xxxx xx INSIDE: Home sales down, but prices holding their own • Page 2 NEW DULLES CAMPUS Give your child a competitive advantage Schedule Your 3 4 17 Private Tour Today MINISTER TIPS TO LOCAL K 12th Grade REFLECTS KEEP YOUR PITCHER 703-759-5100 CHANGING PETS HEALTHY EXCELS TIMES THIS SUMMER IN COLLEGE www.FairfaxChristianSchool.com Sun Gazette GREAT FALLS McLEAN OAKTON TYSONS VIENNA VOLUME 41 NO. 33 MAY 21-27, 2020 Survey Says: Limit Development, Trac Great Falls Residents Sound O on Their Desires for Future of Community BRIAN TROMPETER Sta Writer Preserving Great Falls’ quality of life – largely by preventing overdevelopment, tamping down trafc and preserving the environment – is the top priority of the village’s residents, according to the Great Falls Citizens Association’s (GFCA) re- cent community survey. The resulting 23-page document, titled “Looking Forward to 2025,” was pro- duced entirely by the association’s leaders, and is loaded with data and graphics. “It continues our marching orders to serve the community,” said GFCA presi- dent Bill Canis. The group most recently undertook such a survey in 2007, and board mem- bers thought it was time to take the pub- lic’s pulse again. GFCA initially targeted the online survey at the group’s 985 members, then fanned it out to the larger community. A total of 327 residents from 5,391 house- A woman kayaks on the Potomac River near Riverbend Park in this 2019 photo. Great Falls residents in a recent survey placed a high premium Continued on Page 14 on preserving the village’s quality of life, including its natural environment. PHOTO BY BRIAN TROMPETER Data: Local Airports Take a Pounding After COVID-19 Arrives Year-over-year passenger counts at the 56.5 percent to 912,055 and Washington posting a 50.5-percent dip and most other ing an area of the world that took the rst region’s airports were cut by more than Dulles International Airport posting a de- carriers seeing similar declines. (Delta, the major hit from COVID-19, saw an 87-per- half in March as the COVID-19 pan- cline of 52.7 percent to 928,709. second largest carrier at Dulles in terms cent decline in trafc for the month. demic disrupted air travel nationally and At Reagan National, dominant car- of domestic passengers, recorded a slight- For the rst quarter of 2020, the 4.4 worldwide. rier American Airlines saw a 55.5-percent ly smaller dropoff.) million passengers traveling through Rea- The Metropolitan Washington Air- dip in passenger activity, with most other On the international front at Dulles, gan National represented a decline of ports Authority reported passenger counts major carriers recording declines ranging passenger activity was down 57 percent 18 percent from the January-February- at its two airports were down 54.7 percent from 47 percent to 61 percent. from March 2019, with United down 62 March time frame of 2019, while the 4.2 for the month, with Ronald Reagan Wash- At Dulles, domestic travel was down percent and European carriers down be- million using Dulles represented a decline ington National Airport seeing a drop of 51 percent, with dominant carrier United tween 55 and 59 percent. 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Licensed in VA Licensed in VA and SC 2 May 21, 2020 www.sungazette.news Retiring Minister Reects on Changing Times BRIAN TROMPETER “intentional Christ follower” at age 19. with board-and-batten siding to mirror Sta Writer While attending Ohio Wesleyan Universi- the clapboarded original chapel, and a ty in the 1970s, he changed his major from worship center underneath. In 2005, the Rev. Peter James has shepherded Vi- economics and earned a bachelor’s degree church built a new ministry center. enna Presbyterian Church through four in religion. He later received a master of During capital campaigns for building decades of physical expansion and rising divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell projects over three decades, Vienna Pres- membership, and now he’s ready to let a Theological Seminary and a doctorate in byterian also planted churches in Cent- new generation lead. ministry from Union Presbyterian Semi- reville, Sterling and Brambleton. “I sometimes tell people that I’ve nary. Instead of doing that again during served two churches in one location: one After coming to Vienna Presbyterian the most recent capital drive, the church’s in the 20th century and one in the 21st Church in 1979 as an associate pastor, leaders initiated “Belong!” – a program century,” said James, who will step down James became senior pastor in 1986. The that provides job-search help to residents this year after 41 years with the church, church’s membership has doubled during in the Vienna Park neighborhood and tu- the last 34 as senior pastor. “The church his tenure and now stands at more than toring support at Cunningham Park El- in the 21st century is so vastly different 2,600. ementary School. from the church in the 20th century that When members joined the church de- Vienna Presbyterian has switched to it’s almost unrecognizable.” cades ago, ofcials gave them a box of an online ministry during the COVID-19 James reected on his career, the chal- donation envelopes and expected them to pandemic. Five young, tech-savvy staff lenges of “virtual” preaching during the serve on committees and attend services members have smoothed this transition COVID-19 crisis and why he’s handing on Sunday mornings, James said. and conduct the church’s Next Genera- over the reins. He’s been glad to give the Fewer people join the church in the tion Ministry. church stability during the pandemic, 21st century and they tend to give money Parishioners participating via live- but at age 70 wants to work at a different online. Members today often will commit Rev. Peter James streaming over the Web typically tune pace. to tasks for no more than six months, and less Biblically literate than people were in for 42 minutes; those checking in on “I’m feeling increasingly like an immi- they want genuineness from leaders, he decades ago. Facebook usually stay only eight minutes, grant in my own culture, and we probably added. “Now I have to say, ‘Turn to Exodus. James said. Sermons must be relevant and need to have somebody younger for whom “I’m sensing they really can identify Exodus is the second book in the Bible of engage listeners promptly, he said. this culture is more native,” he said. “I feel authenticity,” James said. “Their anten- the Old Testament. The Old Testament “You have less time with people,” like I’m a veteran ballplayer working off nas are up to identify when people are be- comes before the New Testament,’” he James said. “People are more discriminat- an old playbook and playing a new game. ing real and when they’re being contrived said. “With more people, you’re starting ing as far as what they take in. If they’re I nd it exhilarating and exhausting.” or manufactured. They’re really sophisti- from the beginning.” watching and it’s not immediately relevant His current plan, not yet nalized, is cated.” In 1998, the church expanded its facili- to their lives, they’re just going to switch” to teach at Gordon-Conwell Theological Younger members are socially con- ties, but preserved its iconic 1874 chapel to something else. Seminary, where he once was a student. scious and expect the church to address at Church and Mill streets, N.E. The ad- James grew up in Ohio and became an current issues. 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