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Our Annual Pledge Campaign is underway, with a blessing of the in-gathered offerings planned for Oct 4th. You should have received pledge materials by both email and postal mail. If you have not, or if you have any questions, please contact the church office at christchurchdurhamparish@gmail.com.
Stewardship is a habit that directs our decisions about how we use the blessing we have received from God. It is an expression of our faith in God’s ability to provide, our gratitude for all the ways we have been blessed, and our priorities as followers of Jesus. Stewardship is grounded in the belief that blessings are meant to be shared.
Our parish thrives and grows when gifts are made to support ministries that transform lives and when the church uses those gifts to live out the Gospel to serve others, making our community, our nation, and the world a better place.
Check out this brochure to discover more about Durham Parish’s ministries that your time, talents, and dollars make happen. Old Durham is touching the hearts, minds and bodies of Christ’s people, even in 2020’s difficult circumstances. You may download a pledge card here. You may return it either electronically to christchurchdurhamparish@gmail.com or by postal mail to 8700 Ironsides Road, Nanjemoy, MD 20662. Thank you for your devoted service and financial support of God’s work at Old Durham.
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Our joint St. James/Durham Wednesday Noon Study resumed on September 9th with a 5-session series on the legacy of St Francis of Assisi. For the remaining sessions, we will be starting at 11:45AM to finish off discussion of the previous week's session. The new video will start at noon, and the class will run until 1pm.
Click here to join us on Zoom.
Each session includes a 30-minute video presentation followed by discussion. The videos are accompanied by a guidebook that includes background material, questions for personal reflection, and discussion prompts. The book is helpful, but not necessary.
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Sunday, Sept 27, 2020 is the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. Durham Parish will hold a service of Holy Eucharist at 10:30AM in the churchyard. Registration is now closed for this service; if you have questions, click here to contact the church office.
There will be NO Durham Parish worship over Zoom that day. The service will be recorded and posted on the website promptly thereafter.
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Our Wednesday night Compline service seems to have run its course, and so it has been suspended, at least for a while. If you miss the liturgy, you can click on the image above to be taken to a recorded Compline service as read and sung by the monks of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts. If you would like to see us resume a midweek or evening service, please speak up.
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Check out this handy calendar to see what the readings will be in the Episcopal Church this Sunday or any Sunday. The Revised Common Lectionary site has additional resources for exploring each week's scriptures.
If you're looking for the Daily Office (Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer), you can visit Forward Movement. You will also find Forward Day by Day at this site.
Another prayer-and-scripture resource that has gained traction in the parish is Pray-As-You-Go, a daily 10-minute scripture reflection with music.
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Blessing of the Animals, Oct. 4
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Next up in our in-person worship schedule: an outdoor, in-person, Blessing of the Animals in honor of St. Francis, whose feast day is October 4. The service will be held at 4PM in the churchyard.
Here's what you need to know to sign up:
- The presence of your animals is encouraged. You may bring them in person (leashed, caged, or otherwise restrained) or you may bring pictures of them, or memories of them.
- Preregistration is required, and attendance is capped at 50 people.
- Masks must be worn and social distance maintained.
- Upon arrival you will check in at a Welcome Station, answer a few health questions, and be directed to designated seating areas, with each household seating area separated from others by at least 6 feet.
- It is a Bring Your Own Chair event; (also, sanitizer, water, bug spray, sunscreen, etc.)
- Registration involves filling out two forms: a registration form, and a Regathering Covenant affirming your compliance with safety precautions and relating them to our Baptismal Covenant.
- If you have already filed a Regathering Covenant with the church, you don't have to do another one.
- Attendees will be notified of any weather-related cancellation by 12:30PM.
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Meanwhile around the
Diocese and the Region
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The Southern Maryland region of the Diocese is going to be sponsoring a 'Sacred Ground' group. The 10-part series is built around a powerful online curriculum of documentary films and readings that focus on Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific American histories as they intersect with European American histories. Participants are invited to peel away the layers that have contributed to the challenges and divides of the present day – all while grounded in our call to faith, hope and love. Click here for more information.
The Southern Maryland group will meet at 8pm on the first Monday of each month from October 2020 to June 2021 over Zoom. Sign up here.
Also, here's your chance to meet other local Episcopalians from the comfort of your own home: The Southern Maryland Regional Meeting will take place over Zoom on Saturday. October 3 from 10AM to 12 noon. Attendance at this meeting is expected of Wardens, Delegates, and Clergy, but it is open (and usually interesting) to others as well.
And finally, here's a look at upcoming offerings from the Diocese's new School for Christian Faith and Leadership. There's everything from Yoga to Finance. Check it out here.
