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Organ Recital 10:30 p.m.

Candlelight Service 11:00 p.m.
Meditation by Dr. Walton
Music by Soloists and Choir of First Presbyterian Church

In New York, the presence of other faith traditions is apparent every day, but how often do we pause as a family and appreciate the richness of that religious diversity? One of the 99 Ways to Raise Spiritually Healthy Children that Kathleen Long Bostrom recommends in her book is “Learn and experience other faith traditions.” She reminds parents of the importance of doing this to “promote tolerance and understanding, open up dialogue, and enrich the practice of your own faith.”

Healthy exploration of other faith traditions not only teaches tolerance and kindness, it also lessens fear and anger and can enrich our understanding of our own traditions. It is important when learning about other traditions to look for similarities AND differences. Both the ways we are alike and the ways we are different help shape our questions and how we understand the meaning of our own traditions and others.

If you are looking for opportunities to experience other faith traditions, please see our calendar of events for youth (click here) and for families (click here) for upcoming opportunities!!!

Do not hesitate to contact me if you are looking for specific resources to help you understand other faith tradition.

The Rev. Barbara E. Davis

This year, our stewardship campaign, the Annual Fund of the church, supports the annual budget of First Presbyterian Church.  It also supports the wider mission and ministry of this church, which touches the lives of so many others.  Through our Sunday Church School program we are educating a generation of children about the love of God expressed in the life of Jesus Christ.  Our Nursery School is an expression of our commitment to the entire community, as well as to our own children, that education starts early and that our life together should strengthen and encourage the lives of all the families that we can reach.  P.S. 226, a joint venture with the City of New York, provides early childhood education to autistic children five days a week within our own classrooms.  Twelve Step groups meet throughout the week to offer mutual support for sobriety and drug-free, healthy living.  Our Mission Service Committee plans and leads service projects in countries and regions such as Cuba, Nicaragua, Peru, Haiti, and the Southern states affected by Hurricane Katrina.  If outreach and service alone were the reason to support the church’s annual budget through your pledge, there is ample reason to be generous.

But the church is also a spiritual home, a refuge in times of stress and trouble, and a place of encouragement week in and week out.  If you have been inspired by the preaching of our ministers, moved by the choir’s music, lifted by the prayers that have been offered, strengthened by the sacraments that have been celebrated, you know why it is that this church means so much to you.

The goal for the 2012 Annual Fund is 100%!  The Annual Fund Committee is asking everyone to give prayerful consideration to being a pledging member of the congregation.  In challenging economic times we know that our members are already giving sacrificially, and we are grateful for that support.  But not everyone is making the commitment through an annual pledge of financial support to assure that the ministries of the church continue in the coming year.  That’s why the Annual Fund’s goal this year is 100% participation by every member of the congregation.

If you have not pledged before, now is the time to move from being an occasional or regular giver to a pledging supporter.  The church needs the confidence of a pledge in order to plan a budget, and each of us needs the discipline and goal set before us to do on a regular basis what we know is our share of the support.

So please give your prayerful consideration to pledging this year a portion of your household income to the church’s 2012 budget.  Pledge Dedication Sunday is November 13.  Please be prepared that day to make your pledge and dedicate it to God’s service during worship. We’ll be counting on you.

The Rev. Dr. Jon M. Walton

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. – 2 Corinthians 9:7

In her book about raising spiritually healthy children, Kathleen Long Bostrom reminds parents several times about the importance of stewardship and tithing. She says in one section (idea #95), “Living a life of stewardship begins with seeing everything as first and foremost as belonging to God.” In everything from caring for creation to sharing resources for the good of all, it is vital to teach our children the importance of starting with a spirit of gratitude.

The concept of tithing is also an important idea. Tithing is not so about a % (many of us grew up with the 10% rule from the Bible instilled in us) but an attitude. Tithing is about setting aside money or time for the church before you do your other spending (idea #39 Teach Tithing). Whether it involves time or money, living a life of stewardship is about committing your gifts and generosity to others, not just giving from what is left over. Kathleen Long Bostrom makes excellent practical suggestions for how to engage children in the process of planning generous giving into their lives. She suggests that children take three envelopes and mark one for church, one for spending and one for saving. She also suggests having children decorate their own offering envelopes to include in the collection. And, she encourages families to consider tithing not only their money but their time. What would it look like to plan your plan your family calendar like your checkbook and/or allowance….part for church, part for spending (working/school) and part for saving (relaxing, fun)?   All of these ideas help us think about the connection between generosity and stewardship. Most of all, giving put us in the mindset of that 2 Corinthians 9:7 reminds us of – of the importance of being a cheerful giver!

