Welcome to St. Luke’s! We invite visitors and guests to come and explore this community at worship, at work caring for God’s world, and in fellowship together as we seek to create a community of faith in the city.
There is a visitor card in the pew rack; if you’d like a call this week, please fill out the card and give it to the pastor or place it in the collection plate. Please join the congregation for refreshments after worship in the Wesley Room.
Welcome, children! Our nursery is located upstairs. Just follow the signs. Mrs. Fatu Colley is in charge of the nursery. The nursery is available from 10:45 until 12:15. Parents can take their infants, toddlers, and younger preschoolers to the nursery at any time during the service.
Older children worship with the rest of the congregation, leaving during our final hymn for twenty minutes of worship arts with Amy Catania and Deke Polifka, then rejoining their families during coffee hour.
Welcome, New Members! Welcome to Shawn Cooke, Min-Jung Kim and Yong-Ha Lee, and Shalom Mulkey, who joined St. Luke’s on February 20th. Welcome, too, to Min-Jung’s aunt Yangsook Kim, and to Min-Jung and Yong-Ha’s sons, Kunwoo, Woojoo and James.
Today – Grate Patrol meal-making during coffee hour. Each month we make 150 bag suppers for delivery to homeless men and women living on the streets in downtown DC. Come join the assembly line of talented Grate Patrol meal-makers.
Today through March 13. Orders for Easter lilies. Please complete the order form and place in the collection plate with your check.
March 1-Grate Patrol Delivery night. If you’d like to participate in the Grate Patrol delivery, please contact the church office. We need 2-3 volunteers on the first Tuesday of every month to go out on the Salvation Army Grate Patrol van and deliver the meals. The volunteers are picked up here at the church at 6:45 pm and returned to the church at about 8:30.
Summer Music Camp Registration beginning! The dates for children’s summer music camp will be July 11-15. This program filled up very fast last year, and there will be a limit of 25 children. This year Deke and Joyce are writing a musical for the children! For more information please talk to Deke (deke@saintlukesmethodist.org)
Tuesday evening study group Lenten study. We are using the classic text, Mere Christianity, by C.S.Lewis (available widely in many editions). We meet each Tuesday during Lent, 7:30-8:30 in Anne’s office. Enter by the church office door in the back of the building
One Great Hour of Sharing March 13. One Great Hour of Sharing is one of the six designated special offerings taken each year by United Methodist congregations throughout the denomination. One Great Hour of Sharing funds the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), which provides services and supplies in response to war, famine, and natural disasters both in the US and around the world. UMCOR continues to be deeply involved in the tsunami relief effort. UMCOR is an excellent means for channeling funds to places where immediate need abounds. For more information, go to www.umc.org/benevol/
Hypothermia Shelter in Place at St. Luke’s. Responding to a request from Friendship Place for hypothermia shelter in Ward 3, St. Luke’s offered to open its doors to up to ten men on nights when the temperature drops below freezing. The hypothermia shelter is managed by Catholic Charities, who provide a counselor and beds for our cold weather guests. The hypothermia shelter is housed in the Next Step Kitchen classroom.
St. Luke’s Shelter is a ministry of St. Luke’s Church. The Shelter, which is located in the church, provides a small group of homeless men with a secure residence for up to six months. The Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place refers residents to the Shelter. The Shelter operates every night of the year. The dinner meal is provided 365 nights of the year by neighbors, members of nearby churches and synagogues, and several Wisconsin Avenue restaurants and grocers.
St. Luke’s Shelter Next Step Kitchen is a program of St. Luke’s Shelter and St. Luke’s Church, providing job training in restaurant skills for homeless men and women. The program is located downstairs in the St. Luke’s kitchen. For more information, go to www.saintlukesmethodist.org.
St. Luke’s web site is always current! Check it out at www.saintlukesmethodist.org. Thanks to Derek Willis for making this happen.
Put yourself on the map. We have a map on the wall in the Wesley Room so that we can see where everyone is from and also the places we all keep in our hearts. Please add your places during coffee hour today.
Sermon copies for the hard of hearing can be picked up every Sunday in the narthex. Each week’s sermon is also available on the web.
