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CCC NewsNotes May 6, 2003 Discussions with Jim and Lois, Spring Tea Luncheon, Come Fly(e) With Me! Small Groups are Coming! June 8! Clothes Closet Volunteer Needed, Spring Women’s Retreat at the CCC Retreat House, Recommitment and Stewardship—What’s the difference? Social Witness Happenings and News, Congregational Survey on Worship Services, A Welcome Weekend, Would you like to Cook for the Silver Spring Child Care Center? Book Group, Sisters for Sisters, To all graduates and parents of graduates…, From ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid), From Shaw Community Ministry, CCC Youth Calendar May - June 2003, News Notes Deadlines, CCC Staff We are planning two small group sessions in May for discussion about our spiritual pilgrimage to India. This will be to share in more detail about our experiences, hear from you, and discuss deepening our spiritual journeys at CCC. The two dates are: Tuesday, May 13, 7:30 P.M., CCC Meeting Room (Room 108) and Friday, May 16, 8:00 P.M. at the home of Toko and Dave Ackerman, 1216 Woodside Pky. Please sign up in advance on the CCC bulletin board. Thanks, Wednesday, May 14, 1:00 PM, CCC Social Hall Enjoy a Tea Luncheon catered by Carolyn West-Gipson and a program featuring a PowerPoint slide presentation on their sabbatical trip to India by Jim and Lois Todhunter. RSVP by Sunday, May 11, by calling Mable Elliott (301) 622-3174 or Dale Ostrander at CCC. Dale Ostrander Sunday, May 25, 3:00 PM Our own John Touchton joins the Interact Theater Company at the Arena Stage Old Vat Theater for a cabaret performance of songs and sketches celebrating the Merry Month of May. John joins Artistic Director Catherine Flye and her friends in this delightful show, Come Fly(e) With Me, featuring anecdotes, tunes and lyrics by Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Gershwin, Gilbert & Sullivan and others. Join other CCC’ers for this matinee performance. Tickets are $25 (group price). Contact Dale Ostrander at CCC. RSVP by May 18. Make checks payable to CCC (designate "Vat Theater"). See bulletin board in entry hall for publicity flyer. Small Groups are Coming! Small Groups are Coming! June 8! The Board for Church Life will soon be starting small groups that gather a group of people to give support and fellowship to each other on a specific topic. These groups will help new and long-time members connect to others in the church with a similar interest and provide companionship for life’s challenges and stages. They will meet for a limited time – four to six months – and then re-evaluate, in order to meet people’s needs and make it easy for new people to join. Each group needs a convener to organize the first meeting and kick off the group, but we’ll provide a structure and guidelines to get you started. After that, the groups will be self-managed, with members deciding when and where you meet and when you’ll start – groups may meet once a week or once a month, at church or in homes, start now or wait until the fall. In order to join a small group, please come to the small group organizing day at the church, on Sunday, June 8, from 10:20 – 10:50 or 12:10 to 12:30. There you’ll have a chance to meet others interested in the same group and arrange your first meeting. If you cannot attend that day, send in this survey beforehand and we’ll connect you with the group you indicate. We have had requests to start the following groups. Please indicate if you are interested in joining and if there is no convener, indicate if you are interested in doing so (each group needs a convener to get started). Name: __________________________________ Email: ___________________________ Address: ________________________________ Phone: ___________________________ Participate Convene ___ ___ Military families ___ ___ Stay at home dads (ages of your child(ren) _____________ ___ ___ Parents of preschoolers (ages of your child(ren) ________________ ___ _x_ 40+ singles (convener Winifred Roberts) ___ ___ Mid-life women's group ___ _x_ Bringing holistic health care to CCC (convener Gretchen Wiederrecht) ___ ___ Empty nester/parenting young adults ___ ___ Finding your next life in retirement ___ ___ Other (describe another group you would like to start) _______________ Return to church office (Board for Church Life) or fax to Sara Watson at 301-879-7693 by June 6. Clothes Closet Volunteer Needed After sorting clothes at the Shepherd’s Table Clothes Closet for 18 years, I have been unable to help lately because of my good husband’s health. Even though they do get help sometimes from court referrals, they do need help for two or three hours on Mondays and Fridays. If you can find time to help out (even once or twice a month), your help will be greatly appreciated. You may call Violet Cameron, 301-942-7195 or me at 301-598-2850 if you need answers or inspiration. I hope you can help! Thanks, Spring Women’s Retreat at the CCC Retreat House Rest Recommitment and Stewardship—What’s the difference? Even as our church community finishes its annual Stewardship Campaign, we will continue our capital campaign, the Recommitment Campaign.
