March Birthday Greetings
Garnett Foster, HR
Beth Goss, HR
William Jokela, HR
Lloyd Kinzer, HR
Jill Lum
Rhoda Nixon, HR
Michael Parker
Gary Pinder, HR
Mary Pullen, HR
David Renwick, HR
Samuel Sarpong
Susan Wisseman
Rick Wurst
From the staff of National Capital Presbytery
john, david, dina, heather, lajuan, tara and tempest
A word from your Nominating Committee: The nominating committee needs your help to identify wonderful candidates for the next Vice Moderator, with the hope this person will go on to be our Moderator. If you are interested in serving as Vice Moderator when the current term ends in 2024, or know someone who would be fantastic as a connector, collaborator, and moderator of our shared work in the presbytery, please fill out the Nominating Form, indicate "Moderator/Vice Moderator," and share a little about your sense of call and giftedness for this work. Submissions are due March 15.
Also, it's nominating season for all committees! You can also use the form to self-nominate and indicate interest in serving in other roles in the presbytery. Questions? Reach out to Patrick Hunnicutt, Nominating Committee Chair, at p.hunnicutt@wpc-alex.org.
“In our joyful anticipation of Easter, we're excited to share a creative endeavor by one of our Presbytery's own, Rev. Crawford Brubaker. Their recently published children's book, "Hope's Journey: The Tale of the Easter Bunny," offers a unique and touching narrative that intertwines the playful story of the Easter bunny with the profound journey of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. This tale invites young readers and their families to explore the Easter story through the eyes of Hope, a bunny who witnesses the miracles, teachings, and ultimate triumph of love that Easter represents. It's a wonderful resource for parents and educators looking for meaningful ways to introduce the essence of our faith alongside familiar Easter traditions. Available here: Hope's Journey: The Tale of the Easter Bunny by Crawford F Brubaker, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com) or here: Hope's Journey: The Tale of the Easter Bunny: Brubaker, Crawford F: 9798218378684: Amazon.com: Books
Announcements:
LANDSCAPE SURVEY LINK HERE
Greetings People!
Over 45 of our 103 congregations have participated in a congregational CAT. Your participation is providing real time data that informs us what support and skills are useful for specific congregations. AND as you take the Landscape Survey, this will provide the Presbytery with real-time data as to how to best organize our budget and committees.
After Easter, NCP and the CAT Team interpreters will provide a Three-Part Series on what to do with your CAT!
April 8th, May 13th, June 10th Monday nights at 7pm – 8pm on ZOOM
Topics will be:
• Hospitality Plan! Data is reflecting our faithful congregations are mid to lower in their energy and satisfaction around hospitality and welcome. This is also one of the quickest fixes. WE will guide how to make and update a HOSPITALITY PLAN! Every church deserves to have one.
• Vitality Paralysis. Maybe we have too many options and not enough energy ? This session will focus on how to wade through the data with MissionInsite as it relates to Missional and Religious Preferences
• Spiritual Vitality! It will not necessarily increase your membership BUT it does affect your volunteer and financial impact. We will focus on how these matters for the whole IMPACT of your local congregation and community.
• BONUS in-person session on April 27th! Leadership Training Event. Data is reflected through low trust in Governance, Leadership, and high anxiety of Conflict we have to be more present and effective for HARD CONVERSATIONS. Join trained facilitators through Dialogue for Peaceful Change as some team building models are shared.
Even if your congregation has yet to participate in a CAT yet, since 2020, you are welcome to join these sessions as we hope they will share the good news of how we are all connected in impact and growth opportunities for each congregation. These sessions are provided thanks to your contributions to Unified Mission. Please do register so that you are able to receive reminders of each session.
Peace and Courage,
Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe
Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
- Mark 1:14b-15
Dear Friends,
Lent is a season of repentance. During these forty days before Easter (excluding Sundays!) we remember Jesus’ time of testing in the wilderness, and we reflect on the ways that temptation presses us to turn aside from God’s care and purpose for us. We also remember Jesus’ promise of the nearness of God’s kingdom, and his invitation to lay hold of the good news by changing our thinking and our behavior.
