Worship Schedule:
10:00am in the Sanctuary and on YouTube
Due to the pandemic the need for food is increasing daily. In addition, the annual Letter Carriers Food Drive (Stamp Out Hunger) which normally produces more than 50,000 lbs. of donated food has been canceled which makes the need even greater.
AFAC needs canned vegetables, cereal (low sugar), canned tuna, canned tomato products (stewed, diced, paste), and peanut butter (in plastic jars).
Contributions can be dropped off in the Narthex.
Sunday, October 2
9:00 a.m. – Sunday School in the Parish Hall.
10:00 a.m. – Worship: Prof. Shawn Strout presiding.
11:00 a.m. – Pet Blessing on the church lawn. Please see the "Bless Our Pets" section below and listen for an announcement if the weather is inclement.
11:15 a.m. – Creation Care Team forum with a presentation from the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions.
5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. - Confirmation Class.
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. - Dinner, Youth Group activities and service for Post-Confirmation Youth and Confirmation Class members.
Monday, October 3
7:30 p.m. – Congregation Council Executive Committee will meet virtually.
Thursday, October 6
7:30 p.m. – Congregation Council will meet virtually.
Sunday, October 9
9:00 a.m. – Sunday School in the Parish Hall.
10:00 a.m. – Worship: The Rev. Sarah Garrett Krey, Assistant to the Bishop for Mobility & Candidacy, Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod, presiding.
11:30 a.m. – Call Committee meeting with Pastor Krey.
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s assessment of Arlington County’s COVID-19 community level as “low,” the wearing of masks at Resurrection is currently optional. The church will continue to monitor the county’s community level and make adjustments in precautions based on the CDC assessment.
The church’s Reopening Planning Group encourages congregants to wear masks if they choose to, as well as continuing to maintain appropriate distances when sitting in pews, sharing the peace of Christ and taking communion, and to wash hands and use sanitizers in church. Pastors, communion assistants, and ushers will continue to wear masks when welcoming those attending services and in distributing Holy Communion in deference to congregation members who choose to take that precaution. The wearing of masks in Sunday School will be based on parents’ feedback. The group also encourages congregants to keep up to date with vaccinations and that those not feeling well should stay home and access the livestream feed of worship services.
We are delighted to welcome Professor Shawn Strout from the Virginia Theological Seminary to preside and preach at our 10:00 a.m. worship service this Sunday – and to preside over the traditional blessing of our beloved pets on the lawn in front of the church at the conclusion of our service.
In the coming weeks we are blessed to have an exceptional group of guest clergy continue to join us for our Sunday services. We will welcome back Metro D.C. Synod Assistant to the Bishop for Candidacy and Mobility Pastor Sarah Garrett Krey on October 9, followed on October 16 by the return of Professor Shawn Strout, on October 23 of Bishop Richard Graham, and on October 30 of Professor James Farwell. We hope you will join us each Sunday as we continue our congregation’s life and worship.
Anyone who has a pet and wishes for that pet to be blessed is welcome to bring the pet to the church on this coming Sunday. This Sunday is chosen because it is closest to October 4, the day on which Lutherans and other Christians commemorate Francis of Assisi, the thirteenth century man who was famous for — among many other things — his care for animals. If you plan to participate, bring your pet to the lower level of the church and into the Parish Hall. Plan for at least one person to stay with the pet through the service. It may be wise for dogs to be on a leash. The liturgy itself will be live-streamed and projected onto the screen in the Parish Hall. At the time of communion, communion ministers will bring both Bread and Cup to the Parish Hall for anyone there who wishes to receive. Bring your small glass from home or find a small glass available in the Parish Hall. Then, during the singing of the final hymn, come up from the lower level and out through the front doors of the church to gather on the lawn. Reverend Shawn Strout, our presider on Sunday, will lead the rest of the congregation to meet you there. He will lead us all in thanksgiving for these animals and in a prayer of blessing. If you wish, he will also bless each pet individually. In the case of rain, we will have a Plan B in which all of us can gather for the blessing out of the rain. Listen for an announcement. After the blessing, there will follow an “interspecies coffee hour!”
