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Author: Zoe Vallabha

May 4th, 10:30am: Pastor Aubra Love Preaching, Acoustic Band Performing!

May 4th, 10:30am: Pastor Aubra Love Preaching, Acoustic Band Performing!

Sunday May 4th, 10:30am
Pastor Aubra Love is Preaching!
Acoustic Band Performing!
Communion Sunday
Pledge Sunday

 

We are delighted to invite you to worship with Christ Congregational Church at 10:30am this Sunday May 4th — either in person or via Zoom. Pastor Aubra Love, Pastor Matt Braddock, Music Director Sam Wack, and CCC’s Congregational Giving Engagement Area Coordinator – Betsy Furlong, will lead us in an inspiring and contemplative worship, praise and communion service.

The music this Sunday will feature the CCC Acoustic Band Players — Jim Brown, Peder Maarbjerg (leader), Barbara Pearson, John Potts, Doug Redmond, Mary Scott, Paul Scribner, Sam Wack — alongside CCC’s Chancel Choir, and will include “God’s Choir in the Sky” by Ray Overholt, “Total Praise” by Richard Smallwood, “Dry and Dusty” by Brittany Haas, and “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” by Jonas Myrin & Matt Redman.

Betsy Furlong will be our Lay Reader this Sunday, reading “We dare to imagine a world…” by Linda Jonesand a reading from Scripture (Acts 9), before kicking off our 2025 Stewarship Season (see details below!) with some thoughts around: “Why is CCC my church? Why do I support it by pledging? My hope and blessing for our church…”.

At the heart of the service, Pastor Aubra Love will offer a Meditation:
“Dancing Through Grief” based on Psalm 30:11.

During the Offering portion of the worship service, we will have an opportunity to contribute to the Deacons Fund, as we do on Communion Sundays. The Deacons Fund is a separate fund from the Unified Budget and is used to support members of the church in times of financial need and is dispersed at the discretion of our Pastoral Team.

Finally, we will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion together, in the welcoming and inclusive way that is CCC’s tradition — as we celebrate people of all races, cultures, ages, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

All are welcome at this open table.
This is a time to breathe, to remember, and to receive.
Come as you are. There is room for you here.

Download the Bulletin

  • Here is the bulletin for this Sunday.

Join Zoom Worship

https://zoom.us/j/119508399

Meeting ID: 119 508 399

Dial In via Phone

1-301-715-8592
Meeting ID: 119 508 399

After the worship service, everyone is invited to join our post-worship Coffee/Social Hour and our pre-Mother’s Day conversation with Pastor Aubra Love (including a book reading and signing) facilitated by Donna Whittlesey Miller, which will take place in the Chapel. 

Post-worship book signing and pre-Mother’s Day conversation, in-person only. Come, to laugh, lament and love our way to Mother’s Day. All our siblings are warmly invited (from babies to boomers), to explore your stories of being mothered, or mothering, or the absence thereof. You are wanted, here!

Books will be available after each service for signing and purchase.
Our Lactating God: The Embodied Amen

April 27th, 10:30am – Joseph and The Art of Meaning-Making

April 27th, 10:30am – Joseph and The Art of Meaning-Making

Don Bruns (CCC Treasurer and Youth Church School Leader, currently in his second year at Wesley Theological Seminary) and Claire Barry (CCC Spiritual Formation Coordinator) will lead an inspiring and uplifting worship service this Sunday April 27th (Seminarian Sunday).

Music this Sunday — led by the CCC Chancel Choir, Music Director Sam Wack, and Paul Scribner, percussion — will include: “Yonder Come Day,” a Traditional Georgia Sea Islands Spiritual, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James W. Johnson, “Grant Us Your Peace” by Felix Mendelssohn, and “Gaudeamus!” by Mary Lynn Lightfoot.

CCC youth — Sylvia Barry, Frances Pipa, and Keira Majarowitz — along with Claire Barry will be our lay readers this Sunday, reading passages from Scripture (Daniel 2, Genesis 37, Genesis 41, 45). After these readings, Don Bruns will lead us in a Prayer of Confession, based on Psalm 130, which reminds us that even when we feel lost, uncertain, or disconnected, we are not alone.

At the center of the service, we will have a Silent Meditation, while breathing a verse from Psalm 46:10:

(Inhale): “Be still, and know…”
(Exhale): “That I am God.”

Following the meditation, Don Bruns will offer a sermon, 
“Joseph and the Art of Meaning Making”. 

Join us after worship for Coffee Hour and a Community Meeting.

Here is the bulletin for this Sunday.