- The Rev. Barbara E. Davis

Hurricane Irene left a trail of devastation along the U.S. eastern seaboard.  The full extent of the storm’s damages will continue to unfold in the weeks ahead.  Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA)’s National Response team is offering support for presbyteries as they assess damage and carry out recovery plans.  One Great Hour of Sharing funds and those designated for U.S. disaster or PDA general response will be used to help presbyteries with immediate needs.  To help by sharing your financial blessings, you may send a check made out to First Presbyterian Church (with “Hurricane Irene” in the memo line) to the Business Office, First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York, 12 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011. Alternatively, you can make a gift online at gamc.pcusa.org/give/DR000015/ or text PDA to 20222 from your cell phone. PDA’s response will continue as information and resources are available.  Please visit pcusa.org/pda for instructions, reports & worship resources.  Please pray for families struggling to survive this disaster, for those who lost loved ones, and for the workers responding to the disaster and ministering to the disaster survivors.

Kathleen Long Bostrom reminds parents that “your ultimate goal as a parent is to let go of your child, to send him or her into the world with gratitude and joy.” We know this concept is true, but for many parents who are in the thick of caring for their children’s everyday needs, “for food, clothing, shelter, education and health” the gratitude and joy easily get lost in all the planning and arranging.

As a parent it is important to “claim all that is positive at every stage of child’s development” and to “cherish the moment your child is in right now.” As the school year begins, both at church and school, we are realizing many firsts. The first day of kindergarten, the first day at a new school, the first day going to school on their own; and no matter what the beginnings, September transitions are huge and exciting.

The opportunity to send our children into the world with joy is not just about their entry into adulthood. Each little transition is an opportunity to be joyful with our children; we might shed a tear at the change, but showing them our confidence and happiness in them is a large part of our work as parents. Rejoicing in each of these transitions reminds us that there will be new joys for us as well as they embark on their journey and our relationship with them changes and grows.

So this September, embrace the newness of your families’ transitions remembering Isaiah’s words, “For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace.”

—The Rev. Barbara E. Davis

Please address submissions to the mailbox: worshipcmte@fpcnyc.org by August 15, 2011.  You may attach your submission to the email or include it in the body of the message.  Submissions may be edited for clarity and appropriateness.

You may visit the September 11 Remembrances by clicking here.

We discovered differences and similarities.  As a state supported religion, Swedish Lutheranism is maintained by tax support levied upon the general populace.  In some respects this relegates the Swedish Church to the status of a cultural resource, like a museum or library, and to hear the Swedish pastors talk, sometimes they feel as if their parishioners treat the church in that way.  The church for many of their members is a place to do what has traditionally been known as matching, hatching, and dispatching: a place to be married, to have your children baptized, and to have your funeral.  Visits in between are unnecessary.  The idea of stewardship, or of supporting the church through generous giving, is not necessarily a value inherent in a state supported religious institution.  Moreover, baptism as a rite of the church is often considered a “right” of those who come to their local parish for religious services.  One of the questions asked by the pastors was what we did when couples came asking for baptism when neither was a member of the church.  (Answer: Baptism is reserved for professing Christians and at least one parent must be Christian.)  Another question about baptism centered on whether we would allow the baptism of an infant if neither parent were married.  (Answer: The covenant of baptism is between the child and God, and if at least one parent is a professing Christian and promises to instruct the child in the Christian faith, there is nothing in our theology that would prevent a child from being baptized.)

Clearly baptism is a hot topic in the Swedish Lutheran Church.  I found my own thoughts about baptism were sharpened and clarified in our conversation, and I wondered as we talked whether we were confirming their own thoughts about baptism or what we were saying was completely alien.  Two of our lay leaders, Elder Jon Bruner and Deacon Ryan Tirre, met with these pastors, along with Sarah and me.  I thought it important for them to see the young face of church members in the U.S. and in New York City.  They described a church in Sweden where there are many older members but not many young adults.  The same is true of national statistics for Presbyterians as a denomination, where the median age as of last year was 60.  But here at First, where 70% of our congregation are in their 40s, 30s, and 20s, it is significantly different.

