Newsletter: December 30, 2022: Happy New Year from the Church of the Holy City Community!

Dear Friends:

Happy New Year!

I hope you are finding time to relax after the Christmas holiday. Remember that we will not be having church this coming Sunday due to New Year’s celebrations.

Thanks to all who attended our Christmas Eve service. The theme was making room in ourselves for what God wants to do. Click here to view the recording of my message.

As we look to 2023, I hope we can all find in our hearts the new things God is creating in the world and our lives.

We will be changing the preaching schedule this coming year with more guest preachers. Let us know if you’d like to preach or whom you’d like to hear from, and we’ll try to accommodate.

We wish Jimmy Cox a pleased birthday. He celebrated on the 26th. It was neat meeting his family on Christmas Eve.

We also want Carol Cotter a happy birthday on New Year’s Day. You can see from the photo (scroll down to see the image) that she’s always supporting me.

Below we included bits of historic archives that we found during the restoration of the Church tower. Also, be sure to check out the photos of the creation window (see the email header above) taken from the Church balcony.

Thanks for your support for the Church of the Holy City, and I wish you all a happy new year!

Peace,

Rev. Tafel

From Our Historic Archives:

This is an African American Swedenborgian Church in Washington DC around the turn of the last century (see the photo above on the left). We also found this photo of the Sparks House (see the photo above on the right), the Swedenborgian School for Ministers until the middle of the 20th century. It was moved across the street, and Rev. Tafel lived in that house when he served as the Assistant Minister at Harvard’s chapel.

These old program announcements were found during the tower renovation. They show all the Washington Society of the New Jerusalem programming held in members’ homes before the Church of the Holy City was built on the 16th Street NW in Washington, DC.

Tis the Season to Be Jolly:

Here’s a video of family and friends singing Christmas carols during our service last week.

Thought for the Week:

1611 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20009

holycitydc.org