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February 27, 2008
Pilgrims on the Journey:
1. Our Lenten story of "encounter, choices, and identity" this week is from newcomer Aine McCarthy, about an experience while working in Senegal for three months as a English teacher:
I'd been in Senegal for about a month and had learned a lot. In addition to a different culture, way of life, language and new types of friendships, I'd learned it all from the experience of being a complete outsider. That's why it was odd when this impacting encounter was one where I became, while a white foreigner in Africa, an insider and had pushed someone else outside.
I had climbed up to the top of a rocky beach lookout with Bamba, my friend and mentor in this foreign country. We'd come to the capitol city for the first time since my arrival and so I was also seeing tourism and wealth in Africa for the first time. The beach below was crashing with waves and we looked out onto the Atlantic Ocean where we sat happily discussing Senegal and America and the prospects of connection. While we were talking, a white man (only the second I'd seen in Senegal) walked over to my side of the bench and specifically spoke to me. He asked if I was French and when I told him I was American, he told me he'd been here for a couple of years and very much hoped I enjoyed the country. He left as quickly as he had come and I didn't think too much of it. Immediately after he left, though, Bamba spoke up. He couldn't believe that in this country, where greetings are of the utmost importance, someone would insult him so harshly by not saying hello. I hadn't thought too much of it at the time and regret not taking any initiative. This man had insulted Bamba by deliberately not speaking to him and opting only to greet to me, the white girl, instead.
I was shocked that even here, where I felt so often an outsider, I was capable of excluding and insulting someone else. I'd spent so much time, often with Bamba's help, immersed in this incredible and welcoming culture, yet here I was reminded of the racism and exclusion that still impacts our lives. The moment passed very briefly, and Bamba soon changed the subject, but I won't forget the realization of how powerful my own capabilities of inclusion and exclusion are and how easily a simple conversation can hurt.
To read other Lenten stories, see http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org/lentstories.html
2. Remember that TONIGHT (Wednesday) at 7 p.m., Pilgrims will host a special briefing on Darfur, co-sponsored by the Darfur Interfaith Network and the Greater Jewish Taskforce on Darfur. There will be presentations by the Genocide Intervention Network, Save Darfur Coalition, and the Enough Project.
3. Our Monday night Lenten Series focusing on Jesus' encounter with women in the Gospels, led by Margee Iddings, continues next Monday night. Even if you missed earlier weeks, you are encouraged and invited to join us this week. We will begin each week with at 6:30 p.m. with a soup and bread supper, followed by a time of worship, Bible study, and reflection at 7 p.m.
4. Our two Sunday morning classes will continue this week at 9:30am :
The Sacred Art of Fasting, led by Margee Iddings and Doris Hendershot, will be upstairs in the Youth Education Room.
My class, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday, will meet in the Bird Room.
5. Next Wednesday night (March 5), a week from today, from 7-8 p.m., Ashley and I will lead a "Covenant Group" Planning Meeting. "Covenant Groups" are small groups of 4-10 people that gather at regular intervals (once a week, once a month, whatever the group decides) to pray together and share about their lives. A group might be organized around a time (Sunday morning at 9 a.m., or Thursday night as six), a place (for people who live near the church, or who want to gather at the Cathedral), or an activity (joining together in a service project, or learning new types of contemplative prayer). Already there are several ideas in the works. We hope to launch 3-4 new groups after Easter. The planning meeting next week is help determine where the energy and leadership will come from. If this sparks an interest in you, you are invited to join us Wednesday, share your own ideas, hear the ideas of others, and see where people might work together to start a new group. If you have questions, let me know, and I would be happy to share more.
6. On Maundy Thursday (March 20), during Holy Week, we gather in the Fellowship Hall for a special service that includes celebrating the Lord's Supper, sharing an "Agape" meal of bread, cheese and fruit, and a "telling" of the Passion story from the Gospel of Matthew. Each year the story is told "by heart" by 10-12 Pilgrims. Would you like to be a story-teller this year? After coffee hour on March 9, I will lead a brief Storytelling Training, and make assignments. If you have never done this before, it is a wonderful experience-- anyone can learn to do this! Send me a note if you would like to be a "teller" this year.
7. On Palm Sunday, March 16, at the beginning of Holy Week, we will receive the annual One Great Hour of Sharing offering. This special offering, received on the same Sunday for over sixty years by churches across the United States, supports Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Self-Development of People Fund, and the Presbyterian Hunger Program. Please plan now to give generously.
