Every year we walk to raise money and awareness in an effort to end homelessness with our friends at Friendship Place. This year, we have a team all signed up. You can join us, walking on Saturday, April 27th at 10:30am (meet at the Lincoln Memorial) or you can support us by donating to our team!
Click here to registerer or to donate to our Church of the Pilgrims team!
Click here to see more details about the Walk.
Click here to learn more about Friendship Place’s work.
Join us for a special evening of supper and storytelling on Maundy Thursday, March 28th at 6:30pm. We will tell the story of Holy Week, while sharing in a meal around tables in the sanctuary. Of course there will be candles, and communion, and music, and prayer. But this service has a different feel to it. We’re not going to read the text, but rather, we hope to share in the story. We’re not going to line up for communion, but we will share in the feast together. You are invited and you are most welcome.
Join us for Holy Week!
We’ll celebrate Palm Sunday together in worship on 3/24 at 11am. Then we’ll have an evening of supper and storytelling on Maundy Thursday 3/28 at 6:30pm. On Good Friday 3/29, the sanctuary will be open for quiet prayer and a self-guided reflection from 11am - 2pm. Then we’ll rejoice together on Easter Sunday at 11am in the sanctuary. Hope to see you there!
Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Sunday services are all offered both in-person and online.
Join us after worship on Sunday 3/17 for a trip to the National Gallery of Art to see their exhibit, Dorothea Lang: Seeing People. One of the most iconic American photographers of the 20th Century, Dorothea Lang addresses issues of poverty, racism, migration and more in her intimate and personal photos of folks living their every day lives. Come and join the conversation she starts among us...
Come chop, slice, dice, and stir! We need you to help make soups to share with hungry neighbors. We’ll cook up several batches together on Saturday 3/16 and freeze them to share on Sundays throughout the Spring. No special skills required. We’ve got the recipes and ingredients, you bring the love! See you there at noon, or whenever you can make it!
This year for Lent, we’re trying something new! What if we all spend the entire season studying and reading and praying and pondering on the same text? What if we read or pray it every day? What if we meditate on it? Or if we memorize it? Or if we print it out and put it on our fridge, on bookmark it in our computer, or write it in our own handwriting in our journal? What might we hear, see, or notice? What if it helps us hear, see, or notice something in our Sunday morning readings? What if we all get sick of it and never want to read another psalm ever again? I suppose we won’t know until we try.
So, this year, we’re all going to spend Lent with Psalm 139. The really, really good bits, and the hard parts too. You’re invited to read it daily. To spend some quality time and really dig in, or to rush through it and see what God can do with that, too. Throughout the season, we’ll find some ways to share what we’re hearing and learning and noticing, and we’ll continue to share resources around Psalm 139 as we dig deeper. But for now, for this season of Lent, let’s just read, one psalm, all together.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
The Session of Church of the Pilgrims has called a Congregational Meeting, our Annual Meeting, for Sunday, February 11th at 12pm. We'll present the Annual Report and share the 2024 Budget and celebrate with delicious treats, too! Since we're approaching Ash Wednesday (next week) we thought this meeting should have a bit of a Mardi Gras theme! So, come for the annual report, but stay for the king cake!
Click here to read the Annual Report.
Grab you best lighting and a warm and cozy drink and get ready to snuggle up with a good, political, religious, non-fiction read! We're going to read Kristin Kobes Du Mez's bestseller, Jesus and John Wayne.
We're going to meet at church to discuss as we go-
Wed. 1/24 6pm - Chapters 1-5
Wed. 2/7 6pm - Chapters 6-10
Wed. 2/28 6pm - Chapters 11-16- CANCELED!
RESCHEDULED: Monday 3/25 at 6pm - Chapters 11-16
Oh, and some of our readers are going to bring a simple soup meal to share. Dinner and discussion, what could be better?
So go get your copy from the library, download the audio book, or head to your favorite local bookstore and pick up a copy and get reading!
Church of the Pilgrims is a congregation in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
We are also a member of More Light Presbyterians, welcoming the full participation of LGBTQ persons in the life and leadership of the congregation.