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CCC NewsNotes March 25, 2002 Stewardship Celebrates God's "Spacious Place", Partake of Body of Christ, Senior High Mission Project, Upcoming April Events, Be Part of CCC Guild, Christmas In April is Rebuilding Together, Events For Older Adults, Neighborhood School Looks for Book Donations, Book Club Meets In May, Are you Interested in a Church Pew? A note about News Notes:, News Notes Deadlines, CCC Staff Stewardship Celebrates God's "Spacious Place" "Come and See What God Has Done . . . Come and Bring Your Gifts." Psalm 66 Our stewardship verse is particularly apropos given our circumstances. After a year as guests of Marvin Memorial, we will be returning to our new and wonderfully renovated church home. As Verse 13 of Psalm 66 says, "You have brought us out to a spacious place." I can hardly wait! In this year's stewardship campaign, we want to focus on the spiritual aspect of giving. There are many reasons people give -- some negative, such as guilt or obligation, and some positive, such as thankfulness and generosity. We want to focus on the positive reasons. I don't know about you, but I have much to be thankful for. As part of our stewardship program, we will have three church members share their thoughts and experiences on giving during the regular church service. In addition, you will be receiving three letters that also explore this same issue. In the past, we have mailed out pledge packets and asked you to fill them out at home and return them to church. This year, we will be mailing out sample pledge cards and other information. Think about how much you want to give to CCC, but don't fill out the cards yet. We want to make the giving of our pledges a special moment in the life of the church. We have planned a communal supper at Marvin Memorial at 4 p.m. on April 14. Everyone is welcome to this free, catered meal, at which John Deckenback will speak. John is our UCC conference minister, and was instrumental in getting our building loan from the national UCC. Expect good food and some surprises, too. Following supper, there will be a special candlelight musical service during which you are invited to privately fill in your pledge cards and publicly bring them down to the front of the sanctuary where they will be consecrated. We are very excited about this program. We hope that you can come for supper and the consecrating service afterwards. Since the supper will be catered, we need a concrete number for the caterer. Please call, write or mail Ruth Avery at the church office: CCC, 9525 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20901. A clip-out form has been provided below for your convenience. You can also call (301) 585-4640, or e-mail cccoffice@christ-ucc.org. John Gipson for the Board of Stewardship --------------------------------------------------------------- Come and See What God Has Done ... Come and Bring Your Gifts. Reservation I/we intend to joyously participate in our Consecration Sunday supper and worship. You can count on _____________ persons from the ______________________ (name) family. Sunday, April 14 at 4 p.m. MMUMC Fellowship Hall --------------------------------------------------------------- A couple of summers ago, the summer camp curriculum theme was, "the Body of Christ." One of the projects the senior high campers did was to make a "body" of Christ. They used medical tape for making casts and took turns wrapping different body parts. They wrapped one person's arm, another person's arm, someone's leg and so on. The body parts were dried and assembled into one body. Then the laughing began. This new body had two very different legs, two different arms, shoulders, etc. On the other hand, it was a wonderful and graphic reminder that it takes all of us to make up the Body of Christ. The new body was given a name and took up residence in the senior high room. It was little spooky, however, to go into the room at night and see this pale, human form in the corner of the room! Over the last couple of years, we at CCC have discovered anew how expansive the Body of Christ can be. When we were beginning to think about building, Michael Downs from the UCC Insurance Boards came and helped us understand how the financial aspects would work. Then Bea Stoner, a fundraising consultant for the UCC came and helped us get our Keystones Campaign off the ground. Then, the UCC Cornerstones Foundation came through with a loan, just when we needed it. Our conference minister, John Deckenback, helped with that process. We have long thought of ourselves as a close community of faith and as the Body of Christ. But as all these things happened, we began to see the larger church as a part of the Body of Christ. Soon, our Covenant Class will be going to Cleveland, Ohio to visit our UCC national offices and worship in the Amistad Chapel. They will visit the Cornerstone Foundation, thank Gordon Gilles for helping us and learn about three other churches the fund is helping. They will contact CCC member Edie Rasell, who has recently taken a position with the UCC Justice and Witness Ministries. They will meet one of the persons who wrote the confirmation materials they use and get information about the next National Youth Event. During its trip to Cleveland, the Covenant Class will visit Bill Johnson and Eric C. Smith, who did our Open and Affirming event in February. The class knows Bill and Eric personally because they led the youth group while they were here. All the people mentioned travel a great deal, but we will still learn much about being a part of the Body of Christ. During this Easter season, may we all experience the power and joy of being a part of the living Body of Christ. Pastor Linda Carder The Senior Highs seek your help in providing items for Church World Service Health kits. Each kit contains a hand towel, wash cloth, comb, metal nail file, bath-size soap, toothbrush, toothpaste (4 -7 oz.), band aids. They hope to assemble the kits by the end of March. Boxes are in the narthex at Marvin Memorial for contributions. Musical Auditions for the musical to be presented in the fall will be held on