8. Mark Your Calendar: Wednesday, March 12, Church of the Pilgrims will host a Washington Interfaith Network "Ward 2" Accountability Action with City Councilman Jack Evans, focusing on supportive housing for the homeless. We will begin at 7 p.m. Please let Jean Stewart jean.stewart@rcn.com know if you can be present.
9. A reminder that we are collecting new or used books, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes for all ages and any genre to support Turning the Page's "Carpe Librum" book drive. Turning the Page promotes literacy in the DC Public Schools (see www.turningthepage.org <http://www.turningthepage.org> ). Look for the donation box in the Narthex outside the sanctuary.
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
www.churchofthepilgrims.org <http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org>
February 20, 2008
Pilgrims on the Journey:
1. Following Stan Lou's powerful story in worship last Sunday, we share another Lenten story today of "encounter, choices, and identity," this one by expatriate member Hannah Nutt, (working this year with ACORN in Cleveland, OH) who tells of a childhood visit accompanying her mother (who is also a Presbyterian minister):.
My mom would often take me along to visit homebound members in my church—an experience I loved some days and simply tolerated others. Sometimes I would just sit to the side during the visit and wait for my mom to finish talking to whomever we were visiting, but sometimes I would get to have great conversations with the people who had helped form the church that was forming me.
One afternoon we went to a nursing home to visit with a woman I didn’t know too well. She had never really been in good enough health to attend church in the years we had been there. When we arrived, this woman was having a really rough time. She suffered from some form of dementia and was curled in her bed with her back to us, trembling with fear of something that she was sure was coming after her. I was probably 14 years old and I was terrified. My mom sat with her for a while, speaking softly to her, and then realized it was best for us to go. She prayed before she left, just like she always did on these visits. When my mom ended her prayer with the Lord’s Prayer, this woman joined in. That led my mom to recite Psalm 23, still with the other woman joining in. I was completely taken aback by they powerful experience of, not hearing, but experiencing the same words in a new way.
I never had much of a relationship with that woman as I grew up, but that encounter has had a lasting impact on me. I saw in that experience such an elemental, even child-like, expression of faith. The calming effect of the Lord’s Prayer and the psalms was temporary and did not end this woman’s struggles or pain, but it provided a respite. I have since remembered her from time to time and prayed for the foundation of faith in God that she had; a foundation strong enough to surface even in the most difficult times of wilderness.
To read other Lenten stories, see http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org/lentstories.html
2. Our Monday night Lenten Series focusing on Jesus' encounter with women in the Gospels, led by Margee Iddings, continues next Monday night. Even if you missed the weeks, you are encouraged and invited to attend any of the subsequent weeks. We will begin each week with at 6:30 p.m. with a soup and bread supper, followed by a time of worship, Bible study, and reflection at 7 p.m.
3. The Sunday morning class, The Sacred Art of Fasting, led by Margee Iddings and Doris Hendershot, will continue this week at 9:30 a.m., upstairs in the Youth Education Room.
My class, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday, will resume this Sunday at 9:30 in the Bird Room, where we will continue to explore a contemporary theology of the cross, asking what it means for us to confess that God was with Jesus in the grave.
4. Immediately following worship this Sunday, there will be a special gathering for all Open Table Volunteers to share recent experiences and concerns related to safety, hygiene, and trash removal, as well as reflections on hospitality and participation. We will meet in the Open Table dinning area in the "old manse."
5. Jeanne Mayer still has two extra tickets for the Friday, Feb. 29, 8 p.m performance of Hexagon at Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts. If you would like the tickets, send Jeanne a note (202-226-9277 jeanne.mayer@mail.house.gov ). You are also invited to join the group for dinner at Casbah Cafe (WI Ave. Between R and S Sts.) at 6 p.m.
6. Mark Your Calendars:
- Wednesday, February 27, Church of the Pilgrims will host a special briefing on Darfur, co-sponsored by the Darfur Interfaith Network and the Greater Jewish Taskforce on Darfur, 7 p.m. in the sanctuary. There will be presentations by the Genocide Intervention Network, Save Darfur Coalition, and the Enough Project.
- Thursday-Friday March 7-8, The Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, which organized the gathering last year at the National Cathedral, will hold a series of events in Washington, including special workshops and trainings, and a rally on the National Mall. See http://www.christianpeacewitness.org/march08
- Wednesday, March 12, Church of the Pilgrims will host a Washington Interfaith Network "Ward 2" Accountability Action with City Councilman Jack Evans, focusing on supportive housing for the homeless. We will begin at 7 p.m.
