Ongoing Response to COVID-19

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-02-10

Wednesday, February 10th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
IT BEGINS NEXT THURSDAY: Please sign up for the book study. (Call the office.) Thanks.
 
BOOK STUDY!  You are invited to a congregation-wide four session book study on race.

  • WHAT? Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World, 2015). A father talks to his fifteen-year-old son about the realities of inhabiting a black body.
  • WHEN?  Thursdays, February 18 and 25 and March 4 and 11 at 11 to 12 noon. 
  • HOW? Sign up by emailing or calling Patty Farthing in the church office. We will meet on-line via Zoom. 217.356.7238 /  Patty@firstpres.church . Borrow books from our public library in paper, digital or audio form. To order through the church request copy by February 10 and transmit check to Patty.
  • WHO? Everyone in our congregation and community is invited. Pastor Matt Matthews will facilitate. Our Compassion, Peace, and Justice Committee/ Spiritual Formation Committee will host.             
  • WHY? Jesus asks us to love “the other. A first step is listening to understand “the other”.
* * * 
 
News
 
Our Annual Meeting is THIS Sunday February 14th at 10 AM. Join us for a quick report. We’ll also vote on the pastors’ terms of call. Thanks for joining us. Visit https://firstpres.church/meeting for more information and the link. 
* * *
 
Hard copies of the Annual Report will be available in the plastic holders on the wall just outside the alley entry of the Education Building on Friday. If you want a hard copy, you will find hard copies there. Also, PDF copies will be available on our website later today.

* * *

Join us tonight at 7 PM for our mid-week gathering.  Tonight’s theme is Missions.
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.

* * *
 
ESL “Café” is this Thursday, February 11, at 10 AM. It helps our immigrants to have conversation partners, so join us for a conversation. Our director, Jeanette Pyne, will lead us and, last time, she had a funny game we played. This would be a great time for you to get to know some of our students and tutors. If you’ve ever wondered what the ESL program is like, this is a great place to find out. We will be split into small groups so that we can talk with each other. Bring your favorite hot drink and a snack to our Zoom Café Time.
 
Email esl@firstpres.church for the link.
 
If you have any questions, please email the ESL Director, Jeanette Pyne, at jeanette@firstpres.church.
 
* * *
 
Everyone is welcomed to a “drive-by” imposition of ashes from noon to 1:00 p.m. on Ash Wednesday, February 17th. Those who feel safe driving through the alley will receive ashes imposed upon their foreheads leaned through open car windows. Matt will be double-masked and will sanitize a gloved hand between congregants. While everyone is warmly invited to drive by, if you are at-risk or otherwise feel unsafe, please stay at home. Come at your own risk. We’ll be as safe as is humanly possible. Why ashes? They remind us who and whose we are. We will gather for a live Zoom service that evening at 7 p.m. led by Eric Corbin.
 
* * *

In-person Worship begins on February 21st at 10:15.  After careful discussion and prayerful deliberation, the COVID-19 team and the Session have recommended that we resume limited in-person weekly worship on the First Sunday of Lent, February 21st at 10:15 a.m.  
 
For those of you who feel safe to attend, please pre-register by calling the church office at 217.356.7238. Registration will run from Monday morning to Thursday noon the week before each service. (We are preregistering not only as a means of contact-tracing, but also to keep attendance at or under fifty [50] people, including worship leaders and ushers. That is the limit prescribed by state public health guidelines.) 
 
Remember, your Session is doing everything it can to keep everyone safe during this season of pandemic. While the end may be in sight with local and statewide numbers trending downward, not everyone is vaccinated yet and Covid-19 is still deadly. Some experts guess our nationwide death toll due to Covid may total over 600,000 by later this Spring.
 
The best way to safeguard against getting Covid is to limit one’s exposure to it and to get vaccinated; while we have prepared as safe a worship environment as possible, and all participants will be required to check in, wear masks at all times, and sit at a distance of six feet from other families, we cannot guarantee that somebody won’t get sick. Those who come to worship come at their own risk.
 
