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CCC NewsNews November 19, 2002 Viva Nametags! Special Congregational Meeting, Annual CCC Thanksgiving Food Collection, Shaw Community Ministry—Thanksgiving Baskets, You’ve Been Tagged! Chrismon Workshop, Mitten, Hat and Coat Collection, Advent Worship and Activities, Sisters for Sisters, Message from the Recommitment Committee, Christmas Plant, Expanding Holistic Ministries at CCC, Join the "Willing Walkers," News Notes Deadlines, CCC Staff I am finding CCC's new use of nametags every Sunday especially helpful to me in connecting names and faces, especially for visitors. This really works for me, and I've heard many, many positive comments. We've talked about using nametags on a regular basis for a long time at CCC, but I really appreciate the Board for Church Life taking the bull by the horns and making it happen. Special thanks should go to Sara Watson for thinking through the logistics of how to do it (and doing it!), and Dave Main for working more of his data-base magic. I realize that nametags are not everybody's cup of tea, and some folks will maybe never feel totally comfortable about it. But, speaking for the staff and myself, it is proving to be an enormously helpful tool in connecting with one another and building a deeper sense of community. As Joey Noble always reminded us, God calls us by name. We should do that same. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome. Blessings. Jim Special Congregational Meeting There will be a Special Congregational Meeting on Sunday, November 24, for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a Recommitment Capital Campaign. This meeting is called by the Executive Council for 6:45 p.m., immediately following a dinner at 6:00 p.m. The dinner at 6:00 p.m. will be a CCC Family Thanksgiving Dinner prepared by the Shepherd’s Table Staff. The suggested donation for the dinner is $6 per person, $3 for children 6 and under. Child care will be provided for the meeting. Martha R. Hoffacker, Church Clerk Annual CCC Thanksgiving Food Collection On Sunday, November 24, the annual Thanksgiving food collection will be held at both services. Please remember to bring a donation of canned or packaged food. The Board of Church Life is sponsoring this with help from the Church School. Contact the Prichard’s if you need any information (301-384-7126). Shaw Community Ministry—Thanksgiving Baskets Each year Shaw Community Ministry collects canned and packaged food items, plus cash for turkeys, in order to fill Thanksgiving baskets for residents of Lincoln-Westmoreland Housing in the Shaw area of the District of Columbia. The goal this year is 100 baskets. While the contents of each basket varies according to the size of the recipient family, the average one contains a turkey, two cans each of green beans, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and fruit, two boxes of stuffing mix, two boxes of macaroni and cheese, one box of muffin mix and one box of cake mix. If you would be interested in supplying actual cans and boxes of food, or in making a contribution of $35 to cover the cost of one complete basket, please call or write Anne Weissenborn, 10021 Raynor Road, Silver Spring, MD. (301) 681-6042 (home) or (202) 694-1545 (office). She will be glad to pick up and deliver any and all in-kind contributions. Thank you in advance for helping a family have a special Thanksgiving. If you haven't come to church in a while, thinking "I just can't remember all those people's names (or they don't know mine!)" -- help is here! CCC's permanent name tags started on November 2nd and there is one for you! Please wear your name tag every Sunday and either take it home with you or leave it in the bins at church. If you want one for your children or if you're not a member but want a name tag, just sign up on the sheet and we'll get one for you. Once we get an idea of how many tags we need, we will look into a permanent storage cabinet for them. Come, see all those names you've been missing! Many thanks are due to several people who contributed to making this happen: David Main for the huge task of turning the church database into a name tag database, Mika Ackerman for the beautiful poster, Elise and Robert Gifford for assembling 450 name tags in one evening, Jim Todhunter and Linda Carder for helping us cull through the list, and the Board of Church Life for working through this process. Thanks! Sara Watson Dec. 15 5:30 PM Come join us to make a small Chrismon of your very own. This will be the first workshop since 1995. Please sign up on the bulletin board or contact Glenda Neal, gbneal@aol.com or 301-622-3948. Chrismons are Christmas ornaments which are symbols from Christian history that refer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All Chrismons are made in white (a symbol of purity) and gold (a symbol of majesty). The Chrismons originated in Danville, Va in 1957. Our church first displayed them on a tree in the living room in 1973. Since that time, they have decorated a tree in the Sanctuary almost every year. The following is a list of Chrismons