Community of believers as well as individuals, are called to repentance. In our Reformed tradition of the Christian church, we believe that the church is always in need of reform according to the Word of God. The Book of Order reminds us, “As it participates in God’s mission, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seeks… a new openness to see both the possibilities and perils of its institutional forms in order to ensure the faithfulness and usefulness of these forms to God’s activity in the world; and a new openness to God’s continuing reformation of the Church ecumenical, that it might be more effective in its mission” (F-1.0404). The need for reflection, repentance, and reform is an integral part of our heritage as Presbyterians.
The CAT Survey is one of the tools National Capital Presbytery offers to congregations seeking to test and reform their engagement in with God’s mission. Is your congregation pursuing ways of being church that are no longer engaging the energy of your people and rewarding their participation with satisfaction at living out a faithful response to the Gospel? The CAT can help you discover how to re-direct this energy in ways that reflect the character and calling of your community. If your church has recently taken the CAT, please take note of the upcoming opportunities to hear about how to make use of the information it provides, and if your church hasn’t taken it, please come anyway to find out more about this instrument for living out our commitment to continual reform of the church. (See Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe’s update for details.)
Please also take the time to complete the Landscape Survey, a version of the CAT designed to help our presbytery examine and refine our ministry as a wider church community. The information we receive from this survey will help us to adapt the presbytery’s institutional life to the realities of who we are and what we are called to be in this present season.
Jesus emerged from his forty days of temptation with the good news on his lips. As we test and refine our faithfulness to his good news, may the Spirit breathe a similar urgency and joy into our church!
Grace and Peace,
Rev. David Baer, Stated Clerk
Gree�ngs Friends!
It was wonderful to see many of you at our NCP Gathering on the 24th to learn more about how we can align our spending with our priori�es. I heard from many of you how much you appreciated the prac�cal tools that were distributed as well as the opportunity to gather with others similarly live out their calls to ministry. We heard you and we are working on ways to increase those opportuni�es – stay tuned!
For those of you who weren’t able to join us, we began our day by reflec�ng on Hebrews 11:1-3 and 12:1
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible… Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”
We gather in our sanctuaries, don our choir robes, prepare for coffee hours, and hang out our banners –all in the name of Christ because a group of people at some �me in the past, answered a call to be a witness in a very specific loca�on. They built a building and evangelized a community. They gave their �me and their talents and their treasurers so that the message of Christ would be lived out here and now. We are no different today. The issues they faced then seemed as big to them as the issues we face today seem to us. And yet, here we are. Because of them, here we are. That is the legacy of faith that we are connected to and invited to ac�vely par�cipate in. And so, we are bound by that legacy to consider our response; to reflect on how our response ensures the legacy con�nues for those that come behind us.
I invite you to consider that rising to the challenges of today requires us to boldly ignite our Presbyterian superpower: connec�vity. We all ac�vate and respond to our connec�vity in different ways. For me, I am a numbers junkie. Show me the money! Show me the numbers! Show me the data! When I can see the paterns, I feel beter equipped to organize a response.
In Tara’s leter, she reminded us that one tool we have to help us tap into our connec�vity is the CAT. Because of your overwhelming par�cipa�on, the data allows us to see paterns of need in our congrega�ons and our programming is responding! How many of you saw the names of the sessions Tara introduced and thought, wow, that feels like something we need? Because it is! Your par�cipa�on in this tool connects you to each other and provisions for the resources you need!
Now we need to take it a step further. As a Presbytery, we are invi�ng YOU as a par�cipant in the life of Na�onal Capital Presbytery to take the NCP CAT aka the Landscape Survey (Link Here). Your par�cipa�on allows us to have the same data and insight you received through your congrega�onal CAT but on a Presbytery level.
Par�cipa�ng in these tools, atending these offerings are a faithful response to our legacy of faith and ways to benefit from and harness the power of our connec�vity. Over 2024 we will con�nue to press you to consider ways to keep doing this. I’m convinced that we have everything we need to meet the challenges of today AND provision for tomorrow!
