the GATEWAY
Easter by Rev. Molly Blythe Teichert
Easter is shrouded in mystery. What really happened Easter morning? How was Jesus raised from the dead? What does it mean for us today? Christians throughout the centuries have pondered the mystery and meaning of the resurrection. Jesus once was dead, but now he is alive! Death could not hold Jesus, he broke its hold for all of us and has opened the way to full, abundant, life eternal for all. No matter how we say it, it’s still difficult to get our heads around the concept. That’s why throughout the centuries faith communities have sought ways to make the good news of life conquering death accessible, especially to children. Here are some of my favorite ways of trying to grasp the mystery of the holy day: From Germany comes the story of the fertility goddess Eostre. It is from her that we get the word “Easter.” As legend has it, one day Eostre found a bird freezing to death in the snow. To save its life, she transformed it into a rabbit so its fur would keep it warm. The rabbit survived, but still laid eggs like a bird. And to this day, the Easter bunny delivers eggs on Easter morning in celebration of the new life she gave. In France, all the church bells stop ringing on Good Friday and stay silent until Easter morning. When the little children asked why the bells weren’t ringing, someone came up with the explanation that the bells all grew wings and flew to Rome to get chocolate and sweets for the children. What is more believable? A bell growing wings and flying to Rome or a man rising from the dead? In Brazil, Christians fly kites to celebrate Jesus return to heaven. Again, legend has it that an early Christian missionary was trying to explain the resurrection and used the cross shaped frame of a kite to demonstrate the idea of rising from the dead and ascending into heaven. We will celebrate and grapple with the mystery of the resurrection throughout April. There will be Easter eggs to hunt on April 7th – following one service at 10:00 am. On the 14th we ride into Holy Week with King Jesus on a lowly donkey. We sit in darkness in our Maundy Thursday Tenebrae service on April 18 as we remember the story of Jesus’ death. We will walk the Stations of the Cross with churches around Chevy Chase Circle on Good Friday April 19. And then on April 21, we will welcome the Day of Resurrection with services at 9:15 am and 11:15 am. We will celebrate the mystery of God’s love that is stronger than death, love that is more powerful than hate, love that is capable of healing all our wounds, the love that is ours and our greatest hope. Not all mysteries are meant to be solved. The new life of Easter is meant to be held in awe and pondered. It is meant to work on our souls year after year seeping into the cracks of sadness and pain until we are transformed by the power of love and compassion.
The Monthly Newsletter of The Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church
APRIL 2019 ISSUE
CCPC is...
Grateful for Volunteers
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: THE NEEDLEWORK GROUP
STITCHED WITH LOVE AND PRAYERS By Susan Price
Since 2008, countless children and adults, both inside and outside the church, have enjoyed the fruits of CCPC’s Needlework Group. Members gather every Tuesday in the church library to knit, crochet or quilt baby blankets, lap robes and prayer shawls to be given as tangible expressions of God’s love and sources of warmth and comfort. Recipients include new babies, shut-ins, hospital patients, people going through chemotherapy or dialysis, veterans, the bereaved, departing church staff members, and many more. The majority are delivered by the deacons, and a few shawls are kept in the Narthex for church attendees who need some extra warmth during a Sunday service. Pastor Eric Peltz joins the group periodically to bless and dedicate the works before they are passed on. And once a year, a group of works are dedicated during a Sunday worship service. Each work carries a label with the church’s name and a saying from former Pastor Art Sundstrom: “You do not go alone, we go together, and our God goes with us.” The person who actually made the item is never identified. Each prayer shawl is accompanied by a letter that explains that it is “made by loving and caring people of this congregation…each one comes with prayers of hope and joy, and with thoughts of comfort and peace.” Occasionally, the group takes requests, making hats for premature babies at a local hospital, baby blankets for a Capitol Hill pregnancy center, caps for Syrian refugees, and red scarves as Valentine’s Day gifts for youth in foster care aging out of the system. They have also donated yarn to a women’s prison. While the group has an important mission, it’s also a place for fellowship. Nancy Rosan noted that members “feel a deep joy at the precious times we have together as we work on our individual projects. It’s a time for us to relax, get to know one another better, exchange joys and concerns, share our stories (and delicious treats!), laugh, learn and increase our faith and love for others.” Florence Mills, the coordinator, said the group was started by Ginny Spevak as a way to combine compassion and the fiber arts. Ginny’s last shawl, underway at her untimely death in 2008, hangs in Geneva Hall on the left as you enter. CCPC’s group was the first from DC to join the national Prayer Shawl Ministry (shawlministry.com) founded in 1998 by two graduates of the Hartford Seminary’s Women’s Leadership Institute as a result of their experience in the seminary’s program of applied feminist spirituality. Want to get involved? The group welcomes needle workers at all skill levels, and will even teach newcomers how to knit or crochet. Meetings are from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays in the church library. The group also welcomes donations of acrylic yarns suitable for shawls and baby blankets.
