May 30, 2006
Pilgrims on the Journey:
1. Our hearts go out to the people of Indonesia. The earthquake hit close to Pilgrim Tari Gregory's home. Her relatives were effected, but not harmed. Our mission partners in Indonesia are YTBI (disaster program of the Council of Churches of Indonesia), YEU (the Christian Health Association) and CWS (Church World Service). They are assisting in the following ways:
• YEU has sent in medical teams, medicine and equipment from four of their Christian Hospitals in Indonesia, and is evacuating injured children to Tegalyoso Hospital in Klaten.
• YTBI has sent two staff members from Jakarta to coordinate the distribution of food and medicine.
• CWS has sent three staff members to the affected area; two staff are doing assessments in Bantul and are preparing for the distribution of food and non-food items.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance will be responding financially with an initial $10,000 as we wait a more formalized appeal and plan from our partners.
Partners request our prayers for both survivors and humanitarian workers. You can contribute through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance by sending a check to the church, made out to Pilgrims but marked in the memo "Indonesian Disaster Relief."
2. This Sunday is Pentecost, a celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the "birthday" of the church. We will have a festive worship service with special music and Celebration of the Lord's Supper, with our monthly buffet lunch following. You are invited to wear red for worship, as a symbol of the Spirit's gift of fire.
During worship we will be taking two important actions related to our mission and ministry: We will commission our "Visiting Stewards" who will be calling you this weekend to set up appointments to discuss your commitment to the Capital Campaign. You can make their lives easier (and yours as well!) by making yourself available Sunday afternoon for a visit. We hope to complete all our visits by the following Sunday, June 11.
We will be receiving a special Pentecost Offering in to benefit children at risk, youth, and young adults. This is one of four church-wide special offerings throughout the year. Pilgrims’ portion of the proceeds from the special offering, forty percent, will be used to support at risk youth participating in the Hope and a Home program serving youth and their families in the Columbia Heights and Shaw neighborhoods of D.C. The Hope and a Home Program provides affordable housing for formerly homeless families and a variety of supporting services for parents and their children, to enable the families to live independently at the end of three years. The remaining 60 percent will be used by the General Assembly for ministries with youth and young adults, young adult volunteer opportunities, and child advocacy.
3. The following Sunday- June 11-- will again have two opportunities to put your faith into action. That afternoon is the annual Capital Pride Festival. As in previous years, Pilgrims will have our own booth. We need volunteers to share about our congregation. If you can give an hour or two of your time that day, between worship and 4 p.m., please send a note to Jonathan Mertz jmert@bradymail.org.
Two additional Pride Week Events:
The Pride Interfaith Worship Service is Tuesday, June 6, 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 945 G Street, NW (10th & G Streets, NW)
You are also invited to join other welcoming Presbyterians in the Pride Parade the night before the Festival, Saturday June 10. We will assemble on the church steps at 5:30 p.m. The parade starts at 6:30.
Taking place simultaneously with the Pride Festival is WIN's second "Get Out the Vote" walk in Ward 1. We will gather at All Souls Church after worship (16th & Harvard). Please send a note to Kathy Keler kkeler@earthlink.netif you can join us. This is fun work! (Believe it or not, some of us are going to do both!).
4. Pilgrims in the Arts I: Speaking of Kathy Keler, (our web-weaver, for those of you who don't know), she has a show of recent paintings titled "Mythic Narratives," at Washington Theological Union, sponsored by The Arts for Theology and Ministry Program, now through June 30. There is a special opening reception on Thursday, June 8, from 5-7 p.m., which several of us plan to attend. The gallery is at 6896 Laurel Street NW. Gallery hours are 9-5 M-Sat., and Sundays 12:30-5.
5. Pilgrims in the Arts II: Church member Pat Schlueter is appearing in The Theatre Lab's production of Fidler on the Roof the next two weekends at 8 p.m. She especially invites you to attend Sunday night, June 4. (If you are interested in attending, let me know. I would love to go with you.) The theater is at 733 8th St. NW (near Gallery Place). See www.theatrelab.org <http://www.theatrelab.org> for more information. Tickets are $10.
