E-pistle
THE WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER OF
St. Christopher’s
Episcopal Church
SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA
February 12, 2015
The Rev. Peter K. Ackerman
703-451-1088, ext. 1 or
Email:
[email protected]
Sunday, February 15– The Last Sunday
after the Epiphany
7:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist
9:15 a.m. Sunday School for Everyone
10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist (Nursery is provided)
11:45 a.m. Fellowship and Refreshments
12:15 p.m. Club 45 Youth Group Meeting
Page 1
Servers’ Schedule for February 15, 2015
Altar Guild
7:30 a.m.
Jacob Farrar
10:30 a.m.
Crucifer – Grace Belisle
Server – Creighton Dunlap
Torchbearer – Bebe Dunlap
Marie Ackerman & Judy Lawson
Communion Bread
Flower Guild
Sarah Belisle
Indra Corea and Flo Huber
Greeters
Lay Eucharistic
Ministers
& Lectors
Betty Carper and Virginia Clark
7:30 a.m.
(CB) Lynn Knox
(L) Jennifer Southall
10:30 a.m.
(PB) Jennifer Southall
(CB1) David Johnson
(CB2) Lynn Knox
(L1) Steve McClaugherty
(L2) Gaye Evans
Jennifer Southall
May Kamalick & Ruth Meagher
Acolytes
Intercessor
Chapel Prayer
Team
P.A.T. (Pastoral
Assistant Team)
Minister
Ref. & Fellowship
Usher Guild
Tellers
Janet Quinn
Pam Osborn
Team 4
John Olsen and Kevin Frear
Page 2
Vestry Person of the Mary Andrews
Week
2 Kings 2:1-12
Lectionary
Psalm 50:1-6
Readings
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9
*** If you cannot serve as scheduled, please be sure to switch
with someone else.
This Week at St. Christopher’s
Monday, February 16; President’s Day
Preschool and Church Office Closed
10:00 a.m. AA
7:00 p.m. Vestry Meeting
Tuesday, February 17; Shrove Tuesday
10:00 a.m. AA
5:30 p.m. Pancake Supper
Wednesday, February 18; Ash
Wednesday
7:30 a.m. Ash Wednesday Liturgy and Holy Eucharist
9:30 a.m. Ash Wednesday Liturgy and Holy Eucharist
7:00 p.m. Ash Wednesday Liturgy and Holy Eucharist
Thursday, February 19
10:00 a.m. Women’s Discussion Group
7:00 p.m. Ground’s Commissioner Meeting
Page 3
Friday, February 20
5:00 p.m. S. Anonymous Meeting
Saturday, February 21
5:00 p.m. S. Anonymous Meeting
8:30 p.m. Alcoholics Anonymous
Sunday, February 22– The First Sunday
in Lent
7:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist
9:15 a.m. Sunday School for Everyone
9:15 a.m. Lenten Series on Meeting God in Mark with Jennifer
Southall
10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist (Nursery is provided)
11:45 a.m. Fellowship and Refreshments
ANNOUNCEMENTS
From the Rector's Desk
Near the first of every month Fr. Peter offers a topical reflection
for our readers, so look for his next correspondence in upcoming
issue here.
A Note from John Olsen
On behalf of my three daughters, Laura, Kate, and Sarah, my
son-in law Shawn, and all of our extended family, I want to
express our deep gratitude to all the members of the St.
Page 4
Christopher’s community, especially Father Peter and Nina
Miller, for their love and support during this difficult time.
From the many caring messages of condolence, to the time and
effort spent coordinating and preparing nourishing dinners for us
and offering housing for my extended family, to all of the hard
work and detailed preparation for the funeral service - including
the memorial garden, the choir and junior choir, the flowers, the
table linens, the reception food, the memorial tables, the altar,
the chapel, and polishing the floors and pews - to the beautiful
service itself; the members of St. Christopher’s clearly
demonstrated that we are a real community, a real family, that
cares about each other.
I’d like to extend a very heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone at
St. Christopher’s for making Saturday, February 7th, such a
joyful celebration of Debbie’s life. She will not be forgotten her love lives on with all of us.
Very sincerely,
John Olsen
30 Hour Famine
The Senior High Youth Group is participating in the 30 Hour
Famine to help raise awareness and end childhood hunger
around the world. Our youth will be joining several other
churches in Northern Virginia in fasting for 30 hours on
February 27 – 28. During that time we will be raising funds for
World Vision, a hunger relief organization, making food
Page 5
packages for Stop Hunger Now, and performing community
service at many worthy organizations in the area.
