Fall is here and John Knox Center is busy with retreats and events!  Come and join us for one of our scheduled events or get your youth group, scout troop or other organization together and plan a weekend camping on Second Peninsula.

   

Annual Family Picnic - Sunday, September 15 

 

Time - 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm with worship starting at 5 pm

 

Activities - Swimming, Canoeing, Kayaking, Archery, High Ropes, Nature Center tours, Disc Golf, hiking, and more

 

Food - Buffet at the Pavilion

Cost - $10 Adults, Children 12 & under free when accompanied by a paying adult (limit 2 children per adult)

Pack up the family after church and spend the day enjoying fellowship and fun at camp. Activities will begin at 1 pm and worship begins at 5 pm.  Come with your family! Come with your church! Come with your friends! This is a gathering of families, churches, friends, and others who come to fellowship in this sacred place that has been meaningful in their lives. This is also a great opportunity to invite those in your congregation that have never been to John Knox.

 

Annual Picnic Event Flyer

 

Find more info on our website: www.johnknoxcenter.org 

 

  The Youth Committee is excited to announce this year's Middle School Fall Retreat! We will be at John Knox Center for a weekend of fun, fellowship, food, music, challenging messages, games, and small groups. The cost is $85 per person (including chaperones), and registration forms with fees are due by September 16th.

Retreat Information Letter
Registration Form

Youth Council Leadership Opportunities

 

Youth Council is the student leadership of the Presbytery of East Tennessee, (PET) Youth Committee. Together, students on Youth Council grow as Disciples of Christ and develop God-centered leadership skills. This prepares them for Christ centered leadership in their respective churches, for Presbytery Youth Ministry events, and life. Youth Council partners with the PET Youth Committee to plan a Middle School Fall Retreat and Youth Summit (the High School Spring Event). Leadership opportunities of a Youth Council member may include (but are not limited to), development of retreat themes and framework, planning and/or leading retreat activities including Sunday worship, designing T-Shirts, publicizing events, and leading small group discussions. Youth Council is a GREAT way to serve God and others.

 

If you have a youth in your church interested in being on Youth Council, please pass along this application.  Youth need to read over the commitments/qualifications page (in the application packet), get a signature from a youth director and/or pastor, complete the application form, and return the packet to the Youth Council Adult Sponsor:

 

Farragut Presbyterian Church

Attn: Katina Sharp

209 Jamestowne Blvd.

Farragut, TN 37934

 

Applications will be accepted until September 14, 2013.  Attendance at the first Youth Council meeting on September 14 (see packet for details) is mandatory.  Questions can be addressed to Katina Sharp (KatinaSharp@aol.com or 865-742-2292).

"Faith Works" is the theme for the 2013 fall worship series at Maryville College, which begins on Sept. 3. Held every Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. in the Samuel Tyndale Wilson Center for Campus Ministry (CCM), community worship is open to Maryville College faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the public.

 

Worship Series information    

 

The Maryville College Center for Campus Ministry will present three conversations about justice:

Sept. 10, 7:00pm in Lambert Recital Hall - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Sept 19, 7:30pm in the Center for Campus Ministry - Freed from Death Row: A Story of Wrongful Conviction

Oct. 1, 1:15pm in the Center for Campus Ministry - International Peacemaker from Syria

Events flyer

Saturday September 21, 2013        

9:30 a.m.

First Presbyterian Church

429 W Rockwood St, Rockwood 37854

 

Saturday September 28, 2013        

9:00 a.m.

First Presbyterian Church

 

Fall Spiritual Retreats Registration Form

Registration Deadline: September 14

 

Lunch is $8.00 per person. Please send all registrations by deadline, and print names legibly so that nametags may be prepared. 

   

Child Care is available with advance arrangements. Please bring your child's lunch. 

 

Mission Opportunity: Please bring non-perishables to the retreats for local food banks.

Fall PWP Newsletter

The 2013 International Peacemaker(IP) from Syria will be speaking at the following venues on the following days. Everyone is encouraged to attend at a convenient location. 