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Thanks to the generosity of many, the diocese is now able to provide direct assistance to those within our congregations and the communities they serve. The COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund amplifies congregational ministry to assist congregation and community members experiencing financial hardships as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic; and established congregational food pantries and meals programs experiencing increased demand. Learn more.
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Could You Offer Some Help?
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Our community needs us now, more than ever. There are a number of ways that we can continue to serve our community, even in these difficult times.
- Joe’s Place is continuing to feed people who are able to come on Thursday afternoons twice a month. At the moment, we seem to have enough food to keep up with demand. Monetary donations are, of course, always welcome. You can mail a check (made out to the church) to the church or use the Paypal “Donate Now” link on the church’s website. Just be sure to indicate, either in the memo line of the check or in the information box online, that the donation is for Joe’s Place.
- If you are a person who sews, you can make face masks. First for your family, and then if you have ones you can donate, Deacon Susan will be glad to pick them up from you. She has a number of sources that are able to put the masks to good use.
- The Diocese has set up a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund (see above) to help parishioners, and folks associated with our parishes, who don’t have enough money for food. It also is set up to support established food pantries like Joe’s Place. Applications for assistance are made by the clergy on behalf of the parishioner, and reviewed by a diocesan committee. Contact to Rev. Catharine to apply for assistance. You can also donate to the fund here.
We are a community committed to following Jesus in his Way of Love. In these times when we cannot worship together in person, God can still show us ways in which we can follow him faithfully. By reading scripture and praying for guidance we can be led to acts of love that show the good news of the gospel in action When that happens we discover that we ourselves are blessed by extending the blessings of Christ to others in these tangible ways.
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The Bishops of Washington, Maryland, and Virginia have issued a joint statement on how they expect the "re-gathering" process to go. It will likely be a slower and more gradual process than many of us imagined when we first closed the doors of the church.
See their statement here.
The Diocese of Washington has collected its information and advice at the COVID-19 "hub" on the diocesan website.
Image: Dave Walker's CartoonChurch
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Let us pray…
...in thanksgiving for the members of our congregation: Jane, Carl, Dian, and Barbara;
....for support and protection for those who serve our country at home and abroad: Alex, Mike, Wes, Thomas, Steven, Megan, Abby, and Bill;
....for those in need of God’s healing grace: Linda, Wayne, Kaitlyn (great-niece of Dian), Thelma (mother of Deacon Susan), Sam and family (son of Chris), Rick, Tom; Our continuing prayers are offered for: Frank (father of Frank), Mabel, Dan, Barbara, Vivian (mother of Barbara), Butch, Livvy (mother of Kathy), Buddy, Jeanne, Roy, Luci (aunt of Barbara), Rose (friend of Gloria).
The Diocese of Washington cycle of prayer: Presiding Bishop Michael Curry; St. Matthew's Church/San Mateo, Hyattsville; St. Matthew's Day School, Hyattsville; United Nations International Day of Peace (September 21) Pray for peace and benevolence among all nations. The Anglican Communion Cycle of Prayer: Pray for the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan. The Most Revd Justin Badi Arama – Bishop of Juba and Archbishop of the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.
A Prayer for Social Justice (from the Book of Common Prayer): Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A prayer for patient trust by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
"The Merton Prayer" by Thomas Merton OCSO:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
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Keep abreast of goings-on in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, of which we are a parish. Sign up for the newsletter or check out previous issues here.
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Episcopal Asset Map. The Episcopal Church has a massive site that allows people to find us, our worship services and our services to the community. Our own parish’s entry (and not ours only!) needs some spiffing up. Deacon Susan and Mike Cahall are working on it at the direction of the bishops. If you have a little time, check out the Asset Map to see how other parishes are represented, and if you have information that you think could or should be included, please let Deacon Susan know.
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Paying your pledges. Yes, you can still pay your pledge! In fact, the parish budget is counting on it! You can either mail a check to the church's postal address (8700 Ironsides Road, Nanjemoy, MD 20662) or use Paypal on the church website. Please don't use the 8685 street address, as that goes to our tenant.
Online Giving. The Diocese is encouraging us to use online giving as much as possible, for reasons of both physical and fiscal hygiene. If you do use the PayPal link, be aware that the site charges a small fee of about 3% of your donation.
Giving Statements. One way in which we are trying to provide financial oversight in these tricky times is to issue regular giving statements to our pledging members. When you receive your statement, please check to confirm that the church’s records match yours.
Our parish's finances are in remarkably good shape, considering the COVID-19 situation. Overall giving is running very close to, or slightly above, budget amounts. Some of our other sources of revenue, however, like the Fish Fries, Festival, and Labor Day bike ride, aren't going to come through for us this year. The need to set up online and, possibly, hybrid online/in person worship is likely to create some expenses for which we did not budget this year. The Finance Committee and Vestry are keeping an eye on the situation.
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