Download the Bulletin

Join Zoom Worship

https://zoom.us/j/119508399

Meeting ID: 119 508 399

Dial In via Phone

1-301-715-8592
Meeting ID: 119 508 399

Calling All Instrumentalists!
Pick Up Music This Sunday

The Intergenerational Orchestra will be playing during the service on Sunday, May 11th. All instrumentalists are welcome, from beginner to advanced. I will hand out music on Sunday, April 27 (after worship), and our first rehearsal will be Sunday, May 4th after the service. Hope you will be able to join us!  –Sam Wack, Director of Music

Palm Sunday, April 13 – Palm Sunday Solidarity – “Two Parades. One Choice.”

Palm Sunday, April 13 – Palm Sunday Solidarity – “Two Parades. One Choice.”

Join us for a powerful Palm Sunday gathering that lifts up not only the story of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, but also the quiet, faithful work of federal workers and public servants today. Palm Sunday reminds us that Jesus didn’t arrive in power and glory, but in humility and solidarity. He rode a donkey, not a war horse. He entered the city with the people, not above them. His procession wasn’t a spectacle, but a declaration of love over fear, justice over empire. We can echo that same spirit in our own faith practices.

We’ll begin with a gentle Solidarity Walk at 9:15 AM from 8900 Georgia Ave/Ballard St. to Woodside Urban Park. You can also choose to meet us at the park at 9:30 AM if walking isn’t right for you. There, we’ll pause for a brief prayer and reading before returning to the church (8900 Georgia Ave.) for a Solidarity Potluck Breakfast at 10:00 AM and Worship at 10:30 AM.

The service will feature palms with messages of blessing, songs of justice and joy, community testimonies, and a prayer re-imagined for this moment.

PALM SUNDAY ORDER OF WORSHIP

📆 Schedule of Events – April 13

Palm Sunday Solidarity at Christ Congregational Church
📍 8900 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD

🕘 9:15 AM – Solidarity Walk
Start at the church for a short community walk to Woodside Urban Park. Child supervision provided.

🕤 9:30 AM – Meet us at the park!
We’ll pause for a prayer of blessing before returning together.

🥞 10:00 AM – Solidarity Potluck Breakfast
Food is provided by CCC—guests don’t need to bring anything.
Come enjoy food and fellowship with neighbors and federal workers. We’ll have a community breakfast and a visit from Council Member Evan Glass, who’s showing up in support of federal workers and public servants.

🌿 10:30 AM – Palm Sunday Worship
Featuring palms with handwritten blessings, spirituals and songs, testimonies, and a message of hope.

🌿 All are welcome! Join us, and bring a friend(s), especially if they, or you, are a civil servant, federal worker, or someone who keeps the world quietly turning.

Come walk, eat, sing, and show up for each other in love.

____________________

Or join us for worship via Zoom starting at 10:30am:

Join Zoom Worship

https://zoom.us/j/119508399

Meeting ID: 119 508 399

Dial In via Phone

1-301-715-8592
Meeting ID: 119 508 399

____________________

Join us also for our other Holy Week events!

Holy Week and Easter at CCC

Holy Week and Easter at CCC

~ HOLY WEEK AT CCC ~

April 17th, 5:30PM Soup Potluck Dinner with SSUMC (details below!); visit the labyrinth, enjoy mediation and prayer; 7PM Maundy Thursday combined worship with SSUMC

April 18th, 7PM Good Friday combined worship with SSUMC, featuring a dramatic retelling of the story of the cross.

April 20th, 10:30AM Easter Sunday Celebration; Our music and proclamation invites us into the ongoing call to rise, even when we don’t have all the answers.

Maundy Thursday Soup Potluck Dinner

Let’s join together for a time of soup and fellowship on Maundy Thursday (April 17) from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall (Social Hall) as we remember Holy Thursday, also known as Maundy Thursday, when Jesus ate what Christians often refer to as the last supper with his Disciples. You’re encouraged to stop by, share and eat soup, and then take a few moments to visit our labyrinth or move to the sanctuary for meditation and prayer before our Maundy Thursday service at 7 p.m.

To participate in this potluck dinner event, please use this signupgenius link. 

Rising: An Easter Celebration
April 20, 2025, 10:30am

Our Easter theme this year is “Rising” — We are rising with Jesus, and Jesus is always rising in us, through us, and ahead of us. This will be a service that is rooted, fresh, and full of energy. This is Easter that rises with us. 

The Chancel Choir, with Lynne Joseloff, keyboard, will perform the Sacred Overture, “Lord God Be Praised” by Giovanni Gabrieli;  “God is Gone Up with a Shout” by David Angerman and Joseph M. Martin; “Alleluia” by Randall Thompson; and, with Orchestra, the “Hallelujah Chorus” from The Messiah by G. F. Handel.