Social Witness Happenings and News UCC Says: Help Pull The Plug On Hate TV The United Church of Christ has long supported freedom of speech as a core civil right; it also has a proud history of opposing defamatory practices in the media. MSNBC recently awarded a weekly TV program, "Savage Nation," to Michael Savage, who has used his San Francisco-based radio talk show to spew hate-full rhetoric targeting people of color; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community; immigrants; women; and the disabled. The UCC’s Justice and Peace Action Network urges us to ask MSNBC to cancel Michael Savage's show. A letter you can sign appears on the UCC website: www.ucctakeaction.org. (Click the "Justice" tab. Under "Other Actions" click on "MSNBC's 'Savage Nation' Promotes Hateful Rhetoric.") Or you can write to Robert Wright, President, NBC Television, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112, and to Jerry Nachman, MSNBC Editor in Chief, One MSNBC Plaza, Secaucus, NJ 07094. May 16-17, Conference sponsored by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy on "Why Democracy and Why Now?" The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy will hold its fourth annual conference at the Wyndham Washington, DC Hotel, 1400 M Street, NW, on May 16-17. The focus will be on possibilities and problems related to democratization of Muslim states, including the roles of women and gender. Lower rate if registration completed by May 7. See the BSW bulletin board for detailed program and registration information, or go to www.islam-democracy.org . May 17, 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm - HIV/AIDS Benefit Reception and Concert Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, is hosting a reception with harp and a concert on Saturday, May 17, to benefit The Whitman-Walker Clinic of Suburban Maryland, The Women’s Collective, and The Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud. Participating will be Doreen Gentzler, NBC4, as host, the Bradley Hills Pres. Church Chancel Choir and Orchestra, the Walt Whitman HS Chamber Singers, the Wesley Theological Seminary Arts Ministry Program, and Dr. Akiiki Kabagarama, African Storyteller. The reception will begin at 6:30 pm and the concert at 8:00 pm. See the poster on the BSW bulletin board for further details. One Great Hour Of Sharing Offering At Work The UCC, in part as a result of the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering, is participating through the National Council of Churches and the Middle East Council of Churches in humanitarian relief activities in Iraq. For example, twenty-one food distribution centers have been established in churches and mosques in Basra, Mosul and Baghdad. A shipment of 5.5 metric tons of laundry detergent and 5.8 metric tons of personal hygiene soap for use in pediatric hospitals arrived in Baghdad on March 31. A shipment of $91,000 worth of medical supplies reached Iraq just prior to the beginning of the war and was distributed to two pediatric hospitals in Baghdad; two additional such shipments have arrived in Baghdad more recently. Congregational Survey on Worship Services The Board of Deacons and the Worship Committee would appreciate your impressions and comments concerning the current Sunday schedule providing two worship services. Your input as a member of the congregation will be extremely helpful as we plan the schedule for the coming year. Two Worship Service Forums will be held immediately following the services on May 18th. Please plan to be part of these important discussions. We have all been encouraged by the increases in attendance, and membership, and the growth of our children and youth programs. We now have more people at our services than before we moved to Marvin. In general the CCC staff feel that the 9:30 am and 11:00 am service schedule is working well, although it is recognized that CCC’s needs will always be changing. We should be sure that we provide an ample trial period before making radical changes, and any changes that are made will need to be reconsidered at the end of the next church school year. The staff feels that with the limitations in size of our sanctuary and parking facilities that two services are necessary for the church to grow. We need to abandon the concept of a main service. For the first part of the survey, to the right of each of the following seven statements please circle a number to indicate whether your reaction is strong agreement (5) or strong disagreement (1) or somewhere in between.