Climate Solutions Forum
Please join us Sunday, October 2, at 11:15 a.m. following the service and Pet Blessing for an important presentation by representatives from the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions (FACS). Eric Goplerud, FACS Chair, and Julie Rosenberg, FACS Arlington County Hub Leader, will talk about the alliance’s mission and actions taken on climate issues. This will be an educational opportunity for our congregation to learn how we can get involved in climate solutions at the local level.
This short statement outlines the mission of FACS: “The Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions (FACS) mission is to organize the power of Virginia’s faith communities to advance local solutions to the urgent moral challenge of climate change. Through sustained faith-based organizing of more than 2,600 activists from over 190 congregations throughout Northern Virginia, we’ve shown that local government policy, congregational practices, and personal actions produce change in local greenhouse gas emissions, resiliency, and equity.”
You can also learn more about FACS at: https://faithforclimate.org/.
Confirmation Class will meet on Sunday, October 2 from 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. We will continue to explore The Book of Genesis.
Post-Confirmation Youth will join the Confirmation Class at 6:30 p.m. for dinner, youth group activities and service. Be prepared to discuss and share your favorite music! We will end at 7:30 p.m.
If you missed it, it's not too late to join us!
We look forward to seeing all of you!
Christina and Angie
The Congregation Council will meet Thursday, October 6, with an agenda that includes a final review of the newly revised Ministry Site Profile updated by the Transition Team based on the feedback and perspectives provided by the congregation. The profile will be submitted to the ELCA and the Metro D.C. Synod to help identify pastoral candidates that the Call Committee will consider in the coming weeks. The Call Committee will also meet with Metro D.C. Synod Assistant to the Bishop for Candidacy and Mobility Pastor Sarah Garrett Krey following the October 9 worship service to discuss the call process.
We look forward to receiving donations of food items for AFAC on Sunday, October 9, in conjunction with our regular worship service.
AFAC Sundays in October, November and December:
Join our Resurrection team to help fight hunger in the annual 2022 Arlington CROP Hunger Walk on Saturday, October 15. Sign up and/or donate on the CROP Walk webpage. Then find friends and family to sponsor your walk to help support Arlington Food Assistance Center and global food programs supported by Church World Service. Let’s get walking!
RELC received a grant through EcoAction Arlington’s Tree Canopy Fund to have an American Hornbeam planted on the Potomac Street side of our property in the area outside the nursery windows. Both the tree and the labor for planting it are free. In October you will notice a stake placed in the location where the tree will be planted. Actual planting will take place between October and December. Once planted, the Creation Care Team will take over care and watering of our new young tree.
American Hornbeams (also known as ironwoods or musclewoods) are native to Virginia and provide food and habitat for a variety of local fauna. This tree will help grow the tree canopy in Arlington County and will have multiple benefits for our property and our local neighborhood as it will remove carbon dioxide from the air, produce oxygen, provide shade during our hot summers, and absorb rainwater during storms, thus reducing storm runoff into our local streams. To learn more about the Tree Canopy Fund please visit:
https://www.ecoactionarlington.org/community-programs/trees/.
Resurrection is continuing to work on updating its membership directory with the most current, accurate and preferred contact information. Member Information forms are available in the Narthex – we urge each member of the congregation to fill one out and return it to the church office.
To view our 10:00 AM Sunday worship service on YouTube live, click on the live worship link on the RELC home page on Sunday mornings during the worship hour and be redirected to the YouTube live stream. The Live Stream will "go live" at 9:55AM on each Sunday morning. To view the service at a later time, go to our YouTube Channel. Click on the videos tab to browse archives of past services. Click on the Subscribe button and create an account to be notified when Live Streams are started or when other videos are added. For any questions, please contact the pastor.
