Schedule for Holy Week 2016
March 24, Maundy Thursday
7:00 p.m.	Worship, Sanctuary Music by Sanctuary Choir, Sanctuary Bells
March 25, Good Friday
7:00 p.m.	Worship, Sanctuary Music by Jubilate Youth Choir
March 27, Easter Sunday
7:00 a.m.	Sunrise Service, Courtyard Music by Vicki Fey, Mark Mervis, Shannan Miller
7:30 a.m.	Breakfast, Fellowship Hallway & Chapel
8:30 a.m.	Worship, Fellowship Hall Music by 8:30 Worship Team
9:45 a.m.	Sunday School
11:00 a.m.	Worship, Sanctuary Music by Sanctuary Choir, ETSU Faculty Brass Ensemble

The Bristol, Tennessee, City Schools will take a spring break next week, and most of FPC's regular midweek programs will follow suit. Next Wednesday, March 30, we will not have the usual afternoon music rehearsals for children and youth, our fellowship dinner, or our evening programs. The Sanctuary Choir and 8:30 Worship Team will rehearse at their usual times. 

Please join us in welcoming Paul and Mary Ellis Rice, who joined FPC on Palm Sunday. They have both been active in our Sanctuary Choir for several months. Paul is an editor for the Bristol Herald Courier, and Mary Ellis teaches at Emory and Henry College.

If you've seen the signs on the parlor doors and wondered what was going on on the other side, look no farther. On Thursday, March 10, an eager team of FPC members began renovating the parlor, work they hope to complete in six to eight weeks. Groups that meet there must find new venues for the nonce, but they know that they will eventually return to a fresh and comfortable room.

The volunteers heading up this multifaceted task are Karen Boone, Jim Mayden, Mark Mervis, Donna Sikorski, and Nate Sproles, and they are working  with other capable helpers. It has been 25 years since the parlor was last refurbished, so these renovators are painting, reupholstering, and installing new window treatments and light fixtures.

We are so grateful to all those volunteering their time and skill to make this much-used room comfortable and attractive again!

The Flaming Cobras with their Klondike-winning vehicle.

The past month was a busy one for Boy Scout Troop 3. At the end of February, three patrols participated in the annual Klondike Derby in downtown Bristol. Each patrol hand-built sleds that they pushed and pulled through downtown Bristol as they competed in activities at ten different stations. The stations tested the scouts on skills such as fire building, cooking, archery, knots and lashings, and first aid. The Flaming Cobras brought home a first-place trophy for their sled, the Phoenix Patrol's sled came in second, and the Pi Patrol received first place for their flag. The troop placed fourth overall in the competition.

The Phoenix Patrol with their Klondike sled.

The Pi Patrol with their first-place flag.

Stephen Hicks

Brady Nab

Will Parker

Ethan Webb

Grayson Webb

Jeremiah Webb

Troop 3 camped at Dr. Fred Knickerbocker's farm March 12 and 13, where the boys worked on their rifle-shooting merit badge. They learned the fundamentals of safe gun handling and how to safely shoot a rifle. They were introduced to several different .22 rifles and had the opportunity to sharpen their shooting skills. Thanks to Bob McCroskey for coming out to Dr. Knickerbocker's to be our range safety officer for the day, and to all of the parents who helped with the firearms!

At Dr. Fred Knickerbocker's farm.

The following weekend the troop spent a day working on merit badges at Milligan College's Merit Badge University. Volunteer merit badge counselors taught moviemaking, crime prevention, geocaching, auto mechanics, bugling, engineering, chemistry, law, and many other subjects.

If you want to know more about our troop, come on out and visit us. Except on March 29, during BTCS spring break, we meet every Tuesday evening from 7:00 to 8:30 in FPC's Scout Hall. Here are some of our upcoming activities:

You are welcome to contact Brian Johnson at brianpjohnson@btes.tv for more information.

If you can take a meal to someone just home from the hospital, send a card or make a phone call to someone in a special care facility, or comfort someone in distress, FPC wants you for Care Shepherds, our congregational care ministry. The goal of this ministry is to show Christian love to members of our church family who are in need.

We begin a new Care Shepherds schedule in April and will hold a training event sometime that month. Come with your talents and build confidence as you serve! There are as many ways to do so as there are opportunities. Volunteers serve one month at a time on a team that coordinates the needs of the congregation for that month.

For more information or to volunteer, please contact Robin North at robinnorth3@gmail.com, Dave Welch at dwelch@fpcbristol.org, or the church office at 423-764-7176. Sign-up forms will also be available at the church.

