FPC *Good News - Co Moderators elected for GA

Sunday, June 26, 2022

Rev. Susan Phillips, Preaching

9:00 Sunday - Online in Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85677718426

One tap mobile +13126266799,,85677718426#

Or Call +1 312 626 6799 and use

Meeting ID: 856 7771 8426

10:45 Sunday - Onsite in the Sanctuary

6:00 Wednesday - Worship in the Garden

5:30 Social Time

6:00 Worship Service

MASKS

For the health and well being of everyone,

we are still masking while in the building.

Reproductive Freedom & Religious Freedom

I am deeply grateful to belong to a faith tradition that has for 50 years supported the right to choose. I am grateful to serve a church that supported women seeking reproductive health care since before Roe.

I am grateful to live in a state that protects our rights to reproductive freedom, including abortion.

~Pastor Susan

SACReD Statement on Dobbs Decision Overturning Roe v. Wade

We at SACReD believe that affordable access to all forms of reproductive healthcare, including abortion, is a moral and social good that enables equality and the well-being of all people. Conversely, state bans on abortion amount to forced gestation and birth and are, therefore, morally barbaric. Such laws, which the Dobbs ruling will now allow to proliferate, violate the most basic human rights to bodily autonomy, reproductive dignity, and moral agency. Further, the bans’ disproportionate burdens on Black people and other people of color call to mind historical atrocities committed against enslaved and other colonized women. SACReD is working to engage in faith-based culture change to empower congregations to become loving, justice-seeking faith communities that fully support the fulfillment of reproductive moral agency and flourishing for all - join us!

Update From Our COVID Response Team

The COVID Response Team met on Monday, June 20 to look at our current county statistics and review and update our church’s policies and practices. Sangamon County continues to be at high risk for the transmission of COVID (https://scdph.org/covid-19/#sangamon-county-data-dashboard). At this level the CDC recommends that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a well-fitting mask while indoors in public spaces.

Considering the CDC recommendations, we will continue to require masks for all individuals participating in services or activities inside the church building. Mask wearing for outside services or activities is optional and up to the individual. Please remember to bring your mask with you to church. We will keep plenty of masks on hand in case you forget.

The Team continuously monitors the most current data on the status of the pandemic. All recommendations are based on that information. Your grace and patience is appreciated as we take the necessary steps to protect ourselves and our neighbors.

Celebration of Life for Edwin Pearson, Saturday, June 25th

Please join us in celebrating the life and faith of Edwin Pearson

Saturday, June 25, 10:30 visitation, 11:30 service

Clayville Historic Site

Pleasant Plains, IL

A New Opportunity to Explore our Q+ Faith Journeys, Saturday June 25th

We are all on our own journeys of self discovery and self expression. It is a joy that our paths have intersected!

One ancient spiritual practice that highlights such journeys is the use of labyrinths for walking meditations. Labyrinths are not mazes. You cannot get stuck or lost. There are no dead ends. There is simply your path to the center and back out. Later this month, you are invited to come walk, meditate, pray, and wonder as we wander the labyrinth at Lincoln Park, 2040 N. 5th Street at 10:00 AM, Saturday, June 25th.

While labyrinths are ancient and appear on six continents, they have returned to churches in the US in the past forty years. Some are in sanctuaries, some outside, some are portable, some very temporary. I mowed my first labyrinth into the prairie grasses at my Wisconsin home fifteen years ago. I've been walking these prayer paths for about 25 years.

Bring your questions, curiosity, and contemplation. The journey is what you make it! This is one way we celebrate Pride!

~Pastor Susan

Celebration of Life for Chris Sutton, Sunday, June 26th

Please join Chris' family including Kathy Bacon and Steve Wright as they celebrate Kathy's brother's life.

Sunday, June 26, 2:00

First Presbyterian Church

321 South 7th, Springfield, IL

Can You Help With Shelter Meals Tuesday?

Our church continues to serve evening meals at two shelters for people experiencing homelessness. We will be serving a meal this Tuesday if you would like to help. Team members donate or prepare menu items and help serve. Please contact Barb Olson, JoAnne Durkee or Chaplain Tim Haworth.

PCUSA 225th General Assembly

https://ga-pcusa.org/

The Alphabet Soup That is General Assembly

I am a “wreck”! Actually, I am a (REC) (Ruling elder commissioner.) That’s one of the first things I learned at General Assembly. And throughout this experience I will be associating with TEC’s, YAAD’s, TSAD’s, MAD’s, and EAD’s. Hundreds of people are participating in the 225^th GA of the PCUSA headquartered in KY. And all these people are being served by staff from OGA and PMA who are working hard to keep things running smoothly.

Thankfully, commissioners and participants are provided with a glossary to help us process all of these acronyms. But from what I have seen so far, each acronym represents a group of folks united in guiding our church forward. I’m very excited to be a part of such a worthy endeavor.

The votes are in …

The 225th General Assembly has selected its co-moderators.

by Jerry Van Marter & Leslie Scanlon

Acting decisively on the first ballot, the 2022 General Assembly on June 18 elected a team of two ministers to serve as its co-moderators – both women of color, thirty years apart in age, both of whom said they felt a strong pull of the spirit to serve in this role. They will moderate this first-ever hybrid gathering of the denomination’s highest council.

