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CCC NewsNotes August 16, 2005
Betsy
Thomas - News Notes Editor Betsy Thomas - News Notes Editor Betsy Thomas has accepted the volunteer position of News Notes Editor. She comes to this position with a willing spirit and experience! Just 27 years ago, she was the News Notes editor. In those days, she used an old electric typewriter, borrowed from the church, in which the "p" and "e" keys didn’t strike very well. The newsletter had to be typed on a stencil and then mimeographed. She also had to arrange for volunteers to stuff the envelopes and do the sorting and mailing. We can all be grateful for the progress in technology and the fact that she is back! Please welcome Betsy in this position and send all future articles to her email address, BetsyThms@aol.com. As before, you may also drop them off in the church office. Her phone number is 301-384-8104, in case you need to contact her. As I leave this position, I want to thank those who have volunteered their time and worked "behind the scenes" to see that News Notes get out: Jean and Randy Caswell, Jean and Rick Minnick, Chet, Betty and Barbara Callander, Ruth Haigh, Nancy Kosinski, June Leonard and Mabel Elliot. I also wish to thank those of you who regularly contribute articles. You not only have done an excellent job keeping the congregation informed, but have been wonderful to work and correspond with and made my position so enjoyable. Thanks to you all. Joan Boyer, Editor, News Notes On Sunday September 11 the fall CCC schedule begins:
General Synod Has Attracted Positive Attention to the UCC. As of July 22, at least fifteen different churches and church groups had expressed interest in affiliating with the UCC since the end of General Synod earlier in the month. In addition, three large congregations had expressed such interest prior the General Synod, congregations that total almost 12,000 members. One of the latter congregations is the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas with 4,300 members. The Cathedral believes that it is the largest church in the world with a primary outreach to LGBT persons; however, it has also attracted many non-LBGT members to itself and to a satellite congregation in Oklahoma City. Members of the Cathedral of Hope are in the process of educating themselves about the UCC and will vote on whether formally to request affiliation in November. For the fifteen congregations that more recently have inquired about membership, an impetus has been the vote at General Synod affirming support for same-sex marriage by calling on individual congregations to approve wedding policies that "do not discriminate against couples based on gender," and by asking churches to support legislation that would grant equal marriage rights and to work against laws that would ban gay marriages. However, according to the Rev. David C. Schoen, UCC Minister for Evangelism, this issue is not the only reason for the upswing in interest in the UCC. "It has to do with the necessary and needed voice that we provide to the religious landscape. [T]he interest in us right now is a result of the UCC’s witness, our justice-mindedness and our courage and willingness to speak to culture and to take risks. People are looking for a welcome and an embrace that is wider." Anne Weissenborn, Board for Social Witness The All-church Picnic, sponsored by the Board for Church Life, will be held on Sunday, September 18th, following the second service. Please join us in the Social Hall for subs, drinks, chips, fruit and salad. The younger children can play outside on the playground after they eat, under supervision by the Senior High youth. Older children can play games upstairs in the Senior High room. Members of the congregation are asked to bring your favorite dessert, if you can. Please plan to join us! Open and Affirming Task Force to be Reformed After an active and distinguished history, the Open and Affirming Task Force was disbanded. The general feeling was that the task force had done its work—CCC is well known for accepting and affirming people with a variety of sexual orientations—and it was time to let the task force members do other things. (In our church, there is always important work to be done.) In retrospect dissolving the committee may have been premature. Issues have arisen, and will most certainly arise in the future, that would most naturally be addressed by the O&A Task Force. Because of this the Executive Council, at its June meeting, voted unanimously to reestablish the Open and Affirming Task Force. Quoting from the minutes: Mary Stone moved that the Executive Council constitute a new Open and Affirming Task Force to report to the Council, to interact with the boards and committees as needed and appropriate, and to explore whether there needs to be a standing committee on the subject. My goal is to appoint a task force by mid-September. I would like this committee to be broadly representative of the church. My experience is that committees work best if they have a small group of dedicated members—say 6 to 8—and this is the size I am shooting for. If this is something you would be interested in, please give me a call at home—301-384-9805 or send me email: gipson@verizon.net. John Gipson, Moderator Reading the Bible Again for the First Time If you are like me, probably the last time you seriously read the Bible was during confirmation, or perhaps in a class in college. I don’t know about