which will be available for you to make. Many are simple designs and some are more complicated. Fish - an ancient symbol for Christ. It was a secret sign during early Christianity’s persecutions. Lamb - Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God. Butterfly - a symbol of resurrection. As a butterfly leaves its pupa and soars upward with a new body, so through Jesus Christ, we are born to a new life. Shepherd’s Staff - refers to the Good Shepherd. Circle - a symbol for everlasting life. Cross - reminds us of the sacrifice made for us by which we receive forgiveness and salvation. Crown - symbolizes Christ’s victory over sin and death, as well as his authority over human rulers. A lasagna dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. Please bring a salad and/or cookies to share and remember to sign up. Mitten, Hat and Coat Collection Once again, we will collect mittens, gloves, hats and coats for the children of Broad Acres Elementary School in Silver Spring. The items should be new or in very-good-used condition. You may put the mittens directly on the tree; other items can go in the designated boxes in the entryway of the church. The two-week collection will be from December 1 to 15 this year. If you have any questions or need additional information, call Doreen Hinkeldey at 301-260-1660. Advent is a time of anticipation and waiting for the coming of Christ. There will be Advent candle lighting ceremonies at the beginning of each of the worship services during this season. Sunday, December 1 - First Sunday in Advent Following the 11:00 a.m. Service: Advent Wreath Workshop. The Board for Church Life will provide a light lunch and materials for making Advent wreaths. Please sign up on the bulletin board so enough materials will be available. Extra greens are always welcome. Sunday, December 8 - Second Sunday in Advent Sunday, December 15 - Third Sunday in Advent Tuesday, December 17 Sunday, December 22 - Fourth Sunday in Advent - Christmas Sunday 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. Identical Services of Worship. Selections from Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi will be sung by the Chancel Choir and accompanied by organ and chamber orchestra. Memorial and celebratory poinsettias will decorate the church. Fellowship Time will be held between the services. Tuesday, December 24 - Christmas Eve 5:30 p.m. Early Christmas Eve Service Sisters for Sisters is in the process of compiling a Service List of people who provide reliable, affordable services in the areas of plumbing, electrical work, lawn care, landscaping, home repairs, general maintenance, financial services, car repairs, etc. "Sisters" would welcome your recommendations of dependable workers to add to the list and would be happy to share the list once complete. Please contact Barbara Whittlesey (301-384-0205 or barbwhit@erols.com) with the names, addresses and phone numbers of those you’d like to recommend. The next Sisters for Sisters meeting will be November 24 in the upstairs conference room after the 11:00 service. Please bring a sandwich; drinks and dessert will be provided. All single and widowed women of the church are welcome to attend. A Message from the Recommitment Committee Well, what do you think of our building now!! Pretty wonderful, yes? What a treat to have all that bright, warm-in-the-winter, cool-in-the-summer, clean, well-planned, accessible space in which to pursue the mission of CCC! It is exciting to have visitors who come back for a second or third time and then decide to join us. We did it! Many kudos to the Building Committee and to all members and friends whose generosity made the building project a reality! Even as we celebrate and enjoy our new space, we must consider how best to pay back CCC’s "home improvement" loan. The building-related debt is $2.3 million - $1.75 million of which is owed to the Cornerstone Fund of the national UCC and $580,000 of which will have to be repaid to our own members over the coming years. This fiscal year, service on the debt (four months’ worth of interest and a bit of principal starting in March, 2003) has drawn $61,000 from our Unified Budget, requiring difficult decisions that have affected mission-giving in particular. For the fiscal year beginning July 2003, twelve months of interest and principal payments will total $181,000. These debt-related obligations threaten to impose restrictions upon staffing, program, and mission-giving that will become more and more painful if we don’t reduce interest and principal as soon as possible. Earlier this fall, the Executive Council authorized a committee to address the question of whether CCC should undertake a follow-up capital campaign that would be aimed at removing debt service from the Unified Budget and at significantly reducing debt principal over a given period of time. Consideration of such a follow-up campaign had been strongly recommended in September by Bea Stoner, CCC’s consultant during the Keystones capital campaign. The resulting Recommitment Committee is made up of Anne Weissenborn, chair, Rick Brush, David