Ruth Santana-Grace (left) and Shavon Starling-Louis (right) smile after being elected the co-moderators of the 225th General Assembly.

GA Watch #2

Report from the disparities experienced by black women and girls task force

by Simon Doong and Lee Catoe

Podcast discusses report coming to the 225th General Assembly

LISTEN HERE

Happy PRIDE Month to Everybody!

June is PRIDE Month. It is an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments made toward greater equality and to identify and recognize the challenges ahead.

We believe that everyone is created in God's image and we affirm the goodness of Q+ folx as members, leaders, and staff. We are working towards the full participation of Q+ folx in the life, witness, and ministry of the church.

Happy PRIDE!

We Need Help Keeping the Micropantry Stocked

Stocking our micropantry is a way we love our neighbors.

Click here to sign up for a particular day to stock it

Drop off food and hygiene items ANYTIME you want. You may place them directly in the micropantry cabinet or the basket in the narthex.

Click here for suggested items.

If you have any questions contact Chaplain Tim at [email protected].

Thank you!

Reach Team Update

60 family units have pledged $880,998.05

• 50 pledging units have donated $441,690.60.

• 5 family units donated $6,650

• 11 family units have donated 100% of their pledge

Donations received through today (6.3.2022)

equals $448,340.60.

Click here to view an update from our REACH team.

Lutheran World Relief Thank You

Dear First Presbyterian Church of Springfield Illinois,

Thank you for your generous $3,455.67 emergency gift to help the people of Ukraine, who are enduring unimaginable hardship and suffering. Please continue to lift them up in your prayers.

Your gift is being put to use immediately to deliver emergency food, shelter, Personal Care Kits, Baby Care Kits, medicines and other critically needed items for children and their families who are trying to survive the horrifying fighting. . .or are being forced to flee their homeland with a few meager belongings.

Your willingness to share your blessings during a global crisis like this is a godsend to your neighbors in Ukraine who are hurting. They can feel your love and are deeply grateful to know you are keeping them in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you again, and God bless you!

Warm Regards,

Ambassador Daniel V. Speckhard (ret.)

President and CEO

'Glory to God'

Presbyterian Publishing Corporation to donate royalties from hymnal sales to reparative justice causes

by Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

‘These are trying times, but we come from people who have survived trying times’

The Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly will be prayerfully supporting the work of discernment required during GA225

by Mike Ferguson

PCUSA Matthew 25 Learning Opportunity July 28

Throughout the pandemic, the coordinator of Vital Congregations in the Presbyterian Mission Agency has been meeting with leaders of the Urban Presbyteries Network (UPN) who have a large footprint in metropolitan areas around the country. Their conversations have centered on the three foci of the Matthew 25 initiative, on how to build congregational vitality by working to dismantle structural racism and eradicate systemic poverty in their communities.

The Presbyterian Mission Agency and Urban Presbyteries Network are putting together a hybrid learning opportunity on July 28. We are hoping to register as a group for this conference to learn how other Presbyterian churches are addressing urban ministry including homelessness.

Please contact Chaplain Tim if you are interested in registering so we can get the group rate.

Join Us For Wednesday Worship in the Garden!

Join us in our beautiful garden for Wednesday worship. We gather at 5:30 pm to visit and services begin at 6:00 pm. Pastor Susan and Chaplain Tim lead the services while Emily Wheeler provides music.

Looking to Volunteer?

If you are looking for a way to be more involved in the church, join a committee. Here is a description of each committee. If one speaks to you email [email protected] and she will put you in touch with the committee chair. READ MORE

Reaching our Staff by Phone

We have new phone and internet systems at work.

Please call 217.528.4311 to reach our staff and use these extensions.

Pastor Susan Phillips ext. 1020

Chaplain Tim Haworth ext. 1030

Administrative Assistant, Michelle Hastings ext. 1010

Bookkeeper, Tara Kaeding ext. 1050

Facilities Manager, Tom Melton ext. 1040

Kids Activity Page

Click on this link for a fun activity page. Check back each week for a new activity page.

Share your work with us! We would love to see and display your creativity and talent. Send us your colored pictures (scan, email, regular mail) and we will share them on Sunday mornings and maybe also on our Facebook page.

Facebook

Just a reminder that another way to be kept up to date on the happenings of the church is to check out our Facebook page.

Juliana E.

Shirley F.

Zoey T.

Amber M.

Bailey D.

Amara K.

Susan E.

David H.

All events are via Zoom unless otherwise specified.

June

Sanctuary Tours 11:00 - 2:00

Wednesday Worship 6:00 in the Garden

Sanctuary Tours 11:00 - 2:00

July 3

Pastor Susan to lead worship in zoom at 9:00, sanctuary 10:45, Communion

NOTE: Links to all events are attached to items on the church calendar found at https://www.lincolnschurch.org/calendar. If you click on any item in the calendar, the Zoom invitation will open.

You can also find weekly church events on the homepage and on the worship page you can click on the image of a computer or smart phone and it will take you to that Zoom meeting.

If you would like some personal assistance learning Zoom, please consider joining us before worship at 10:00 on Sundays, 5:00 on Wednesdays or email [email protected] for other times.