8. Once again this year we will collect new or used books, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes for all ages and any genre to support Turning the Page's "Carpe Librum" book drive. Turning the Page promotes literacy in the DC Public Schools (see www.turningthepage.org <http://www.turningthepage.org> ). Look for the donation box in the Narthex outside the sanctuary.
9. Prayer Concerns: Karen Kinney asks that you keep in your prayers her brother's girlfriend Liz, who has also been her friend for nearly 20 years, and has just been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a rare neurological disorder that affects language abilities.
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
www.churchofthepilgrims.org <http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org>
February 13, 2008
Pilgrims on the Journey:
1. Through out this season of Lent, following our theme "Encountering Choices, Finding Identity," we are asking different members and friends of the congregation to share their own stories of encounter, choices, and identity. On Sunday we heard our first story from Mitch Fulton (which will be posted soon on our website).
Today we share a story from our new Pilgrimage Program Manager, Matt Boote:
The day was never supposed to happen. Not yet, anyway. In the back of our minds we all knew it was a possibility. But it wasn't something that anyone realistically believed would come to pass so soon. Ted was going to be an inspiration thirty years down the road; people were supposed to pull strength as they listened to him talk about how he beat cancer in his formidable years, his early twenties. We were supposed to come together in a celebration of remission, the absence of drugs, hair on his head, and strength in his body. Looking forward to all the opportunities ahead of him, our lungs would fill with the cool air of the arriving autumn as we laugh at some raucous joke. Instead, we filled our lungs with that cool air as we grasped for breath in between tears and wailing cries.
I had known Ted Mullin for almost eighteen years. My parents had brought us to his parents' house and he had cool toys; of course I was going to be friends with him. Though I don't remember that day in the slightest, I will always remember my final encounter with Ted. I had experienced death before, but never of someone I knew who was so young. I remember feeling completely numb. Simultaneously, I was bombarded with memories, emotions, thoughts of how this would affect my life, and an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
His funeral was peaceful, somber, sad, questioning, and reflective. It was incredibly heartbreaking. But more importantly, it was a community of people celebrating, remembering, and collectively pledging from that point on to live their lives differently because of what he had done in his life. Ted lived a life and set a standard that is nearly impossible to emulate. He lived by faith, hope, love and perseverance. And as I watched his body being lowered into the ground, I realized that I was encountering a dead person more alive than myself.
It was a year and a half ago and I still haven't started processing my encounter with Ted that day. All I know is that it changed me: my decisions, my choices, what I value, how I understand who I am and how I interact with the world. I would like to think I am more cognizant of my actions, more purposeful with my impact, more joyful in the face of sadness, and calmer in adverse conditions. But I know that I am not. It is too easy to push aside the memory of that encounter. Oftentimes I am too scared to live up to the consequences of taking into consideration what it means to honestly apply what I learned from Ted. Ted's legacy is a daunting one to live up to. Ultimately, I am grateful that I have it to check me, to give me encouragement when times are tough, and to help me laugh, hope, love and persevere.
2. Our Monday night Lenten Series focusing on Jesus' encounter with women in the Gospels, led by Margee Iddings, got off to a great start Monday night. Even if you missed the first week, you are encouraged and invited to attend any of the subsequent weeks. We will begin each week with at 6:30 p.m. with a soup and bread supper, followed by a time of worship, Bible study, and reflection at 7 p.m.
3. The Sunday morning class, The Sacred Art of Fasting, led by Margee Iddings and Doris Hendershot, will continue this week at 9:30 a.m., upstairs in the Youth Education Room. Note: If you did not attend last week, and plan to attend this Sunday, send a note to Margee (IddingsM@aol.com), and she will send you a copy of the study booklet, "Fasting as a Spiritual Practice."
My class, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday, will not meet this Sunday, but will resume February 24th.
4. A reminder that Pat Goeldner will be hosting Circle 4 tonight at her home. All the women in the congregation are invited to gather for a pot luck supper and socializing. Let Pat know if you can come. (202-362-0813; pgoeldner@iona.org <mailto:pgoeldner@iona.org> )
5. Jeanne Mayer has two extra tickets for the Friday, Feb. 29, 8 p.m performance of Hexagon at Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts. If you would like the tickets, send Jeanne a note (202-226-9277 jeanne.mayer@mail.house.gov ). You are also invited to join the group for dinner at Casbah Cafe (WI Ave. Between R and S Sts.) at 6 p.m.