These in-person services will be, essentially, services of welcome, scripture, prayer, and preaching. These brief—40-minutes, or less—services will include no spoken liturgy, no congregational singing, and no choir. The preacher will speak from behind a plexiglass barrier. There will be no indoor fellowship, and no coffee or food service before or after the service.
 
This may not sound like a very welcoming or, even, friendly invitation, does it? You know what I mean. So, make wise decisions for you and your family, stay away if you are high risk or don’t feel well, and know that I look forward to “seeing” some of you online at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday (FirstPres.Live), and others of you face to face at 10:15 a.m. 
 
God is good.
 
* * *
 
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
Bill Gamble was on our church campus recently and reports that he saw a small group of dyslexic Agnostics sitting around discussing the existence of Dog.
 
He shares this joke:
 
In the Pope’s office, there was a gold phone, that had not rung in a 
long time.  Today it rang.

Pope:  Hello

Answer:  Good morning, this is God.  I have some good news and some bad 
news.  The good news is that I am going unite all of the religions in 
the world.

Pope: That is very good news.

God:  The bad news is that I am calling from Salt Lake City.
 
Good Word: 
 
The 23rd Psalm                      
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
 
LET US PRAY

O GOD, THEY SAY EACH FLAKE OF SNOW IS WHOLLY UNIQUE. WE’VE BEEN TOLD HUMANS RESEMBLE FLAKES OF SNOW IN THAT WAY. WE DON’T KNOW HOW YOU KEEP US STRAIGHT, BUT WE’VE BEEN TAUGHT YOU KNOW EACH OF US BETTER THAN WE KNOW OURSELVES. YOUR WAYS ARE A MYSTERY TO US. WE DON’T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT, BUT WE ARE GLAD YOU DO. 
 
Help us to love others as you so uniquely love us.
 
AMEN.
 
* * *
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church


Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-02-09

 
   
                                                       

The Heart of Mission
February 9, 2021
 
Our Matthew 25 initiatives are building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty. This evening the Mission Team meets on zoom with Community Mission Deacons and World Mission for an educational event on poverty beginning at 4:30 on zoom.
 
Maybe you are not on a mission committee in the church but would like to do a mission activity. Someone suggested I set up a website with tasks so you could just click on the website and pick an activity to do.
 
Right away I would point you to some small groups in the church who do mission:
 
If you are looking for some hands on mission work to do at First Presbyterian, the kitchen committee is looking for people to put the kitchen back together. We can hardly wait to use it! Contact Gary Peterson.
 
If you like caring for the environment, the environmental stewardship committee offers opportunities to plant and work in gardens around the church, pick up trash, recycle, and educate yourself about other ways to care. And getting involved in Faith in Place an advocacy group that partners with the ESC for an even greater degree of education and involvement.
 
Join the First Presbyterian Knifty Knitters and Presbyterian Women with Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew).
            Knit a hat or scarf for a Kemmerer youth.
            Volunteer to help with Camp Carew this coming Summer.
 
If you are interested in languages and helping people with a second language feel more comfortable in our neighborhood, contact Jeanette Pyne about volunteering for our ESL program at First Presbyterian Church, or attend an ESL Café zoom on the second Thursday of the month at 10am for fellowship with ESL students.
 
We have learned over the years that mission work is about building relationships. Mission work is a mutual sharing of power and resources that allow for the growth and development of people’s lives and a sharing of God’s love which is the good news of the gospel. Sometimes when we do mission activities we are not sharing God’s love, we are just making ourselves feel good and important. Friends, we are human and human beings are complicated and imperfect. That is why we say in the Apostle’s Creed, “I believe …in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
 
I would encourage you to go ahead and find a mission activity to do. Your mission committee is already trying to build relationships with a select group of mission partners who can provide us with activities that will strengthen us all. In doing your mission activity, you begin to build relationships.
 
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
 
CU at Home: They had a terrific One Winter Night on Feb. 5! Thank you!
            Check out all the ways to be involved as a volunteer with them:
            https://www.cuathome.us/volunteer/
            Be a friend at the Phoenix Daytime drop in center.
            Volunteer to drive.
            Be a professional case manger if you are a trained social worker.
            Be a spiritual adviser and encourage someone on their spiritual walk.
            Involve a group of church members or your small group to take part in various seasonal activities, arranged with a Phoenix coordinator.
 
CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE
            Collect times for the resident house and bring them to the First Presbyterian Church mission closet:
                        Disinfectant spray
                        Disinfectant wipes
                        Hand sanitizer
                        Hand soap
                        Tissue (for nose)
                        Batteries (9-volt, 3-volt, D, AAA and AA)
                        Disposable gloves
                        Towels and washcloths
                        Paper towels
 
CANTEEN RUN  – For immediate volunteer needs, hours and contact info at  http://www.cucanteenrun.org/
            Collect items for the homeless: shirts, blankets, underwear, socks, toiletries, coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. 
            Drive volunteers to drop off items to the homeless.
 
COURAGE CONNECTION –
            Take a 40 hour DV advocacy training. DVTrainer@courageconnection.org
            Collect shampoo and toiletries and bring to First Presbyterian Mission closet to be
            delivered.
 
DREAAM
            Volunteer or Mentor with a young man. See https://www.dreaam.org/take-action  on how you can be involved.

eMPTY TOMB, INC
            Volunteer directly in their office.
            Coordinate meal deliveries between Empty Tomb requests and First Presbyterian Church members.
            Collect items for Layettes to be dropped off at First Presbyterian mission closet.
 
FAITH IN ACTION
            Take the OSF volunteer inventory to help with seniors: https://www.osfhealthcare.org/heart-of-mary/amenities/social-services/faith-action-application/
 
JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY in Rantoul     
            Check out their volunteer opportunities: https://jesusisthewayprisonministries.org/get-involved/volunteer/
 
THE REFUGEE CENTER –
            Fill out a volunteer interest form: https://www.therefugeecenter-cu.org/volunteer-interest-form for the following ways to serve:
            Tutor a client in English
            Translate documents
            Serve as an interpreter at the Center
            Serve as an interpreter in the community
            Teach citizenship classes
            Tutor students one-on-one
            Monitor playtime on Saturday mornings
            Plan fundraisers and special events
            Provide office assistance
            Complete marketing and development projects
            Serve as a board members
 
RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY –
            Take their volunteer training to share your expertise with their residents. Contact at (217) 355-2662 or restorationurbanministry@gmail.com
            Donate to their food and clothing pantry.
 
SALT & LIGHT
            Recycle your worn out socks, jeans and tees.
            Donate gently used household items and clothing.
            Shop at the Salt & Light grocery store. People ages 55 and above get 10% off on Wednesdays.
            Attend a volunteer orientation. They have them once a week. Mondays 12-1pm and        Wednesdays 4-5pm at the Urbana store.
            Volunteer for projects or teaching in their educational wing.
 
Get involved with our International Mission co-workers:
 
            Meet Rev. Mark Adams and Miriam Escobar as well as the staff at Frontera de Cristo to learn more about border ministry, buy some coffee, and find ways to help our refugee and immigrant community on our borders. See the new schedule below:
 

 
Pray for or write to
                        Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia)
                        Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa)
                        Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)
 
Create a virtual educational trip to one of the countries of our mission coworkers to share with others on a Wednesday night First Presbyterian Church zoom gathering.
           
Lifeline Pilots and Mission Aviation Fellowship
            Volunteer to fly.
            Donate to help others fly medical patients in our region.
            Donate to help others fly to assist in medical needs in the world.
 
Marion Medical Mission
            Volunteer to go to Africa to partner in building a well.
            Donate for the building of a well.
 
Opportunity International
            Educate yourself on microfinancing.
            Donate to help women and children.
 
Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian
            Give a scholarship for a day student or a boarding student in Pakistan.
 
Cuba Partnership
            Become an advocate for our sister congregation in Luyano, Havana.
            Get involved in a study group about Cuba and prepare for when we can travel to Cuba again to see our sister church.
 
Special Offerings of the PC(USA)
            Watch our worship service offering opportunities at Easter (Great Hour of Sharing), after a disaster (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance), Pentecost (help young people), and Christmas (Joy Gift Offering).
 
Theological Education Fund
            Learn about seminary.
            Pray for people to learn how God has called them to ministry inside and outside of the church.
 