During the time after Pastor Linman departs and before an interim pastor is named or a new pastor called, we will suspend the compilation of a formal and published prayer list. Our intercessory prayer lists are crafted and maintained by the pastor who receives names and who exercises pastoral discretion and care in relation to those named and those who name them. Without an interim or called pastor to generate and maintain the list and to follow up pastorally concerning those named, an intercessory prayer list would be challenging to maintain with pastoral integrity and sensitivity. That said, each Sunday’s prayers of intercession include a petition during which members of the worshiping assembly can call out aloud specific names of persons for whom they would like to pray, and during this time of pause, worshipers can also name persons in the silence of their hearts and minds. Please be assured that your prayerful intents and those of the whole worshiping assembly are heard by God.
Pastor Amy Feira has graciously agreed to be on call for members of the congregation to contact in case of pastoral emergency and other pastoral needs through the month of September. She may be reached at: (703) 303-9388 and/or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Alexandra Mattson, the editor of our now quarterly Steeple Light newsletter, is now also serving as the editor of our Weekly Announcements messages, working closely with Council President Glen Mason. If you have any items that you wish to communicate in the Weekly Announcements as committee chairs or those responsible for other ministry initiatives at Resurrection, please send them via email to both This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by late Wednesday mornings for inclusion in the message for the coming Thursday. Thanks!
Please join us for a live stream of our 10:00am Worship Serivce on Sunday, September 25, 2022, the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost. If you missed the service, then please click below for a replay.
Worship Bulletin for September 25, 2022Please be aware that there may be moments of silence during the hymns, choral pieces, and organ voluntaries for which we have not been able to secure streaming rights from the music publishers. We apologize for this disruption and thank you for your understanding.
Dear Friends in Christ:
This is my final Midweek Message to you as your pastor. What started as an outreach effort to make possible some form of contact with you as members during the pandemic shut-down when we could not meet much at all in person has continued for these two plus years as a regular weekly offering. I am glad to have had this occasion to engage in an epistolary form of ministry, which has its own roots in the letters of the New Testament. Now some final words.
This has been a most unusual time, to say the least, to have been in ministry together. I could be tempted to reduce this call to having been the “pandemic pastorate,” given how heavily the global health crisis has weighed on us all and colored so much of what we have been doing in all aspects of our lives. But that kind of reductionism would not be a fair and complete picture of what we have shared. For we have had, in my estimation, many very lovely occasions indeed which express the richness and fullness of Christian community when we are gathered around Christ in word and sacraments.
It has been a privilege to have proclaimed the gospel to you, first via video and then eventually in person on Sundays. You are attentive and engaged hearers of God’s word, and you have kept me on my toes, as it were, as a preacher, because I know from your feedback that you truly have been listening. And we have worshiped so faithfully together, employing a full range of the many resources available to us from our wider church in the service of the praise of almighty God when Christ in fact ministers to us through the word and the sacraments. Likewise, it’s been a joy to have been a teacher in your midst, for again, you are engaged and thoughtful participant disciples, students of our Lord. In many settings we’ve had rich conversations indeed, learning together and growing thereby in faith. These experiences have been a two-way street, for I have learned a great deal from you even as I have attempted to serve as your teacher! Moreover, it’s been a privilege to have walked with you in times when you’ve been in need of pastoral care and of prayer. I have truly enjoyed hearing stories of your life’s journeys and adventures when we’ve been in holy conversation together. Resurrection Church has remarkably gifted and dedicated lay leaders and staff members. I have consistently been impressed with the expertise you have brought to our life together pertaining especially, for example, to the administrative concerns of the church. I do believe that Resurrection Church persists in being an attractive and compelling congregation for qualified pastors seeking a call, even as this setting also presents challenges, as do most all congregations these days, given the tumultuous and ever-changing circumstances in nation and world.
