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Windows
on First Presbyterian Church
December 1, 2011 |
The Time Is Now: Heart to Heart Advent Worship and Luncheon |
 The women of Heart to Heart and our friends will gather this Friday, December 2, at 11:30 a.m., to enjoy an early holiday get-together. We will worship together at 11:45 with music, prayer, and a message from Jessica Stollings Strang, "Living Light: How the Meaning of Advent Illumines Our Lives," inspired by Galatians 5:22-23: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law."
At 12:30 we will enjoy lunch together, or you can take a lunch back to work with you. Please let us know if you need child care (lunch included). We're happy to provide it, but we need to know how many children to expect. It isn't too late to call the church office at (423) 764-7176 to let us know you can come. |
Congregational Meeting to Elect Officers |
 The Session has called a meeting of the congregation for Sunday, December 18, at 10:30 a.m., in the Fellowship Hall. The purpose of this meeting is to receive the report of the Officer Nominating Committee and to elect the church's officers for the Class of 2014. The slate of those to be nominated will be publicized in advance of the meeting.
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Take a Gander: Bird's-Eye View
of Our Refurbished Bell Tower |
 New copper gleams atop our bell tower after workers labored through the Thanksgiving holiday to finish cladding the steeply pitched roof.
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 Poinsettias are back! For $15 per plant, you can order pots of flourishing Euphorbia pulcherrima in Christmas colors to adorn the sanctuary during Advent and on Christmas Day. The deadline for orders is Monday, December 12. Order forms are available in the church office and in your Sunday bulletin. You may pick up your plants after the Christmas service.
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Please Give Blood at Marsh Blood Services
on West State Street |
Because Marsh Blood Services couldn't carry out the blood drive that had been scheduled for November 30 at FPC, Constance Brown Ferguson, the Marsh Bristol donor recruiter, has scheduled a donation date of December 7 at Marsh's 1996 West State Street location. If you would like to give blood at the blood services center on that date, please call (423) 652-0014 to let them know when you will drop in.
The next two blood drives to be held at FPC are scheduled for January 25 and March 21, 2012. |
Calling All Cooks: Meal Ministry for FPC Families |
 We are beginning a new ministry to those in our congregation who are temporarily unable to prepare their own meals. If you are interested in helping to provide meals for new mothers, surgery patients, and others, please email Lensey Richardson at lasinjc@yahoo.com. We are collecting email addresses of people interested in such a ministry, and will send out more details and information when we get your info!
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Men's Breakfast This Saturday |
 The men of the church are invited to enjoy breakfast together this Saturday, December 3, from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m., in the Fellowship Hall.
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To Ethiopia, with Love and Soccer Balls |
 
In January, our Ethiopia mission team, Trudy McFerrin and Peggy Hill, will visit Berhane Yesus Elementary School in Dembi Dollo and other missional programs that FPC supports.
In preparation for the trip, they earnestly request your prayers for God's guidance, discernment, and grace for meeting the needs of our missional partners. Trudy and Peggy would also like to take the 600 schoolchildren at Berhane Yesus an abundance of pens (ballpoint or gel), pencils (No. 2 lead), and playground and soccer balls (all sizes). If you would like to donate any of these items, you are welcome to deposit them in the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway. |
 Kid Connection News
Ins and Outs of Sunday School |
Help us keep our children safe! Please remember to sign your child in and out of Sunday School. Sign-in sheets are located at the Children's Ministries' registration table before Sunday School and will be in the classrooms afterwards. If you have not registered your child for Sunday School, you will find the necessary form at the registration table. |
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Our nursery needs volunteers to care for our babies during the 8:30 a.m. Sunday service. Volunteers may serve once only or as often as they like. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Cathy Newton or Debbie Pfeifer. |
Cheer Them On with Cheerios! |
 Our participation in the Fairmount Elementary School snack program is making a difference in the lives of children whose parents cannot afford to buy them an afternoon snack. Members of our congregation are now helping the Neighborhood Initiatives Steering Committee stock up on multigrain and honey-nut Cheerios for the next two months. We can't slacken our pace, though, because we need at least 34 boxes to see the children through December and January.
We're asking folks who bring boxes of Cheerios to the church to put them in the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway. The committee will take them to the school, and the teachers will divide them into snack portions as needed. Your loving contribution gives a boost in both energy and dignity to children from low-income families by allowing them to enjoy snacks with their classmates. Say a prayer of blessing as you send them on their way! |
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Music Notes | |
Music Participants: December 4: Sanctuary Choir, Sanctuary Bells.