Bell, David Bobbitt, Karen Lee, Mary Stone representing the Keystones Follow-up Committee, Pete Hotchkiss representing the Board of Trustees, and Ruth Prindle representing the Board of Stewardship. After consultation with Bea and a review of the economic realities facing CCC, the Recommitment Committee, supported by the Executive Council, will recommend to the congregation on November 24 that CCC undertake a follow-up capital campaign to be held in January and February, 2003. Like Keystones, giving will extend over a three-year period. The Recommitment Committee believes that a goal of $1.25 million is realistic, with approximately one-third of that amount to be targeted to debt service and two-thirds to principal reduction. View Excel Chart of Impact of Fund Raising Scenarios The Keystones Campaign surpassed our goal of $2 million – something to celebrate when Keystones concludes in March. Moderator-Elect Dave Main said to the Executive Council, "We pledged to Keystones on faith. Now we’re a family with a debt to repay." In faith and with thanksgiving for God’s boundless goodness, we must lighten our debt load so that we can restore mission giving to its former, generous state, and so that we can sustain, and build upon, present levels of staffing and program. Please come to the meeting on November 24 to lend your voice to the discussion about, and decision concerning, a follow-up capital campaign. Anne Weissenborn The church will be decorated with poinsettia plants on Christmas Sunday, December 22. If you would like to order a poinsettia as a memorial or in celebration of a person or event, please use the form below. The price will be $10 per plant. Please be sure to include all the information requested so we will know what message to include in the bulletin. After the service, the plants will be taken to a shut-in by the Deacons. Your check may be made payable to Christ Congregational Church and noted as a Christmas plant. Orders will be accepted by mail or may be left in the marked envelope in the church office and must be received by Monday, December 16. Christmas Plant In memory of:_____________________________________________________ Given by: _________________________________________________________ Number of plants:________________ Check for: $___________________ Expanding Holistic Ministries at CCC The newly formed committee for Holistic Ministries at Christ Congregational Church met with Linda Carder and Kris Glasco recently. Attending this first meeting were Glenda Enagonio and Gretchen Wiederrecht. Sarah Anders and Susan Gray also are members. Others interested in joining the committee are welcome. We are excited to share with the congregation our vision of expanding holistic programs that promote growth of mind, body and spirit. Holistic offerings in our planning are: guided imagery through music and meditation; massage therapy; blood pressure screening; aerobic, yoga and weight control classes; art and music therapy. Programs currently available at CCC are Qi Gong classes with Chan, Reiki offered by Gretchen Wiederrecht and Glenda Enagonio and the ongoing pastoral counseling services with Steve Gilbert and Kris Glasco. Sarah Anders is making plans to resume the meditation group as well. We are looking for yoga and aerobic instructors, art therapists, nutritionists and massage therapists who are interested in developing further programs for CCC. Please contact Gretchen Wiederrecht with any responses you have to this exciting vision at 301-439-2674. We’ve dreamed and planned for our new parking lot for such a long time — what a shock to find it inadequate for our needs! Some of those who attend church have a particular need to park close to the building—those with young children, coffee hour refreshments or church school materials to carry, our seniors. Others of us are more able to walk a ways, and in fact, probably can use the exercise. If you fit in the latter category, won’t you join an exclusive new club forming at CCC —"The Willing Walkers"? Please consider parking on Brewster Avenue or Indian Springs Drive, and walking a block or two to church, leaving the spaces in the two parking lots for those who most need them. If you would like to join "The Willing Walkers," please fill out the coupon and leave in the church office. Thank you, Dan & Mary Pence Yes, I’m a new member of the "Willing Walkers" Name(s):________________ It is unfortunate to learn that many people did not receive the previous edition of News Notes, dated November 5, or received it rather late. Every effort is made to get the news to you in a timely fashion and it’s disappointing when there’s a glitch. We are checking with the Post Office to determine what happened to this delivery and hope to prevent it from happening again. Joan Boyer PLEASE NOTE: Deadline for the next issue is THURSDAY, November 27, 5:00 P.M. Please submit articles via: email - mojobo@aol.com, phone - 301-236-0025, or paper copy - drop off in the News Notes box in the church office. Thank you, Joan Boyer, Editor 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; Archie Freedman, Custodian |