6. Another great opportunity to hear a first-rate Christian speaker at the Cathedral: Barbara Brown Taylor, renowned Episcopal priest, writer and preacher, will be speaking Wednesday, June 7, at 7:30 p.m. (Tickets are $15). See http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral//register/taylor2006sp.shtml
7. On a personal note, some of you are already aware that Cheryl has taken a new job. (Didn't she just switch jobs a few months ago? Yes, indeed she did.) After five years, she has left the relative safety and security of Montgomery County to plunge in to the churning waters of DCPS, taking a job with EdBuild, a new non-profit start-up created link school building modernization with educational transformation in the classroom. Cheryl will be Vice President for Education (nice title!), charged in the first year with helping turn around three of DC's most challenging schools. You can read more at http://www.edbuild.org . (Click "About Us," and scroll down for Cheryl's bio.) She is very excited-- and a little nervous-- about the challenge. She begins the middle of June, when we return from vacation.
8. A final note on the Capital Campaign. This is Pilgrims' first major campaign in over 15 years. We have accumulated a lot of building issues during that time frame. Our goal is not only to shore up our building and prevent further deterioration, but to enhance its beauty and improve its usefulness for ministry and mission. Our basic goal of $400,000 is already a challenge for a congregation our size, but we have set our sights on $500,000, in order to accomplish all the things you said you wished to do: improve bathrooms, upgrade the kitchen, protect the stained glass. To reach either of these goals, we will need every member to give prayerfully and sacrificially. Several Pilgrims have already started the ball rolling with incredibly generous pledges. Whatever your capacity to give, we hope you will also make a pledge to support this campaign. (Thanks especially to those of you who have committed to the task of visiting other church members. Without your commitment, this important campaign would not be possible.) Remember, every pledge at whatever level, counts!
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
May 24, 2006
Pilgrims on the Journey:
1. I invite you this week to keep a very special group of people in your prayers. In preparation for our Capital Campaign "Every Member Canvass" beginning on Pentecost Sunday two weeks from now, members of the "Advanced Gifts Team" (Mary Ester, Mitch Fulton, Jerry McPike and Jack Womeldorf) are visiting a small number of members who we hope will "kick start" our campaign by making a "leadership gift" to the campaign. Even when you are devoted to the cause-- and these folks are devoted-- it's not easy asking others for money. They do so as an act of Christian discipleship, just as they hope those whom they are asking will respond generously, also as an act of Christian discipleship. These are members of the church who have caught a vision of what God might have in store for us in the future (see my sermon from last Sunday, which should be up on our web page soon: http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org/sermons.html). The hope of all those in the campaign is that our entire congregation will catch that same vision, and we will not only meet our "basic" goal of $400,000 (already an ambitious goal!) but stretch to reach our even more ambitious "challenge" goal of $500,000. Can we really raise that much with such a small congregation? It will not be easy, but I join the Session and the Campaign Committee in believing that it is possible. What it will require is prayerful consideration from every member. So I invite you first of all to pray for God's guidance-- for our congregation, for our Campaign Committee, for those who are out and about these next few weeks making phone calls and visits, and for those who are being asked to give (which includes you!).
2. We had a great "WIN Action" on Monday night. If you were not present (and we had 23 Pilgrims in attendance, along with another 20 Maryville College Students who were staying at the Pilgrimage!), you can read about it in The Washington Post :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052300002.html?referrer=emailarticle
3. Two Sundays from now-- Pentecost Sunday, June 4-- will be a busy day for the church. Not only will we commission our "Visiting Stewards" for the Capital Campaign during morning worship (who will then fan out that afternoon to visit with church members), having a special Buffet lunch following worship, but we will also receive a Special Offering for Pentecost. to benefit children at risk, youth, and young adults. This is one of four church-wide special offerings throughout the year. Pilgrims’ portion of the proceeds from the special offering, forty percent, will be used to support at risk youth participating in the Hope and a Home program serving youth and their families in the Columbia Heights and Shaw neighborhoods of D.C. The Hope and a Home Program provides affordable housing for formerly homeless families and a variety of supporting services for parents and their children, to enable the families to live independently at the end of three years. The remaining 60 percent will be used by the General Assembly for ministries with youth and young adults, young adult volunteer opportunities, and child advocacy.