Did you know that 18,000 children around the world die each
year due to malnutrition? A donation of $35.00 feeds a child for
a month. Please donate by seeing one of the youth to sponsor
him/her individually or you can go to:
http://youth.worldvision.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.t
eam&teamID=7062
Donations of any amount will be greatly appreciated and will
help children all around the world.
You can also help by donating bread, granola bars, trail mix,
single serving bags of chips, single serving fruit cups, bottled
water, or juice boxes for the Stop Hunger Now food packages.
Please bring these items to church on February 15 or 22 or to the
Pancake Supper.
Finally, we could really use your support in helping us end our
fast by bringing a dish to a pot luck supper in the auditorium at
Saint Christopher’s at 6:00 pm on February 28.
Thanks in advance for any of the assistance you provide in this
endeavor. The people of Saint Christopher’s have always been
very generous in their outreach ministries and in supporting the
youth. This is a wonderful way of doing both at once.
Interested in baptism for yourself or a family
member? The upcoming dates for baptism are the Easter Vigil,
Page 6
which is the evening of Saturday, April 4th; please let Father
Peter know if you are interested in baptism
Help is Needed
We need volunteers to help us with the Big Kitchen Clean Up
for County Inspection in the near future. Please come out and
help on Monday, February 16, 2015, starting at 10:00 a.m.
Many helping hands is needed to get our kitchen into code for
county inspection in order for us to hold Preschool,
Hypothermia Events, Pancake Supper, Lenten Series with
Soup/Bread, Funeral Receptions, Festival Celebrations and
much more.
Please join us on Tuesday, February
17th at 5:30 P.M. for our annual Pancake
Supper. Our Club 45, Jr. and Sr. EYC youth group members
will be cooking and serving the meal. They will be cooking
pancakes, sausage, bacon, and scrambled eggs. Join us and bring
family and friends as we use up the fat in the kitchen moving
into the Lenten season. Goodwill donations will be accepted and
designated towards Club 45 and the Jr. and Sr. EYC.
Ash Wednesday Service Times,
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
 7:30 a.m. Ash Wednesday Liturgy and Holy Eucharist
 9:30 a.m. Ash Wednesday Liturgy and Holy Eucharist
 7:00 p.m. Ash Wednesday Liturgy with music, imposition
of ashes and Holy Eucharist
Page 7
Lenten Sunday Morning Program
Join our seminarian, Jennifer Southall, during the Sunday
School hour in Lent beginning on February 22nd for a series of
discussions on Meeting God in Mark, by former Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams. Filled with spiritual insights, the
book offers a fresh look at Mark’s gospel, and with its focus on
the Passion narrative is especially well suited for Lent. Jennifer's
class will meet in the auditorium, Sunday mornings during Lent,
starting at 9:15 AM. If you want a copy of the book, please let
Kellee Wattenbarger know.
Wednesday Evening Lenten Series:
Blessed is She: Living Lent with Mary – This
year we will again host a Wednesday Evening Lenten Series
beginning on Wednesday, February 25th and ending on
Wednesday, April 1st, in the Auditorium. Each evening will
begin with a 5:45p.m. soup and bread supper, with the one hour
class portion of the evening beginning at 6:30p.m. This year Fr.
Peter will discuss with us each week’s chapter from Blessed is
She: Living Lent with Mary by Tim Perry (ISBN 978-081922233-6). A limited number of copies of the book are available
from Kellee Wattenbarger for $10 each. You are encouraged
and welcomed to join us for the whole evening’s events, but it is
okay if you are only to make one or the other. For those in the
Choir, practice will begin at 7:30p.m. following the conclusion
of the course. As with last year, there will be a separate,
simultaneous offering for the youth, led by our Christian
Formation Director, Mrs. Kellee Wattenbarger. If you have any
questions please contact her, or Fr. Peter.
Page 8
Book Discussion Group: Looking Ahead
The March selection is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony
Doerr. We will meet on Tuesday, March 24. More details later.
Preschool Prattle
Occasionally our preschool outreach has some special news, a
teacher to introduce, or other tidbit to share. Fr. Peter
encourages you to watch this space in future issues of the
E-pistle for those times when such news comes forth!
[email protected]
Page 9