Thurs., April 11 and Fri., April 12 from 7-10 p.m. in the Conference Room at 9601 Colesville Rd. Please sign up for audition times on the sheet on the CCC bulletin board in the narthex at Marvin Memorial. Spring Women's Retreat at the Retreat House will be held on the weekend of April 12-14. "Women of Faith" is the theme for the weekend -- exploring our individual journeys, having time for reflection, relaxing and enjoying each other's company and celebrating Spring. Terry Strand and Deborah O'Leary are contact people for this weekend. Please sign up now for this special experience on the sign-up sheet available in the narthex at Marvin Memorial. Steve Patterson, author of "The God of Jesus," a member of the Jesus Seminars and a teacher at Eden Theological Seminary will speak and hold discussions from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sat., April 27 at Westmoreland Congregational UCC. This event is jointly sponsored by CCC and Westmoreland. The cost of the day's event is $20, which includes lunch. Please pick up a blue flyer which has more information about the day and how to register. As we are about to move into our new space, the Board for Outreach and Engagement would like to invite you to a special event to be held on Sunday afternoon, April 21 from 1:15 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Marvin Memorial. The purpose of this event is to identify, educate, and inspire a good-sized group of the faithful who will form a Welcoming Guild. We define a Welcoming Guild as those who will, in the course of their regular attendance in worship and other activities, be on the watch for new visitors, and welcome them. Attendance at this event does not commit you to more committee meetings, but we do hope that this event will strengthen your commitment to a vision of outreach that will help fulfill the future dreams we all share for our church. If you have questions, or need further information, please contact Shirley Coll, Aldene Ault or Nancy Mills. Or just come! Shirley Coll, Board for Outreach & Engagement Christmas In April is Rebuilding Together On April 20 and 27, many CCC members, friends and other volunteers will have a chance to celebrate an early Christmas. On this day, we will have volunteers do repairs and yard work on a home at 3402 Harrell St., in Wheaton for a needy person. Many people are needed to make this a success. We need painters, yard workers, and others to accomplish these tasks. The hours of your labor of love and fellowship are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., or 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Lunch will be served to all volunteers from noon to 1 p.m. You have to be at least 14 years old to participate. Any youth ages 14 to 18 will need their parents/guardian to sign a waiver in order for them to participate. Sign-up sheets are on the Marvin Memorial bulletin board. Please contact Gregg Brown, Bud Dennie orTed Foster for additional information. Rebuilding Together/Christmas In April Committee This winter CCC's older adults enjoyed two special events. Fifty-two attended a delightful Valentine's Day luncheon at the historic Blair Mansion Inn in Silver Spring. And 35 recently toured the fascinating National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, MD and lunched afterward at Club Meade's bounteous buffet. Spring will find a chartered bus of CCC folk traveling to two of Baltimore's historic homes -- Homewood, the wonderfully restored early 19th century home at the Johns Hopkins University, and nearby Evergreen House, a 48-room Italianate mansion set amidst 26 acres of gardens and paths, featuring post-impressionist paintings, Japanese and Chinese porcelains and art work and 35,000 books. The group will enjoy a high tea luncheon in the Far East Room at Evergreen House. Plan now to enjoy this day trip on Tuesday, April 30. The bus will leave the Marvin Memorial parking lot at 10 a.m. and return by 3:30 p.m. The cost for bus transportation, tours and tea luncheon will be $40. RSVP by April 25 by calling Mable Elliott (301) 622-3174 or Dale Ostrander at CCC, and by making a $40 check payable to CCC (designate "Evergreen"). The Rev. Dale Ostrander, director of programming for older adults Neighborhood School Looks for Book Donations The PTA of Highland View Elementary School in the Indian Spring neighborhood is sponsoring a book program that will allow kids to get coupons from teachers and staff that can be exchanged for books/magazines that they can keep! We are trying to make it easy for all kids to own books that they can take home. We have received many generous donations, but please keep us in mind when you are cleaning out kids' books and magazines at your house. Preschool-level donations also welcomed. Contact CCC member Ann Bullock at (301) 588-7658 or at e-mail bullockaw@comcast.net for further information. The next selection of the Book Club is "Angle of Repose," by Wallace Stegner. Anyone interested in discussing this book is invited to the home of Eleanor Waldrop on Sun., May 5, following the worship service. Bring a sandwich, beverage and dessert will be provided. See or call Eleanor for directions. (301) 434-2245. For Disposal: Six 15-ft.-long pews and two 5-ft.-long church pews. Donation to Building Fund. Chancel pews are being replaced by new chairs for the choir. Contact Dick Meyer, (301) 585-8010, ext. 222. A note about News Notes: There has been concern because postal delivery of some News Notes issues has been slow. There are delays in the postal system with delivery of mail to the District of Columbia and 207 zip codes in Prince George's County. We ask for your patience. There are always a few extra copies of News Notes available on the table in the narthex on Sundays. PLEASE NOTE: Deadline for the April 8 issue will be THURS., April 4 at 5 p.m. News Notes editor -- Susan DeFord (301) 649-3093, or sjdkjk@erols.co The Rev. Jim Todhunter, senior minister; the Rev. Linda Carder, assoc. minister; John Touchton, director of music; the Rev. Dale Ostrander, director of programming for older adults; Richard Meyer, property administrator; Ruth Avery, office administrator. |