KEEPING US SAFER AT CHURCH Recent acts of violence against religious institutions have caused congregations across the country, including CCPC, to review their safety procedures. We will never make ourselves completely safe. But we want you to be aware of steps you can take—and what the church is doing—that can save lives.
What You Can Do: Last month, an officer of the Metropolitan Police Department Response Team conducted a security survey and made recommendations to heighten building security. The MPD also recommended staff and members watch a training video called Run, Hide, Fight on YouTube. ( https://youtu.be/5VcSwejU2D0) The goal is to help people know how to react in an attack so as to minimize the harm an active shooter can cause. It’s also good to have an exit plan when attending worship by identifying the nearest exits out of the sanctuary, including through Johnson Chapel that has an exterior door. The same applies if you are in Chadsey Hall which has several exits. And the slogan “See Something, Say Something” applies at church, too. If you see any suspicious activity, report it to an usher or staff member.
What the Church Can Do: The church has already enhanced some safety features and is implementing others: We removed a pew at the front of the sanctuary to create more room for egress. We are locking the door leading into the sanctuary by the entrance to the balcony to prevent someone from coming in to worship and going up to the balcony undetected by ushers We request people with large bags to check them rather than take them into the sanctuary We are putting up clear signage to mark the Johnson Chapel exit We are ensuring that the exterior door at the back of Chadsey Hall near the kitchen is locked on Sunday mornings. We will make our address on the outside of the building clearly visible so that emergency response teams will be able to find us quickly.
Upcoming
Events
CCPC EARTH STEWARDS E-WASTE RECYCLING EVENT SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 8-11:30 AM Technology is amazing, and yet it becomes obsolete so quickly! Do you have a "flip phone" from 2001? An old monitor collecting dust in the garage? How about that old cassette tape player from 1992? We have great news! The CCPC Earth Stewards Committee is holding its first "E-WASTE RECYCLING EVENT" on Saturday, April 27, from 8-11: 30 AM in the parking lot off Connecticut Ave and Oliver Street. Please bring in your old electronics to recycle in an environmentally friendly way. Please note, for any computers or phones, be sure to clear any sensitive data before recycling.
MIDDLE EAST LECTURE WEDNESDAY | APRIL 17 | GENEVA HALL SPEAKER: THOMAS W. LIPPMAN Thomas W. Lippman is an award-winning author and journalist who has written about Middle Eastern affairs and American foreign policy for more than three decades, specializing in Saudi Arabian affairs, U.S.- Saudi relations, and relations between the West and Islam. He is a former Middle East bureau chief of the Washington Post, and also served as that newspaper's oil and energy reporter. Throughout the 1990s, he covered foreign policy and national security for the Post, traveling frequently to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East. In 2003 he was the principal writer on the war in Iraq for Washingtonpost.com. Prior to his work in the Middle East, he covered the Vietnam war as the Washington Post's bureau chief in Saigon. WNS 60TH ANNIVERSARY PLAYGROUND PARTY SUNDAY APRIL 28, 3-5 PM In 1958, the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church Weekday Nursery School opened its doors to welcome one class of 12 four year olds. Through its school, the church’s longtime ministry to its neighbors celebrates its core tenet, “Children Our Blessing”. Thousands of families have enjoyed a joyful early childhood education at CCPC. We estimate that more than 5,000 children began their educational journey at CCPC. Sixty years later, the school has 125 children ages 18 months to 5 years with a dedicated and loving teaching staff of 22. Our Learning Through Play philosophy has stood the test of time, and CCPC has been a treasured tradition for generations of families in upper Northwest, DC. This year’s parents boast 5 alums. Who says DC is a transient community? Not so here at CCPC.
