Fairlington Sabbatical Blog
This summer the community of Fairlington Presbyterian along with Pastor Jan Edmiston will be taking a sabbatical to explore God’s calling on us in the coming seasons. It will be a wonderful time of reflection. Follow along with thoughts from people throughout the congregation and Jan’s travels on the Fairlington Sabbatical blog.
Summer Worship Plans
So, I thought maybe we should have a running e-dialogue or planning dinner about the summer season. My immediate thought after Lent is that it’s time to look outward now instead of inward, to think about mission and outreach. I think Kim’s discussion on “evangelism” is a great segue into this realm. We are a commuter church, so I have no idea who our neighbor would be. Whom should we love?
One way to explore what this means is to study Acts. I’ve seen our old church do this after easter and it seems to flow naturally, and to fit with the above. What do you all think?
Collaborative Worship for Pentecost
This year we are planning a collaborative Pentecost worship gathering with the morning worship and Holy Grounds communities. It will merge the elements, styles, and people of both communities. This is where you come in, we need people passionate about planning and helping lead this gathering.
On Sunday, May 31st we worship outside in the front yard at 11 am followed by a picnic with the entire FPC community.
Let me know if you are interested in helping plan and/or lead this worship gathering: matt@fpcusa.org.
Children’s Faith Formation
We’re trying to figure out how to better love the kids who have been entrusted into our care as a community.
Any of you passionate about children’s faith formation? Would you have passion about discipling one or two kids aged 8-12? We envision this looking like taking them to get a cupcake or get dinner every week or two and just hanging out with them: talking about life and how things are going with them in school and with their family and talking about God with them. It could also possibly involve spending time with a group of them every few weeks on Sunday mornings.
As you can tell, we’re still trying to figure out the details, but looking for people who are really excited about helping kids along their faith journey. Let me know if this sounds like it might be a good fit for you at matt@fpcusa.org.
Sunday Night
With Lent over, we don’t have anything specifically planned for Sunday night. Ideas? Thoughts?
Choose a Time Slot for Stations
I have some specific time slots for the stations that I’m seeking to fill. If you be able to help during these times, e-mail me at matt@fpcusa.org?
Wednesday 1-2pm or 3:30-4:30pm (there’s a Bible Study from 2-3:30pm)
Wednesday 6-7pm or 8:30-9:30pm (there’s a Bible Study from 7-8:30pm)
Thursday 6:30-7:30pm and 8:30-9:30pm (on either side of the Maundy Thursday Worship time)
We already have Wes for Monday night and Corey for Tuesday night. We’ll be all gathered on Friday Night and Saturday (though I’ll pick some specific times for people to come for the stations).
Sitting Vigil Starting Good Friday
How did people feel? I mean, this person who did incredible things and who you thought was the messiah is now dead. You’re simultaneously mourning the loss of your friend and shell-shocked because so much that you thought was true is no longer.
A few weeks ago, Kim and I talked about trying to embody this time as a community. We would actually come together as a community for a wake, sitting shiva for Jesus together from Friday night through Sunday morning-we would eat together, stay together in the lower level on the couches and air mattresses, we would all bring food (preferably casseroles 
and cook and eat it together like people do during a wake. The whole thing would play out in three acts:
- The road to the cross
- Contemplation on the stations of the cross.
- Good Friday worship.
- The Wake
- Seeking to place ourselves in the place of the disciples-not knowing what happens on Sunday morning.
- Celebration of the life of Jesus-lots of reading the gospels together (pre-resurrection of course) and also sharing how Jesus has personally been a part of our lives.
- Modeling mourning–it gives us a chance to practice how to mourn together as a community.
- The Resurrection
- Sunrise worship together (perhaps we even embody the story of the women finding the tomb some way)
- Feastmeal together on Sunday (location TBD)
What do you all think? Let me know (matt@fpcusa.org) if you plan to participate so I can get a general headcount.
Sunday Dinner?
Ok, since I’m gonna be responsible for coming up with a more concrete plan for Sunday dinners together at Holy Grounds, there are a few things I need to know:
1) Food restrictions? Preferences? I know we have some vegetarians, and I’m going to try and keep things healthy and as fresh as possible, but are there other things you’d like to see? Things you positively can’t eat? Food allergies? Feel free to send me any favorite foods, and I’ll see what I can do to hook you up.
