcoming the youth from around the region and managing the night’s festivities.

Here’s the plan:

2:00pm setup for concert

5:30pm quick dinner (please RSVP matt@fpcusa.org)

6:00pm doors open and hospitality

6:30pm concert starts

8:00pm strike

Please come for any piece that you can.  A couple of youth from Fairlington United Methodist will actually be opening for Heath which I’m really excited about. It should be a wonderful opportunity to love our neighbors well, not to mention a lot of fun (as those who came to the last concert can attest).

Stations of the Cross

After a spirited discussion on Lent, the Holy Grounds community has agreed to embark on its first installation of the Stations of the Cross this Lenten season! As we contemplate on what this would look like, there are lots of exciting questions: Which stations will be shown? How will visitors interact with each station? How can we interact with other church communities and the community-at-large through the Stations?… and so on.

We want YOU to take ownership in crafting the Stations — figuratively and/or literally! Please take a few minutes this week to think on what the Stations evoke for you. What are your thoughts on their overall look and feel? Is there a particular Station among the ones listed below that draws you in? How could that Station be represented in way that relates to the current culture and world we live in? Perhaps you would be interested in using paint, collage, woodcuts, papier mache, diorama, video, audio, dance, skit or (name your medium)??

Here are the “traditional” Stations according to wikipedia:
1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus receives the cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
6. Veronica wipes Jesus’ face with her veil
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of His garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus’ body is removed from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered in incense.

As Jan mentioned, there are variations from this, to include (or not) the betrayal, the last supper, the resurrection, etc. It would probably help for planning purposes to have a consensus on what stations we are going to have.

This is where YOU come in. Thoughts? Questions? Exclamations? Digressions? Comment away!

Lenten Movie Series

So, I’m thinking about bringing Friday night movies back for Lent.  What do you all think?

We’d focus on movies that supplement our series on the depths of life.

Some movie ideas (from myself and others):

• The Undertaking (a PBS documentary about some Undertakers in the northeast, it’s really great!!!)
• Grace is Gone
• Henry Poole is Here
• Lars and the Real Girl
• Passion of the Christ

What other movies should we show?

First Update from Joanna

Hey Everyone!

So after about 30 combined hours of flying and waiting in airports we arrived in Adelaide!  We made a few delirious videos on the flight which we will be proudly posting to facebook in a few days!  I wanted to send out a short note to let everyone know that we have made it here.  The base is huge and wonderful.  It reminds me a lot of a spanish hacienda.  Most of the staff live right here on base so the base is comprised of several apartments.  Becca and I are staying in a large room shared with the other girls participating in the DTS.  The DTS is much smaller then we originally thought it would be.  Most of the people who were going to be on our DTS had issues with visas and had to drop out.  So it looks like there will be a total of about 7 of us.  It’s a small team but there are a lot of advantages of that.  There are about 30 people who staff the base with various ministries.  I believe about 5 of them will be heading up our DTS.  Everyone has been very friendly.  Read more

Chili Dinner February 21st

The Deacons of Fairlington Presbyterian are having a Chili dinner on Saturday, February 21st from 6-8pm.

If you’ll be in town, make plans to attend.  It will be a good chance to meet others who are part of the Fairlington Presbyterian community.

Quit Playing Games With My Heart: A pre-Valentine’s Day Celebration

Join us for an evening of fun and games with friends on Friday, February 13 at 6:30pm! Please bring your favorite board game(s), game ideas and a snack/(non-alcoholic) beverage to share.

The Game Wishlist:
Risk
Taboo
Settlers of Catan
Apples to Apples
Scrabble
Monopoly
Trivial Pursuit
Clue
Pictionary
Cranium
Scattegories
Ultimate Outburst

Italian Restaurant Night

Youth from Fairlington United Methodist are doing an Italian Restaurant Night fundraiser Saturday Feb. 7th, from 5-8 in the Fellowship Hall of Fairlington United Methodist (3900 King St).

A group of us are going around 7 and will sit together. The youth are setting up an Italian Restaurant (usually called CafeAmore but it might change.) It is the biggest fundraiser for the youth all year and goes to support all of the youth activities. Dinner is $8 per person. For the first time in its history, the food will be made from SCRATCH! At least the three different pasta sauces will be: marinara, meat and alfredo.

Also the youth will provide entertainment…and I heard rumors that Dan and Rachel are performing a duet.

You don’t need a reservation, but if you have an idea about how many people are coming let Ashley know so she can give them a heads up. Either that or we can drive them crazy just like we do every other restaurant we enter…

Community Supported Agriculture

Fairlington Presbyterian partners with a local farmer so that we can make great locally grown produce available to people in our community. Each Thursday a local farmer delivers shares of produce that can be picked up in the lobby at 3846 King St, Alexandria, VA.

Community Supported Agriculture establishes a meaningful bond of community between the food on our table and the farmer who grows it. Local shareholders support the farm directly by contributing a small sum and then they get a portion of farm-fresh harvest every week!

The cost for the Summer will be $440 for 18 weeks of vegetables. Learn more of what’s included on the Graceland Farm website.

To sign-up, e-mail John and make sure you let him know you want the Fairlington Pres drop-off.

Chinese New Year Parade February 1 at 2pm

A group will be going to the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown today at 2pm, before coming to the Holy Grounds gathering at 4:30pm.

Call Karen for details: 415-350-8446.