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Fall Scene

 Presbytery of East Tennessee E-Newsletter   
October
2015 
In This Issue
Quick Links

 

Websites

 

Presbytery of East Tennessee
Presbytery Staff 
Judd Shaw
General Presbyter
865-688-5581 ext. 103

James McTyre
Stated Clerk
865-688-5581 ext. 104
Executive Director, John Knox Center
865-376-2236
Office Manager
865-688-5581 ext. 101



Office Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 31625
Knoxville TN 37930-1625

Office Fax:
865-689-3364

Office Hours:
8:00am to 4:30pm Monday - Friday
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Presbytery Meeting - Nov. 10
The next Stated Meeting of the Presbytery of East Tennessee
will take place on
Tuesday, November 10 at
First Presbyterian Church, Oak Ridge TN

Registration and Fellowship: 9:30am
Meeting begins: 10:00am

The packet for this meeting will be available on the Presbytery website on October 27.

PLEASE NOTE NEW LUNCH PROCEDURE:
In order to assist the church in ordering an appropriate number of boxed lunches, reservations will be collected by the church office.  Additional details will be published in the meeting packet on October 27.
International Peacemaker Visits
Iranian International Peacemaker here Oct 2-7
           
Native-born Iranian Rev. Hendrik Shanazarian is our 2015 International Peacemaker. He grew up in the Armenian Evangelical Church in Tehran, graduated from the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon, and served 7 years as pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Congregation in Tehran and in the Evangelical Church Synod. He is currently serving as pastor of two Armenian churches in the Glendale, CA area.
           
Rev. Shanazarian will speak about the plight of Christians in Iran, especially over the past ten years, when churches have been closed and house church leaders have been arrested, imprisoned and tortured. With the 100th commemoration of the genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, Hendrik will also discuss some little-known stories of the genocide, which still haunts persons of Armenian descent today.
           
Venues where you may hear Rev. Shanazarian include:

Sat., Oct 3 - PW retreat at Madisonville Presbyterian Church 
Sun, Oct 4 - Sermon (11 am church service) at 2nd Presbyterian Church, 700 Pine St., Chattanooga.  At Bethel Presbyterian Church, 203 S. Kentucky St., Kingston - 6 pm dinner, followed by Rev. Shanazarian.
Tue, Oct 6 - 1:15 pm sermon at Maryville College chapel (502 E. Lamar Alexander Pkwy, Maryville) 
Wed, Oct 7 - at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 6500 Northshore Dr. SW, Knoxville, 5:45 pm dinner & Hendrik speaks at 6:30 pm.
 
PEACEMAKING OFFERING 2015
           
Your church's special Peacemaking Offering, normally received on World Communion Sunday (this year Oct. 4, while the International Peacemaker is with us) supports peacemaking-related ministries at the Congregational, Presbytery/synod, and national levels. Presbytery of East Tennessee's share (25%) is used to fund International peacemaker visits, as well as such local events as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Conversation held each year at the Beck Cultural Exchange. This year the Peacemaking Offering also helped support several first-time Big Tent attendees and a Bethel mission trip to Guatemala.
Presbytery Educators Group
PEG Explores Prayer - Oct. 7
11:00-1:00pm
Eusebia Presbyterian Church, Seymour
 
Want to learn how to intercede for others? Pray for yourself following Biblical paths? Come to our next Presbytery Educator Gathering on Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 11-1 where we'll explore the spiritual disciple of prayer including Contemplative Prayer, Lectio Divina, and more.  Bring a salad topping to add to the BIG bowl.  Meeting at Eusebia Presbyterian at 1701 Burnett Station Road (at US 411) Seymour, TN 37865.

RSVP to [email protected]


Adult Christian Education Leaders Gathering - Oct. 22

Calling all Adult Christian Education leaders in greater Knoxville!  We want to reach those facilitating adult education as volunteer coordinators, professional staff, chairs of committees and teachers. We want to find out from one another what's working in congregational ministry.

When: Thursday, October 22, 2015 from 11:00am to 1:00pm
Where: Westminster Presbyterian Church, 6500 S. Northshore Dr., Knoxville, TN 37919
How: Contact Mary Boyd at Westminster Presbyterian at (865 584-3957 or [email protected] so we have enough tables.
Cost: Free, bring a sack lunch if desired.
Who: All interested volunteers or staff in Adult Education in churches.
From the Climate & Energy Stewardship Team
Did you know...

By replacing the incandescent fixtures in your buildings' exit signs with LED fixtures, your church can save as much as $100 per year PER FIXTURE?

