Weekly update week of September 17
Monday September 17
7pm Building and Grounds committee meeting (Missionary conference room).
Tuesday September 18
7 - 8:30pm Welcome Class (Godly Play Room).
Wednesday September 19
7pm – 8pm The Nicho meditation group meets.
Thursday September 20
7:30pm Rehearsal for the 10:30am service choir.
Sunday September 23
8am Holy Eucharist Rite I, the Rev. Linda Kaufman preaches and presides.
9:15-10:15am Forum “Restorative Justice and The Kingdom of God”, by David Potter.
10:10am Sharing the Gospel with Loaves and Fishes.
10:30am Holy Eucharist Rite II, the Rev. Linda Kaufman preaches and presides.
3:45pm Vestry Meeting (Choir room).
4pm Confirmation class (Fr. Sam´s office).
5:30pm Misa Alegría, (Spanish language liturgy), the Rev. Sam Dessórdi Leite preaches and presides.
Morning Prayer to resume on Thursdays beginning October4, Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi
You are invited to start your day on Thursday each week with Morning Prayer. We meet in Incarnation Chapel and begin Morning Prayer at 7:30am and generally conclude by 8am.
Request of photographs from PanTones at September 9 service
If anyone took photographs of the PanTones this past Sunday, they would love to have them for inclusion on their website. If you did take photos and are willing to send them, please pass them on to Falan Yinug ˂fyinug@yahoo.com˃.
The Days of the Dead Workshop and building Ofrendas, September 29
St. Stephen and the Incarnation is opening its doors on Saturday, September 29, 10am-1pm to share with other churches the traditions of the Days of the Dead inherited from Latin American countries. The workshop will address the history and the cultural significance of the celebration of the Days of the Dead and will offer tools to experience one of the most important popular devotions in the Christian tradition from Latin America. The workshop also includes instruction in artwork to build the Ofrendas (altars for the dead) containing paper flowers, papel picado, bread of the dead, sugar skulls, etc. Irma Cruz from Oaxaca will teach the baking of the Bread of the Dead.
The workshop is designed for English speaking participants who want to engage in the theology of the church and learn a new devotion to honor their beloved deceased. For more information, contact Fr. Sam Leite at ˂samdessordi@yahoo.co.uk˃.
Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Loaves and Fishes
Please, join us on September 29, from 1-4pm to celebrate five decades of our program Loaves and Fishes. The event includes: food, conversation and music from the Cromwell Jazz Quartet, acknowledgment of the financial and in-kind contributions during the past year, a recognition of Ed Bou and the Bou Family Foundation for their steady support, and a recognition of the volunteers who have helped the program thrive over the past 50 years. Come and celebrate with us.
Choir rehearsals have begun!
If you have the urge to sing more in church, please consider joining the regular September to June 10:30am service choir! Our weekly rehearsals are held each Thursday from 7:30-9:15pm. On Sunday mornings the choir gathers at 9:30am. If you have questions about choir, please ask Michael Salmon or any choir member. We do not have auditions, and anyone is welcome to join – there is a place for all of God’s creatures in the choir (in fact, if you are reading this, you are already in the largest choir at St. Stephen and the Incarnation)!
It's time to sign up for a small group!
For those of you who haven't participated before: These groups are an opportunity for St. Stephen's folk, both longtime parishioners and newcomers, to get to know each other's lives and spiritual journeys. We meet every other week, rotating among parishioner's homes, to share a meal, informal discussion of some Christian spiritual reading, and prayer. This fall we have four options, all open to folks of all ages:
Monday nights, Spirituality of the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann (led by Brede Eschliman and Mary Alcuin Kelly).
Monday nights, the week's scripture lessons from the lectionary (led by Lindsey Foss and Michele Lewis).
Tuesday nights, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans (led by Nicole Martinez Moore and Flannery Fox).
Wednesday nights, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans (led by Sarah Rogers and Gay Gellhorn).
Groups will start in mid-September and go through mid-December or early January. Please, sign up on shorturl.at/HMRZ7
Sunday Forums Begin!
The Sunday Forums are back beginning Sunday, September 16. Each week from 9:15-10:15am in the auditorium, we offer time to gather as a community and focus on some aspect of our faith and our lives. A forum topic can be whatever is part of your journey with Christ inviting us to understand God working in our lives, to better know one another, and build the community of St. Stephen's and the Incarnation. Come hear our presenters and get to know others in the community. The Forums in September will be:
September 23, “Restorative Justice and The Kingdom of God”, by David Potter, who works with Sojourners. He will introduce principles of restorative justice from his experience as a practitioner in public schools. This forum will draw from biblical themes to provide discussion on our understandings of justice and community.
September 30, the Rev. Martin Smith will facilitate the forum “The Dove vs the Eagle: Baptism and Resistance”. Join us for a discussion of how baptism originally functioned as a “sacrament of resistance” to the violent ethos of the Roman Empire. Let’s think how the original potency of baptism can be recovered, now that the era of so-called Christendom, in which almost everyone was automatically ‘christened’, is ending.
Diaconal Workshop Day (Bilingual)
If you are interested in discerning a call to the diaconate, attendance at the Diaconal Workshop Day on Saturday, October 27 at All Souls Episcopal Church (2300 Cathedral Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008) from 9am - 2:30pm. This will be the required first step in the process. Two persons are required to attend with you: Your Senior Priest, and another layperson from the congregation who is likely to serve on the local discernment committee. The workshop includes learning about the ministry of deacons, the various steps in the ordination process, and the structure and requirements of the formation program. At the end of the day, those interested in moving forward will receive a nomination form. You can find more information on https://goo.gl/QWQwWy and you can register on https://www.edow.org/calendar-event-details/155. Please speak to Fr. Sam Dessórdi Leite or Deacon Susan Walker for more information.