Young Adult Volunteers
            Volunteer for a year of service in the United States or Globally.
 
There is a lot of mission going on!
 
Peace,
 
Rev. Dr. Rachel Matthews, Mission Coordinator
 
Let us keep all our mission partners in our prayers, those who are waiting to go back to their place of ministry and those who are able to work where they are. Listen for God’s call to you in their ministry.
 
Our PC(USA) Mission CoWorkers:
 
Mark Adams and Miriam Maidonado Escobar (Mexico)
Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia)
Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa)
Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)
 
Our regional and global mission partners:
 
Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew)
Lifeline Pilots
Marion Medical Mission
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Opportunity International
Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian Cuba Partnership
Special Offerings of the PC(USA)
Theological Education Fund
Young Adult Volunteers
 
Here in Champaign – Urbana:
 
CU at Home
CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE
CANTEEN RUN
COURAGE CONNECTION
DREAAM
eMPTY TOMB, INC
FAITH IN ACTION
JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY
THE REFUGEE CENTER
RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY
SALT & LIGHT
 
Here at First Presbyterian Church
 
FPCC Amateur Preachers
FPCC Environmental Committee working with Faith in Place
FPCC Presbyterian Women
FPCC ESL
FPCC Children, Youth and Families
FPCC Mission Possible/Go and Serve
FPCC Mission Team, World Mission and Community Mission Deacons

 
 
A picture containing drawing Description automatically generated
 

  302 W. Church Street
  Champaign, IL 61820
  217-356-7238
  info@firstpres.church
 
 

 
   
Attachments:

Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-02-08

Monday, February 8th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
A Memorial Day to Remember
May 29, 2010
by David L. Thomas
 
I remember my first Memorial Day in a small upstate New York town.  I was either 3 or 4 years old and was taken by my stepfather to view the march through town down to the river.  There a wreath was thrown onto the water and guns were shot off in honor of those who had given their lives to their country.  I was too young to fully understand all that was going on but it was enough to leave a strong memory that this was a significant time.  And I also remember that my mother refused to attend.  Having lost a husband and the love of her life in the war, leaving her a widow with two very young children, she wanted no part of any remembrance of the war.  It was too painful.
 
My father, Laurence H. Thomas, was a first lieutenant in the 79th Division fighting in France.  He arrived sometime in July 1944 and was killed in action on November  20, 1944.  He was awarded the Silver Star for helping to wipe out one German machine gun installation but was killed trying to do the same to another one.  My mother and Grandmother were faced by the decision of what to have done with the body (a decision being made by thousands of other families across the country) and decided that he should be buried with his comrades that had also fallen in action.  He was buried in the US military cemetery in Epinal, France, near the area where he had fallen, along with 5251 other US military casualties.
 
No one in my family had ever visited the grave site although there were discussions over the years about doing so.  When my mother’s husband died last November we discussed going this year.  My Mom had turned 90 in December 2009 and we knew it would not be an easy trip for her but we began the plans.
 
On May 26 my wife and I flew into Paris and met my mother and my sister Kathy at our hotel.  My father got to hold Kathy after she was born in May 1944 but a few days later had to return to duty.  She was only 6 months old when he died and I was just over 2 years of age.
 
On the 27th we took a bullet train to Epinal.  The next day we took a cab to the cemetery and were met by the Director and his assistant.  It was a beautiful cemetery, the grounds nicely laid out with the shrubs neatly trimmed and the flowers of rhododendron and azaleas in full bloom.  We were taken to the grave site where fine sand was rubbed over my father’s name and date of his death.  My mother, sister and I each approached the grave with a rose and had our time there to shed tears and to pay our respects and tributes to him and his comrades for their sacrifices.  My wife took pictures and then brought a forth rose to the grave site and paid her respects.  It was a very meaningful moment in a very beautiful and peaceful place.
 