Would you like to find out more ways to save on energy costs at your church, and in the process help to protect God's gift of creation? The Presbytery of East Tennessee Climate and Energy Stewardship Team would love to work with all churches in the presbytery to do just that. Members of the team have prepared an informative slide presentation and would be happy to come to your church and meet with your Session, a committee or other group to discuss how we can be of assistance. If interested, please contact us at [email protected]
Pastor Appreciation Month
October is Pastor Appreciation Month
 
Some congregations choose a particular Sunday to honor their pastor in worship, and that would be a great idea. But there might be lots of other ideas about how you could show your spiritual shepherd that you appreciate the time, energy, effort, study, prayer, and everything else that he or she is giving to this task. We thought it might be helpful to have a few ideas; this list is by no means exhaustive and we're sure that you could find other ideas as well.

A Special Tribute from West Emory Presbyterian Church

On the morning of August 30, the congregation at West Emory Presbyterian Church, where Miki Vanderbilt had been on a sabbatical from June through August, surprised her by singing a special hymn to her, set to the tune of "O Beautiful for Spacious Skies." Miki has been in Scotland, among other places.
 
Presbyterian Campus Ministry

Hope 808 at UT-Chattanooga

 
School has started, students are a buzz, and the doors of Hope House at UTC have flung open. Wide open. Hinges falling off the door open. And while this is who we are called to be as a ministry, a safe space of radical hospitality and welcome where students know they are loved, I have to admit it's a little daunting to see almost record high numbers at our first couple of events. 160 lunches served that first Tuesday at Hope. We've stopped sending out text reminders.
 
Our Free Tuesday lunches are provided by local congregations, or at times, board members. A local congregation, usually the PW or women of the church, will sign on for a day, month, or even more. They provide the lunches for our students. So when a congregation is used to cooking for 20-30 and the number jumps to over 150 in less than a year, it can be stressful on our time, energy, and budgets.
 
I have been confused as to what campus ministry is to this Presbytery. Is it a ministry? Is it a mission? Is it both? Does the word choice really matter? I assumed it was a ministry to students and a mission of the Presbytery. Honestly, the word choice didn't matter much until I started to hear, see, and talk to students. Students who have secured loans for tuition, but are having to choose between paying rent or eating. "I had a pack of crackers and a can of soup and so I came to Hope." Students who are on the verge of desperation and need a place where they will find support and be assured of God's love and that they are not walking this journey alone. Sometimes I wonder, in those most desperate times, which unfortunately aren't rare occasions, what would these students do without this ministry? For some they would certainly find other ministries and other areas of support; but for others, for the ones who would never actively seek a campus ministry, and walked through our doors initially because of a free meal and a hot coffee, I do worry. I feel overwhelmed. And so we're trying to figure this all out. How can we help our local churches sustain the support they are already giving? How can we work within the confines of an ever-shrinking budget but feed hungry stomachs and souls? How do we convince our churches that this work with students is both ministry and mission and worthy of a "1" on the sheet Presbytery sent out to sessions?
 
Ironically, I think we find the answer in our name. We put our trust In the name of the family who over 100 years ago built the house in which we reside.
 
Hope.
 
While we trust the Holy Spirit that has been at work in this house, and in this ministry, and in, with, beside, and among these students, we continue to witness to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
From the Youth Committee
First-Ever Preteen Retreat a Success!

Forty-eight 4th and 5th graders and twelve adult leaders enjoyed time at John Knox Center. Six congregations were represented. Together they focused on Matthew 6:26. We explored the fact that we are loved, chosen, and priceless in the eyes of God.

Presbyterian Women of PET
PW Fall Spiritual Retreat - September 19, 2015
New Hope Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga

The women from the greater Chattanooga area, plus some from Madisonville, gathered at New Hope on Sept. 19th for a day of learning, fellowship and worship. Forty-one attended representing eight of our churches; plus we had the opportunity to meet two pastors new to our presbytery and one that is new to Chattanooga. All three participated in the program.

Jane Guthrie from Rivermont designed and created with water colors the beautiful program cover that illustrated our "Come to the Waters" theme, and she also composed the opening prayer.

The Rev. Deidra Crosby, newly called pastor at Madisonville, presented a great program built around the devotional book she wrote to complement the "Come to the Waters" Horizons Bible Study for this year. Each woman received a copy of the devotional book to use and to share with her PW.

The Rev. Tom Bagley illustrated through personal experiences, the story in Acts 8 about Phillip & the Ethiopian eunuch and Jesus' ministry how he is reaching out to the non-churched in downtown Chattanooga. We had wondered what "incarnational ministry" is, and now we understand and are excited about it!