4. Three Sundays from now-- June 11-- will be even busier. That afternoon you will have two opportunities for service:
That afternoon is the annual Capital Pride Festival. As in previous years, Pilgrims will have our own booth. We need volunteers to share about our congregation. If you can give an hour or two of your time that day, between worship and 4 p.m., please send a note to Jonathan Mertz jmert@bradymail.org. (You are also invited to join other welcoming Presbyterians in the Pride Parade the night before, Saturday June 10. We will assemble on the church steps at 5:30 p.m.)
Taking place simultaneously with the Pride Festival is WIN's second "Get Out the Vote" walk in Ward 1. We will gather at All Souls Church after worship (16th & Harvard). Please send a note to Kathy Keler kkeler@earthlink.net if you can join us. This is fun work! (Believe it or not, some of us are going to do both!).
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
May 16, 2006
Pilgrims on the Journey:
1. This Sunday is our last Christian Education Hour for the year until next September. For our last Adult Education at 9:30 in the Bird Room, I'll be sharing about my trip to Israel/Palestine. If you are unable to attend the class Sunday, but would like to hear more, I will be sharing essentially the same information this Saturday afternoon at 2:30 (also at the church) with the Presbytery's Peacemaking Committee. So, come Saturday or Sunday, either one. [In addition, if you weren't with us last Sunday, my sermon from last week (along with a few pictures) is now posted on our website: http://www.churchofthepilgrims.org/Sermons/2006/060514jkk.htm ]
2. Monday night is WIN's Candidate's Night, 7---9:30 PM at Asbury United Methodist Church, 11th & K Streets, NW. All Mayoral Candidates will be present, and asked to endorse WIN's "Neighborhoods First" agenda for Neighborhood Investment, Affordable Housing, and Youth Investment. We will have pizza at 6 p.m. who would like to come early, and then leave from the parking lot at 6:30 p.m. Or you can meet us there. Please send me a note if you have not already signed up to attend.
3. We need Presbytery Commissioners! National Capital Presbytery has now increased our number of commissioners to Presbytery meeting to three. Finding three people able to attend is not too hard for evening meetings, but very difficult for the daytime meetings. The next meeting is next Tuesday, May 23, 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at National Presbyterian Church. Would you be willing to attend? You must be an ordained elder. Please let me know if you are willing to attend this or a future meeting. (Presbytery meets about seven times a year.)
4. The Capital Pride Festival is coming up in just a few weeks. We will join the Presbyterian contingent in the parade on June 10, and will have our own booth on June 11. Jonathan Mertz is coordinating volunteers. Send him a note if you are willing to help jmert@bradymail.org . We'll need volunteers all day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
5. So Others Might Eat <http://www.some.org/> (SOME) is in desperate need for both breakfast and lunch volunteers in their soup kitchen for Thursday May 18 and Friday May 19. SOME is a regular volunteer site for our Pilgrimage groups. If you’d like to volunteer, please contact Tony Smith at (202) 797-0701, ext 103 or tsmith@some.org.
6. Do you have ideas for an Adult Ed class for next year? Is there a class that you would like to teach? We will be meeting soon to plan our fall schedule. Would you like to join us? Send your ideas to ashley.goff@verizon.net.
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
May 10, 2006
Pilgrims on the Journey:
I'm glad to be back, safe and sound, though a little weary, from my trip to Israel/Palestine. It was every bit the "trip of a lifetime." I will be sharing some reflections in worship this Sunday, and again during Adult Education hour on May 21-- and will likely put together a longer series for the Fall on the Mid-East Conflict. I've provided a link below if you wish to view my pictures.
Thanks to Ashley for her worship leadership, and to the Capital Campaign Team for the successful launch of our campaign!
1. This Sunday our Adult Education series on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning/Queer Youth: Turning Survival Into Leadership led by Diana Bruce will conclude at 9:30 a.m. in the Bird Room.
