Annual Meeting and Potluck Lunch ~ January 22, 2023
Our annual congregational meeting will take place on Sunday, January 22, at 12:30pm, accompanied by a potluck lunch. Join us!
Free Community Dinner January 10, 2023/10 de enero de 2023
Free dinner ~ January 10, 2023. Doors open at 5:30pm, dinner is served at 6:00pm. All are welcome! Bring your children!
Cena gratis ~ 10 de enero de 2023. Apertura de puertas a las 5:30pm, cena servida a las 6:00pm. Todos son bienvenidos! Trae a sus hijos!
An Infusion of Hope ~ MaryAnn McKibben Dana will visit BPC on January 29
Mary Ann McKibben Dana, the author of Hope: A User’s Manual, will be our guest on Sunday, January 29 at 12:30pm. Join us!
Please let us know if you plan to attend, and whether you’d like us to order a lunch for you ($10 suggested donation for a Panera box lunch), by contacting our church office: office@BurkePresChurch.org or 703-764-0456.
The Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana is a writer, pastor, speaker, and coach living in the Virginia suburbs of DC. MaryAnn is a pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Herndon, VA and a sought-after speaker. She is a graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas and received her M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. She penned Hope: A User’s Manual (2022) as a way of writing herself back into a sense of hope after a grueling few years of life and world events. She also wrote God, Improv, and the Art of Living (2018) and Sabbath in the Suburbs (2012).
Adult Sunday School and Hygge Event ~ Sunday, January 8
Adult Sunday School Series begins this coming week, January 8
We invite you to join us during the Sunday School hour, 10:15-11:00 am, as we seek to build deeper connections through “Hope.” Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana’s book, Hope: A User’s Manual, will be the focus of this 6-week series, beginning this Sunday, January 8. What is hope? Where does it live? And how do we cling to hope when it feels elusive or absent? Copies of the book are available in the Gathering Space at the church or here on Amazon. While all are invited, and we will always make space for walk-ins, having an idea of whom to expect will greatly help our planning. Please sign up here for one or the other Sunday morning groups or to indicate you prefer a different time or an online option. Later this month, on January 29 at 12:30pm, MaryAnn will join us at BPC to discuss the topic.
Sunday School for Children
Sunday School for children in grades 1-6 will be held in “the Cottage,” and for younger children, on the lower level in the Stepping Stones room.
Cozy (Hygge) Lunch Gathering
The Community Life team is hosting this event this Sunday, January 8, after worship. All, and all ages, are invited! Please RSVP here
Services on Christmas Eve ~ Saturday, December 24, 2022
Please join us on Christmas Eve! All three services will be held in the Meeting House. The 9:00pm service will also be offered online, on YouTube and on Zoom.
4:00 p.m. Family Service, with a no-rehearsal pageant and children’s choirs
6:00 p.m. Candlelight Service, with youth choir
9:00 p.m. Candlelight Communion Service, with adult choir
On the next two Sunday mornings, December 25, 2022, and January 1, 2023, we will follow a holiday schedule: one service at 10:00 a.m., in person and online. We will return to our regular Sunday morning worship schedule on January 8, 2023, with services at 9:00 a.m. (in person) and 11:15 a.m. (in person and online).
Sunday, December 18 ~ Poet Kathleen O’Toole on Grief and Service of the Longest Night
Advent is intended to be about longing and hope, and yet our culture runs over that quiet spirit with a kind of happiness that can be hard and exhausting, especially for people who are going through hard times. Grief is especially acute during Advent. Traditions can bring pain along with the memories. Financial hardship, loneliness, or heartbreak make it hard to join in to the jolly and jingle of the world. But there is still light and room for you, even as the nights are long.
On Sunday, December 18, BPC has two special events that would be hopeful for anyone, but are particularly geared toward those whose Christmas might be more blue than marshmallow white. In the morning, at 10:15am, poet Kathleen O’Toole will lead an adult Sunday School class about Poetry and Grief that will inspire and heal. The class will be held in the BPC Library and on Zoom.
And in the evening, our Longest Night service of Light and Hope will take place in the Meeting House at 7:30pm.
If you have a friend or neighbor who might need a different kind of gathering this year, please invite them.
Kathleen O’Toole has braided an active public life in community organizing with writing. Her poems appear widely in magazines and journals. Her latest collection, This Far, was released in October 2019.
Advent and Christmas 2022
Please join us during this Advent and Christmas season! Coming up soon, on Sunday, December 18:
- 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. – Worship with Lighting the Candle of Love. Our What if? sermon series continues with “What if Joseph chose anger instead?”
- 10:15 a.m. – Cooking decorating for all ages in the Gathering Space. Also in the Gathering Space, the Handbell Choir will will play Christmas carols and share cookies and hot chocolate/coffee. There’s an adult class in the library and on Zoom: Special guest and poet Kathleen O’Toole will lead a session on poetry and grief.
- 7:30 p.m. – Longest Night Service of Light and Hope will take place in the Meeting House.
39th Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service
Please join us for the 39th Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, which will be held at Burke Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, November 22 at 7:30pm, in person and online. Mary Akrami, an internationally recognized women’s rights leader evacuated from Afghanistan in August of 2021, will speak at the service, along with Abu (Dan) Haroun, a leader of NoVA RAFT (Resettling Afghan Families Together). Bags of rice and dried red or black beans will be collected for ECHO, and financial gifts will be collected for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
Participating faith communities/organizations include Burke United Methodist Church, Congregation Adat Reyim, International Buddhist Association, Institute for Islamic Studies, Rumi Forum, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church, St. Peter’s in the Woods Episcopal Church, and Sydenstricker United Methodist Church.
“Love One Another” Building Dedication Lunch on Sunday, November 20
Please join us on Sunday, November 20 at 12:30pm for a long-awaited dedication of the new spaces in our building, with a catered lunch and the launch of our Love One Another Retire the Debt campaign. On the menu: pulled chicken sandwiches, ribs, mac and cheese, and all the fixings. After lunch, there will be activities for children and child care for our very youngest. We hope you can make it!
30th Burke/Fairfax CROP Hunger Walk raised about $30,000
The 30th Burke/Fairfax CROP Hunger Walk was held on Sunday, November 6, 2022, with more than 230 walkers from 17 faith groups and 2 community groups participating. The 2022 Walk raised approximately $30,000 for Church Word Service (CWS), a faith-based organization that works to fight hunger around the world. A portion of the fund raised (25%) stays here in Northern Virginia to support local hunger relief organizations such as ECHO.
The walk began and ended at Burke Presbyterian Church, with a water break at Knollwood Community Church.
The following groups participated in the 2022 Walk: Abiding Presence Lutheran (30th year), Accotink Unitarian Universalist (20th year), Congregation Adat Reyim (21st year), Burke United Methodist (17th year), Burke Presbyterian (30th year), Clifton Presbyterian (30th year), ECHO (14th year), Fairfax Presbyterian (15th year), Grace Christian Reformed (12th year), Grace Presbyterian (20th year), Kirkwood Presbyterian (29th year), Living Savior Lutheran (30th year), Springfield United Methodist (9th year), St. Andrew’s Episcopal (30th year), St. Stephen’s United Methodist (19th year), Temple B’nai Shalom (16th year), United Greek Council/GMU (1st year).
