The Ministry of our
Hospitality Stewards

Did you know that Hope Church has Hospitality Stewards? What is a hospitality steward?

Every week a member of the Deacon Ministry team sits in the back of the sanctuary and provides hospitality during worship.

This might be to answer the phone when it rings, direct new members to the bathrooms, find extra hymnals and bulletins for late comers, get a Kleenex or cough drop for someone.

You don’t have to be an official deacon to be a hospitality steward. If this is your calling, please talk to Harry Shepler and you can help out in this important welcoming ministry.

Its is said that new members decide to come to a church within the first 12 minutes of entering the building. Hopefully the first 12 minutes within our building on Sunday morning is filled with hospitality!

 

The Deacons of any church have historically claimed the responsibility of providing care to the members of a congregation, whether that be in visiting a member in the hospital, taking communion to church members in retirement homes who can no longer make it to church, or providing opportunities to help families become stronger and more loving.

The "Called to Care" ministry is a new ministry of the Board of Deacon in our church. This ministry's aim is to enhance the skills for ministries of care giving by lay persons. Under girding the "Called to Care" ministry is the dream that members of a local church will seek to live out the renewed faithfulness of Jesus' command to love one another.

The Ministers
Hope Church has trained three CTC Ministers. 
Please feel free to call or e-mail these Lay-Ministers if you are in need of someone to talk to.

Pauline McDonald  703-354-5250

Harry Shepler  703- 329-9249

Ann Mancuso  703-960-9797

Card Writing Ministry
The Called to Care Ministers have recently begun a card writing ministry. Everyone likes to know their church is praying for them.  We like to send cards to let people know how much we love them and appreciate them. 

Faith-Home for Parents Brochures
In the fellowship hall is a new rack of pamphlets on various topics from talking to your teenager about drugs, to teaching your child about prayer, to helping your child to deal with anger. These pamphlets are free. Please feel free to take any that you think might be of help to you or your neighbor.

September 11th Ministries with Children
Do you need some help talking to your children about terrorism?
Do your children have trouble coping in a time of crisis and fear?

Check this out for some help:  Working With Children

CHHSM -- for our older friends
"UCC Council for Health and Human Ministry"
Are you or a loved one in need of long term care? 
Did you know the UCC sponsors such facilities?

CHHSM- it rhymes with prism- is the Council of Health and Human Service Ministries of the United Church of Christ. We are 81 corporate members, all affiliated with the United Church of Christ, that operate 359 facilities and programs providing health care, services to children, services to people with disabilities, and services to the aging.

We are bound together by our call to serve others in faith. Together we represent the largest component of the UCC's healing ministry; our member ministries have serve well over a million people annually and have combined assets of more than $3.9 billion.

Mission
The mission of the Council for Health and Human Service Ministries is to sustain and advance the work of healing and service as a ministry of the church of Jesus Christ embodied in its member ministries, the United Church of Christ and the church universal.

Hope Church United Church of Christ
holds a Pet Blessing Service

 

MEDITATION

Blessing animals is a reminder that God is bigger than our own hearts, and that God's purposes take in all crea­tures. We bless them today to recognize their impor­tance in their own right that their being and their end is God^’s to give and part of God^’s plan. Blessing animals is a sign of humility^: and respect on our part, and an admission that humans aren^'t the center of everything.

Moreover, the animals we bless today are our companions. They^’re part of our lives, they share our homes; the animals among us may even share our joys and sorrows.... Because they^’re our companions, our friends, we are reminded that friends aren^'t there to be used; they're not part of any calculation of our own benefit. Friendship is one of life’s great, unmerited gifts, and a sign of God's care of us. Friends are the tonic of life, and our annual friends are no exception. So our blessing today is also an act of love, of friendship and of thankfulness.
                        Rev. Dr. Scott Cowdell, from his St. Francis Day
                        Sermon “Animal Care and the New Creation”

Honey and Lucky get their blessing!	This is Calaban receiving a blessing!
Yankee does not want to get up on our altar rock!	Edgar with Calaban
Here is Ginny receiving a blessing!
Olly's blessed!	Honey and Lucky!
Yankee!	Here are two sister cats: "Fatty Fanny" and "Skinny Minnie"
Jimmy and Courtney with their two cats: Olly and Ginny