It was a most interesting afternoon of discussion, comparison of insights about the church, and shared learning.  I am still pondering what it is about us that made this group wish to speak to those of us at the church here at First, but I left with a sense of the common challenges that face the church worldwide, and the ties that bind us to brothers and sisters in Christ  who are far away.

The Rev. Dr. Jon M. Walton

—Barbara Sherman, member of the First Church choir.

Factoid: Presbyterians pledged over 2 billion dollars

to their congregations in 2010 (source: PCUSA.org).

GIVE.  Following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the First Presbyterian Church of Tuscaloosa, AL, responded with generous donations to our congregation, which were used for rental assistance and legal aid for those who lost employment and risked losing their housing as a result; grants to mental health facilities for trauma counseling; and a variety of other individual and institutional grants.

In the wake of recent devastation in the Southeast, FPC Tuscaloosa has established a Tornado Relief Fund to aid in the community’s recovery, for rental assistance and other short term needs. Checks may be made out directly to FPC Tuscaloosa (900 Greensboro Avenue, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401), or to FPCNYC, with Tornado Relief in the memo line.

ACT.  Through Sunday, May 22, the Church & Society Committee will receive your donations for disaster relief in the Southeast.  Drop boxes will be available in the lobby of the Mellin-Macnab Building. On Sunday, May 22 at 10:00 a.m., volunteers will gather to box the supplies for shipment, via church member and Alabama-native, Leigh Bishop-Taub.

Needed supplies include:

trash bags

paper towels

work gloves

baby wipes

diapers

instant formula

first aid items

batteries of all sizes

personal hygiene items

hand sanitizer

PRAY.  Pray for the vulnerable people in the affected regions, for the relief workers that are offering assistance and that hope will be found out of the chaos of disasters.

Factoid: The Presbyterian Church USA works with partner churches and organizations in more than 100 countries worldwide.

As the cooler weather arrives, the benefits of new windows in the Mellin-Macnab Building are already evident for classrooms and children in the church school, Nursery School, and P.S. 226.  When next year’s re-zoning of the heating plant takes place, we will see a real and tangible benefit to this “greening” and warming of the building. 

This past month, the First for the Future campaign applied to the Hyde and Watson Foundation for grant to support construction costs.  Last year, this foundation, which is one of a very few who support capital improvements in churches, gave the church $15,000 to supplement the congregation’s gifts.  We hope to hear whether our second application is approved for additional funding by early November. 

In the same way that the Hyde and Watson Foundation supports the First for the Future campaign, if you would like to suggest any foundations or institutions that offer financial grants in the areas of education, autism, religion, building, or historical renovation, please contact David Richardson, Campaign Officer, at drichardson@fpcnyc.org.  In addition, if your employer offers Matching Gifts to employees’ giving, you could help us reach our $15,000,000 goal by directing Matching Gifts to the church.   It may also be possible to direct gifts to the First Presbyterian Church Nursery School if your employer’s policy does not allow support of religious institutions.

Dear FPC Members,          

In conjunction with the 2010 Tartan Christmas Fair to be held on Friday, December 3 through Sunday, December 5, we have a special holiday greenery program available for PRE-ORDER.

The Pre-order form can be found here.

We are offering the items listed here at very competitive prices…and remember…all proceeds go toward charities on behalf of the church.

Just print out the form, fill it out and mail it in with your payment by Friday, November 5, or stop by our tables in the church house after services on Sundays, October 24 or 31.

Mail to:  First Presbyterian Church, 12 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011.  Attention: Michael Scott

Warmest wishes,

The Greenery Committee

In the coming weeks, the FIRST FOR THE FUTURE Design and Construction Committee will decide what stages of the Mellin-Macnab Building renovation can and will be undertaken next. 

Construction plans are tailored to meet cash flow realities, so it is important that pledges are paid on time.  Projects are started only when sufficient funds for their completion are in hand. 

Much of the work in this early phase—enhancements to the building’s infrastructure—is “behind the scenes,” and includes electrical work, plumbing, fire-safety, heating, air-conditioning, etc. 

To date, pledges equaling 75% of the $15 million goal have been committed, with $3.8 million yet to be committed. 

Please contact David Richardson, (212) 675-6150 or drichardson@fpcnyc.org, if you have any questions or concerns.