Holy Week Worship Schedule 

Hunger Offering This Sunday 

On the last Sunday of each quarter, we collect our Five-Cents-a-Meal Hunger Offering. Our donations in worship respond to the food needs of our neighbors near and far. Our next collection of the Five-Cents-a-Meal Hunger Offering will be this Sunday, March 29.

In 2014 we submitted six requests for Five-Cents-a-Meal grants. Holston Presbytery awarded each with $1,158.51, a prorated amount (about 58%) of the $2,000 request. Local grants were awarded for the food programs of Bristol Emergency Food Pantry, Abuse Alternatives, Haven of Rest, and Fairmount Elementary School. International grants were awarded to Western Wollega Bethel Synod in Ethiopia and to Bethel School in Felipe Camarão, Natal, Brazil.

In all, Holston Presbytery awarded $54,450 to 47 local agencies and 10 international missions. Our hunger-relief work truly makes a difference at home and abroad! Thanks in advance for your generous donation to this important special offering.

Suspensions for Holy Week 

Holy Week begins in a few days, with weekday evening worship services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We will not hold our fellowship dinner or evening learning programs Wednesday, April 1. Wednesday afternoon voice and handbell rehearsals for children and youth also will not be held, but the Sanctuary Choir and Praise Team will rehearse at their usual times. The Jubilate Youth Choir will rehearse for half an hour at 12:30 p.m. on Palm Sunday, March 29, instead of their usual time.

Highlights of March Session Meeting 

At its monthly stated meeting on Monday, March 23, our Session did the following:

Approved a position description for a part-time facilities manager. This position, funded in the recently approved 2015 operating budget, is being advertised immediately.

Approved a plan to address hail damage to the flat roofs of the church. We expect to use the anticipated insurance settlement of approximately $55,000, plus additional money as needed, toward immediate replacement of the roofs over the Fellowship Hall and kitchen, about one-third of the total square footage of flat roofs at the church. We hope to accomplish the remaining roof replacement in two subsequent installments, each funded through two years' allocations in the church's operating budget.

Discussed ways to enhance communication between Session and congregation. Toward that end we plan to share (like this!) the important actions of each meeting through our newsletter. We also want to remind everyone that Session meetings are open to all members of FPC, and that we hold a special time on the docket at each monthly meeting to hear from anyone who wishes to speak with the Session.

The Session meets on the fourth Monday of the month at 7:00 p.m.; our approximate time for communications is 7:20. Approved minutes of all meetings of Session are available to any member upon request.

Our 2014 Financial Summary Now on FPC Website 

At last Sunday's congregational meeting, we distributed a summary of the church's 2014 financial information. That report is available on our website here.

FPC to Hire Facilities Manager 

FPC is beginning a search for a qualified person to serve as Church Facilities Manager. This new part-time position will oversee building and equipment maintenance. Applicants should have five years of experience with building systems and facilities management and be computer literate. We are looking for a high school graduate and prefer technical school training. Please note that this is a part-time position of approximately 20 hours per week. Applicants should send a cover letter with resume to First Presbyterian Church, 701 Florida Avenue, Bristol, TN 37620, by April 15.

Hosts Needed for Visiting Youth Choir 

We will be hosting the youth choir of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church of Atlanta on the evening of Easter Sunday, April 5, as they travel north on their spring break tour. Our youth and music departments will feed them dinner, then the choir will present an informal version of their tour concert in open rehearsal for our church family around 8:00 p.m.

We are looking for host families to keep two students each overnight, feed them breakfast, and get them back to the church. If you can keep two students for one night, please contact Katie Arnold or the Feys and let us know whether you prefer girls or guys and whether you have pets. Thank you!

Sharing Christ Help Needed This Saturday 

This Saturday is our day to serve our community through the downtown Sharing Christ Ministry. At last check, we still needed servers and green beans, dinner rolls, marinated slaw, and two more chicken casseroles. We are planning to feed between 130 and 150 people. We provide the recipes, and Tammy Connolly is posting numbers on Facebook. If you can help out on March 28, please contact Tammy at 423-968-3831 or lconn4691@btes.tv to sign up and to get the latest word on what is still needed. Thank you!

April 1, No Fooling 

We expect to begin mowing next Wednesday, April 1, and no fooling, we need more volunteers.

Our mowing days are generally Wednesdays through Saturdays. Mowing takes three or four hours, and each volunteer's turn comes up every five or six weeks, depending on the number of volunteers we have.

We are also looking for folks who can pick up tree branches early in the week and stack them on the curb on the Spruce Street side of the front yard. This is a good service activity for families with young children.

Even if you can help only once or twice during the season, we can use you! To volunteer to mow or to clear, please call Randy Cook at 423-956-1541 or email him at npolecook@aol.com. He will give individual lessons on operating the Scag Tiger Cat to any volunteer who wants them.

FPC's Fusion group can enjoy a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt this Friday, March 27, at 7:00 p.m. at the home of Ray and Lilly Osborne. All fifth and sixth graders are invited!

All children from infancy through sixth grade are invited to an Easter egg hunt this Saturday, March 28, at 12:30 p.m. at the church. Bring a basket! After finding eggs, we will head indoors to make resurrection eggs. Please join us!

Snacks for Fairmount Students 

We are collecting cookies for our young friends at Fairmount Elementary School. The Neighborhood Initiatives Steering Committee is asking us to fill the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway with boxes of vanilla wafers. The committee will take them to Fairmount, where teachers will divide them into portions for the youngsters whose parents cannot afford to send snacks to school with them. Let's make sure all students get a midafternoon energy boost!