Blessings,
Heather
Next Deadline for Global Mission Partnership Grants Proposals
The Global Mission Network (GMN) is soliciting applications for the National Capitol Presbytery (NCP) Global Partnership Grants program from congregations for new cooperative initiatives between congregations and their global mission partners. The next deadline for grant applications is March 31
The program supports interactive, hands-on global mission projects with impact on the community. Preference will be given to new initiatives; applications may be submitted for continued funding in years two and three of a given project. Some preliminary work should be done to assess feasibility before applying, so that the project has a reasonable chance of success and some way to measure when success has been attained. Priority will be given to projects where there is an established relationship and a high level of confidence in the incountry team and where there is a plan for project sustainability. Projects with Presbyterian ecumenical partners are encouraged, but this is not a requirement.
This is a matching grant program; the contribution of your congregation toward the project in both money and labor will be considered. A congregation may submit only one application each year. Travel costs will not be considered, nor will reimbursement grants. Grant proposals requesting up to $5,000 will be considered, for $5,000 in matching funds.
A written report and presentation will be required in the year following the award outlining how the funds were spent, the progress of the project to date including impact on the community and plans for the future. Partnerships with grant awards will be required to provide information to be included in the NCP Global Mission Partnerships Directory, available for download on the NCP GMN webpage at https://thepresbytery.org/the-work-of-thepresbytery/committees/mission-coordination/global-mission-network
Proposals are due to NCP by email by March 31 to Judith Dahmann (jdahmann@mitre.org) using the NCP standard application (download from www.theprebsytery.org) and addressing specific questions for global grants (part 2).
For more information contact Judith Dahmann (jdahmann@mitre.org).
ABBY MADDEN WORSHIP LEADER PATRICK REYES LEADING CHANGE PAUL ROBERTS THE PREACHING MOMENT JESSICA VAZQUEZTORRES QUESTION OF IDENTITY REGISTERTODAY www.nextchurch.net AChurchGatheringforALLLeaders April8-11, 2024 CLAUDIAAGUILAR RUBALCAVA INTERSECTIONALITY CHRIS DELACRUZ COMMUNITY ORGANIZING ASHLEY GOFF COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS LARISSAKWONG ABAZIA SPEAKER
Leadingwith
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
ENERGY, INTELLIGENCE, IMAGINATION, andLOVE
Worship Leader
Le Quan Turner
Saturday, April27,2024
9:00AMto2:30PM (doorsopenat8:00AM;lunchincluded)
NewYorkAvenuePresbyterianChurch
1313NewYorkAvenueNW
parkingavailablenexttochurch at1345NewYorkAveNW
CRE, Southminster Presbyterian Church
Music
John Nothaft
Director of Music Ministries, Lewinsville Presbyterian Church
Plenary Speaker
Rev. John Molina-Moore
General Presbyter, NCP
Register HERE thepresbytery.org/ncp-events
NATIONAL CAPITAL PRESBYTERY
8:00 - 9:00
9:00 - 9:30
9:45 - 11:00
11:15 - 12:30
12:30 - 1:30
1:45 - 2:30
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
Schedule
Welcome and Light Breakfast / Coffee Plenary - Rev. John Molina-Moore
Workshop 1
Workshop 2
Lunch (Open Facilitated Conversations grouped by Trustees, Deacons and Elders)
Closing Worship w/ Communion, led by Le Quan Turner, CRE Southminster PC
Offerings (select TWO)
Presbyterian Polity: Organizing and Making Decisions with Energy, Intelligence, Imagination, and Love - Led by Rev. David Baer, NCP Stated Clerk - God is up to something, and it's the church's job to discern, follow, and lead people in God's mission! Come and learn the basics of governance in the congregation, and leave equipped with tools to help your church stay focused and faithful.
Ordained Spiritual Leadership Outside of the (Session, Deacon, Trustee) Meeting - Led by Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe, NCP Director of Congregational Development and Mission - Ordained officers are called into Spiritual Leadership of the church. How we live into and practice this spiritual leadership deserves to be constant and not just in our meetings.
Engaging the CAT (Church Assessment Tool) - Led by the CAT Team - Hear from leaders and congregations on how they utilize the tool. (offered @ Workshop 1 only)
Tools for Managing Conflict - Led by COM’s Ministry Relations Team members Rev. Eric Forsyth and Rev. Rose Wayland - Conflict is inevitable in every organization, including the church. How can you understand, manage and transform conflict to enable your congregation to grow and thrive? They offer some helpful tools you can use right away, and also introduce the new Presbytery Conflict Mediation resources available at no cost to congregations.
