Youth Choir on a Mission

Seeking to be the heart and hands of Jesus, our Youth Choir just returned from a mission trip in partnership with South Mecklenburg Presbyterian Church (SMPC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. If this church sounds familiar to you it might be because former CCE'er Rebecca Guzman is now the Director of Spiritual Formation at SMPC

The twelve young women of the youth choir served at the Salvation Army, enjoyed fellowship with the SMPC youth and families, and sang in Sunday worship at SMPC.

The youth choir shared their musical gifts with joy and love, delighting a congregation that erupted in applause over and over again. The team was invited back, just at they were after the previous two trips to a parish in Herndon, VA.

Says Music Minister Keith Tan: "I believe we might have started something…."
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Tearing Down Walls

On a typical Sunday afternoon, our Garage youth building is bustling with activity as middle and high school students gather for fellowship and spiritual formation. The afternoon of January 22 was certainly lively with chatter, laughter, and fun; but typical it was not.

That particular Sunday, our youth were joined by 25 teens from the West End Islamic Center (WEIC). Located only 1 mile apart, our two faith communities are committed to supporting each other as neighbors. So joining together for an afternoon of Challenge Discovery was a perfect way to build our mutual relationships. A program of the University of Richmond, the mission of Challenge Discovery is to engage young people in powerful, fun experience-based learning as a catalyst for building relationships, improving self-esteem and supporting their peers.

“Members from both groups enjoyed icebreakers, challenging tasks, and team-building activities,” said Adam Williams, Minister to Students. “Our hope is that events like this will help create space for tearing down walls that easily divide us so we can learn to respect, trust, and love another.”

Our neighbors will be joining us again on February 12 to pack meals for international relief organization, Stop Hunger Now. The registration for that event filled up in record time due to the overwhelming response from you all and from our WEIC friends.

As yet another act of radical hospitality, the West End Islamic Center will be having an OPEN HOUSE on Saturday, February 11, 2017 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. They have invited us all to come meet them at their place of worship (5000 Shady Grove Road) and learn about Islam and Muslims. The event will also be open to the general public.

Please stay tuned for more information about our budding relationship with WEIC as we live into our faith together.

Knit Together

A WITNESS BY LINDA WALTON

From a very early age, I began enjoying crafting and the process of ‘creating’ something special. My first knitting project was a pair of wristlets for my grandmother. Although they were gaudy, I knitted them with the intent of pleasing her.
I could not have imagined then that my knitting skills would evolve nor that they would interweave so well with my spirituality and desire to give back to others. Now I knit to create items for gifts, silent auctions, the Sisters of Bethany Prayer Shawl Ministry, which also knits hats for newborns. I especially like the idea of blessing the gift and giving it in honor of a newborn, as a tangible sign of God’s handiwork in their lives and life to come. At Christ Church, I have witnessed the importance of focusing on and developing a child’s faith, and believe this ministry is a wonderful way to begin.

Not only do I get the pleasure of seeing people wear my creations, but I also enjoy the gift of fellowship with other knitters in our congregation. We share yarn, patterns, lessons learned and ideas for our knitting or crocheting. When I am alone, I find knitting keeps me occupied while I watch TV, travel, or sit in some obnoxiously long and tedious meeting or teleconference!

I love to watch colors and different textures merge together to become something beautiful and useful. God knit us together in our mother’s womb, and my knitting joins me together with friends and recipients in the Christ Church community.

*This story originally appeared in the April 2014 print issue of Sharing Our Faith. It is reprinted here with a video recorded at the most recent meeting on January 26, 2017.

For more information about the Sisters of Bethany Prayer Shawl Ministry, please contact Rev. Darren Steadman

God Works Through the Children

A WITNESS BY KIM SCHARF

"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3

One of my biggest challenges as an adult has been to keep my faith strong and put my trust wholeheartedly in God. I know God's got it, that His will be done, but I still try to control things around me. My Sundays are precious to me, especially since I stay at home with 3 and 5 year old boys, both with sensory needs and one with autism. For an hour every week as I sit in church, I get a reprieve from Angry Birds, Disney, and arguments about wearing pants outside of the house. On Sundays I have the opportunity to refill my cup with the Spirit, to reposition my armor and get ready to do the Lord's work again this week. As hard as it was for me to give up this time, I felt called to serve as a Sunday School volunteer once my oldest son started going. Initially, I thought it was to help him transition into the program--but after two years, I know it's just as much for me as it is for him.

God calls us to be like children: not power-hungry, not focused on outward differences, just content to be taken care of and accepting of the authority above us. And as I teach my little friends the stories we've heard so many times, hearing how they understand it and see God's love in their own lives, I find myself to be the one learning. Our sweet kids love their parents wholeheartedly. Ask them "Who helps you feel better? Who takes care of you? Who makes you happy?" and "Mom and Dad" are always the top answer. We talk about harder things too, what to do when someone is mean or we make a mistake. Again, my little friends give the best answers. They know to forgive, or apologize, or give a hug--there is no egotism or grudge-holding. They move on.