Pastor Matt will offer a sermon, “The Courage to Rise”, which invites us into the ongoing call to rise, even when we don’t have all the answers.

We Have Moved!

We Have Moved!

We are worshipping every Sunday at 10:30am in our new location: the social hall (side entrance on Ballard Street) at 8900 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Our new worship space is fully wheelchair accessible and open, affirming and welcoming to all.

Parking for CCC is available across Ballard Street in the Department of Health and Human Services parking lot (see map below).

There is a fully accessible ramp into the doors. Please pull into the circle in front of the double doors. There is limited parking in the circle. Parking assistance will be provided.

There is now a fully accessible and operational lift into our worship space. Our Greeters will be happy to assist those who wish to use it.

Ash Wednesday Worship Materials

Ash Wednesday Worship Materials

Wednesday March 5th at 7pm
Ash Wednesday
Joint Worship Celebration with SSUMC

 

Join us tonight at 7 p.m. as we enter the sacred season of Lent with a worship service with song, scripture, and ash as a symbol of this holy time. Pastor Matt will be preaching, and Mary Scott will be our Lay Reader. This combined worship experience with SSUMC will be held in-person tonight in the Sanctuary at 8900 Georgia Ave, and online via  the SSUMC website, Facebook, and YouTube pages. 

Childcare will not be provided, but the “PrayGround” area of the sanctuary will be open, as in previous Sundays.

Here is the bulletin for tonight’s service.

Worship is located at:
8900 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

March 2 Worship Materials

March 2 Worship Materials

THIS Sunday, March 2 | Communion and Transfiguration Sunday | 10 AM combined worship with SSUMC!

The pastors of CCC and SSUMC will lead a combined worship service this Communion Sunday, March 2nd, in the main sanctuary at SSUMC at 10 AM. The service will be live-streamed via the SSUMC website, Facebook, and YouTube pages. Please note, we will NOT use our CCC Zoom link this week.

The pastors of CCC and SSUMC will lead a combined worship and communion service this Transfiguration Sunday, March 2nd, in the main sanctuary at SSUMC at 10 AM. CCC’s Chancel Choir, SSUMC’s Choir, and Bowie State Gospel Choir will all sing together this Sunday. CCC’s Erma Barron will serve as Lay Reader this Sunday, reading from Exodus 34. CCC and SSUMC volunteers will pair up to assist with and serve communion. (Gluten free and pre-wrapped communion is also available.) Like us, SSUMC sets an open and welcoming communion table. Children and infants are invited to participate. At the heart of our communion liturgy this Sunday will be this refrain: 

Let justice roll, roll down like water and righteousness like a
flowing stream. Let justice roll, roll down like water, and
righteousness like a flowing stream.

SSUMC is located at 8900 Georgia Avenue. While there, come check out how our new office spaces are coming along! Thanks to our amazing volunteers, we have made tremendous progress in the past week.
 
Like last Sunday, Child Care for children 5 and under will be available in the sanctuary “Pray Ground” area. Sunday School for age 4 through 1st grade, and Children’s Chapel for 2nd grade through 5th, is also available. 

Download the Bulletin

The service will be live-streamed via the SSUMC website, Facebook, and YouTube pages. Please note, we will NOT use our CCC Zoom link this week.

February 16 Worship Materials

February 16 Worship Materials

Join us this Sunday February 16th at 10:30am Via Zoom
for the Third Sunday of Black History Month!

We hold fast to dreams, O God,

for when dreams go, life is a barren field

frozen with snow.

So thaw the frost of fear,

kindle the fire of hope,

and strengthen us to build, to love, to dream

and never let go.

We invite you to worship with us. Christ Congregational Church is an inclusive community of spiritual seekers where we honor and celebrate people of all races, cultures, ages, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

Worship will be via Zoom only this Sunday. Cheryl Simmons, our Lay Reader, will lead us in an opening prayer based on “Dreams” by Langston Hughes (excerpted above), and will read selections from the Psalms on the theme of breath and breathing. Pastor Matt will offer a sermon this week based on Luke 6:17-26. 

Jesus stood among the people—

among the poor, the hungry, the weary, the rejected,

and lifting his voice, he declared:

 

Blessed are you who are poor,

for God’s dream is yours. 

Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be fed with abundance.

 

Blessed are you who weep now,

for joy is coming, and your tears will be wiped away.

Music Director Sam Wack will lead us in worship with songs like “I Need Thee Every Hour” and “Every Time I Feel the Spirit”. Come as you are and find connection, hope, and grace in our welcoming spiritual community.

