Author: tbc

Fire System Installation for the Williams Building

On February 11, 2022 our neighborhood Fox Elementary School went up in flames, causing extensive damage.  As a congregation, we offered to assist the staff, parents, and children in any way that we could in support of the aftermath of this unfortunate event.  In months prior to this fire, we as a Building & Grounds Committee had been discussing how we would address our own concerns regarding safety for our buildings that are also in a similar age range as Fox Elementary.  It was this in combination with other security concerns for our child care center that led us to take more direct action in the area of safety and security for all of us.

In June 2022 a team of staff and volunteers completed a walk through of all of our buildings with Noah Rogers, a specialist in safety and security with the Baptist General Association of Virginia, to assess and begin to prioritize our needs.  We created an initial action plan, taking into consideration the daily use of the Williams Building and the need to focus on the safety of the children in our care.  That assessment led us to begin immediately to address the need for a fire alarm system in the Williams Building.

The B&G Committee researched and obtained bids for the installation of a system that would fit our specifications.  With your support and the support of TCCC parents, we agreed to work with Fire Protection LLC to complete the work.  Installation started in February of this year, and it was completed on schedule on March 22^nd, with training for several members of our TCCC and TBC staff provided on that day.

We sincerely appreciate everyone’s help and support in making this important safety step possible.  Please take any opportunity you have to extend special thanks to TCCC and Endowment Board partners, understanding that TCCC is covering about 65% of the cost of this project and our Endowment Board is paying about 25% of the project costs.  We look forward to continuing to work together as we implement more safety steps in the months ahead!

Lunch and a Business Meeting!   This Sunday, April 30.  Immediately following the worship service in the Fellowship Hall.
 
Our quarterly business meeting will take place on Sunday immediately following worship.  Lunch will be served.  Judy is cooking tortellini with Italian sausage and marinara sauce and a white sauce with mushrooms and Gorgonzola cheese.  The proceeds from lunch will help send our youth to camp this summer, so please plan to donate some money to help cover the cost of the food and send youth to camp.  The business of the church is important spiritual work.  As we see in Acts 6, the early church had to work to organize to care for their community and their neighbors.  Plan to come and take part in this important work of being community.

Joining us from the virtual acre? Here’s the zoom link.

Schedule for Holy Week at Tabernacle Baptist Church

April 2: Palm Sunday Worship    10:50 AM  Palm Parade  11:00 AM Worship
Taize Worship    6:00 PM   River Road Church (Baptist)
Join Judy and attend a Palm Sunday Evening Taize Service.

April 6:  Maundy Thursday Service:  6:00-7:30 PM – Foot Washing, Table Discussions, Communion

April 7:   Good Friday Service:   7:00-8:00 PM  – Stations of the Cross, readings and music.

April 8:   Easter Egg Hunt and Cookout:   4:30-6:00 PM at the home of
                  Judy and Eric Fiske.  Bring a dish to share.
                  Contact Judy at judy@tbcrichmond.org for directions.

April 9:   8:30 AM  Easter Breakfast in the Fellowship Hall.  
                9:45 AM   Various Sunday School Classes
             11:00 AM   Easter Worship in the Sanctuary
        Please bring fresh flowers to help “Flower” the cross

Time to start ordering Easter Lilies……………..
We are almost in the Easter season, and it is time to think about ordering Easter Lilies in memory or honor of a loved one.  The cost this year is $14.90 per plant.  When placing your order, if paying by check or some other form of payment, please print out the form by clicking the link below. If paying by check, please indicate in the check memo line that it is for an Easter Lily and please place the order form and check in an envelope and place it in Peggy Strong’s box outside of the church office. If you are making payment electronically, please print out the order form and place the form in Peggy Strong’s box outside of the church office and please indicate how the payment was made where it is asked for on the form. If mailing in the form and check, please use the address on the form and please put it to Peggy’s attention.

Click here for an order form. Orders need to be place by April 2nd.

TERESA OF ÁVILA: Prayer Leads to Purpose

A meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation (March 12, 2023). Author and interspiritual teacher Megan Don introduces the Spanish mystic Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) as an exemplar of action and contemplation: 

Teresa’s life provides us with an exceptional example of bringing the contemplative and active life together; it displays both a profound internal depth and an exceptionally productive outcome.…  

At the age of twenty, after much deliberation, she chose to enter the Carmelite Monastery in Ávila. She did not make this choice because of a vocational “calling” but because Teresa understood it to be a favorable alternative to marriage….  

Her fascination with the world continued while she lived in the monastery, since it was not an enclosed order, and a stream of visitors occupied much of her time…. Prayers were ordered and recited by rote, which left her soul dry and uninspired. She attempted to enter her own “prayer of quiet,” but finding the thoughts in her head far too noisy and disturbing, she gave up any attempt to develop a more meaningful way to pray. Her relationship with the Beloved [God] at this time was fairly superficial.  

For twenty years she lived a divided life. On the one hand her ego desired worldly attachments, while on the other her spirit was calling her to a deeper communion with the divine. At the age of forty, Teresa finally surrendered completely to her Beloved. Her real life and work had begun. She returned to her prayer of quiet, allowing the Beloved to lead her, no longer relying on her own techniques. Meditation became essential to Teresa in establishing a clear and firm foundation with the divine, and as she walked further on her spiritual pathway, she came to understand that this external Beloved also “rests within.” It was to this place that she would constantly return to receive guidance, love, and a feeling of deep peace that she could not find elsewhere. [1] 

From that place of peace and inner authority, Teresa worked to return the Carmelite order to its original emphasis on prayer, poverty, and simplicity, going on to found seventeen new convents and monasteries. Don continues: 

Contrary to popular belief, the pinnacle of the mystical life is often lived in the world, even though it is not of the world. Having come into a full consciousness of the reality of existence, the mystic is now returned to society, displaying an extraordinary energy for the work required. This energy is none other than the divine force working in and through this willing worker of the Beloved, and it far surpasses anything we human beings can do alone. Teresa’s life is one such example of a person in and through whom the Beloved worked, and throughout her life she reiterated that the ultimate purpose of the sacred marriage [or union with God] is to give birth to good works in the world. [2]  

References: 

[1] Megan Don, Meditations with Teresa of Ávila: A Journey into the Sacred (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2011), 1, 2–3. 

[2] Don, Meditations with Teresa of Ávila, 218. 

Image credit: A path from one week to the next—Les Argonauts, Camino de Santiago, Unsplash. Jenna Keiper, Winter Bird. Jenna Keiper, Mystic. Used with permission. Click here to enlarge image. 

Perched in solitude, in communion with the Beloved. 

ASH WEDNESDAY – FEBRUARY 22, 2023
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent.  Lent is the 40 days before Easter Sunday—actually 46 days before Easter Sunday because Sundays do not count in the Lenten count of days. 

On Ash Wednesday you receive a cross of ash on your forehead along with the words “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  The ashes are made by burning the palm crosses from the previous year’s Palm Sunday service and mixing them with oil.  The ritual is to remind us that as God’s creation we live a fleeting life and often make bad choices.  The season of Lent reminds us that we need to repent from our bad choices and work to improve our relationship with both God and each other.  Join us for some of the day on February 22 to participate in Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday at Tabernacle:
The sanctuary will be open on Wednesday, February 22, from 11:00 AM-5:30 PM for you to participate in guided meditations and to receive ashes.  You may come and receive ashes and leave or stay and meditate and pray.

5:30-6:20 PM  Join us for pancake dinner.

6:30-7:15 PM  Join us for a communal Ash Wednesday Service in the Sanctuary.  The service will include music, readings, a reflection and the imposition of ashes.