Easter season is here! From Palm Sunday through Easter, Christians around the globe will be observing those events of Jesus' final week in Jerusalem, leading to his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. And we have thought it proper that this should also be the singular focus of our church library at this time. Therefore, we are clearing the display table in the library of all other books, leaving only one. That one is The Face of Jesus, compiled by Edward Lucie-Smith and published by Abrams, a firm well known for the quality of its publications. In short, it contains more than 200 varying images of Jesus, and we are grateful to one of our church families for donating it to the library.

Its illustrations are profuse. The book contains works of famous artists, but there are also pictures made by five-year-olds. While most of the images are paintings, other forms of art are represented: sculpture, mosaics, porcelains, woodcuts, tapestries, and more. A majority of the illustrations are in the Western style, from medieval and Renaissance to contemporary abstract images, but non-Western art is represented by Chinese, Japanese, African, and primitive images. All in all, it is a wonderful expression of the global face of Christianity today. You will find it an important, perhaps even challenging, statement of the extent of the Christian Gospel.

We would like for all of our church family to stop by the library and examine this volume. So that all may have a chance to see it, we are requesting that no one check out the book through Easter Sunday. During Holy Week, it is for examination only. After Easter, please feel free to check it out and give yourself the pleasure of studying it in depth.

One final thought: has the image of Jesus ever appeared on a postage stamp? The answer is yes, and you can find it in this book.

Holy Week music participants: Please see Holy Week schedule at the beginning of this newsletter.

Sunday's music: The combined voices of the Cherub Choir and the Savior's Singers will help us celebrate Palm Sunday at the 11:00 service by singing "Look, Now, Your King Is Coming" with text and music by Deborah Govenor (b. 1954). With both a musical and theological education, Govenor has composed extensively for the church. This anthem captures the excitement of the crowd as Jesus enters Jerusalem.

Michael Jothen

The Sanctuary Choir will sing two anthems. The first is "Hosanna to the Son of David" by Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (1549-1611), one of the most important composers of the late Renaissance. This brief setting of Matthew 21:9 sets out the text in a joyous manner that allows the words to speak through the music. The second anthem, "A King Came Riding" by Michael Jothen, captures the paradox that is Palm Sunday, a day that is both joyous, as we celebrate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, and solemn, as we realize that it will lead to his death on the cross.

Program of Note: This Saturday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m., the Symphony of the Mountains, along with Voices of the Mountains, the King University Symphonic Choir, and two choral ensembles from ETSU, will present Mozart's Requiem at the Paramount Center for the Arts. The first half of the program will feature two concerti for smaller ensembles: Concerto Grosso, written in 1985 by living composer Ellen Taffe Zwilich, and J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. Our own choir member Lenita Thibault is graciously lending her Richard Kingston harpsichord for this event, and Vicki Fey will be one of the featured soloists in the Bach, along with concertmaster Sean Claire and principal flute Schery Collins. All students get in free to all Symphony of the Mountains programs.

Lenten Organ Meditations: Central Presbyterian Church presents one more program in its 2015 Lenten Organ Meditations next Wednesday, April 1, at noon. Central's organist, Joy Smith-Briggs, will perform what was originally scheduled as the first program in the series but canceled by bad weather. Admission is free, but donations to Central's music program are gratefully received. The church is located at 301 Euclid Avenue in Bristol, Virginia.

In Our Prayers

Becky Busler

Jane Crewey

Dorothy Dollar

Fred Frazier

Ann Galliher

DeeDee Galliher

Dorothy Giesler

Juanita Goforth

Ron Grubbs

Will Hankins

Mary Nell Harris

Sharon Hatcher

Hawley Heglar

Carolyn King

Nancy King

Sue Olsen

Nancy Preston

Mary Rice

Brenda Rogers

Virginia Rutherford

Katy Sikorski

Faye VanNostrand

An extensive list of prayer concerns, "Pray for One Another," is available for pickup at the church each week.

Birthday Prayer Fellowship

March 30      Don Evans, Ann McAllister

April 1           Beth Flannagan

April 2           Graham Barr, Brenda Johnson, Karen White-Smith

Publication of recently received memorial gifts and honoraria will resume April 2.

8:30 a.m.      Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:00 a.m.      Cherub Choir, Room 209

9:45 a.m.      Sunday School, Education Wing

11:00 a.m.   Worship, Sanctuary

12:30 p.m.   Jubilate Youth Choir, Music Wing

6:00 p.m.     Student Fellowship, Youth Wing

Monday, March 30

5:30 p.m.     Sanctuary Handbells, Handbell Room

Tuesday, March 31

9:00 a.m.      Staff Meeting, Room 123

10:00 a.m.   Morning Prayer Group, Conference Room

1:00 p.m.     Jackie Burt's Bible Study, Burt Home

7:00 p.m.     Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing

Wednesday, April 1

9:30 a.m.      Lorri Looney's DVD Bible Study, Parlor

10:00 a.m.   Elizabeth Patrick's Women's Bible Study, New Mothers' Room

7:15 p.m.     Sanctuary Choir, Room 202

7:30 p.m.     Praise Team, Fellowship Hall

Thursday, April 2

7:00 a.m.      Men's Bible Study, Parlor

12:00 p.m.   Noon Bible Study, Room 117

7:00 p.m.     Maundy Thursday Worship, Sanctuary

7:30 p.m.     Troop 3 Committee Meeting, Room 163

Friday, April 3

7:00 p.m.     Good Friday Worship, Sanctuary