Download the Bulletin

Join Zoom Worship

https://zoom.us/j/119508399

Meeting ID: 119 508 399

Dial In via Phone

1-301-715-8592
Meeting ID: 119 508 399

February 2 Worship Materials

February 2 Worship Materials


Black History Month Begins

Join us for Zoom-ONLY online worship on Sunday February 2 at 10:30 AM, as we celebrate Communion together and kick off Black History Month! Lay Reader Estelle Franklin leads us in prayer and readings from scripture, Musical Director Sam Wack leads our musical worship experience, and Pastor Aubra shares a homily, “Who, me?” based on Luke 4:21-30.

Join us for Virtual Communion

We celebrate the radical hospitality of Jesus by having a wide open communion table. This means that everyone, without exception, is invited to participate in the sharing of Communion. Grab something solid and something liquid to represent the Bread of Life and the Cup of Blessing as we share in our virtual celebration.

Download the Bulletin

Join Zoom Worship

https://zoom.us/j/119508399

Meeting ID: 119 508 399

Dial In via Phone

1-301-715-8592
Meeting ID: 119 508 399

Spring 2025 Women’s Retreat

Spring 2025 Women’s Retreat

Spring Women’s Retreat 2025

Date & Location: Friday evening, March 28, 2025– Sunday morning, March 30, 2025 at the CCC Retreat Center in West Virginia.

Theme: Meeting God at the Threshold: Where the Past and Future Meet at the Doorway of the Unknown

We will explore this theme through engaging in arts and crafts, journaling, meditation, yoga, fellowship and more.  

Time: The retreat will begin at 8:00 p.m. Friday evening. You may arrive as early as 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, however if you do plan to arrive in the afternoon, please bring your own evening meal.

The retreat ends at approximately noon on Sunday.

Who Can Attend: The retreat is open to all CCC women. We are an inclusive community of spiritual seekers where we honor and celebrate women of all races, cultures, ages, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities. Come for the entire weekend, one night, or just for the day on Saturday.

Accommodations: Overnight space is limited to 23 people on a first-come-first-served basis, in three heated cabins with bunk beds and full bath in each cabin. One cabin is equipped with a ramp and accessible bathroom. There is no limit to those who wish to come for the day on Saturday.

*If you require either the accessible cabin and/or a bottom bunk please note that when registering. Accommodations are limited so please reserve your requests for needs not preferences.

Meals: We do our own cooking in the renovated, fully equipped kitchen.

There will be four meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday.

When you register, you will be asked which meal you would like to help prepare. Meals are an opportunity for creativity and simplicity. Your team is free to choose its own menu.

Costs: The cost for the weekend is $80 for the entire retreat, $55 for one night, or $40 for the day on Saturday only. This covers Retreat Center fees and project supplies. Scholarships and sliding scale fee available. 

Mail your checks, made out to CCC, to the church with Women’s Retreat on the memo line.

Christ Congregational Church
8900 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD 20910

**In addition, bring cash ($25 in small bills) to cover meal costs shared among all the participants. If bringing food, please bring your receipts labeled with your name and total. The receipts are collected and total is divided by the number of participants to determine the fair share for each. Some may need to be reimbursed for paying more than their share, some may need to add to what they have already spent for purchases. For those who are not supplying food, come prepared to help reimburse those who are.

What to Bring: Besides your bedding (sleeping bag or sheets/blanket for a twin sized bed), pillow, bath towel and personal belongings, please bring:

  • A reusable water bottle to use throughout the weekend
  • A cloth napkin for meals
  • Cloth hand towel for bathroom
  • Food for meals and receipts
  • $25 cash in small bills
  • Indoor shoes/slippers if desired (would like to keep outdoor shoes and associated dirt out of the house)
  • Flashlight or headlamp 
  • Journal (an extra to share is welcome)
  • Magazine that can be cut up
  • Yoga mat (Only needed for those desiring to join an optional floor mat class. Chair yoga will be offered for all.)
*We have plenty of toilet paper and paper towels so there is no need to bring any this time. 
 

COVID Policy: Testing within 24 hours of arriving is encouraged.

Travel Info: Carpooling is strongly encouraged! If it is your first time attending, we especially recommend traveling with others. A carpool list will be created to help coordinate. Directions to the Retreat Center will be sent out the week of the retreat. GPS is not always reliable with the final turns so please refer to directions.

Registration: The link to sign up is posted in the weekly e-news during the registration period. There will also be a registration table at church on Sundays leading up to the retreat where you can sign up in person.

Registration will be open from March 1st through March 24th.

Questions: Please contact Claire Barry at cisbarry@gmail.com or 410-350-4905.