Church guide

Gates of Hope Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope— Not the prudent gates of Optimism, Which are somewhat narrower. Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness, Which creak on shrill and angry hinges (People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through) Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna’ be all right.” But a different, sometimes lonely place, The place of truth-telling, About your own soul first of all and its condition. The place of resistance and defiance, The piece of ground from which you see the world Both as it is and as it could be As it will be; The place from which you glimpse not only struggle, But the joy of the struggle. And we stand there, beckoning and calling, Telling people what we are seeing Asking people what they see. - Victoria Safford

Today we worshipped in the garden for the first time in 2019. On this day we remembered our ancestors including those who first named Arlington Presbyterian Church a congregation in 1930. On this day we shared a prayer to remember and re-member as we gathered round to add our names to the lease for Gilliam Place. We named this act: community, commitment, faith, hope. And then we called down a blessing on this place. Thanks be to God.

Reminder: Worship is in the Garden! Worship is in the garden! Looks like we will hit 50 degrees by 11am today. Bring a chair, blanket, whatever you need to be comfortable outside. Bubbles provided. Come a little early this morning to start making signs of solidarity for our Muslim siblings in New Zealand and here in Arlington.

Our story as told to Sojourner's has been released! Many thanks to Anna Sutterer for this faithful retelling of our story. https://sojo.net/articles/how-one-church-tackled-their-communitys-affordable-housing-crisis

Marking a Milestone Dear friends, yesterday in worship we announced the milestone event of entering into our lease agreement with the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing to return to the ground floor retail space below the Gilliam Place apartments. In addition, we have signed the construction contract with the Garrett Group to build out our space. This coming Sunday, March 24 at 11:00 a.m., we will worship in our garden space and celebrate these milestones through liturgy. Lent is the season we are invited to return to God with our whole hearts. How fitting that we mark our commitment to return to the place from which our congregation began and grew. We have faithfully wandered in our desert space and now, with wisdom and courage granted by God, we see our return on the horizon. It's so exciting to imagine what God has planned for us and for our beloved community in this space.

This we shall do, this we shall do: Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with our God. Joined by students from Hope College here on an alternative spring break, we continued our Lenten Worship practice of sandwich making for bag lunches for SEEC. We added advocacy letter-writing with Bread for the World, and we considered what we can do in response to the New Zealand tragedy. This shall we do: act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with our God.

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven: The hallowing of your name echo through the universe! The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world! Your heavenly will be done by all created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth. With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us. From trials too great to endure, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever. Amen. (A version of The Lord’s Prayer from The New Zealand Prayer Book)

A musical, magical weekend at APC.

Heads up friends!

Our new logo! Read the artist's statement here: In this design, we incorporate both the core values of APC (welcome, nurture, serve, and proclaim) and the idea of movement and growth. We have welcoming, nurturing arms as part of a cross framework. The cross is incorporated into Arlington as Christ is the cornerstone of our faith and the congregation continues to be a part of the Arlington community. All of this together forms a tree. Trees are important symbols in many religions, including the Tree of Life in the Bible. Physical trees serve us with their shade and beauty, nurture us with their fruit, welcome us, and proclaim the glory of God’s creation. Trees are also full of life; constantly growing and changing to adapt to their environment. On a more literal level, we are alluding to our garden, now an integral part of our identity and worship space. We have multicolored leaves to reference our diverse community, including new growth represented by bright green. The design is modern and approachable; clean and organic. Additional Christian points of reference include the Trinitarian notion of 3 leaves as well as the subtle reference to the PCUSA logo.

"Repent" means "change the direction in which you are looking for happiness." The call to repentance is the invitation to take stock of our emotional programs for happiness based on instinctual needs and to change them. This is the fundamental program of Lent." - Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ

Arlington Presbyterian Church will be preparing bag lunches during Lent as part of our liturgy each week. A-SPAN and others will receive the bagged lunches. What is your Lenten discipline? What new practice or act of kindness will you take on? Consider this simple one.

