Midweek Announcements for March 2, 2023

Schedule for the Coming Week at Resurrection Church

Sunday, March 5

9:00 a.m. – Sunday school for our 3-year-olds through 5th grade will meet in the Parish Hall. We will begin our "Journey through Lent." If you are not already on our email list and would like more information, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

10:00 a.m. – Worship: Bishop Leila Ortiz, Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod presiding.

Daylight Savings Time

The time changes during the night from Saturday, March 11 to Sunday, March 12: we “spring forward” and lose an hour. Please set your clocks accordingly in advance one hour.

Sunday Supply Pastors

We are pleased to welcome to preside and preach, at our March 12 worship service, Pastor Sarah Garrett Krey, Assistant to the Bishop for Candidacy and Mobility for the Metro D.C. Synod, followed on March 19 by Pastor Scott Zimmerer, grandfather of Gabe Rivera who will receive first communion during the service.

Lenten Midweek Services -- "Keeping Lent with the Saints"
Wednesdays in March at 7:00 p.m. (Zoom)

Please join us for Evening Prayer, Wednesdays in March at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. The service will include an introduction by Gail Ramshaw about the saints being commemorated that week. The liturgy will be led by lay members. Look for a Constant Contact message on Tuesdays, which will include the Zoom link and a copy of the bulletin. Envelopes for Lenten Midweek service offerings will be available in the narthex beginning Sunday March 5. These offerings are designated for Doorways.

March 8: Perseverance with Endurance, with Perpetua and Felicity, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth

March 15: Faithful in Prayer, with Gregory the Great and Patrick

March 22: Striving for Justice, with Oscar Romero

March 29: Dying and Rising with Christ, with Hans Nielsen Hauge and John Donne

Calling All Quilters

After a very long break because of COVID, the RELC Quilting Group will begin meeting again on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month from 10 a.m. - noon in Room 204. Our first meeting will be on March 14. No sewing skill is necessary. We spend most of our time laying out, pinning and hand tying quilts that will be sent to Lutheran World Relief. Hope you can join us!

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A Lenten Lens on Creation Care

During Lent, please join the Creation Care Team in working to become better stewards of God’s beautiful creation. We will highlight reflections and actions from the Creation Justice Ministries 2023 Lent Resource Calendar. It is a “Daily Reflection-Action Calendar to Cultivate Creation Justice.” We will highlight a reflection or action from the calendar in each weekly announcement during Lent.

 Creation Justice Ministries Lent 2023 Calendar  pdfCreation Justice Ministries Lent 2023 Calendar (PDF)

This week’s eco-friendly tip is from February 27: “The average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail annually. This requires 53 million trees and 56 billion gallons of water to produce. Visit www.dmachoice.org to help stop unwanted junk mail. Call companies to unsubscribe from their mailings or catalogs. Resolve to do it today!” Arlington County also offers a service to reduce junk mail through Catalog Choice..

Reminder to Bring Communion Glasses

The Worship and Music Committee would like to encourage you to bring your own glass from home to use at communion in our worship services. Paper cups will continue to be provided for those who need them, but please consider making an effort to use a glass from home – a practice that better reflects our care and reverence in handling the wine of communion.

Congregation COVID Protections

Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) current recommendations, masking is optional for attendance at Resurrection’s worship services when the CDC assessment of Arlington County’s community COVID level is “low” and is recommended, but not required, for attendance if the community level is “medium.”

The CDC recommends that residents stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines, get tested if they have symptoms, and wear a mask if they have symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19, as well as to individuals on public transportation. The agency also encourages residents to wear a mask at any time, if they choose to do so, as an additional precaution to protect themselves and others. Anyone at high risk for severe illness is encouraged to consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions.

Congregants at Resurrection’s worship services are also reminded 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. Our pastors, communion assistants, and ushers will continue to wear masks when welcoming those attending services and in distributing Holy Communion. The wearing of masks in Sunday School will continue to be guided by parents’ feedback. Anyone not feeling well should stay home and access the livestream feed of worship services.

Share Your Intent to Support Our Budget

Having adopted our 2023 operating and capital budgets, Resurrection’s financial team needs to ensure that our congregation will back these budgets with its generous offerings of support. Please let us know of your giving intentions by answering the Stewardship Committee’s request and returning your Giving Intent response at our Sunday services, mailing it to the church office, or using the online form on the Resurrection website.

You can also choose to have your offering automatically drawn from your bank account on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis with the “Simply Giving” electronic funds transfer program. Just complete an enrollment form and return it along with your giving intent – or schedule a recurring offering using the “Donate” button on the Resurrection website.

Support Our Altar Guild

The Altar Guild plays a critical role in preparing our worship services – but it currently has only a few members and would very much appreciate some additional assistance. If you are willing to help or have any questions about what would be entailed, please contact Jeanette Barkley.

Offering Envelopes Delayed

We continue to await the delayed arrival of Resurrection’s 2023 offering envelopes and regret the inconvenience of not having new envelopes to start the New Year. Your offerings remain critically important to the church, so please use any unused 2022 offering envelopes for the next few weeks until the new envelopes arrive – just correct the date to the current Sunday. Your envelope number will remain the same for 2023.

If you don’t have any 2022 envelopes left, substitute envelopes without numbers can be provided. To ensure that your offerings are properly credited to you – especially cash offerings, please include your name on a substitute envelope.

Member Information Form

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.

Can't make it to church? Watch us Live! Now Livestreaming Worship

To view our 10:00 a.m. 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 9:55 a.m. 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.

Intercessory Prayer During the Time of Pastoral Transition

During our pastoral transition, 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.

Pastoral Care for Emergencies and Other Needs

We thank Pastor Amy Feira for her services of pastoral care for the members of RELC during the past six months.

Pastor Alex Stall of nearby Advent Lutheran will be taking over to be on call for members of the congregation to contact in case of pastoral emergency and other pastoral needs beginning in March. He may be reached at: (703) 571-7010 or (301) 793-4133 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Other Announcements?

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 Leslie Nolen. 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!