 

    Sat, Sep 28 - PET PW Fall Retreat, Cleveland, TN

    Sun, Sep 29 - sermon at Erin Pres., Knoxville in a.m.

    Mon, Sep 30 - New Hope Pres., Chattanooga for dinner, etc

    Tue, Oct 1 - Maryville College chapel service & lunch;  

                         New Providence, Maryville for dinner, etc 

    Wed, Oct 2 - First Pres.,Knoxville for dinner, etc

    Thur, Oct 3 - Westminster Pres. for lunch, etc;   

                           Bethel Pres., Kingston for dinner, etc

 

For churches who would like to host the IP, there are only 2 availabilities left:  (1) Sun, Sep 29 after 2:30 pm and (2) Wed, Oct 2 before 4 pm.  Please call (865-531-1788) or email (schalldon@att.net) Donna Schall to schedule these times.

 

Our requested IP is a native Syrian who graduated from the Near East School of Theology, and is currently pastoring in the Evangelical Christian Church and is actively involved in both Syria and Lebanon.  His wife will be accompanying him.  (Concern about his security & safety precludes publishing his name.)

  

The National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL) estimates there were about 2 million Christians in Syria before the start of the current conflict.  There are 20 Presbyterian churches and 12 Pastors affected by the crisis.  For Christians especially, life is lived under fear and uncertainty.  Food is scarce.  The city where our IP pastors is currently surrounded by the Army, with people prevented from entering or leaving.  All of the Presbyterian Pastors have remained with and minister to their flocks.  The NESSL is concerned that, if Christians leave, Muslim fanatics will take the Christians' homes, jobs and land; and that Christians will be unwilling to return,

 

PLEASE PRAY for our Peacemaker and his wife.  May they be allowed to leave and re-enter their country.  May all of US, as a result of their witness and testimony, re-dedicate our lives to peace and justice.

 

In case our Syrian Peacemaker is unable to come, the PC(USA) Peacemaking Facilitator is arranging an extraordinary backup Peacemaker.  She is energetic Rev. Nicole Ashwood from Jamaica, an advocate for the voiceless - particularly youth and women.  She has leadership roles for Gender Justice and Mission with World Council of Churches, World Council of Reformed Churches, and the Council for World Mission.

 

The Denominational Peacemaking Offering

 

...helps to pay for International Peacemaker visits to American Presbyterian churches each year.  Last year part of the Presbytery's portion of the Peacemaking Offering helped pay for the visit of a Christian Palestinian.  The Peacemaking Offering is normally received on World Communion Sunday, or around the first Sunday in October.  For info on the International Peacemaker or the Peacemaking Offering, please call or email Donna Schall, schalldon@att.net, (865)531-1788.

Hope 808, the Presbyterian Campus Ministry at UTC has started another school year. We are excited to have this year be our best so far. There are so many exciting things that we have planned in the next few months. We are going on our annual Lula Lake Hike. Since I began at Hope we have been going to on this Hike the first Saturday after classes start. It is up on Lookout Mountain and has two lakes each with a waterfall. It is a great way for students to unwind after their first week. We are starting our Weekly Tuesday Lunches where students come and have a free lunch where our local congregations provide the food. We are also starting our Tuesday Night Dinner and Discussion Group and our Worship/Bible Study on Wednesday Nights. We tailgate for football games and we are going to the John Knox Center for our Fall Retreat.

                 

Our ministry is so thankful for all that the Presbytery does for us. We have an amazing Campus Center for the students because of the Presbytery. We have the funds to do our many programs because of the Presbytery, and I could not be an effective Campus Minister without the support of PET. So thank you from the bottom of my heat and from all of Hope 808.

                 

With thankfulness on my heart I would like to ask a favor of all who read this. If you know anyone at UTC, please tell them about Hope 808 and please give me their name and contact information. We are the only PCUSA ministry at UTC and we want to show all of the students from our Presbytery that they have a home at Hope! If you know someone please call me at 423-903-1871 or email me, Bob Hill, at HiBobM@gmail.com.