6. The DC Area AFS Foreign Exchange Program is desperately searching for families who can take in two high-school age boys between now and the end of the school year. One of the boys is from Egypt, the other from Turkey. If you might consider being a temporary host family, please send a note to Fred and Chana Hays, FHays1835@aol.com .
7. Mark Your Calendars:
- Wednesday, February 27, Church of the Pilgrims will host a special briefing on Darfur, co-sponsored by the Darfur Interfaith Network and the Greater Jewish Taskforce on Darfur, 7 p.m. in the sanctuary. There will be presentations by the Genocide Intervention Network, Save Darfur Coalition, and the Enough Project.
- Wednesday, March 12, Church of the Pilgrims will host a Washington Interfaith Network "Ward 2" Accountability Action with City Councilman Jack Evans, focusing on supportive housing for the homeless. We will begin at 7 p.m.
8. If you missed the Annual Meeting on Sunday, you will soon be able to download a copy of our 2007 Annual Report from the website (http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org/newsletter.html ). If you would like a copy of the revised Church Directory, send a note to Marcia mh.mapp@verizon.net and she will drop one in the mail to you.
9. Prayer Concerns: Greta Pike asks that you keep her and her brother, Jonathan, in your prayers.
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
www.churchofthepilgrims.org <http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org>
February 6, 2008
Pilgrims on the Journey:
1. The season of Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Holy Week, begins tomorrow night at 7 p.m. with our Ash Wednesday Service, a service of song and meditation in the style of Taizé, including celebration of the Lord's Supper and the imposition of ashes, (a sign of our mortality and dependence upon God).
Our theme for the season is captured in the new graphic to your left: "Encountering Choices, Finding Identity." Our Sunday morning lectionary texts take us from Jesus' encounter with the Devil just after his baptism on the First Sunday of Lent (Matthew 4:1-11), to his fateful encounter with Pilate on Maundy Thursday (Matthew 27:11ff). Along the way, Jesus encounters many others-- Nicodemous, the Samaritan woman at the well, the man born blind, Lazarus in the tomb-- and like his first encounter with Satan, each encounter focuses his ministry, shapes his identity, and leads him on his journey toward the cross.
A guiding quote for the season for us might be this one from Eugene Peterson that I shared in my sermon last Sunday (thanks to Margee Iddings for providing it):
"To follow Jesus implies that we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape by the one who calls us ... To follow Jesus means that we can't separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way that he is doing it. To follow Jesus is as much, or maybe even more, about feet as it is about ears and eyes."
2. Our schedule for Sunday is as follows:
First Sunday of Lent
Sunday, February 10
9:30 a.m.
Christian Education Hour (see below)
10:25-10:50 AM
Taizé “Preparation for the Lord’s Day”
In the spirit of Taizé, <http://www.taize.fr/> we will gather in the sanctuary for twenty-five minutes of singing and silence,
an opportunity for meditative prayer and preparation for morning worship.
(You may enter the sanctuary at any time during the service, as stay as long as you wish.)
11:00 AM
Worship
Including Celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which we will celebrate each Sunday in Lent.
Following Worship:
Buffet Lunch in the Fellowship Hall.
Annual Meeting of the Congregation
Members and friends are invited to stay to hear reports from the Session,
including a presentation of the 2008 budget and an update on the Capital Campaign.
3. This year in Lent, we will supplement our Sunday morning worship with a five-week Monday night Lenten Series that will focus on Jesus' encounter with women in the Gospels, led by Margee Iddings, together with me and Ashley. We will ask of these texts the same questions we are asking about the Sunday morning texts: How did this encounter shape Jesus' ministry? What choices did he face, and what choices did he make? How did those choices move him toward the cross? What do these encounters teach us about what it means for us to be Jesus' followers?
We will begin each week with at 6:30 p.m. with a soup and bread supper, followed by a time of worship, Bible study, and reflection on the encounters that have shaped our own lives, the choices we face, and the risks we are called to take as Jesus' disciples. Participants will be invited each week to practice a "discipline of risk-taking." Even if you cannot attend each week, you are encouraged to attend as many weeks as you are able.
The attached PDF file gives more details.
4. In addition to Sunday worship, and our Monday night Lenten Series, we will also have two Adult classes meeting on Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m.
