Nell King Bieger

We have an unusually lively Sunday immediately ahead of us. On November 19, all adult Sunday morning classes will meet together in the Fellowship Hall at 9:45, for a special class led by Nell King Bieger. She will talk to us about stewardship in estate planning and answer questions after her presentation.

Also this Sunday, we will collect our Thanksgiving Offering in both services. You will find envelopes for that purpose in the late worship bulletin and on seats in the Fellowship Hall. If you write a check, please note "Thanksgiving Offering" on the memo line.

At 5:00 p.m., we'll gather in the Fellowship Hall for our annual Chili Cook-Off. Bring your best chili for the taste contest or be prepared to judge. We'll play games outside if weather permits, and we may even line dance. This event is absolutely guaranteed to cure the cold!

Sunday opens the season for ordering poinsettias to decorate our sanctuary in Advent, which begins December 3. Order forms will be available in the church office and in worship for the next two Sundays. To order a plant in memory or in honor of someone, bring or mail your order form and payment to the church office or place it in the offering plate during worship through November 26. Each poinsettia plant costs $15. You can pick yours up after the Christmas Eve service. The deadline for orders is Monday, November 27.

The Worship Committee has uncovered a trove of note cards featuring a picture of our beautiful rose window! We are offering them to the congregation for a suggested donation of $5 for a pack of 10 with envelopes. The 5 x 7 cards are printed on good stock and blank on the inside. They would be great to have on hand when you want to send a greeting or prayer to someone you've been thinking of. A pack would also make a nice gift. You will find the cards outside both worship spaces. 

FPC member Geneva King, along with the provisional class of the Junior League of Bristol, is collecting donations through the end of November for local victims of domestic violence served by Abuse Alternatives and the Children's Advocacy Center. They need basic toiletry items for women and craft supplies for children; please see the lists below. A labeled bin for donations is in the Fellowship Hallway. For more information, email Geneva at [email protected]. Thank you!

 

Care Package Needs
Abuse Alternatives	Children's Advocacy Center
Shampoo	Popsicle sticks
Conditioner	Googly eyes
Body wash	Gems
Toothpaste	Yarn
Detergent (small bottles)	Beads
	Pipe cleaners

 

Sunday's music participants: Sanctuary Choir.

Sunday's music: Our anthem, "O God, Beyond All Praising," was composed by the American Dan Forrest (b. 1978) who for many years was on the music faculty at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC. He has been described as having "an undoubted gift

	Dan Forrest

for writing beautiful music ... that is truly magical" ( NY Concert Review). Dan's choral works have received numerous awards and distinctions, among them the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer's Award, the ACDA Raymond Brock Award, a Meet The Composer grant, and the ALCM Raabe Prize. His music has been broadcast multiple times on American Public Media's "Performance Today." His Requiem for the Living has quickly become his best-known work, having received overwhelming acclaim since its 2013 premiere, and continues to be performed in North America and around the world. His new major work, Jubilate Deo (2016), is now receiving similar critical acclaim. Dan is highly active in the music publishing industry, both in concert choral music (maintaining a choral series in his name with Hinshaw Music) and in church choral music (serving as associate editor at Beckenhorst Press), and has published with more than a dozen publishers. Dan holds a doctoral degree in composition from the University of Kansas and a master's degree in piano performance. His academic background includes several years as a professor and department head (music theory and composition) in higher education. The familiar tune for today's anthem is THAXTED, an English hymn tune composed by Gustav Holst.

Organist's footnotes: All three pieces of organ music are reflections on today's hymns. The tune of "Lord Jesus, Think on Me," SOUTHWELL, was composed by William Daman and first appeared in print in The Psalmes of David in English Metre (1579). Daman (c. 1540-1591) left Italy for England in 1566 and worked in the service of Sir Thomas Sackville. In 1576 he became a recorder player at the Court of Elizabeth I. Our prelude is Variations on "Southwell", composed by well-known organist and composer Alfred V. Fedak, the Minister of Music and Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Capitol Hill in Albany, New York.

Sir George Job Elvey (1816-1893) composed ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR as a setting for James Montgomery's text "Hark! The Song of Jubilee," with which it was published in Edward H. Thorne's Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1858). The tune has been associated with Alford's text ("Come, Ye Thankful People, Come") since publication of the hymn in the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR is named after the chapel in Windsor, England, where Elvey was organist for 47 years. I found Flor Peeters' short setting of this tune (1960), and was struck by how similar it is to my own setting (2016). For the offertory, I've decided to play both settings seamlessly back to back. Can you guess which is mine?

The tune and text of NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT ("Now Thank We All Our God") have been firmly glued together ever since they were published together by Johann Crüger in his Praxis Pietatis Melica (1647). The tune was used by Johann Sebastian Bach in his cantatas 79 and 192, and by Felix Mendelssohn in the "Lobgesang" movement of his Symphony No.2 (1840). Homer Whitford (1892-1980) dedicated his 1941 toccata-like setting (our postlude) to E. Power Biggs.

Sunday, November 19

8:30 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:45 a.m.       Combined Adult Sunday School,

                        Fellowship Hall

11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary

3:30 p.m.       Christmas Pageant Rehearsal, Sanctuary

4:00 p.m.       Evangelism & Outreach Committee,

                        Room 117

5:00 p.m.       Chili Cook-Off, Fellowship Hall

6:00 p.m.       Student Fellowship, Youth Wing

Monday, November 20

4:45 p.m.       Strategic Initiatives & Implementation Committee, Room 117

5:30 p.m.       Adult Handbells

Tuesday, November 21

9:00 a.m.       Staff Meeting, Room 117

10:00 a.m.     Morning Prayer Group, Conference Room

7:00 p.m.       Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing

Wednesday, November 22

12:00 p.m.     Church office closes for Thanksgiving holiday

Thursday, November 23

Church office closed for Thanksgiving Day