you, but I was pretty young back then. I have long thought that I would like to give it another go, this time reading it as an adult, with adult sensibilities and experiences. Starting in the fall I will be leading a (roughly) one-year survey course of the Bible. The goal of this course is not to study each book in depth, but rather to sample the entire Bible, starting from Genesis, and ending with Revelations. Our guidebook in this journey will be: "3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated" by Donald Knuth. Donald Knuth is a distinguished Computer Scientist, and is also keenly interested in calligraphy and computer type setting. For type-setting aficionados, he is the inventor of the text and equation setting program TEX. I stumbled on this book when looking for another of his books on Amazon.com. This book grew out a Bible study course that Knuth led. In his introduction, Knuth says that there are two approaches to learning a new field: you can study some topic in depth, or you can sample lots of different topics. Knuth choose the second. Each chapter covers one book of the bible. The treatment is brief, interesting and readable, with each book covered in just 3 pages. Knuth describes the history of the book and its relation to the rest of the Bible. He then focuses on verse 3:16. As an added treat, each of the verses is beautifully illustrated by a world renowned calligrapher. One of the advantages of this systematic, bias-free approach to sampling the Bible is that you encounter parts of the Bible you normally don’t. I think we all have our favorite (and least favorite) parts of the Bible, and may tend to focus on those parts of the Bible that we are most comfortable with. I have found it enlightening to look at the parts that I am less familiar with and less comfortable with. A word of warning. Knuth’s theology is more conservative than mine, and probably more conservative than most people at CCC. However, his writing is engaging and entertaining, and I think the chapters will serve as useful starting points for discussions. This class will meet before the second worship service on Sunday. This is the same time as the Contemporary Theology class. My goal is not to be in competition with this class, but to offer an alternative. If this sounds like something you are interested in participating in, please give me a call at home—301-384-9805 or send me email: gipson@verizon.net. I hope to send an order to amazon.com by the early September. John Gipson The next meeting of the CCC Book Group will be at 7 p.m. on August 28 at the home of Marilyn Meyers to discuss "The Mermaid Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd. All are welcome. For a fall meeting, probably October, the group will read and discuss "Ghost Wars" by Steven Coll. We hope to have the benefit of a talk by the author at that meeting. News from Senior Adults’ Ministry Sunday August 28 we would like to carpool up to Toby’s Dinner Theater (in Columbia, MD) to see "Grease" and eat lunch. Please let us know ASAP if you would like to join us. We need to buy group tickets soon and would like to have a head count. Toby’s is one of the best dinner theaters in the area and "Grease" is a fun musical to see those old poodle skirts again. Please sign up on the bulletin board by the church office or call Julia at 301-270-0514.If you have any interest in getting to know/understand your own story and the stories of others’ (through a process called "Life Review’) as we create a web of rich connections and support, a new "Life Review" group will begin this Fall. There have been several requests to have an evening group (Wednesday nights). Even if you can’t make an evening and you want to participate please let me know. Please call Julia if interested in participating at 301-270-0514 or you can email at juliajar@erols.com. Potomac
Association 
Invitation to Visit UCC National Offices, Cleveland, Nov. 10-12. The Social Action and Missions Committee of the Potomac Association ("PA") is coordinating a visit to Church House in Cleveland, the national headquarters of the UCC, over Veterans’ Day. The group, limited to 20 fortunate folk from Association congregations, will leave on Southwest Airlines from BWI on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7:10 PM. After a worship service in the Amistad Chapel, we will spend all day Friday, Nov. 11, meeting with representatives of various offices and instrumentalities of the UCC, in particular Justice and Witness Ministries and Wider Church Ministries. Saturday, Nov. 12, will be a free day in which to visit attractions such as, but not limited to, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Great Lakes Science Center, and/or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group will fly back to BWI on Saturday at 6:00 PM. Costs of the trip will include $168 for round-trip air travel and $79 for two nights (double occupancy) at the Radisson Hotel Cleveland – Gateway. The costs of meals, ground transportation and any entrance fees charged by museums or other cultural or sports attractions will be extras. Everyone interested in taking this opportunity to learn about who is doing what at national headquarters is urged to contact either Kathy Doxsee at (703) 671-5233 or at kadoxsee@mindspring.com, or Anne Weissenborn (before Sept. 3 and after Sept. 15) at (301) 681-6042 or at weissenborn@starpower.net. Due to airline requirements, the deadline for registering is Sept. 