Changing First Notes
by First Church
In Luke’s account of the commissioning of the twelve apostles, Jesus advised his first followers to go out into the world and… “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic” (Luke 9:3). It was an auspicous start for the Christian enterprise because it signaled two things: communication of the gospel would be interpersonal and underwriting the work would be a challenge. In the midst of this economic downturn, the postal service has forced on the church the latest in a series of difficult decisions that will change our way of communicating once again. In recent years we have reduced the number of Church Tower publications. Several years ago we stopped producing our Sunday morning radio program on WQXR, Be Thou My Vision, and we also stopped publishing weekly advertisements of worship services in The New York Times. This meant that we have had to rely more on the printed and mailed version of First Notes and our website, www.fpcnyc.org, as the primary means of communicating church activities.
In January of this year the US Postal Service informed us that the folded format of First Notes would cause an increase from forty-four cents per piece to sixty-one cents per piece. A nearly forty percent rise in mailing exceeds our budget for 2010, so our Communications Committee has had to make some difficult decisions in order to live within our budget. The result will mean a change in the way the church communicates. This will be the last issue of First Notes to be mailed to all of our membership. Beginning with the April issue First Notes will only be mailed to those who request that it be mailed. If you still prefer a mailed copy, please fill out the enclosed insert in this issue and return it to Ian Gibbs, Communications Assistant, The First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York, 12 West 12th Street, New York, NY 10011. You may also email your request for a printed copy to comasst@fpcnyc.org. In the future, we will rely more heavily on the online version of First Notes on our website, www.fpcnyc.org. First Notes can always be accessed there. If you would like alerts when new issues of First Notes are available online, you may also use the return form with your preferred email address, or email that request to comasst@fpcnyc.org; we will then send you a link each month to the latest version of First Notes.
Printed copies of First Notes will be available at the church at all times. If you prefer a printed copy you will always be able to take one home on Sunday or when you are in the church building. In the meantime, the Communications Committee will review the format of First Notes to see if any changes in the way we print, fold, or sort hard copies of the church’s newsletter will help us reduce printing costs.
If you have suggestions or comments, please let us hear from you. We want to continue to provide all our members timely information about the worship, programs, fellowship, and opportunities for service available at the church. We are sorry to have to impose these changes, but good stewardship of resources suggest that we spend your financial support in ways that hold down overhead costs and are most supportive of mission.
Jon M. Walton