2) How often do we want to do this? Once a month? Every other week? When Lisa has her act together? Once we figure out what we want to do, I’ll post here on Thursdays with anticipated menu, then I’ll be looking for RSVPs so I can get a rough estimate. I want to ensure we have plenty of food without being wasteful.
3) We’re looking at keeping costs low – just a few dollars a person, but asking for a suggested donation of $5 to help cover meal costs and have some left over to fund some sort of food mission. Does this seem reasonable?
4) Should I plan to do special event-ish dinners on occasion? Like for given holidays and such? If so, should we anticipate a higher ($10) cost per person? There would be copious notice and announcements.
5) I am gonna need help with getting groceries and making preparations. I would like to eventually move to a system where we have one person doing meal planning (with input, of course) but a team of people that rotate cooking duties. This will help ease the pressure on any one person and will make it a lot easier to have dinner every single week.
Please either email me your thoughts, post a comment, or grab me on Sunday.
Thanks,
Lisa
Stations of the Cross
We will be setting up the Stations of the Cross Sunday night. Holy Week we want to make them available to people throughout the community to spend time walking through.
This is where you come in. We need people to be available to open the building and help people as they go through the stations. Would you be able to dedicate a couple of hours one evening next week? Shoot me an e-mail (matt@fpcusa.org) and let me know when. I can give you a key if you don’t have one already.
It’s going to be great!
Golf Tournament to Benefit Children with HIV/AIDS
Hi everyone,
Please pass on this info to anyone who might be interested in participating and thanks to all who are contributing their time and efforts to helping me spread the word!!
Erin
PLEASE JOIN JUBILEE CAMPAIGN FOR OUR
Inaugural Golf Tournament to benefit Jubilee Home IV, HIV/AIDS home for children in Mumbai, India
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20
Greens Fees, Lunch, Dinner, and Prizes: $200 for Individuals & $600 for Foursomes
Westfields Golf Club
Clifton, VA
Tee Off at 1:30 PM
Driving Range Opens: 11:30 AM
Website: www.golfforchange.weebly.com
Please RSVP by April 20, 2009 to erinweston@jubileecampaign.org or call (703) 503-0791 for more information.
Sunday Morning Conversation about Holy Grounds
The morning worship community has been having a series of Lenten conversations before worship each week. Previous ones have included Jan’s Sabbatical, Membership, and the Role of Pastors. We’ll be having a discussion on human trafficking in the U.S. in a couple of weeks.
This week we’re having a discussion about Holy Grounds. I’ll be trying to help people understand how we function as a community and who we are.
It would be much better, however, if, in the model of our community, I am not the only one sharing. That’s where you come in! Would you consider being a part of this conversation next Sunday (March 19) morning at 9:30? Let me know at matt@fpcusa.org or comment to this post if you can make it.
Birthday Carpool
Those who live/work near 3846 King St, we’ll meet in the parking lot at about 6:30 and take me minimum number of cars necessary to Jen’s. Let me know if you’re planning to carpool so we ‘ll be on the lookout for you: 434-962-4927.
Stations of the Cross: Resources
Let’s keep a running conversation here about thoughts/ ideas/ other stuff we come across that might be helpful:
This is what the Pope JPII recited during the Stations. Did you know, btw, that he meditated on the stations in the days before his death?
Stabat Mater is a thirteenth century Roman Catholic hymn that meditates on the suffering of Mary during the crucifixion. Here is a youtube video with the hymn beautifully sung.
BTW, does anyone have a soundtrack to the Passion movie?
Stations of the Cross
Hey All,
I’m in charge of the “Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem” station. If anyone wants to help me out with basic research and prep, let me know!
Lisa
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!!!
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. 
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?
Inauguration Plan *updated Jan 16*
Planning to go to the inaguaration? Want a group to go with? Leave comments so we can know.
Update Jan 16–
Be sure to RSVP for the Presbyterian Inaugural Dinner and Meet-Up that’s taking place at Busboys and Poets in Shirlington Wednesday night.
Sunday Evening Worship Plans through Easter
Sunday night we put down some tentative Sunday evening worship plans for the coming months. Please take a look. Comment on this post with your feedback and also if you are interested in filling any of the openings. For those planning worship who would like a place to start, you can download the Holy Grounds worship planner.