What added even more to this time were the American soldiers we ran into later in the day.  My wife and I had gone out of our hotel for some take out dinner and ran into two American soldiers stationed in Germany who had come to Epinal for the Memorial Day ceremony to be held at the cemetery.  They appreciated hearing our story and we appreciated hearing some of their tours of duty.  One soldier had to say a few words at the cemetery and was interested in mentioning Larry Thomas who he had just heard about from us.  Later in our hotel bar we met two US airmen who were also down from Germany for the ceremony at the military cemetery.  We shared stories and they expressed their appreciation for the sacrifices of our father and our family in the Second World War and we thanked them for their service today, both in Iraq and Afghanistan.  My mother bought them each a beer, recognition in part by her of the meaning of Memorial Day and of the sacrifices of Americans down through the decades to maintain our freedoms and those of other freedom loving peoples.
 
I always think of the father that I never knew (except through photographs and stories) on each Memorial Day but the reality of his sacrifice and the connectedness of those who have gone in the past with those that serve us today was never as strong as it was on my visit to Epinal.  And when I was standing at his grave site I thought about how that grave changed my life in ways far beyond what I could measure. Three sisters who wouldn’t have been born if my father had lived, and a half brother that I found out about only later in life that would not have existed. A wife, two children and five grandchildren that would not have existed (my wife would have but not likely as my wife). It makes me realize that we cannot measure all the impacts of events that happen – to know whether those that were bad or those good would ultimately end up being good or be bad.
 
We go with the flow of life, having faith that a loving God is watching over us. We have no instrument, no scale, to measure how good or how bad things really are or could be. To even know many times which decisions are right and which are wrong. As I stand at my father’s grave I acknowledge another life which I will never know. All I can be sure of is that it would have been different, but not necessarily better or worse. My Mom would have given anything to have my Father come home alive. But if I had the power to change history I would not give up the life and family that I have now. All we can do is go with the life we are given and try to make the best of it.
 
For those who think that Government agencies can never do anything right, I have to say that The American Battle Monuments Commission does a wonderful job of honoring our fallen soldiers buried in various cemeteries around the world.  At the end of our visit my Mom was at peace with a decision she and my Grandmother made some 63 years earlier to have my father buried, along with 5300 comrads, near where he was killed in action.  We all felt that there was no better place where he would be honored and respected for his sacrifice than where he was buried in Epinal.
 
David L. Thomas
Champaign, Illinois
(Retired Chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey, member of the First Presbyterian Church of Champaign,  and resident  of the community with his wife Carol since 1985)
 
* * *
 
Please sign up for the book study. (Call the office.) Thanks.
 
BOOK STUDY!  You are invited to a congregation-wide four session book study on race.

  • WHAT? Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World, 2015). A father talks to his fifteen-year-old son about the realities of inhabiting a black body.
  • WHEN?  Thursdays, February 18 and 25 and March 4 and 11 at 11:00am to 12:00 noon. 
  • HOW? Sign up by emailing or calling Patty Farthing in the church office. We will meet on-line via Zoom. 217.356.7238 /  Patty@firstpres.church . Borrow books from our public library in paper, digital or audio form. To order through the church request copy by February 10 and transmit check to Patty.
  • WHO? Everyone in our congregation and community is invited. Pastor Matt Matthews will facilitate. Our Compassion, Peace, and Justice Committee/ Spiritual Formation Committee will host.             
  • WHY? Jesus asks us to love “the other. A first step is listening to understand “the other”.

* * * 
 
News
 
Our Annual Meeting is Sunday February 14th at 10:00 o’clock Sunday morning. Join us for a quick report. We’ll also vote on the pastors’ terms of call. Thanks for joining us.

Visit https://firstpres.church/meeting for the link.

* * *

Just in time for Valentine’s Day is our next virtual dessert…Tuesday, February 9, at 7 pm.
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.

* * *

In-person Worship begins on February 21st at 10:15.  After careful discussion and prayerful deliberation, the COVID-19 team and the Session have recommended that we resume limited in-person weekly worship on the First Sunday of Lent, February 21st at 10:15 a.m.  
 
For those of you who feel safe to attend, please pre-register by calling the church office at 217.356.7238. Registration will run from Monday morning to Thursday noon the week before each service. (We are preregistering not only as a means of contact-tracing, but also to keep attendance at or under fifty [50] people, including worship leaders and ushers. That is the limit prescribed by state public health guidelines.) 
 