It is amazing how God works through the children on my heart. My family's church attendance has become much more consistent, which allows all of us to get the spiritual time and growth we need. No matter how hectic our days are, or what mini-crisis occurred just as we walked out the door, I have never once regretted teaching, in fact I always leave with a fuller heart than when I walked in. Our littlest friends are such a good and gentle reminder from God to trust in Him, and it is such a privilege to serve them!



In addition to teaching preschool Sunday School, Kim Scharf serves on the nursery and Sunday school committees. She is married to Adam and has two sons, Eli and Owen. 

Children Helping Children

At the November Kids Care Club, part of our First Sunday’s formation offerings, we welcomed a very special guest, Suzanne Hicks. Suzanne is the Executive Director of Hope for Humanity, an organization that was founded by a CCE member and seeks to equip and give hope to boys and girls in South Sudan, believing that education is the best way to help people grow and become self-sustaining.

The young participants listened to the parable of the Good Samaritan and learned about the boys and girls studying at Hope and Resurrection School(HRSS) in South Sudan. Putting faith into action, the Kids Care Club created ornaments to be displayed on the annual Hope for Humanity Giving Tree.

You are invited to take an ornament during Advent and make a donation to benefit our

brothers and sisters in South Sudan. This year, the ornaments beautifully represent the school. You can choose between a bookmark, the funds from which will help provide education to a nation’s next generation of leaders; or you can purchase an ornament filled with rice and beans. Each day, the students at HRSS are given a lunch of rice and beans. Local food insecurity means that this is frequently their only daily meal. The lunch is critical in nourishing the growing minds and bodies of the students and allowing them to fully participate in class.

The Kids Care Club made a connection with students half a world away, children all precious in God’s sight. We invite you to connect, too -- by supporting the Giving Tree this year. With your support, Hope for Humanity, Inc. will educate and feed more than 250 students. The ornament will bring life to your home as your gift helps make change possible for HRSS students, their community, and the world we share.

You can purchase your ornament from the milling area now through December 18.

Cherish the traditional and rock the contemporary

BY KEITH TAN

One of the many joys I have serving at Christ Church is the opportunity to build bridges. From the very beginning of my ministry at Christ Church, during the height of the “worship wars” of High-Church versus Low-Church, of traditional versus contemporary, God has equipped me as a classically-trained pianist who also loves pop music, to bridge the divide between classical and pop music, blending their styles together, and to bring that into the church.

If God is worshiped by all the saints (who stretch across time and space), wouldn’t the sound of heaven be a glorious fusion of musical styles? I long to join in that heavenly praise and music!

Through fresh rhythmic arrangements of classic hymns and ancient chants, through classical orchestrations of contemporary praise music, and everything in between, Christ Church’s music ministry passionately and resolutely focuses on helping people connect with God, despite stylistic preferences.

I’d like to update you on some exciting news in our ministry. It starts with the state of our old digital organ-keyboard on stage. It is faulty and old (non-sensitive touch screen, blown speakers, and a very outdated and limited sound selection), and like all digital computers, not really worth repairing after 20 years of technological advancement. It just needs to be replaced.

The Music Team (supported by our rector and our vestry), along with our church’s Keyboardists (including myself) have been looking into this project, wondering what instrument to replace it with (a digital organ? We wondered). Now, we are committed to continuing our ministry’s artistic legacy of embracing and blending traditional and contemporary styles. We discovered that there does not exist one instrument that adequately performs well in both traditional and contemporary styles. Hence, our very exciting news…

We are purchasing two keyboards – a Roland C200 Portable Organ (Yeah, right? I didn’t know these existed!) and a Yamaha Montage 8 (their flagship synthesizer), which I will connect together. (Turns out that this solution, that we will purchase using funds from our music restricted funds, only cost a fraction of a digital organ!)

Together, these two keyboards represent our commitment to cherish the traditional and rock the contemporary. Through them, we can create a new voice that draws upon the depth and resilience of timeless classics and the modern expressions of today. Together, we can create a new kind of ancient future music, perhaps momentarily joining in the timeless worship of heaven!

I look forward to showing them to you in this Advent!

Prayer and Care this Election Season

During this election season, Christ Church invites you to prepare your spirit in a variety of ways:

Join us in worship this weekend as we lift our hearts, minds and voices to God. // Saturday at 5 PM, Sunday at 9:00 & 10:45 AM.

Watch this special video message from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

Turn to the Word. Join us for a special look at the Gospel According to Luke at the First Sunday's Bible Study // Sunday, November 6, 5:00 PM.

Pray. Pray. Pray. Our Bishops in the Diocese of Virginia have invited us all to take part in a 56-hour Prayer Vigil. //Begins at 12 PM on All Saints' Sunday, November 6, and extends to 8 PM on Election Day, November 8.

“So owe no-one anything except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments ‘You shall not commit adultery’, ‘You shall not murder’, ‘You shall not steal’, ‘You shall not covet’, any other commandment, they are all summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” - Romans 13

www.ccerva.org

Learning Curve

A WITNESS BY SHAWN DUNHAM

2 Timothy 1:7: For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline. 

These are the words that have powered me over the past two years. I recognized by reading The Confidence Code that I was not fully participating in life. The fear of not being good enough was holding me back from many things. I was so conscious of my own foibles and frailties that I shied away from positions of leadership. I didn’t want to put myself out there for others to judge and, in my mind, who would judge me as inadequate.