18. So please call soon for more information and to secure a spot. Details involving payments for airfare will be provided at that time. Church members devoted two Saturday mornings to gardening and fellowship at CCC, July 9 and August 6. Although these have been called "weeding days", we are looking for a more descriptive name because our activities include planting, mulching, pruning, watering, and mowing, as well as weeding. This has been an immense help in making our church surroundings attractive. Led by Mary Pence and Bud Dennie, other participants included Dave and Toko Ackerman, Jean and Randy Caswell, Bridgette Dougall, Glenda and John Enagonio, Scott Klein, Martha Krieger, Ann Marshall, Dick Meyer, and Ruth Prindle. Thanks to all! The next gardening day is scheduled for Saturday, September 3, 9-12. This will be followed by the final Building and Grounds Church workday of the year on October 1, from 9-4 with lunch provided from 12-1. Work will be inside and/or outside, depending on the weather and the chosen workday projects. Volunteers will be welcome morning, afternoon, or both. Please note both days on your calendars! Building and Grounds Committee It’s time to save a life again! The next American Red Cross blood drive is scheduled for Sunday, August 28, 8:00 a.m. -1:30 p.m., in the Social Hall. Your help is desperately needed due to low blood inventory and high demand during the summer months. Every day, the American Red Cross in our region ships blood to 65 hospitals and 10 major trauma centers where trauma victims, cancer patients and those with blood diseases depend on the availability of blood on a daily basis. Each donor will receive an American Red Cross Commemorative T-shirt and be entered in raffles for cruise tickets and restaurant gift certificates. Please call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE to schedule your life-saving appointment. Remember, the drive is on Sunday, August 28th. We really appreciate your help for another successful blood drive. Thanks! Upcoming Events sponsored by the Board for Church Life
The First Sunday Pot Luck has taken the summer off and is now ready to get back into the swing of things! This is an informal gathering of church members to reconnect with old friends and to make new friends over a Pot Luck-style lunch. This group will meet on the first Sunday of each month in the Social Hall after the second church service, starting in September. Please plan to attend one or all of them, and remember to bring your favorite food dish along with you. Your food can be stored in the Social Hall kitchen until the luncheon begins. If you have any questions, please contact Glenda Neal at (301) 622-3948 or gbneal1958@eartthlink.net. We hope to see you there! On Friday, September 16th, the Parent’s Night Out program will resume. This is a co-op child care program with meets on the third Friday of each month from 6:30 - 10:00 PM. Children of all ages come together to play in a friendly, family-like atmosphere. If you plan to participate, please sign up on the Church Life bulletin board, located near the kitchenette on the first floor. If you have any questions, please contact Glenda Neal (301) 622-3948 or gbneal1958@eartthlink.net. Attention all ghouls and goblins! The annual Halloween Party, sponsored by the Board for Church Life, will be held on Saturday October 29th in the Social Hall from 6:30 – 8:00 PM. Come and join us for a night of games, crafts, tricks, and treats. This event is for ALL ages. Adults can wear costumes too! If you have any questions or would like to help, please contact Marian Dirda at (301) 589-6412 or m_dirda@yahoo.com , or Lauren Jones at (301) 587-3007. We hope to see you there! A year ago I walked away from a 22-year career in journalism, and finally began to pursue what felt like an almost life-long call to the ministry. But after spending 20 years away from the institutional church—first at Sojourners Community and then at a Sojourners offshoot, Circle Community Church--I began my classes at Wesley Theological Seminary with no denomination and no church home. And so I feel particularly blessed to find myself at Christ Congregational Church, not only as a soon-to-be member but also as the designated parish seminarian/pastoral intern. Jim, Sandy and the deacons have been most gracious in agreeing to take me on as part of Wesley’s Practice in Ministry and Mission program, and I’m thrilled to have Bob Brown, Jan Forbes, Linda Hodson, Jay Marciano and Lynn White working with me as "learning partners." As part of the two-year PMM program, I’ll be spending about 10 hours a week at CCC. I’ll spend much of my first semester (which begins Aug. 29) getting to know the church, its members and various ministries; assisting Jim at the 9 o’clock service; and eventually helping with the 10:30 service. The program also requires me to form and participate in what the Methodists call a Covenant Discipleship (CD) group--and this is where you come in. I need four to six people who would be willing to meet together for one hour a week (probably at the church) to check in with and encourage one another on our spiritual journeys. A CD group is not a Bible study or prayer group per se, but rather an opportunity for individuals who are interested in developing spiritual disciplines to agree to support each other in their walks with God and to hold one another accountable for walking that walk instead of just "talking the talk." Every CD group is