Remember, your Session is doing everything it can to keep everyone safe during this season of pandemic. While the end may be in sight with local and statewide numbers trending downward, not everyone is vaccinated yet and Covid-19 is still deadly. Some experts guess our nationwide death toll due to Covid may total over 600,000 by later this Spring.
 
The best way to safeguard against getting Covid is to limit one’s exposure to it and to get vaccinated; while we have prepared as safe a worship environment as possible, and all participants will be required to check in, wear masks at all times, and sit at a distance of six feet from other families, we cannot guarantee that somebody won’t get sick. Those who come to worship come at their own risk.
 
These in-person services will be, essentially, services of welcome, scripture, prayer, and preaching. These brief—40-minutes, or less—services will include no spoken liturgy, no congregational singing, and no choir. The preacher will speak from behind a plexiglass barrier. There will be no indoor fellowship, and no coffee or food service before or after the service.
 
This may not sound like a very welcoming or, even, friendly invitation, does it? You know what I mean. So, make wise decisions for you and your family, stay away if you are high risk or don’t feel well, and know that I look forward to “seeing” some of you online at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday (FirstPres.Live), and others of you face to face at 10:15 a.m. 
 
God is good.
 
* * *

Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
These gems from Marilyn Hunter Shimkus. Enjoy!
 
1.  If all the cars in this nation were red, what would we have?  A red carnation.

2.  What happens when the fog lifts in California?  UCLA

3.  Why can’t you buy the Tower of Pisa?  There’s a lien on it.

4.  Knock knock
     Who’s there?
     funnel
     funnel who?
     The funnel start once you let me in.

5.  How do you make the number one disappear?  Just add a g and it’s gone.
 
 
Good Word: 
 
Mark 1: 35                  
35In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 

LET US PRAY

AN APACHE BLESSING:

May the sun bring you new energy by day

May the moon softly restore you by night

May the rain wash away your worries

May the breeze blow new strength into your being

May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty

All the days of your life.

* * *

 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church


Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-02-05

Friday, February 5th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
Dear Friends, 
 
I rushed to a friend’s hospital room when his wife called and said they were getting ready to do emergency heart surgery. The crew preparing to wheel him to surgery stepped back when I stepped in to pray. After I prayed, while the attendants unlocked the wheels of his bed, I asked, “Are you nervous?” 
 
I calculated that his answer would give me an opportunity to remind him that he was safely in God’s hands. My plan back fired.
 
“I’m not nervous,” he said. Then he grabbed the door jamb as they wheeled him out. “Remember that creed we said in worship on Sunday?”
 
I nodded.
 
He said, “I believe it.”
 
Thank you, Brian, for your faith and for your witness to a smart-ass pastor who thought he knew it all. 
 
This is what we said on that Sunday, and if you join us on this Sunday, you’ll see this again:
 
Affirmation of FaithQuestion & Answer #1, The Heidelberg Catechism
Q.1. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?
A.  That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
  
* * *
 
See you there on this Sunday.
 
FirstPres.Live.
 
PEACE and much love,
 
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
matt@firstpres.church
 
* * *

From your Nurture Team — Last week’s photo challenge was a tough one!  We received no successful guesses for last week’s photo of Greg Cozad.  

Here’s this week’s photo. 

 Visit http://fb.com/groups/firstpreschampaign to make your guesses, or email them to photos@firstpres.church.  
 
Please join in the fun!  We are running low on photos, so we would like you to select a photo from your younger years (grade school, high school or early adulthood). Photos need not be professional. Candid shots are welcome. Please send your photos to photos@firstpres.church.

* * *
 
The old…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXbEFTv9zr0
 
…and the new
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uecFirb4T4


Read more...

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-02-04

Thursday, February 4th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
Carol Penka answered this question correctly, and I’ll be gladly sending some Jarling’s Custard Cup ice cream her way. I’ll gladly send some YOUR way if you want to take a stab at answering this question. (I’ll share the answer in my March 7th sermon…) 
 
What do these folk have in common? 