People and Property: How Does the Volunteer Void Intersect with Our Property Decisions? –Led by Heather Deacon, NCP Director of Business Affairs & Rev. John Molina-Moore, NCP General Presbyter. A lot can happen at an intersection. Do we see the current realities as challenges or opportunities? What are the implications for our congregations and the communities they serve? Be a part of the conversation as we tackle our fears and explore the possibilities.
NATIONAL CAPITAL PRESBYTERY
Summary statement:
Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church Kensington, MD
Clean Energy for the Community
Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church won the Renewable Role Model Award from Interfaith Power & Light in their Cool Congregations Challenge for developing a Community Solar project with newly installed solar on the roof of their facility whose output exceeded their needs, so they've been able to provide electricity at reduced rates to a neighboring non-profit housing program and a number of local families.
“Peace and justice is God’s plan for all creation. The earth and all creation are God’s. God calls us to be careful, humble stewards of this earth, and to protect and restore it for its own sake and for the future use and enjoyment of the human family.” — Presbyterian Earth Care Congregations Pledge
Warner Memorial’s story -
Several years ago, we had a dream and a challenge. Our dream was to replace the electricity we were getting from PEPCO (our electricity supplier) with cleanly generated electricity, and by our example, encourage others to do the same. Being a PC(USA) Earth Care Congregation, we are committed to environmental stewardship, but nothing seemed financially feasible.
In 2017, Warner helped form the National Capital Presbytery Youth Carbon Analyst Program, which brought together high school youth to be leaders in energy transformation in congregations. In 2020 they made presentations on rooftop solar generation. Profiles of several local churches were presented, including an analysis of Warner Memorial. The analysis showed
that our roof could generate twice the energy we need! Then we consulted with Lumina Solar (who eventually installed the system) and replaced our aging roof.
Thanks to a webinar sponsored by the Interfaith Power & Light DMV affiliate covering DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia, we learned about upcoming legislation that would make the existing Community Solar pilot a permanent program. In Maryland’s program, the owner/lessor can use up to half of the electricity generated, and the other half is made available to subscribers in the community. We also learned about funding possibilities through the Montgomery County Green Bank.
We contacted Cindy McCabe at the Montgomery County Green Bank. She approached a solar energy developer, Skyview Ventures, who was eager to begin working with nonprofit organizations and was willing to take on a small project like ours. She helped us develop a Community Solar program, with financing from the Montgomery County Green Bank for Skyview Ventures. Our church’s Earth Stewardship Team shepherded a contract with Skyview Ventures through all the required approvals and negotiated a rate reduction averaging 27%.
We could have taken most of this rate reduction for our own use. However, we instead chose to use the average reduction (27%) only for Warner Memorial’s half of the generated electricity and to offer a smaller rate reduction (10%) to three member-households for access to onequarter of the electricity. This enabled us to pass along a large rate reduction (44%) on the remaining electricity produced to Housing Unlimited, a non-profit that seeks to provide affordable housing to very low-income adults in mental health recovery in Montgomery County. Our Community Solar project connected to the grid on November 17, 2023. Warner expects to use only 41,150 kWh of the total 82,300 kWh we expect to produce annually, and to provide 20,000kWh to Housing Unlimited at a 44% discount
This experience brought together diverse stakeholders, including a church, a social-service nonprofit organization, a county-backed financial institution, and a private developer - all working towards a common goal of caring for the environment and one another. The collaboration yields two benefits: it replaces carbon-intensive electricity with carbon-free solar, and it provides electricity at a reduced cost for our church building and for financially pressed members of our community. We hope to be an example to other organizations and an inspiration to leaders adopting clean energy strategies.
Church website: https://warnermemorial.org/
Contact June at june.eakin@mac.com for more information.
One year opportunities for young adults ages 18--35 are available in Albuquerque, Asheville, and Washington, DC. Please share the application far and wide! And reach out to Rev. Blair Moorhead at dcyavprogram@gmail.com if you have any questions!
community!
adult transformation collective
for this
year open now!
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an ecumenical ecosystem for connecting and resourcing programs like ours
a deep passion for transforming the lives of youth and young adults. Visit our website here.