We've had the first frost of spring, but the daffodils perked right back up, and the grass was not in the least discouraged. Ours always looks on the sunny side, so we encourage you to spring to the task of keeping it in check! We need your help, even if you can mow only once in the growing season. We welcome men and women, adults and teens, whole families, in fact, to our mowing team. Care of our lawns is something families can do together, the younger children moving fallen branches and detritus to the curb, and a parent or elder sibling curbing the enthusiasm of the grass.

Our team captain, Randy Cook, will be happy to train you, if necessary, on our Tiger Cat mower. We hope you will sign up for regular duty, but if you can help for even a single morning or afternoon, please email Randy at npolecook@aol.com or call his cell at 423-956-1541.

Holy Week music participants: Maundy Thursday: Sanctuary Choir, Sanctuary Bells; Good Friday: Jubilate Youth Choir; Easter sunrise: Vicki Fey, Mark Mervis, Shannan Miller; 8:30 Easter: 8:30 Worship Team (Nathan Heacock, Mark Mervis, Shannan Miller, Annie Osborne, Jenn Sproles, Nate Sproles); 11:00 Easter: Sanctuary Choir, ETSU Faculty Brass Quartet, and Jenn Sproles, timpani.

	Dan Locklair

Holy Week music: At the Maundy Thursday service, the Sanctuary choir, in addition to the Sanctuary Bells, will lead the service, offering two anthems. The first, "I Am the Bread of Life," is a setting of John 6:35 by John Wilbye (1574-1638), one of the earliest composers writing church music in the English vernacular. The music shows great sensitivity to the text, setting it in a manner that allows for its clear understanding. The second anthem, "Ubi Caritas" ("Where Affection and Love Abide"), is the fourth-century Latin hymn most often associated with foot washing; it has been set by Dan Locklair (b. 1949), a native of North Carolina who currently resides in Winston-Salem and teaches at Wake Forest University. His lyrical setting captures the comfort and peace that the text presents. The Sanctuary Bells will begin the service with an arrangement of the hymn "What Wondrous Love Is This" by Arnold Sherman (b. 1948). Sherman is a native Texan who still lives and works there; his arrangement of this anonymous early nineteenth-century American hymn captures its rugged and simple faith statement.

On Good Friday the Jubilate Youth Choir will lead the worship; they will offer a setting of the brief Latin text "Pié Jesu," which comes from the traditional Requiem texts. The setting is by Mary Lynn Lightfoot (b.1952). Written in memory of the Oklahoma City bombing, it is appropriate as we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. The choir will close the service with a brief setting of John 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God," by Hal Hopson (b. 1933).

At the 11:00 service on Easter, the Sanctuary Choir will open the service with another scripture setting by Hal Hopson, "Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord," Psalm 100:1-2. They will then sing "Antiphon" by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). It is the final song of his "Five Mystical Songs," settings of poems by George Herbert. The text, "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing," is a joyous proclamation that the praise of God cannot be contained; Vaughan Williams matches the praise of the text with gloriously expansive music. At the offertory, the choir will sing John Ferguson's (b. 1941) setting of the hymn text "The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns." Based on Hebrews 2:9-10, it was written by Irish pastor Thomas Kelly (1769-1855). This vigorous setting for choir, brass, and organ captures the sense of the text, "The cross he bore is life and health."

Arts Series: A great event for the Sunday after Easter! On Sunday, April 3, soprano Cheryl Parrish, accompanied by Vicki Fey, will sing a varied program of familiar works by Mozart and Schubert and perhaps less familiar songs by Italian composer Stefano Donaudy, Canadian composer William Jordan, and American composer Richard Pearson Thomas. See the story near the top of this newsletter for more about her recital. We will end our 2015-2016 Arts Series with a program on Sunday, May 1. More information will follow!  

 

Becky Busler

Jude Chambers

Jane Crewey

Dorothy Dollar

Mark Dollar

Fred Frazier

DeeDee Galliher

Bill Goforth

Ron Grubbs

Will Hankins

Gene Haskins

Sharon Hatcher

Vivian Hill

Nancy King

Alice Moore

David Moore

Nancy Preston

Mary Rice

Brenda Rogers

Virginia Rutherford

Faye VanNostrand

 

March 28     Betty Barger, Jay Regan, Bill Ward

March 30     Don Evans, Ann McAllister

April 1           Beth Flannagan

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

7:00 a.m.       Easter Sunrise Service, Courtyard

7:30 a.m.       Easter Breakfast, Fellowship Hallway

8:30 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:45 a.m.       Sunday School

11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary

Church office closed for Easter holiday

7:00 p.m.       Session, Room 123

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

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

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

7:30 p.m.       8:30 Worship Team Rehearsal, Fellowship Hall

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

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