different, each one reflecting the personalities and passions of its members. If you’d like more information about what a CD group is, and/or think you might be interested in becoming part of mine, please let me know as soon as possible. You can try reaching me at the church after Aug. 29 or, even better, email me anytime at vickikemper@earthlink.net. I would really appreciate your careful consideration. Meanwhile, Jim encouraged me to tell you something about myself. So . . . I grew up in Texas as the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of fundamentalist preachers. But because I lacked a Y chromosome, I was neither expected nor allowed to follow in their footsteps. So when the time came, I left Texas (to my family’s dismay) to earn degrees at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan, where (to my family’s growing horror) I also encountered yankees (not the baseball team), ecumenism, open minds and liberation theology. A reporting trip to Nicaragua in 1984 (while I was writing for an Arizona newspaper) soon brought me to Sojourners magazine here in DC. Before I landed in the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times, where I was a reporter and editor for seven years, I also wrote for and edited Common Cause Magazine. After last year’s life change, I’m beginning my second year in Wesley’s Master of Divinity program, and I’ve chosen to pursue ministry within the United Church of Christ. In addition to my studies, I sing in the Wesley Chapel Choir and I’m the convener of Plumb Line, the student social justice alliance, where I have special interests in peacemaking, poverty and HIV/AIDS issues. My extracurricular pursuits include hiking, adventure travel, music, reading and gardening. I live in northeast DC with Emmylou, an energetic tri-color collie. I was drawn to CCC by, among other things, the warmth and friendliness of the people here. I am honored to be serving God among you, and I look forward to getting to know you all as together we explore what it means to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Grace and peace, We are planning to raise funds for leadership training and a future trip to South Africa for our youth participating in the YGELI program. Please mark your calendars for Saturday, September 10th (rain date Saturday, September 17th) for our next YGELI car wash and yard sale from 9 a.m. until noon. The car wash will take place in the south end of the church parking lot. The yard sale will be located in the parking lot across from the church behind the YMCA offices in the white house. We will not be collecting donations for sale this year. Instead we are renting spaces for you to sell your valuable junk / collectibles. There are a limited number of spaces available with a table provided by the church for $20. Other spaces for parking your car next to your table space or for bringing your own table are available for $10 each. Otherwise, you may park on the street or in the north end of the church parking lot. We hope to have a donation truck stop by at 12:30 to pick up any leftovers you wish to donate. To reserve one or more spaces, please contact Susan Hill at 410-715-8923 or email sehill@comcast.net. It’s never too early to plan for the fall and start sorting through your stuff this summer! YGELI Golf Tournament Friday, October 14. Northwest Golf Course. 4 Person Captain’s Choice. 18 Holes Tourney. 9 AM Tee Off. $100 - $125/player. What a fun way to support youth from the 3 Y-GELI churches in their preparation to travel to South Africa summer 2006. Get your golf buddies together and sign up on the bulletin board outside the church office. Questions? Contact Sonja Fisher or Sandy Dodson. Our church parking lot will host games and activities for all ages Saturday, October 15, 11 AM - 3PM. Bring your family, invite the neighbors! Proceeds from the carnival will go toward Y-GELI programs. In the event of rain we will be inside the church. Elise Gifford, Faith Nelson, and Nicole Wilson, along with their advisor, Barbara Breads, gleaned for potatoes in Exmore, Virginia as part of the YGELI Progam. Joining in with approximately 80 other Jr. High volunteers, they gleaned hundreds of pounds of farmer John’s potatoes, worshipped, and studied how hunger affects their world. Look forward to more information from these three future leaders during worship on October 2nd. Barbara Breads, Y-GELI Honored with Two Awards The Rev. Ginna Minasian Dalton, Associate Pastor at Little River UCC and founder of Y-GELI (Youth Global Experiential Learning Initiative), will join us in worship on Sunday, August 28. Rev. Ginna will present CCC with two awards that our Y-GELI youth had been honored with earlier this year, the World Council of Churches "Blessed Are The Peacemakers Award" and the UCC Central Atlantic Conference Justice and Witness Ministry "Nkosi Johnson Award." Both of these awards are in recognition of the efforts of our Y-GELI youth throughout the past three years in becoming faith-based, just peace leaders addressing various issues including racism, violence, hunger, homelessness, and HIV/AIDS, and culminating in immersion experiences at a Native American reservation, WCC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Taize community in France, Harvest of Hope in Virginia, and Habitat for Humanity in Georgia. These awards are presented to CCC not only for the accomplishments of the Y-GELI youth, but also for the vision and encouragement of the