I became aware that I was not allowing myself a learning curve. Rather I was imposing on myself the burden of having to perform perfectly in every new endeavor. “Why try, when you know you will stumble along the way?” I would ask myself. Too aware of my perceived flaws, hyper-focused on what was lacking versus what was.

Discovering this scripture helped me to realize that fear and timidity is not what God desires for me. It became my mantra, one that I used to remind myself not to hold back, but instead to move forward in confidence. So when I was asked to serve on the Vestry, I said yes. When I was offered the opportunity to assume a supervisory position at work, I said yes. I have performed these roles imperfectly, but boldly.

Joan Chittister writes in Following the Path, “What fills the heart with happiness is not what we get out of the world; it’s what we put into it. Being about something worthwhile, spending our lives on something worth spending a life on is what, in the end, makes us happy.” I couldn’t agree more.

You can’t make a difference in this world standing on the sidelines. By holding back, I was missing God’s call to me. Missing opportunities to apply my gifts - maybe even missing tasks that God desired me to perform. How can you be God’s hands and feet in the world if you always hold back in fear?

To better serve God, I’ll need to apply myself, step out, take a chance, explore, examine, make false attempts and build skills. I’ll need to leverage my God given gifts and hone them through practice. I’ll need to accept new roles with the understanding that I will likely perform them imperfectly. Yet as a dear friend said to me, “it doesn’t matter if someone else could perform this role better. That someone else is not here. You are.”

So in this season of my life I am allowing myself a learning curve. Not requiring perfection, but embracing the journey. Saying yes to God’s spirit of power and love and self-discipline. The power which can work through me to bring more love into the world. Think of the possibilities if each of us could commit to living out this scripture (imperfectly) today.

—Shawn Dunham serves on the Vestry at Christ Church Episcopal

Caring for Our Creation

A WITNESS BY ADAM WILLIAMS

Last Saturday, 10 of our middle and high school students and 4 adult volunteers journeyed down I-64 East and the Boulevard before arriving to the historic and beautiful Byrd Park. Our job for the morning? Meeting up with other Richmond-ers for a city-wide day of service in parks, neighborhoods, food banks, and other locations that often need the loving touch of a volunteer. After going over a few guidelines, strapping on our safety vests, and securing our work gloves, we were off and running, cleaning up storm debris and trash strewn about the park after our recent bouts with inclement weather. What was supposed to be a two-hour job was shortened to an hour because of just how hard our team worked to help restore a place that so many enjoy.

Working alongside of our students as they respond to God’s call to take care of their world (see Genesis 2:15) and the people in it is, without a doubt, the most rewarding part of my job. When we act as gracious and careful stewards of creation, we do so much more than simply pick up trash or move tree branches to the curbside. We help give people pride in their neighborhoods; we help make parks and playgrounds safe for children to play; we help reinforce that all of God’s creation is good and is therefore deserving of our attention and love. Our students, with bright smiles on their faces and dirt on their clothes, understand this quite well.
— Adam Williams is the Minister to Students at Christ Church Episcopal

Lay Pastoral Care through "A Community of Hope"

Acting on Feedback from Focus on the Future
A WITNESS BY LINDA WALTON

“I have been looking for a way to plug in….” and “I was looking for a way to reengage, and then the letter arrived.” These are but a few of the observations of people carefully considering their role in the emerging lay pastoral care ministry at Christ Church.


The desire for a vibrant and enduring lay pastoral care ministry was clearly communicated during our Focus on the Future sessions and later stated in the Parish Profile used to recruit our rector. Participants recognized a need for Christ Church of the future to be a place where clergy still focus on pastoral care yet aren’t stretched too thinly. Ideally this will be done, in part, through better development of lay leadership.

Thankfully, there is a "A School for God's service" — the Community of Hope International. The mission of Community of Hope is “to create Christian communities of lay volunteer pastoral care givers united in prayer, shaped by Benedictine spirituality, and equipped for and serving in pastoral care ministries.” Christ Church is joining an organization which is already established throughout the world.

The Community of Hope uses a 14 week, 42-hour curriculum to equip caregivers for this ministry. After the training, caregivers are commissioned as lay pastoral ministers. Commissioned pastoral caregivers then agree to participate in The Circle of Care, which is a monthly group meeting where they worship together, take part in continuing education, and report and debrief on their visitations. The program demands intentional dedication but rewards by strengthening community relationships and growing awareness of the presence of God in our lives.

This ministry is a gift of grace to both care receivers and care givers. More importantly, it is a gift from Christ:

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. — Ephesians 4:11-12

You will hear more about this ministry as it develops and classes are scheduled. But you can also learn more by visiting www.ccerva.org/care or contacting The Rev. Robin Teasley. Please keep this new ministry and the volunteers in your prayers as they work to effectively deliver it to Christ Church.

- Linda Walton is one of the lay leaders called to implement A Community of Hope here at Christ Church.