Summer Schedule

From now until after Labor Day, we worship at one service only, at 10:00. Children age 3-9 start in worship, then leave for classes. Care is available for younger children during the whole service.

Office hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00-2:00. Bulletin submissions should reach the office by the Wednesday morning before publication.

Currents comes out once a month, with Thursday deadlines on July 18 and August 15. The first deadline of the new season is September 12.

Outside office hours, leave a voice message or send e-mail to the church office. For urgent matters, please contact Susan or Hank by cell phone. Staff e-mail addresses are:

• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Interim Senior Pastor
• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Transitional Pastor for Faith Formation
• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Office Administrator
• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Christian Education Administrator
• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Administrative Assistant

Search News: Our Church Profile

The Search Committee is working hard to complete the first draft of the Little River UCC profile that will be shared with potential candidates for the Senior Pastor position. The profile will include everything from a description of our church building to information about committees and boards, staff responsibilities, our dreams and aspirations, and what our congregation looks for in the next Senior Pastor. We anticipate having a draft available for the congregation to review around Friday, June 14. We will send it via email to those on the Current Tidings email list (sign up by sending a request to the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). We’ll also have copies available in the narthex on Sunday, June 16, and we’ll post a copy of it on the website. (Please note that the draft profile will be posted on the website only until we complete the final profile, at which time we will remove it. Our application and screening process is such that we will only share the profile with applicants who are truly under consideration.)

Town Hall Meeting

The Search Committee invites you to a special congregational “town hall” meeting at 11:30 on Sunday, June 23. We will update you on the search process and receive input on the draft church profile. Does the draft have factual errors? Did we convey a valid sense of the church’s goals and aspirations? In short, is the draft profile a true picture of Little River UCC?

If you have suggestions and can’t make the discussion, please send comments to the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Teach Summer Church School

This year we are looking for three volunteers to commit to teaching the same lesson about “Acts of Faith” two weeks in a row for the summer during 10:00 worship. We will be offering the same lesson for two weeks using a “centers” approach where children will have the choice of a couple of activities in which to participate after reading the story. Each week we hope to offer a combination of music, movement, arts and crafts, drama, puppetry, or play zone, as fit the talents of the teacher-volunteers. Please see the sign-up list in the narthex or talk to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Mike Craven, or Natalie Stapert.

Youth Mission Lock-In

The Pilgrim Fellowship invites all youth graduating sixth through twelfth grades to a mission-themed lock-in Friday-Saturday, June 21-22. (Note the new date!) Activities will focus on helping to improve the environment. More details soon! Interested? Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Fifth Sunday: School Supplies

The Board of Outreach and Social Justice is sponsoring a Fifth Sunday mission project on Sunday, June 30 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the church. We will be packing school supplies into backpacks for donation to three of the local benevolences our church helps to support: Shaw Community Ministry, Homestretch, and Alternative House. These organizations offer assistance to underserved populations of at-risk children and youth in Northern Virginia and in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington. By donating backpacks filled with school supplies, we can make a tremendous impact on these young people by ensuring that they start the school year off in the fall with all of the materials they need to succeed.

There are two ways you can help with this Fifth Sunday project:

• Come on June 30 at 2:00 and help organize the various school supplies and fill 200 backpacks.
• Pick up a list of the supplies needed for one backpack, purchase them, and bring them to the church on or before June 30.

Women’s Book Group: Flight Behavior

The Women’s Book Group will meet Sunday, July 14 from 11:30 until 12:45. The group will discuss Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Flight Behavior. The story is set in Appalachia and explores climate change, media exploitation, and political opportunism through the eyes of a young mother who finds monarch butterflies on the mountain farm where she lives with her husband and two children. She works with scientists as they research the butterflies and realizes how different her life could have been with more education.

Women’s Retreat

Join Little River women Saturday, August 3 for “Moving Toward Mind, Body, and Spirit,” an afternoon and evening of fellowship as we explore how the interconnection of thought, sense, and grace makes us and moves us toward being whole. More details to come soon!

Summer Music

During the summer, music during worship is provided by soloists or small groups of singers or players from our church or the community. Are you interested, or do you know someone who is? Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Meeting Our Commitments

Let the gifts we offer be as living water for the church.

Christian stewardship is what we do with our faith. Although each of us is in a different place on our faith journey, we join as a church to develop that faith journey. As members of the United Church of Christ, we have publicly state our intention to live out our faith.

But let’s face the facts: it takes money for Little River United Church of Christ to operate. How much money? That’s a question that the congregation answers. We answer the question in two very different ways. Collectively and openly, we determine the operating budget for the year, but cumulatively, individually, and privately we constrain the operating budget when we offer the church our pledge of financial support.

The 2013 operating budget is $710,118, of which we intended to raise $630,000 with pledge income. To date 181 pledges from 275 individuals have been received totaling $620,572. Please consider helping to decrease this pledge deficit. You can do this by submitting a new pledge card, available in the church office or by notifying This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

May all our gifts flow forth from the deep well of faith.

Amen.

Thanks for Helping Shaw Camp

The Board of Outreach and Social Justice and Shaw Community Ministry want to extend a cheerful “Thank you!” to the congregation. Our annual fundraising effort collected more than $3,000 for a six-week summer camp at Cleveland Elementary School in downtown Washington, DC. There will be daily breakfasts and lunches, weekly field trips, and programs to maintain grade level over the summer along with trips to a community pool!