For the second part of the survey, please add comments or suggestions for improving the worship services in this space. If you had very strong reactions to anything in the first part of the survey, feel free to offer those thoughts here for consideration by the Deacons and Worship Committee.
Please return completed surveys to the church office or place them in the offering plates Beginning Saturday, May 24th and continuing through noon on Monday, May 26th, the Outreach and Engagement Board will host a Welcome Weekend at the Retreat House. It is located near Yellow Spring, West Virginia, approximately a 2 ½ hour drive from the Silver Spring area. The Welcome Weekend will provide opportunities for members and guests of all ages to participate in hiking, crafts, field games, playing in the creek, tubing in the river or just relaxing on the front porch. Members of CCC will be present to coordinate activities. On Saturday and Sunday a picnic style lunch will be provided. On Sunday morning a worship service will be held in the outdoor chapel. For more information, see the bulletin board display outside the church office, or contact Outreach and Engagement Board members Trish Esposito at 301-593-1858, trishespo@yahoo.com or John Rogers at 301-622-4747, j-krogers@msn.com. Silver Spring Child Care Center needs to hire someone to serve as cook. The hours are from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm. The job requires preparing a very simple (most items are precooked) breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack for our 47 children and staff. Please contact Connie Iacomini, the child care director, 301-589-1593, for more information.The Book Group is reading Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg. Set in Copenhagen, this mystery features a heroine who, because of her Inuit heritage, doesn’t quite fit in modern Denmark. The group will meet Sunday, May 18, at the home of Mary Pence. Please call Mary at 202-362-4934 for directions or information. All are welcome. Barbara Wittlesey will be hosting a potluck picnic for the next Sisters for Sisters meeting on Saturday, May 17 at 1:00 p.m. at her home located at 2000 Ednor Road in Silver Spring. Bring a dish to share and join the fun! To all graduates and parents of graduates …The Deacons want to recognize this year’s college graduates and grad school graduates, but we don’t know who you are. If you are graduating this year, or have a son or daughter who is graduating, please let us know. We don’t want anyone to be left out of our recognition. You may send me an email at either wgray5@starpower.net or churchschool@christ-ucc.org . Thanks, Susan Gray (American Near East Refugee Aid), which received $500 as part of discretionary missions funding: My most recent Trip Report to our Board of Directors describes the context in which our projects manage to move forward—in spite of great difficulties. My report will give you a sense of how important your partnership with ANERA is in bringing some light into an increasingly difficult situation in the Middle East. We wish to thank you for making this possible." [Note: The report is posted on the Board for Social Witness’s bulletin board outside the sanctuary.] , which received $1,500 as part of discretionary missions funding:"On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, and the many youth and families of the Shaw Community Ministry, we extend our deepest gratitude for your donation. Your contribution will be used for the expansion and continuous support of our youth and family development programs. Our faith and our hope have increased knowing that people of ‘good will,’ such as the congregation at Christ Congregational Church, realize the significance of supporting community ministries that benefit low-income families. After all, giving reflects the nobility of our cause to increase the opportunities for needy youth and families. Therefore, we thank you for your generosity, thoughtfulness, and continuous support of the Shaw Community Ministry." CCC Youth Calendar May 11 May 18 May 25 - No Sunday Evening Youth Meetings-Memorial Day Weekend May 30, 31 Covenant Class Retreat at the Retreat House June 1 Confirmation Sunday PLEASE NOTE: Deadline for the next issue is THURSDAY, May 15, 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 |