On The Table

Hi church,

It's Holy Week. In this, the most sacred time of the Church year, we remember our Lord's last days on this earth. We recall his final acts and teachings. His sharing of bread and wine and the tender service of foot-washing. His betrayal, arrest, Passion, and death. And, on Easter Sunday, his Resurrection: death overcome, Love triumphant.

Just as we've journeyed through Lent together, we'll be sharing the celebration of Easter with our brothers and sisters at New Hope Fellowship, Sunday at 10:50am. You can join us for breakfast at 9am, and stay for a celebratory feast after the service. If you don't mind the short walk, we can relieve some parking burdens by leaving our cars at the ball fields just north of the community center where New Hope meets.

But before that celebration, it would be good to spend some time walking through this last, dark week with Jesus. There are many ways to do that, including moving liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday in the area - please contact us and we can let you know of some.

One powerful way to encounter Holy Week would be to journey through the creative, participatory Stations of the Cross that have been crafted by folks at our sister congregation, Holy Grounds, on the lower level of Fairlington Presbyterian Church. Some Common Table folks also contributed to these stations, which have been designed to arrest, challenge, and even accuse the one who journeys through them, in a deeply personal way. They'll be available for pilgrimage at the following times:

Wednesday 3:30-4:30pm and 8:30-9:30pm
Thursday 6:30-7:30pm & 8:30-9:30pm
Friday 7-9pm
Saturday 10am-12pm

And that's all, for this holiest of weeks. May the remainder of your Lenten journey be transformative, and on Easter, may you share the joy of abundant life - sprung wondrously, gloriously, impossibly, from evil and death.

Peace,
Mike Croghan

Labels: Easter, Holy Week, lent, New Hope

This weekend, we begin our final steps in this journey of Lent, as Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the holiest week of the Christian year begins. This coming Sunday (10am at Jammin' Java), we'll gather for a Palm Sunday worship service that looks at Jesus' entry into the holy city, as well as several peculiar interactions between our Lord and fig trees. Please join us as we continue our Lenten journey in repenting of our safe and tame ideas about the Nazarene.


As Holy Week continues, we aren't planning any specifically Common Table gatherings for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday, but if you're looking for a deeper experience of Jesus' journey from Palm Sunday to Calvary to the great reversal of his Resurrection, let me know - as our resident (Anglo-)catholic, I can hook you up with some options for liturgical worship.


Looking further out, the last weekend in March will bring us our monthly service-worship (it sounds like we'll be working with our friends at the Lamb Center - stay tuned for deets from the GNU Team) as well as a congregational meeting to discuss, among other things, what God is calling is to do with this newly debt-free community of ours.


Peace,

Labels: congregational meeting, Holy Week, service-worship