Our own dear energizer bunny from Rivermont Presbyterian Church, Lisl Jackson, talked to us about hydroponics, how it works, the benefits of growing without soil, and what those pesky aphids can do to ruin a crop. To demonstrate that she truly knew what she was talking about, she brought two examples of plants she had grown hydroponically. We learned much and enjoyed Lisl's wonderful humor.

After we enjoyed lunch and a time of fellowship, we returned to the sanctuary to receive and dedicate our mission pledges and gift cards for Mission Haven. The offering consisted of 17 gift cards totaling $325 plus $60 in cash and more cards are on their way. Mission Haven will be so happy! The retreat concluded with a wonderful homily by The Rev. Dr. Paul Rader followed by communion. One of the chalices used in Communion was created by Prentice Hicks, son of a past PWPET Moderator, Doris Hicks.

We are grateful to our program contributors, the PW members at New Hope who hosted, the planning committee, all that contributed to the success of the day, and of course, the great participation of all those that attended!
News and Events Around the Presbytery
Folk@Fourth Calendar for Fall 2015

Fourth United Presbyterian Church (1323 Broadway, Knoxville) hosts Folk@Fourth, a dinner and music series.  An informal home cooked meal is served at 6:00pm, followed by an evening of music.  Admission is $10 per person at the door - children under 12 eat free.

Oct. 7 - Free Soil Farm
Nov. 11 - The Blue Ribbon Healers
Dec. 9 - The Emancipators

Folk@Fourth flyer

38th Annual Washington Apple Festival - Oct. 17

Apple Apple Saturday, October 17
9 AM until 3 PM
 
Washington Presbyterian Church
7405 Washington Pike
Follow signs to church pavilion.
 
Apple Butter * Apple Cider * Apple Pies & Baked Goods
Bar-B-Q Sandwiches & Ribs * Country Market
* Fried Apple Pies Granny's Attic * Great Music * Silent Auction
 
Fun for Everyone!
Proceeds Go to Missions

West Emory Pumpkin Patch and Festival

Pumpkins vertical The 10th Annual Pumpkin Patch at West Emory Presbyterian Church (1035 Emory Church Rd., Knoxville) will be running October 10 through 30 from 12:30 to 6:30 pm. Pumpkins large and small will be available for purchase.  Proceeds go to missions.

The Pumpkin Festival
is on Saturday, October 17th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. There will be a jump house and crafts for the kids, a bake sale, hayrides, face painting, pumpkin decorating, books on CDs, used books and DVDs for sale, and much more.
 
Fossil Fuel Divestment Discussion - Nov. 8
Maryville College  
An overture to divest from fossil fuels will be considered at the 2016 General Assembly. This overture will also be considered at the November meeting of the Presbytery of East Tennessee. The Maryville College Center for Campus Ministry will be hosting an open information and discussion session on fossil fuel divestment in general and this overture in specific on Sunday afternoon, November 8 at 3:00pm. Mark your calendar if you're interested in learning more about this issue. Details to follow.


2015 Pettway Lecture Series at 1st Pres, Knoxville
First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville  
The 2015 Pettway Lecture Series will take place at First Presbyterian, Knoxville (620 State St.), on Nov 15th and 16th with Dr. Tom Long, Professor of Preaching at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. The schedule is as follows:
 
Sunday, Nov 15th:  Dr Long will preach at 8:45 and 11 AM and  teach the adult Sunday school  at 9:45 AM. At 6 PM, there will be a light supper with Dr Long lecturing at 7 PM.
 
Monday, Nov 16th: There will be a luncheon at 11:30 AM with Dr. Long speaking informally. Dr Long's final Lecture will be at 7 PM with a dessert/coffee to follow.

For additional information, call the church office: 865-546-2531 

Travel Opportunities with Dr. Holton Siegling

INTERESTED IN FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF PAUL IN 2016 OR THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IN 2017? 

To test this possibility, Dr. Holton Siegling of Sequoyah Hills Presbyterian Church in Knoxville (3700 Keowee Ave. SW) will present an informational meeting in the Spitzer Education Building's YAGO classroom on October 25 at 6:30 p.m.  All options will be outlined - estimated costs, proposed itinerary, possible dates, and there will also be time for questions and answers. 

Asheville Youth Mission / Raleigh Youth Mission Opportunities

The ministries of  Asheville Youth Mission (AYM) and Raleigh Youth Mission (RYM) provide Mission Immersion programs for church youth groups, empowering them to serve those in need in Asheville and Raleigh.  We also help these young people to reflect on their mission experiences, and on God's call to them to address issues like homelessness, poverty, and food insecurity.  (Put another way, we plan and lead youth mission trips!)
  
AYM Poster
RYM Poster
AYM/RYM Information Sheet

Spread the News!
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, [email protected].