October Love Feast

On Saturday, October 26th, Circle of Hope celebrated its October Love Feast, a time of looking over the past quarter as well as celebrating new people who have decided to partner with us through making a covenant. 

Before the Love Feast began, several people—John Geating, Brianna Serrano, Anna Rhoades, Stephanie Carter, Cameron and Becca DeWhitt—were baptized in the cold waters of the Wissahickon.

The Love Feast was a time of celebration where we worshiped Jesus with original songs by our music leaders, pop songs, and songs from around the world. We also heard from Aaron Foltz and Tricia Fussaro. Aaron shared a story in his life regarding a time he saw great gentleness in a co-worker, and Tricia shared a personal account of anxiousness due to pregnancy, all of which was related back to a theme of overcoming fear and seeing beauty around us by resting in and celebrating Jesus.

The night of celebration and sharing ended with Communion, a breaking of bread and serving of juice, for those who attended, and a emotional finale of worship and prayer.

All told, 10 people covenanted with Circle of Hope, which included:

From Broad & Washington: Brianna Sérráno, John Geating
From Frankford & Norris: Stephanie Carter and Cameron DeWhitt, Becca DeWhitt, and Lindsay Li
From Marlton & Crescent: Stevie Neale and Juan Rodgriguez
From Broad & Dauphin: Tori Hayes, Donovan Hayes

Love Feast: A time of reflection and covenants.

On Saturday, Circle of Hope had its quarterly Love Feast, a time of celebration for new baptisms, people making covenant, and a reflection on what Circle of Hope has done so far in the year.

The baptisms were done earlier in the day at the Wissahickon, and included: Gerald Lumarque, Wenson Georges, Amanda Johnson, Nick Schummer, Sarah Inman. Hannah Eshlemann was later baptized by Jonny Rashid at the Love Feast.

Following the baptism was a potluck across from the Frankford and Norris space where people from all congregations met and talked until the official start of the meeting.

The meeting was an energetic celebration that involved singing songs, several videos taking a glimpse at things happening in our community, and a sampler listen of the music that the Audio Arts team has been putting together for an upcoming album of Circle of Hope worship songs. Following that were the formal introductions of people wanting to make covenant with our community. They included: Sarah Inman, Steve Falkowski, Monda Mwaya, Gerald Lumarque, Wenson Georges, Mo Manklang, Preston Cabe, Naomi Sonne, Hannah Eshleman, Ruthie Carden, and Lexi Singleton. The night ended in more singing and joyful reflection. 

Covenant Meeting

On Monday, some people met at Frankford and Norris to explore God's covenant with us and ours with each other. It was a good time to consider how and why someone might want to be included in the local and global redemption project that we're part of in the metro. We prayed in hope that God keeps bringing us together in love and expanding the good work we can do together.