What is left for me to say but thousand, thousand thanks? Thousand thanks to you and to God for the privilege of having served in this season as your pastor. In this mortal life, we never know what time is allotted to us. That’s true in all of our comings and goings, and it’s certainly true also concerning longevity in ministry. The fact that we have only been together for two years and some months does not detract from my cherishing our time together. Words begin to fail at moments like these. I pray that I have been faithful in upholding my side of the bargain in preaching the gospel, in presiding at worship, in teaching, and in offering care and leadership for such as time as this.
I know that it’s also true that I will not have occasion to say goodbye to many of you in person given the nature of summer travel and commitments on your parts. May these words, then, serve as a heartfelt goodbye for those whom I will not see this coming Sunday when our worship will include a rite for the conclusion of this ministry call and when we otherwise say personal goodbyes during the social time following in the parish hall.
Turning now to matters of transition, I have put into the hands of congregation leaders a document that lists particular matters that I had attended to as pastor so that it will be clear going forward who will do what in the coming season without my presence and before there may be an interim or another called pastor to lead and to serve. This document is offered in the service of making the transition as smooth as possible and so that matters of concern have less of a chance of falling through the cracks.
Also, please know that a call committee is being constituted even now and that preparations are being made in the bishop’s office to provide names of pastoral candidates as soon as possible. And Gordon Lathrop has devoted significant time and energy to lining up pastors to preach and preside each Sunday well into the autumn season. It’s also true that other pastors are at the ready to be on call for pastoral care needs. All of this will be further described in the weekly announcements messages that will continue to go out via Constant Contact.
You will note, if you’re present this Sunday for the rite for the conclusion of a call at the end of worship, that my first name will be employed in that rite, and not the title pastor. Beginning at that moment, I should be known to you as Jonathan, a baptized child of God, and not the one who serves as your pastor. It will be essential going forward that appropriate boundaries be maintained in the service of making the way for whoever next will be known to you as pastor. Which is to say, beginning with the end of worship this Sunday, I will no longer be available to you to serve in any pastoral capacity, and I will be steadfast going forward in maintaining those boundaries, again for the sake of honoring the leadership of the one who will succeed me as pastor in this place.
In conclusion, I will forever hold you and this place close to my heart as I give thanks to you and to God for this particular call which now becomes part of the richly textured fabric of my three decades of leadership and service in public ministry. And I will be praying for you as a congregation, especially for the Spirit’s guidance in soon bringing to you your next pastor as you are led into God’s promised future.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thanks be to God.
In Christ,
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Service of Holy Communion will once again be held in the Sanctuary at 10:00am. Everyone is asked to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status, and to maintain social dinstance out of respect for those who cannot receive or who have chosen not to receive a Covid vaccine. Please bring a small juice glass, so that you may receive wine with Communion.
Dr. Melvin S. Lange, pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church from 1958 to 1971, prepared the theological material for the artist, Roy Calligan, of the Hunt Stained Glass Studios in Pittsburgh, PA. The meaning of each of the seventeen windows is indicated by a Bible verse. The theme begins with the window to the left of the lectern (when facing the altar) and proceeds around the nave toward the back, and then forward on the opposite side toward the last window to the right of the pulpit.
Stained Glass Windows Information
We are a church that strives to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). We do justice by serving our community through our social outreach activities and through contributions of finances and member’s time to local programs, including, for example, Lutheran Social Services. We provide opportunities for a rich Christian education to our members and to the community. Many of our members are active in synod activities and in ecumenical activities with other Christians.
We love kindness in the Christian work we do, often quietly but resolutely, for our members and for the community. Benevolence has always been a priority for our church, and we are a significant donor both in our financial resources and, perhaps more importantly to us, our member’s time. We are active with food assistance programs in the Arlington area and to other social service organizations.
We strive to walk humbly with our God in our worship services. We take liturgy, prayer, and music very seriously in our church as a path through which our parishioners can experience the word and sacrament in their lives. Finally, we are excited about offering the sacrament of communion to our parishioners at every Sunday service and believe it is important that we continue to do so.
