Ordinary Church on Christmas Eve: the good news of the Incarnation proclaimed by children in an unfamiliar place in our "city of exile." We even had our own "shepherdess on the green"! Dear Incarnation, In November 2023 as we were meeting for the first time, Incarnation’s vestry read, meditated and discussed this section of Jeremiah’s letter to God’s people who had just been driven to Babylon at the point of a sword in 597 BCE: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israe

Dear Incarnation Family, When the new Vestry met late last year, we identified a spirit of “joyful gentleness” as a unique characteristic of Incarnation’s worship.  That spirit was much in evidence during our Christmas Eve worship service — from the candlelit singing of “Silent Night” to the children’s exuberant but reverent reading of Matthew and Luke’s Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus.  Even as we worshiped in our third distinct South Arlington location in 2023 — this

Below is the compilation of testimonies on giving that vestry warden Nancy Sung shared at our March 26 vestry meeting. At the beginning...

Dear Incarnation Family, Greetings from your vestry wardens! We write to provide a year-end update. In October, Ben and Cory finished their vestry terms — we are so grateful for their wise and faithful service. The new vestry has met twice, and as part of our on-boarding of newly-elected members Kim and Jared, we reflected on the many things that have changed over the last year: we moved to a different worship location, we said goodbye to our beloved founding rector Liz almo

IMPORTANT NEWS: Rev. Amy Rowe named as Incarnation’s next Rector, to start in May 2022 Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a Rector for this church that we may receive a faithful pastor who will preach the Gospel, care for your people, equip us for ministry, and lead us forth in fulfillment of the Great Commission; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Dear Incarnation Members and Friends, It

Since our last Warden Report we’ve had a few important changes: we welcomed Jenni to the Vestry, and Clayton as a Warden, also Amy and Katie temporarily joined the Vestry while Liz was away on sabbatical. We met via Zoom on January 26 and February 28, and our ‘business’ has happily been pretty straightforward. We approved a few changes to our Bylaws to clarify the process for replacing Vestry members between elections, and we approved the Outreach Team’s recommendation of a r

Dear Friends, This is not the Warden Report we had planned. Last week I drafted a long-overdue report; a breezy, cheery missive about all we have to be thankful for at IAC. I sent it to Eric for comment. At 8:42 AM last Friday, Eric replied with a thumbs up—then hopped onto his bike as usual. Any of you who were unable to attend his funeral service on Monday are welcome to request a link to it by asking Liz or Amy. And I hope many of you will join us this Saturday as we

When you last heard from us (Feb 2020) we thought we were entering a phase of relative calm. Looking back it seems like such a gentle, soft-focus time. We had forged our own unique pathway as a new church, and we were proud of our progress. Then in March we, along with every other church, were yanked to a brand-new starting line that no one had anticipated. The path in front of us that had looked pretty clear was now filled with challenges. But several months into the global

A lot has happened since our last Warden report in November! We have spent countless hours together preparing and beautifying our new worship space in the Chapel, 716 S. Glebe Road, moving into it just in time for Advent. Our Bishop joined us in December to receive confirmands and to install Liz as our first Rector, making us a fully independent parish. Whew! Then we celebrated Christmas together and launched a regular cadence of small groups in January and February, punctuat

The brand new, first ever Incarnation Vestry convened for a full-day retreat in October, and has since had two additional evening meetings. We’ve discovered that collectively we possess a broad range of gifting, and a shared love for the Incarnation community, as well as a spirit of deference to one another while still being able to speak our minds. As in any startup, in early days significant attention must be paid to setting up the administrative structures that we will de

You may not know it, but Incarnation passed another milestone this week. This past Monday, the Servant Team, which has led Incarnation for the last 18 months (from before we started worshipping together on Sundays), had its last meeting. What is a Servant Team, you ask? And what happens next? And what is a cryptowarden? Read on. What is a Servant Team? The Servant Team is the group of people who came alongside Liz and the staff team (Amy, Beth, Josie and Morgan) to plan Inca