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Delores Dufner |
Sunday's Music: The Sanctuary Choir anthem, "Come, O Just One," is structured in the manner of the responsorial psalms we often sing in worship, although in a much more elaborate form. With words by Delores Dufner, the refrain text is inspired by Isaiah 45:8, while its music is the tune of a Lutheran Advent hymn, "Savior of the Nations, Come." The verses sung alternating with the refrain are selected from Psalm 19, concluding with a doxology. Dufner is a member of the Benedictine Monastery in St. Joseph, MO; she is noted for her biblically based texts, which are included in the hymnals of many denominations beyond the Roman Catholic Church. While celebrating God's creation, the anthem rejoices in the rebirth that comes not only from the gift of God's works in rain and warmth, but more importantly in the gift of the Savior. The musical arrangement is by Lynn Trapp, a composer, organist, and church musician of some note. He serves as music director of St. Olaf Catholic Church in Minneapolis, MN.
Programs of Note: It's that time of year! Friday, December 2, at 7:30 p.m., the Virginia Intermont Choir, directed by Amy Oblinger, will present a concert of Christmas music in Nunn Recital Hall. Join Symphony of the Mountains, Voices of the Mountains, and the choirs of the Mountain Empire Children's Choral Academy on Saturday, December 3, at 3:00 p.m., in the Reid Auditorium of the Eastman Center in Kingsport. In addition to Missa Criola, by Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez, Christmas and Hanukkah favorites of the season, both sacred and secular, will be sung and played. Several of our own "church kids" sing with the MECCA choirs, Pat Flannagan conducts Voices of the Mountains, and Vicki Fey accompanies Voices and is principal keyboard for Symphony of the Mountains. Check out the Bristol Tennessee/Virginia City Schools websites or the local paper for information on band and choir concerts and madrigal dinners happening in December; many of our youth participate in the band and choral programs in our schools on both sides of the state line. Then, in our sanctuary, the King College Choirs will present their annual Christmas concert on Friday, December 9, at 8:00 p.m., and the choirs of the Mountain Empire Children's Choral Academy will sing their Christmas concert on Saturday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m. You can also catch Nutcracker performances with some of our church ballerinas and Barter's production of A Christmas Carol, also with several of our actresses and ballerinas! Be sure and check the December A! Magazine for the Arts for locations, dates, and times of many of these performances.
Special Music Offered: The Sanctuary Choir's gift of music to the congregation will be Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols during the 11:00 service on Sunday, December 11. Accompanied by harp, the choir will be joined by the Savior's Singers Children's Choir with soloist Daniel Osborne, and the sixth- to eighth-grade members of the Jubilate Youth Choir. -Steve & Vicki Fey |
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In Our Prayers
Becky Busler
Sharon Hatcher
Ruth Musser
An extensive list of prayer concerns, "Pray for One Another," is available for pickup at the church each week.
Birthday Prayer Fellowship
December 5 Hannah Bailey, Laura Francis, Linda Poteat
December 6 Renee Gao, Brittany Rutherford, Thomas Turnbull
December 7 Billie Peterson
December 8 Larry Kirksey, J.B. Madison
December 9 Rees Burt, Elizabeth Matzner
December 10 Linda Darnell |
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Sunday Worship | |
December 4: Second Sunday of Advent
Communion
Lessons: Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8
Sermon: Prepare to Meet God, Gordon Turnbull
Hymns: On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry; Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence;
Soon and Very Soon
Anthem: Come, O Just One, Sanctuary Choir By the Numbers for November 27: 8:30: 142; 11:00: 130 |
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Sunday, December 4
8:30 a.m. Worship, Fellowship Hall
9:00 a.m. Cherub Choir
9:45 a.m. Sunday School
11:00 a.m. Worship, Sanctuary
4:45 p.m. Jubilate Youth Choir
5:30 p.m. Junior High Youth
5:30 p.m. HeartsBurn Bible Study
7:00 p.m. Senior High Youth
Monday, December 5
7:00 p.m. Board of Deacons
Tuesday, December 6
9:00 a.m. Staff Meeting
10:00 a.m. Morning Prayer Group
6:30 p.m. Cub Scout Pack 3
7:00 p.m. Boy Scout Troop 3
Wednesday, December 7
9:30 a.m. Ladies' Bible Study
1:00 p.m. Women's Bible Study
4:00 p.m. Youth Handbells
4:15 p.m. Heart to Heart Steering Committee
4:30 p.m. Christmas Pageant Rehearsal
5:30 p.m. Fellowship Dinner
6:15 p.m. Advent Workshop (all ages)
7:15 p.m. Sanctuary Choir
Thursday, December 8
7:00 a.m. Men's Bible Study
9:00 a.m. Meals on Wheels
12:00 p.m. HeartsBurn Bible Study, Java J's
Friday, December 9
8:00 p.m. King College Symphonic Choir Christmas Concert, Sanctuary
Saturday, December 10
10:00 a.m. Sanctuary Choir
7:30 p.m. Mountain Empire Children's Choral Academy Christmas Concert,
Sanctuary |
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