  •       Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 
  •       the musical genius Ludwig von Beethoven, 
  •       the football quarterback Terry Bradshaw, 
  •       Winston Churchill, 
  •       the singer Judy Collins, 
  •       Monica Seles the tennis pro,
  •       Abraham Lincoln. 

BOOK STUDY!  You are invited to a congregation-wide four session book study on race.

  • WHAT? Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World, 2015). A father talks to his fifteen-year-old son about the realities of inhabiting a black body.
  • WHEN?  Thursdays, February 18 and 25 and March 4 and 11 at 11:00am to 12:00 noon. 
  • HOW? Sign up by emailing or calling Patty Farthing in the church office. We will meet on-line via Zoom. 217.356.7238 /  Patty@firstpres.church . Borrow books from our public library in paper, digital or audio form. To order through the church request copy by February 10 and transmit check to Patty.
  • WHO? Everyone in our congregation and community is invited. Pastor Matt Matthews will facilitate. Our Compassion, Peace, and Justice Committee/ Spiritual Formation Committee will host.             
  • WHY? Jesus asks us to love “the other. A first step is listening to understand “the other”.

One of our friends said this about Coate’s book. “I know I will never fully understand the emotional trauma of racism. But, Coates’ book has helped me better understand. His writing has made me more sensitive and more deeply empathetic to the black experience.”
 
News

The Annual Meeting of the Congregation will be held Sunday, February 14, at 10 am.  Watch for the zoom link in next week’s mailers.

* * *

In-person Worship begins on February 21st at 10:15.  After careful discussion and prayerful deliberation, the COVID-19 team and the Session have recommended that we resume limited in-person weekly worship on the First Sunday of Lent, February 21st at 10:15 a.m.  
 
For those of you who feel safe to attend, please pre-register by calling the church office at 217.356.7238. Registration will run from Monday morning to Thursday noon the week before each service. (We are preregistering not only as a means of contact-tracing, but also to keep attendance at or under fifty [50] people, including worship leaders and ushers. That is the limit prescribed by state public health guidelines.) 
 
Remember, your Session is doing everything it can to keep everyone safe during this season of pandemic. While the end may be in sight with local and statewide numbers trending downward, not everyone is vaccinated yet and Covid-19 is still deadly. Some experts guess our nationwide death toll due to Covid may total over 600,000 by later this Spring.
 
The best way to safeguard against getting Covid is to limit one’s exposure to it and to get vaccinated; while we have prepared as safe a worship environment as possible, and all participants will be required to check in, wear masks at all times, and sit at a distance of six feet from other families, we cannot guarantee that somebody won’t get sick. Those who come to worship come at their own risk.
 
These in-person services will be, essentially, services of welcome, scripture, prayer, and preaching. These brief—40-minutes, or less—services will include no spoken liturgy, no congregational singing, and no choir. The preacher will speak from behind a plexiglass barrier. There will be no indoor fellowship, and no coffee or food service before or after the service.
 
This may not sound like a very welcoming or, even, friendly invitation, does it? You know what I mean. So, make wise decisions for you and your family, stay away if you are high risk or don’t feel well, and know that I look forward to “seeing” some of you online at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday (FirstPres.Live), and others of you face to face at 10:15 a.m. 
 
God is good.
 
* * *
 
Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
True story?   Rudolf was a communist leader in the former Soviet Union. In retirement, he lived in a concrete high rise among other concrete high rises in Russia. Looking out the window of their small apartment one grey, wet day, he noted to his wife that it was raining. 
 
She looked, and said, “No. that’s not rain; it’s sleet.” 
 
He looked more closely, and said, “No, it was definitely rain.”
 
She said, “No, it was sleet.”
 
This went on as they leaned their noses close to the cold window glass.
 
After a long moment, he looked  to his wife, and insisted it was rain. He said sternly, “Rudolf the Red knows rain, dear.”

* * * 
 
Good Word: 
 
Faith, hope, and love abide—these three. The greatest of these is love. (I Corinthians 13).

LET US PRAY (JESUS KNEW THIS SONG.) 
 
The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
 
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
 
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
 
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird 
sings of freedom.
 
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
 
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird 
sings of freedom.
 
* * *
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church


Read more...