                 

 Thank you again for all that you do for the students at Hope 808.

 

Attention Pastors, Parents, Session Members, Sunday School Teachers, Youth Directors, CE Directors, and anyone else who might have contact with college students! 

 

Please, please, PLEASE remember to send the contact information of the students from your churches to the Presbyterian Campus Ministers at the colleges your students attend! 

 

If you have students attending UT Knoxville, our contact info is...

pcutk@utk.edu 

OR

865-604-8560

OR 

1831 Melrose Ave.

Knoxville, TN 37916.

 

Your help in contacting students if vital to our ministry as colleges are not exactly forthcoming in providing information about students.  Thank you so much for your help!  We promise to take GREAT care of your college students!

 

Vols Football Parking

 

 

We want to encourage all leaders in our Presbytery to meet regularly in a support group.  Our mission team believes this is so important that we are willing to provide grants to help facilitate growth in our leadership.  We will be providing grants of up to $250 for Teaching Elders (including retired teaching elders), Christian Educators and Commissioned Ruling Elders.  If you already have a support group, simply fill out the application form.  If you don't have a support group, all you need is three others to form one in order to apply for the grant.  The Team will review requests at our quarterly meetings, which are usually 6-8 weeks prior to presbytery meetings (our next meeting is October 9, 2013).  Those of you who are ruling elders, please encourage a teaching elder, commissioned ruling elder or Christian educator to be part of a church leader support group. 

Church Leader Support Group Application

Saturday, September 14
9:00am to 12:00pm
Mars Hill Presbyterian Church, Athens

Clerks of Session should attend the meeting and bring their church's session Minutes and Register for a round-robin reading time. Bring your minutes from 2012 and any previous years that haven't yet been stamped in approval. This meeting will fulfill the Book of Order requirement that each church's session minutes are read and approved by presbytery on an annual basis.

 

There will also be shared discussion and training materials about how best to fulfill the ministry of Clerk of Session. We'll learn best practices from each other by telling stories and asking questions.

 

Sign up online

Friday, September 20
7:00 to 9:00pm

"In The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey weave a tapestry of American dreams and visions - from witch hunts to web pages, Harlem to Hollywood, slave cabins to South Park, Mormon revelations to Indian reservations - to show how Americans remade the Son of God visually time and again into a sacred symbol of their greatest aspirations, deepest terrors, and mightiest strivings for racial power and justice."

 

Dr. Blum will be speaking at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Friday, September 20 from 7 to 9pm. He will begin his session with an exploratory discussion followed by a speech and then a Q&A. The session will be open to the public and refreshments will be served. All are welcome.

President of Union Presbyterian Seminary
Monday, September 23
12:00pm
First Presbyterian Church
620 State St., Knoxville

 

Teaching Elders, Commissioned Ruling Elders, Educators, and Musicians are invited to hear Dr. Blount on the nature of our theological education in our denomination.  There will also be a question and answer time.  Please RSVP to church@fpcknox.org so that we may have a head-count for lunch.

The 2013 Directory for the Presbytery of East Tennessee is available on our website (www.presbyteryeasttn.org) under Resources > Directories & Pulpit Supply List.  Also available are the Presbyterian Women of the Presbytery directory, the current list of individuals who have an interest in providing pulpit supply, and the Yellow Pages - a project of the Connect Mission Team to list churches and individuals in the presbytery who have special knowledge or services to offer.

To access any of these documents, you must use the same user name and password as is used for accessing the presbytery meeting packets and minutes.  This is to prevent solicitors from accessing personal information.  If you need assistance, please contact your church office or the presbytery office.

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The October 5th trip to Lexington, KY and the Keeneland Racecourse has been postponed due to scheduling difficulties. The trip is tentatively planned for next spring - watch for further details.

The next class for the School of the Laity will take place in the Spring of 2014.  Watch for an announcement and registration information in January.

We invite you to share your news with us.  All articles and news items must be submitted by the 20th of the month prior to publication.  Send your information to Dana Hendrix, dana@presbyteryeasttn.org.