|
|
Martin Luther King Day Celebration
|
|
|
|
Pickens Presbyterian
Church and their Outreach Committee hosted the community for a
celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 21. The
events of the celebration included a Unity Walk from Pickens Church to
the County Courthouse where the Rev. Austin from Griffin Ebenezer Baptist
Church preached and musical groups sang. Following the Unity Walk,
Pickens Church hosted a covered dish luncheon for the approximately 200
participants. Groups from various churches joined together as a combined
choir to sing traditional gospel songs during and after lunch.
|
|
News from Presbyterian Communities of SC
|
|
|
|
 All
churches should have received a letter and form from Presbyterian
Communities of S.C. regarding the Board of Advisor representative for
their church and their order for Mother's Day offering materials. You are
asked to fill out and return the form as soon as possible so that
Presbyterian Communities can update their Board of Advisor roster and
also order the correct number of Mother's day materials for churches in
the presbytery. (Easley Presbyterian Community pictured.)
|
|
Daily Devotions Online
|
|
|
|
 www.d365.org
is an online devotional service produced by Passport, Inc and is a
project of the Episcopal Church, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The series seeks to provide reflections
on themes that impact our faith journey. A different devotional is
offered every day. Click below to access the online devotional.
www.d365.org
|
|
Foothills Presbytery Meeting
|
|
|
|
 Foothills
Presbytery will gather for Stated Meeting #66 on February 19 at Central
Presbyterian Church in Anderson. Registration will begin at 9:00 with the
meeting convening at 9:30. Prior to this Stated Meeting, an overture
discussion was held on January 27 at Westminster Greenville Church, with
approximately 70 people in attendance. Your attention is called to the
several overtures that are included in the presbytery meeting handbook. Commissioners
should read over them and be prepared to vote at the meeting. This
meeting also will include Communion and a Memorial Service for ministers
and elders deceased in 2007.
|
|
Joys and Concerns
|
|
|
|
Our sincere condolences
are expressed to Carol Kendall on the death of her father, Lehmon
Brantley early this morning. Carol is DCE at John Knox Church. Carol's
parents, Lehmon and Betty Brantley, are members of Eastminster Church.
The funeral service will be at 2:00, Sunday, February 10, at Eastminster
Church with visitation following the service.
Seventeen church
educators in Foothills Presbytery are leaving this weekend to attend APCE
(Association of Presbyterian Church Educators), February 13-16, in San
Diego, California. Please keep them in your prayers as they travel and
spend the week there.
Presbyterian College
Choir and the PC Ringers will perform at John Knox Presbyterian Church on
Wednesday night, March 5. The PC Choir is a premier touring choral
ensemble and has been a continuing part of the artistic and academic life
of Presbyterian College for more than seven decades. John Knox invites
you all to attend this musical event.
There's a need at
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greenville for a baptismal font,
pulpit, and chairs to be used in their temporary worship area while
construction is underway in the sanctuary. If you have any of this church
furniture that you are not using and would be willing to lend it to
Westminster for about 12 months, please contact Lud Weaver at 232-2424.
|
|
Resource of the Week
|
|
|
|
 Flawed
Families of the Bible: How God's Grace Works Through Imperfect
Relationships by
David Garland
Take a close look at family life in the Old Testament and you will find
the same dysfunctions that plague families today - betrayal, jealousy,
physical and emotional violence, infidelity, and mean- spiritedness. God
worked those imperfections to reveal hope and grace to families then,
just as he does today. This book will be valuable to pastors and
counselors, as well as anyone looking for encouragement in family issues.
|
|
"Go Green"
|
|
|
|
An easy eco-friendly
reminder for this week - Get fancy with cloth napkins. Cloth napkins can
be reasonable to purchase and using them will cut down on the many pounds
of paper napkins thrown in landfills each year.
|
|
|
It's A Soul Issue
|
|
|
|
A message for the PC(USA)
from the Moderator of the 217th General Assembly, the Rev. Joan S. Gray
ATLANTA - We Americans seem to be drowning in our stuff.
I read an article recently in the Wall Street Journal that helped me see
the situation more clearly. Entitled "The Struggle to Contain
Ourselves" (January 4, 2008), the article talked about a University
of California study published in 2006.
The study showed that there is "a storage crisis" in this
country, in spite of the fact that Americans enjoy "the largest
amount of private housing space per person in the history of urban
civilization."
What came to my mind as I read this article was a story Jesus told about
a man who also had more stuff than he knew what to do with. The man in
Jesus' parable came to the conclusion that his problem was a storage
problem. "WRONG," said God to that rich fool. The parable makes
it clear that too much stuff is really a soul problem or a soul opportunity.
It should bother us that people in the world, some very close to us, are
going without necessities while we continue to spend our money to buy and
store unnecessary things.
Anyway, this "storage crisis" has started bothering me. Since
the first of the year is a good time to take a long look at ourselves and
make adjustments, I have decided to grab hold of a small piece of freedom
from stuff by not buying any clothing in 2008. I've gone back through my
records and added up the money I spent on clothes and shoes in 2007, and
I will give that money this year to some Presbyterian mission project
that helps and empowers poor people. Putting my bulging closet on a diet
will not inflict great hardship on me. It's a very small thing, yes, but
it's a start.
The bottom line is that God can lead us to see ourselves in new ways and
to respond with actions that make the gospel visible in the world. I
invite you to consider your own "barns" and see where you can
push back against the stuff you really don't need. Use the money freed up
to further God's agenda in the world.
It's not really a storage issue. It's a soul issue.
|
|