congregation at CCC in this youth ministry. In July five youth and two adults from CCC (Coleman Fisher, Samantha Fisher, Larry Gipson, Carrick Hill and Chelsea Wilson with Sonja Fisher and Cory Gray) participated with youth from Heritage UCC in Baltimore and Little River UCC in Annandale in a week at the Habitat for Humanity Headquarters in Americus, Georgia. There they continued their hands-on experience learning about hunger and homelessness. They worked at the Global Village and Discovery Center where examples of Habitat homes from different parts of the world are constructed and displayed. The group made bricks, worked on the Sri Lanka house – painting and landscaping. They helped in a soup kitchen in Americus, and one of the highlights of the trip was working for a day at Koinonia Partners – a working farm community out of which Habitat for Humanity was developed. Y-GELI – the Youth Global Experiential Learning Initiative program has received two significant honors for its ministry within the church. The World Council of Churches, whose headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland, nominated and awarded Y-GELI its Peacemaker Award. Y-GELI participated in a World Council of Churches pilot program linking youth with the WVV Decade for Non-Violence mandate. Rev. Ginna Minasian Dalton, associate pastor at Little River UCC and founder of the Y-GELI program, will present CCC with this aware during worship Sunday, August 28. The United Church of Christ national office of Justice and Witness Ministries recently selected Y-GELI to receive its Just Peace Award. This award is given annually to a ministry within a local church which labors to do justice, seek peace and effect change for a better world. One youth from each of the Y-GELI churches attended the UCC General Synod July 1-4 in Atlanta, Georgia to receive this honor. Coleman Fisher went on behalf of CCC. Watch for opportunities coming up this fall when you can help support this wonderful program. Did you know that our Sunday morning church school and the Sunday evening youth program are run by volunteers just like you?! You don’t have to be a parent of a child in church school or a parent of a youth in one of the Sunday evening youth groups to help out. The CE Board is now filling slots for teachers for Sunday morning church school for three year olds through middle school youth. Most of our classes are taught in teams, requiring one or two Sundays each month of your time. The curriculum we are using this year is Bible Quest, a story based curriculum that gives a deeper understanding of the Bible stories and how they relate to our lives. There will be two teacher training opportunities, one on Thursday evening September 1 from 7 – 9 PM and the other on Saturday afternoon, September 10 from 1 – 3 PM to offer practical support and guidance. Teachers are invited to select the session that better fits their schedule. Teaching provides a wonderful way to be involved with the life of the church and to get to know new families. If you would like to teach a class, please call Kathie McConnell at (301) 589-0151 or Susan Gray at the church office (301) 585-8010. On Sunday evenings, the youth groups: Junior High, Covenant Class and Senior High meet with the 5th and 6th graders joining them on the first Sunday of each month. The evening begins at 5:45 with a shared meal. Volunteers are needed to provide meals. There is a sign up sheet on the bulletin board, if you would like to take a Sunday to cook for the group. I’ve always known CCC to be a caring congregation. Now being on the receiving end of your love, prayers, notes and visits, each has been both comforting and touching. Thank you and God bless. Esther Hoover I wish to express my thanks to the CCC congregation for their many thoughts, prayers, visits, phone calls and especially the get well cards (more than 150 of them) received over the past few weeks. I have read and re-read each card, some of them two and three times. They have meant so much to me and have been very helpful in my recovery. Thank you CCCers. Bill Carnahan
Small
Group Focusing on Anti-Racism A
new group is forming to focus on the anti-racism journey at CCC. All those
interested in making a personal commitment to this journey are requested to sign
the Small Group sheet titled “Anti-Racism” on the Board for Church Life
bulletin board. The group will meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each
month from 5:30 - 8:30 pm. For additional information, contact Delilah Y.
Marrow (301) 641-8845 or Jim Henkleman-Bahn (301-445-1752. Another
chance to choose News Notes Online There has been a good
initial response to helping save CCC some money as well as a few trees by
getting their News Notes on line rather than in the mail. If you have not yet
looked at the online version of CCC News
Notes, please take a few minutes to do so and see if you would be willing to
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advantage to doing this is that you will be able to read the information,
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recent version is at: CCC Current NewsNotes
- 08/16/05 That also gives you
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issue is THURSDAY
September 08, 5:00 p.m. Betsy Thomas, Editor The Rev. Jim Todhunter, Senior Minister; The Rev. Sandra Kay Dodson, Associate Minister; The Rev. Julia Jarvis, Director of Programming for Older Adults; Markus C. Williams, Interim Music Director |
