Life at First
As we live with the pandemic for the foreseeable future, we will offer a combination of virtual and in-person opportunities so we can engage with our faith with our First Presbyterian family. Need to reach clergy or staff? Leave a message at 704-332-5123.
Daily Email Devotionals
This Advent, daily devotionals will be delivered directly to your inbox. Created by Presbyterian Outlook, they will explore the theme of Marking Time: Discerning God’s kairos in the midst of our daily chronos.
Links to the daily devotionals will also be available here if you want to review previous readings.
If you would like a hard copy of these devotionals mailed to you, contact Elizabeth Cook.
Holiday Giving at Westerly Hills
Acknowledging WHA Staff: After a challenging year requiring additional work and flexibility, we want to acknowledge every staff member at Westerly Hills Academy with a holiday gift. You can support this effort by check or online via Realm. Checks should be mailed to the church with “WH holiday staff appreciation” in the memo line.
Kirk Choir Rehearsals
Wednesdays, 6-7 p.m.
Open to grades 2-5, rehearsals will be in the Sanctuary. Health checks at the door, social distancing and masks required.
Contact Caryn Overbey.
Youth Choir Rehearsals
Wednesdays, 6:30-7:15 p.m.
Youth Choir is open to youth grades 6-12 and rehearses in the High School Youth Room. Health checks at the door, social distancing and masks required.
Contact Will Young for additional information or to register.
Sanctuary Choir Rehearsals
Wednesdays, 7:30-9 p.m.
Rehearsal will be in Wood Fellowship Hall. Health checks at the door, social distancing and masks required.
Contact Will Young with questions.
Knox Handbell Ringers Rehearsals
Wednesdays, 7-8 p.m.
Knox Handbell Ringers is open to children and youth in grades 5-12. Rehearsals are in the Pattie Cole Room. Health checks at the door, social distancing and masks required.
Contract Trevor Cook.
Ivey Handbells Rehearsals
Wednesdays, 8-9 p.m.
This auditioned group of youth in grades 8-12 rehearses in the Pattie Cole Room. Health checks at the door, social distancing and masks required.
Contract Trevor Cook.
Stewardship 2021: Generosity
You can pledge online now to support all the church’s programs for the 2021 budget year.
Read a letter from the Reverend Pen Peery to learn more about this year’s campaign.
You can also mail in the pledge card you received early in the campaign or use Realm to make this financial commitment to our work for Christ in the heart of Charlotte for the year 2021.
Our Anti-Racism Work
Responding to the presence of racism is the work of faith. We understand that the promise of the gospel is that in Jesus Christ, the dividing wall and hostility between peoples has been broken down (Ephesians 2:14). As we are the body of Christ, we have a responsibility to continue the work that Jesus started. And as we have learned, it is not enough to simply be nonracist. We also must firmly be antiracist. This is a journey that is filled with hope, honesty, and, often, tough discussions.
As we go about this work and our responses in the continuing conversation, here are resources that you may use in your journey. These resources include books for all ages, podcasts, articles and videos.
Also, Foundation For The Carolinas recently published a list of non-profits that work directly in the field of social justice and that address racial equity. You may access that resource here.
Advocacy Committee Updates
Save-the-Date:
Plowshares Book Discussion
Mark your calendars for Thursday, January 21, at 6:30 p.m. when the Advocacy Committee’s Plowshares Book Discussion group will explore via Zoom the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkinson.
This New York Times bestseller has been called “powerful” and “an instant American classic.”
Contact Nan Clarke with questions or to sign up.
Housing
On October 22, First Presbyterian offered a panel discussion of experts on evictions and the impact in Charlotte. Including our church members, Tommy Holderness of Legal Aid, North Carolina; and Floyd David, CEO of Community Link, plus Kim Graham the CEO of Greater Charlotte Apartment Association and Tchernavia Montgomery, Chief Program Officer, Crisis Assistance Ministry. Kathy Ridge, a member of FPC, moderated the panel. Please watch the panel discussion and consider helping our neighbors facing eviction by making a donation to one of the agencies listed below.
Our Charlotte community is starting to realize unstable housing is a basis for poverty and economic immobility. With a roof and safe place to live, education and school becomes more stable, transition and therefore, work becomes more stable, and remarkable, health care costs and emergency room visits are dramatically reduced. For more information, read the 2020 Charlotte Mecklenburg State of Housing Instability and Homelessness” report that was released recently. The two-page Key Findings Chart is easy to follow and extremely informative.
Updates from Russia
Updates from our Partner Church in Russia
November 30, 2020
First Presbyterian has been in partnership with Hope Baptist Church in Ryazan, Russia, since 2003. We have watched them grow, plant other churches, and develop a network of Protestant churches in the region despite resistance and intolerance from their neighbors.
When our partnership started, the congregation of Hope Baptist was renting space for their worship services and church activities. Over the years, they bought that space with help from the funds our church sent, but they still faced discrimination from their neighbors. Russians identify strongly with the Russian Orthodox church as a matter of national pride, so Protestant congregations, especially those with American friends, are viewed with some skepticism. The members of Hope Baptist expanded and enhanced their church space, but they still encountered suspicion because they were housed on the first floor of an apartment building, leading people to believe they were more of a cult than a church.
Several years ago, Hope Baptist was able to purchase land to build a structure with a sanctuary that looks like a traditional church; they were able to buy this land through careful stewardship and with the generous gift of funds from our Global Mission budget. Because of laws in the city of Ryazan, they had to finish construction within five years or lose it all. They have been working tirelessly. The new space includes a sanctuary, a kitchen, offices, and a basement fellowship hall to host church events and retreats for other congregations in the area. The third floor, which will house Sunday school rooms, will have finishing touches and furnishings as funds allow. Members of the congregation have tithed both to the church and to the new building, and they have pitched in time and energy to the construction.
Hope Baptist also has property in the Russian countryside for a rustic camp where they host retreats, youth camps, and other gatherings. This space is used by the Protestant churches within their network, and traveling into the countryside offers a welcome change of scenery and a respite from tense relationships with neighbors.
We were sad to postpone the trip this summer, but we look forward to visiting and seeing the new building when travel is more advisable. When we can travel, we will take funds from First Presbyterian to help with the new building, and we will collect gifts for their Sunday school programs, kitchen, and camp. What Hope Baptist has been able to accomplish in the face of adversity is inspiring, and it is a joy to partner with such a faithful congregation.
– Mary Elizabeth Coley