The Sacred Art of Fasting
Led by Margee Iddings and Doris Hendershot
Upstairs in the Youth Education Room
Fasting, along with prayer and almsgiving, is a traditional Christian spiritual practice long associated with the season of Lent. What would it mean to revive this ancient practice for contemporary Christians, especially in a Protestant context? Drawing on the work of Father Thomas Ryan, Doris and Margee will lead a discussion where those who attend are invited to experiment with different approaches to fasting during the Lenten season, and then to share their experiences with one another during the Sunday morning class. Father Ryan writes, "Fasting as a religious act increases our sensitivity to that mystery always and everywhere present to us... It is an invitation to awareness, a call to compassion for the needy, a cry of distress, a song of joy. It is a discipline of self-restraint, a ritual of purification, and a sanctuary for offerings of atonement. It is a wellspring for the spiritually dry, a compass for the spiritually lost, and inner nourishment for the spiritually hungry."
Note: If you did not attend last week, and plan to attend this Sunday, send a note to Margee (IddingsM@aol.com), and she will send you a copy of the study booklet, "Fasting as a Spiritual Practice."
Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday
Led by Jeff Krehbiel, Downstairs in the Bird Room
Where was God on the day in between? For Jesus’ first followers, Saturday was the day after the world came to an end on the cross of Good Friday, with Easter Sunday not yet even a thought on the horizon. After Easter day, the early Christians confessed that God was in Christ incarnate. What then does it mean for us to confess, with them, that God was with Jesus in the grave? What are the implications of such a dramatic and difficult assertion? What does it mean for us to make such a confession in a world that is more closely acquainted with the loss of Good Friday and the hopelessness of Easter Saturday than with the new life of Easter? How does that shape what it means for us to be disciples of the one crucified and risen? Drawing on the work of the late theologian Alan E. Lewis, we will explore a contemporary theology of the cross by paying close attention to the “three day story” at the heart of the Christian faith.
5. Another simple way to engage in a spiritual discipline for Lent is to sign up for Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat’s e-course, "Practicing Spirituality with Jesus." Every morning during the 40 days of Lent, you'll receive a short email with a quotation about Jesus, along with a suggestion for a simple way for you to practice the thought of the day as you go about your activities. The cost is $19.95. Sign up at http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/ecourses.php?id=41 <http://ent.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=188780867&u=1902510>
6. Friday Club, our monthly gathering for senior, will meet this week at noon. Following lunch, Barb Sherrill will share about one of her recent international trips. Please let Pat Goeldner know if you plan to attend pgoeldner@iona.org .
7. Pat Goeldner will also be hosting Circle 4, a gathering for all the women in the congregation, at her home (4435 Albermarle Street NW) for a pot luck supper and socializing on Wednesday, February 13th. Let Pat know if you can come. Regrets are not necessary. (202-362-0813; pgoeldner@iona.org <mailto:pgoeldner@iona.org> )
8. Church friend and gallery artist Mike Martinez now has a website: www.artbymartinez.com <http://www.artbymartinez.com/> where you can see his artwork, and purchase prints and painting.
9. Metro-DC PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) is holding its 11th Annual Gala and Silent Auction on Saturday, March 8, at the Hyatt Regency on Capital Hill, featuring a Spotlight Award honoring Tipper Gore. Tickets are $150. For more information, go to www.pflagdc.org <http://www.pflagdc.org> .
10. The Washington Region Religious Coalition Against Torture will hold a Mini-Conference on what different faiths teach about torture on Friday, March 7, 9-11 a.m. at the Church of the Reformation, 212 E. Capitol St. NE, Washington. This mini-conference immediately precedes the National Interfaith Peace Witness and National Ecumenical Advocacy Days. It will feature talks by Dr. George Hunsinger, founder of National Religious Coalition Against Torture; Ray McGovern, former CIA official; Rabbi Sid Schwarz, of Rabbis for Human Rights; and Mohamed Elsanousi, of the Islamic Society of North America. The mini-conference will examine the nature of U.S.-sponsored torture, the teachings of Islam, Christianity and Judaism about torture, and concrete steps people of faith can take to end torture.
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
www.churchofthepilgrims.org <http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org>
January 2008 Pastor's Updates
December 2007 Pastor's Updates
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July 2007 Pastor's Updates
Sabbatical 2007 Pastor's Updates
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March 2007 Pastor's Updates
February 2007 Pastor's Updates
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December 2006 Pastor's Updates
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