2. Sign up this Sunday to attend WIN's Candidate's Night, Monday May 22 at 7---9:30 PM at Asbury United Methodist Church, 11th & K Streets, NW. All Mayoral Candidates will be present, and asked to endorse WIN's "Neighborhoods First" agenda for Neighborhood Investment, Affordable Housing, and Youth Investment. If you have never attended a WIN event before, this is the event to attend! Leaders of our WIN team will be signing people up after worship the next two Sundays. Let's see if we can break our previous Pilgrims record of 25 people!
3. Next Tuesday night, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. is another extraordinary opportunity to hear a first-rate Biblical scholar and theologian at the National Cathedral. Noted writer and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright will lecture on his recent book, Simply Christian. I believe Wright is one of the more important Christian voices today. This will be a rare opportunity to hear a voice from "the other side of the pond." Let me know if you plan to attend, and we can sit together.
For more information, see http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/register/wright2006sp.shtml
4. Next week May 17-20 is also the Network of Spiritual Progressives conference at All Souls Unitarian Church. You can attend for just a day. For info, see
http://www.tikkun.org/community/spiritual_activism_conference/
5. Here is the link to my photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=kdzp44c.xgt1hck&x=0&y=yk0qtu
Peace,
Jeff Krehbiel, Pastor
Church of the Pilgrims
Washington, DC
Greetings from Jeff's desk!
This is Ashley sending out an "Updates and Invitations" email while Jeff is still away in Israel with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.
In the past week and a half, Jeff and 99 other Presbyterians from across the country have prayed and worshipped together, visited a number of sites, and listened to a variety of speakers. Speakers have covered topics from cultural issues in Israel/Palestine along with politics, economics, and the role of the universal church in peacemaking. Participants in this peacemaking program range in age from teen-agers to octogenarians from thirty-three presbyteries across the country. I have been receiving daily updates of Jeff's trip and if you would like to read the updates you can go online to: http://www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/tripreport.htm
Jeff will be back in the office on May, 9th.
This Sunday, we continue our 3 week Adult Education series on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning/Queer Youth: Turning Survival Into Leadership led by Diana Bruce. The objective of the series is to explore how a church like Pilgrims can be a welcoming and safe place to G/L/B/T/Q youth. Last Sunday, we started the series with a discussion led by Rebecca Fox. Rebecca is on staff at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS). Rebecca led us in an overview of the various sexual identities and realities that are experienced within the G/L/B/T/Q community, particularly those young in age. This week the series will continue with Jeb Bush, who has worshipped with us frequently in the past year, sharing his "coming out" story. Jeb will share his experience of coming out to his family, friends, and church. Our Adult Education class meets in the Bird Room at 9:30am. Thanks, in advance, to Jeb for sharing his story and thanks to Diana for organizing this informative and valuable education series.
After church this Sunday, please join us for buffet as we not only share in continued fellowship together but we will hear from members of our Capital Campaign Team. Join us for a "fun and informative" overview of the Capital Campaign--Looking Forward by Faith--and our updated goals for the campaign. Mary Ester, one of our Capital Campaign co-chairs, has promised a free gift for each person who attends!
Upcoming Exhibition:
Eyes Wide Open: An Exhibition of the Human Cost of the Iraq War. Eyes Wide Open is a widely acclaimed exhibit of boots and shoes honoring the casualties of the Iraq war put together by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). This exhibition is returning to the National Mall after a tour of more than 70 cities. This year, the exhibit anchors a larger four day event, Silence of the Dead---Voices of the Living: A Witness to the End of the War in Iraq, which will bring military families, veterans, Iraqi war survivors and peace activists together to honor the thousands who have died and the call for an immediate end to the Iraqi war. The Eyes Wide Open exhibit will be on the National Mall @ 14th Street--Smithsonian Metro stop starting Thursday, May 11th until Mother's Day, May 14th. For a detailed schedule of the complete exhibition and four day event, see www.afsc.org/eyes or call 202-483-3341, x 301.
April 2006 Pastor's Updates
