WEEKLY UPDATE WEEK OF 03.11.19
Thursday March 14
7:30am Morning Prayer.
7:30pm 10:30am Service Choir Rehearsal.
Friday March 15
6pm Stations of the Cross, simple supper and community event (bilingual)
Sunday March 17 (Second Sunday of Lent)
8am Holy Eucharist Rite I, the seminarian Jean Pierre Seguin preaches and the Rev. Sam Dessórdi Leite presides.
9:15am Forum.
10:10am Sharing the Gospel with Loaves and Fishes.
10:30am Holy Eucharist Rite II, the seminarian Jean Pierre Seguin preaches and the Rev. Sam Dessórdi Leite presides.
Noon Pastoral Care Group Meeting.
5:30pm Misa Alegría (bilingual service). The Rev. Sam Dessórdi Leite preaches and presides.
Lenten Friday Series
Our Lenten Friday series will begin on Friday, March 15 with bilingual Stations of the Cross at 6pm followed by a simple supper and bilingual events. The Lent Liturgy Planning Team is offering the theme “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” for the season of Lent. We will use the Ignatian imaginative and sensory approach to meditate on Gospel passages.
Come explore the five weeks of Lent through the lens of Psalm 78 verse 19, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” It will be a holy season in our hearts, minds and lives.
Update from St Stephen’s Immigration Justice (Sanctuary) Committee
Several years ago, St. Stephen’s voted to become a Sanctuary congregation, which to us means offering support for the needs of immigrants. Our acts of Sanctuary over the past few years have included a “Know Your Rights” training, participation in marches and protests, and a bilingual movie night in which members of our congregation shared their immigration stories.
We are now looking ahead to what comes next. On Sunday, February 17, 10 committee members met to discuss next steps, including how we might better connect parishioners from the morning and Misa services and join in activities led the DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network. St Stephen’s is a member of the DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network, along with more than 60 other churches, temples, mosques in the greater Metropolitan Washington DC area. The DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network’s work includes helping people with deportation defense, accompaniment, and hospitality.
In recognition that our committee’s mission extends beyond physical sanctuary, we have changed our name to St. Stephen’s Immigration Justice Committee. If you are interested in immigration and justice, please join us! We would love your energy and ideas on how we can better support our immigrant neighbors. Contact Susan Kyle, sfkye@gmail.com, to be added to our listserv.
Opportunity to Help: Support for Woman Taking Sanctuary in Bethesda Church
The St. Stephen’s Immigration Justice Committee will be reporting from time to time on ways parishioners can support immigrants in our community. Currently, one of the DMV Sanctuary Congregation’s Network’s projects is sanctuary for Rosa Gutierrez Lopez, a Guatemalan mother of 3 who is living in sanctuary in Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. Currently Rosa is the only person in the DC area in sanctuary. There are 50 people nationally in sanctuary in the United States.
When a church takes someone into sanctuary, the expectation is that they could be in sanctuary for approximately 18 months. Cedar Lane needs 270 volunteers a month to support Rosa. They currently have 230 volunteers and need another 40 people who are willing to any of the following:
Run shopping and errands for Rosa.
Reside overnight in the building and provide safety and offer companionship during the day.
Pick up her children in Fredericksburg, Virginia and bring them to be with her every other weekend.
Provide translation and interpretation (urgent need).
Teach her English.
Provide activities and enrichment to her children when they are with her over the weekends.
To be on Rosa’s team you must take a 2 hour training to learn the ropes on providing for her safety and well-being, as well as a Cultural Competency training. The next Cultural Competency training will be on March 18 from 7 to 9pm at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church.
If you are interested in volunteering, contact Charlene Belsom Zellmer at cbzellmer7@msn.com. Parishioner Cam Crockett would also be happy to speak with anyone interested in this work. She can be reached at cgcrockett@gmail.com or 240-535-5966.
Lent and Loaves and Fishes
It’s customary as part of one’s Lenten discipline to give money to a worthy cause, perhaps money you saved by not buying something you gave up for Lent. For many years the Lenten offering at St. Stephen’s has gone to the support of Loaves and Fishes. Our goal this year is to raise $1,500 for the program this way. We’ll be asking your support every Sunday except the Sundays we support the Hunger Fund of the Diocese of Washington. You can use one of the envelopes scattered among the seats of simply write “For Loaves and Fishes” in the memo section of your check or credit/debit card transaction form.
Help needed to distribute eucharistic bread and wine during Holy Communion
Current and aspiring Eucharistic Ministers are invited to attend a forum on the meaning and foundation of what it means to share the Body and Blood of Jesus in communion with one another. The theological background and training will take place on Sunday, March 31, from 3:30-5pm.
St. Stephen´s parishioners in the news
We share here an interesting article on the first interracial adoption in DC, featuring parishioners of St. Stephen's. Know more visiting this link.
Sunday Forums
Sunday forums are about sharing your interests, your work, your passions with the parish. Forums are a means for building community as we get to know one another and learn and grow in our faith. Please consider how you might offer a Sunday forum in the new year. Contact Susan Walker at ˂susankwalker2@gmail.com˃ or speak to her on a Sunday. The next forums are focused in the practices of the Way of Love.