Important
Notes
EASTER FLOWER DEDICATIONS
Members of the Flower Committee will be in Chadsey Hall following each service on April 7, and 14 to collect for dedicated lilies and plants for Easter. The cost is $20 per donation. All donation requests must be turned in to the church office by Sunday April 14, 2019.
EASTER BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Once In a Lifetime
by Len Ralston At 4:00 pm, Sunday, April 28, ERIC OWENS, an international star of the operatic and concert stages, will be presented by Chevy Chase Concerts in our own sanctuary. A native of Philadelphia and graduate of Temple University and the Curtis Institute in the mid 1990’s, Owens has appeared in numerous roles on many of the most important opera and concert stages in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, The San Francisco Opera, the Chicago Opera, and Covent Garden. Locally he has been heard in recent years as Porgy in Porgy and Bess, as King Philip in Don Carlos and in recital for Vocal Arts DC at the Terrace Theater in the Kennedy Center. (I heard all of those.) Aside from his refined art, Owens is known as a very friendly and approachable “nice guy.” He believes that his stature in his art carries with it an obligation to serve and to promote musical groups who don’t enjoy the same advantages. Put aside any notion you have that opera is only for the elite or the moneyed class. You can pay hundreds of dollars to hear Owens in the above venues, or you can take advantage of this “once in a lifetime” opportunity to hear him absent costumes and other trappings of the opera house and the separation inherent between the stage and the concert seats. Experience Owen’s artistry direct. We invite, indeed we urge, you to experience the unique artistry of this singer in an environment that few will have the privilege of enjoying.
holy week AT CHEVY CHASE PRESBYTERIAN APRIL 14 SERVICES AT 9:15 & 11:15 AM
PALM & PASSION SUNDAY
REMEMBERING JESUS’ TRIUMPHAL ENTRY AND THE BEGINNING OF HIS PASSION
APRIL 18 SERVICE AT 7:30 PM
MAUNDY THURSDAY
THE SOLEMN OBSERVANCE OF THE LAST SUPPER AND TENEBRAE WITH MUSIC BY THE CHANCEL CHOIR
APRIL 19 SERVICE AT 1:15 PM
GOOD FRIDAY STATIONS OF THE CROSS
JOURNEY TO EASTER WITH THE CIRCLE CHURCHES WE’LL BEGIN AT 1:15 P.M. AT ALL SAINTS' EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND CONCLUDE AROUND 2:30 P.M. WITH A RECEPTION AT CCPC.
APRIL 21 SERVICES AT 9:15 & 11:15 AM
EASTER SUNDAY
APRIL WORSHIP SCHEDULE April 7 Children's Musical Service at 10:00 am Musical with Carol/Junior/Chapel choirs and friends
April 14 Palm and Passion Sunday Services at 9:15 and 11:15 Music: First Service Singers and Carol Choir Chancel Choir and Junior Choir
April 18 Maundy Thursday Service at 7:30 pm Maundy Thursday/Tenebrae service with Chancel Choir
April 21 Easter Service at 9:15 & 11:15 Music by the Chancel Choir and Brass Ensemble
April 28 Earth Steward Sunday Services at 9:15 and 11:15 Music: The Revelations Guitar Group and Chancel choir
facebook.com/ChevyChasePC/ The Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church One Chevy Chase Circle, NW Washington, DC 20015 office@chevychasepc.org 202-363-2202
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