Holy Week Notes. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday on March 20th. Holy Week takes place within the context of Passover – it was the Passover Festival that had brought so many people into Jerusalem, according to the Gospel of John. And so the events we remember and re-incorporate and lift up during this week reach deep into our Judaic roots. Both Jews and Christians reflect on the meaning of freedom from slavery and oppression. For Jews, the primary image of deliverance is the Exodus from Egypt commemorated in the Passover meal. For Christians, the primary image of deliverance is the death and resurrection of Christ, commemorated in the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion. Part of the resonance and depth of this image for us is its intimate connections with the Exodus story. What God has done in the Exodus, God also is doing in the Resurrection – turning death into new life. And Holy Week is not only a commemoration and a remembrance. Like the Jews celebrating Passover, as Christians we enter into the sacred dimension which overpowers the ordinary categories of time and space. What God has done in the past, for our spiritual ancestors, God also is doing right now, for each of us, and for us as a congregation, and for the whole people of faith.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday on March 20, when we remember the joy of welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem and acclaiming him as king. We will shout “hosanna!” and wave the palm branches, but on that day we also begin our walk with Jesus to the cross. With all its scripture (more scripture than any other worship service) and its stark shift from joy to sorrow, Palm Sunday is easily the most dramatic service of the church year.
On Holy Thursday (also called Maundy Thursday), March 24, we remember the last supper Jesus ate with his friends. We’ll have supper that night in the Wesley Room at 6:30. The Holy Thursday scripture readings focus on Jesus’ commandment that we love one another and seek to serve one another. And so after our meal, we’ll move into the sanctuary for a service that includes Holy Communion and foot washing, beginning at 7:30.
On Good Friday, our service of worship also begins at 7:30 pm. The Good Friday service is a service of Holy Communion and of prayer for the entire world, as Christ prayed for the world in the hour of his death.
On Holy Saturday, we will prepare the sanctuary for Easter. We’ll meet in the sanctuary at 10:00 am. and complete our preparations by noon.
Joys and Concerns…
For St. Luke’s future pastor, Dave Myers, and for his wife Debbie, in this time of transition
For Curt, recovering from heart catheterization
For the continued healing of Amy and Deke’s grandmother after cancer surgery
For Shawn after a minor car accident
For our new members, Shawn Cooke, Min-Jun Kim and Yong-Ha Lee, and Shalom Mulkey, and for Min-Jung’s aunt Yangsook Kim, and for Kunwoo, Woojoo, and James
Continued prayers for Betty Lawrence, now at Knollwood
Continued prayers for Penny during chemotherapy
For Vince’s sister’s fiancé, returning safely from Iraq
For new faces and for our diversity
For the people of Iraq realizing the hope of a free society, and for those who have died and been wounded in the war
For Nedi and his family
For Naomi’s family in Ethiopia, and for the people of Ethiopia during a time of celebration and remembrance
For Andrew’s niece Sarah recovering from successful ear surgery
For Joyce’s parents adjusting to their new home
For friends and co-workers in health crises, and for family members in joyful circumstances
For Shawn’s friend Kim, in Niger
For the family and friends of Helen Rogers
For Shalom’s mother Candy, with pneumonia
For Deke’s grandmother, recovering from surgery
For peace
For the Pyle’s young friend Eric
For Earl Williams’ cousin Eric, in Iraq
For our military in Iraq and for the people of Iraq, and for our leaders that they may lead with wisdom
For the children and staff of Wings of Hope Orphanage, in Haiti.
For Prince of Peace Methodist Church in Holguin, Cuba
For the community of St. Luke’s Shelter.
For those living with HIV/AIDS
For our members who are unable to attend because of their health: Emma Cox, Jeanne Goss, Lucille Dade, and Margaret Roberts.
Our Mission Statement
St. Luke’s United Methodist Church seeks to serve the community’s spiritual and physical needs. We are a small congregation dedicated to creating an atmosphere of inclusiveness in which all feel welcome to worship. At St. Luke’s, we try to follow the example of Christ’s ministry and teaching by sharing our building, our time and our prayers in many community partnerships. We embrace new ways of giving thanks and work to teach the joy of God’s grace to all whom we can reach.
We follow in the Wesleyan tradition in our belief that “scriptural holiness entails more than personal piety; love of God is always linked with love of neighbor, a passion for justice and renewal in the life of the world.”