What a joy to be blessed with a month of Abby Madden helping lead worship! She brought energy, creativity and joy into her leading and teaching. Many thanks, Abby! Come back soon!

Well, that was fun! And holy! And enlivening! And transformative! And life-giving! Paul Vasile joined us this past Sunday for the first of his four worship services with us between now and Palm Sunday. We voices filled our chapel space. Our bodies moved in rhythm (and out of rhythm). We heard ourselves and each other in a profoundly new way. We installed new elders in vows taken and words sung. After worship, Paul led us in a reflection time to share our noticings and wonderings from worship. Paul will be back at APC on March 10th---ALL ARE WELCOME.

There's MORE music in the air! Music has always been an important part of life in the APC community. This Sunday we begin our work with Paul Vasile focusing on APC's life with music that builds community! Paul will be working with APC to broaden our liturgical experiences with music as we begin to imagine how music will take shape in our life at Gilliam Place. Music is a key element in our relationship with the neighborhood. Music builds and shapes community. What kind of sound does APC want to make when we get into Gilliam Place? What's the sound in the neighborhood? What's the music and instruments of the neighborhood? Who is playing those instruments and making a joyful noise? Paul will be with us on four Sunday morning worship services, starting on February 24th. If you're a music leader, come at 9:30 on Sunday. Otherwise, join us for worship at 11:00! More about Paul: A multi-talented musician and dynamic worship leader, Paul is committed to building, renewing, and re-shaping faith communities through music and liturgy. Paul brings over twenty years of ministry experience to his work as a consultant, workshop facilitator, and teacher. He is excited to help congregations broaden their repertoire of sung prayer and praise, and to demonstrate how participatory music and liturgy can energize and unify worshipers from varied backgrounds, cultures, and traditions. His skills and background make him a unique resource to congregations in transition.

Blessed. Scenes from today's worship reflecting on the Beatitudes in which we learned to drum with Abby, to sing with Patrick, to move with Manfred, to ponder our blessedness with Ashley, to bless one another for the week. Thanks be to God!

Blessed. Scenes from today's worship reflecting on the Beatitudes in which we learned to drum with Abby, to sing with Patrick, to move with Manfred, to ponder our blessedness with Ashley, to bless one another for the week. Thanks be to God!

Sunday worship - spreading joy in worship and love in the garden!

Yesterday we held our Annual Meeting amidst worship and communion. We elected new elders and thanked departing elders. We heard from our ministry teams stories from the past year. We celebrated our accomplishments and looked forward to an exciting year of transition for our congregation as we plan to move into a newly built Gilliam Place - the former location of our church. As part of the Proclaim Team's ministry report, we shared our new logo and the artist's statement around it. Many thanks to Sarah Etherton for this inspired design. Artist's statement: In this design, we incorporate both the core values of APC (welcome, nurture, serve, and proclaim) and the idea of movement and growth. We have welcoming, nurturing arms as part of a cross framework. The cross is incorporated into Arlington as Christ is the cornerstone of our faith and the congregation continues to be a part of the Arlington community. All of this together forms a tree. Trees are important symbols in many religions, including the Tree of Life in the Bible. Physical trees serve us with their shade and beauty, nurture us with their fruit, welcome us, and proclaim the glory of God’s creation. Trees are also full of life; constantly growing and changing to adapt to their environment. On a more literal level, we are alluding to our garden, now an integral part of our identity and worship space. We have multicolored leaves to reference our diverse community, including new growth represented by bright green. The design is modern and approachable; clean and organic. Additional Christian points of reference include the Trinitarian notion of 3 leaves as well as the subtle reference to the PCUSA logo.

Blessed. Scenes from today's worship reflecting on the Beatitudes in which we learned to drum with Abby, to sing with Patrick, to move with Manfred, to ponder our blessedness with Ashley, to bless one another for the week. Thanks be to God!

As we continue our journey with the early church, let us be reminded of this story from Acts 9:1 - 19.