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Join us for a Fellowship Dinner on Wednesday, April 8 at 5:30 pm in the J Murphy Smith Center! Come enjoy a delicious meal and time together as a church family.
The menu will include fried chicken, green beans, macaroni & cheese, red slaw, deviled eggs, baked apples, yeast rolls, and desserts.
We hope to see you there!
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Join us for Spring Ring on Sunday, April 19, as we celebrate the season with music and fellowship!
The afternoon begins at 4:00 pm with performances by our Children’s Choir and Preschool Choir. After a brief intermission at 4:20 pm, enjoy cookies and lemonade in the courtyard. We’ll then gather again at 4:30 pm for music from the FPC Sanctuary Bell Choir.
We hope you’ll come enjoy this joyful afternoon of music together!
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APRIL 21
Lunch Wagon Trip - NC Legislature Building
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Join us on April 21 for a special day trip to Raleigh as we visit the North Carolina Legislature Building!
We’re grateful to have Steve Tyson arranging a guided tour for our group while the legislature is in session—an exciting opportunity to see our state government in action.
We’ll depart from the front parking lot at 8:00 am and plan to return around 6:00 pm. Along the way, we’ll enjoy lunch together nearby, and if time allows, we may also visit a museum or even stop by the Governor’s Mansion.
To reserve your spot, please sign up on Sign-Up Genius or call the church office. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to Rodger Wilcox.
We hope you’ll come along for a meaningful and enjoyable day together!
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APRIL 21
Presbyterian Women - Spring Cleanup
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Calling all Presbyterian Women! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, April 21, when we will hold a Spring Cleanup in the Session House and kitchen from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm. Cleaning materials will be provided but you may want to bring personal items such as cleaning gloves. In addition to deep cleaning, we will also be doing an inventory of kitchen items.
You may sign up for morning, afternoon, or all day via Sign-up Genius, or just let your Circle leader know your plans. If you plan to stay all day, bring a sandwich with you. There will be some snacks and beverages available during the day.
With many hands working together, we hope to leave the Session House in spic and span condition after just one day’s efforts.
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APRIL 26
Rothermel Foundation Lecture
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Understanding Moral Injury in Community Life
Join the Rothermel Foundation on Sunday April 26th, as The Rev. Dr. Nancy J. Ramsey discusses "Moral Injury: A Rupture in the Moral Foundations of Human Relationships”.
Moral injury names an age-old reality: life in community depends on shared moral expectations, yet we sometimes fall short. The term, popularized after the Vietnam War, applies widely across human relationships. Agential moral injury occurs when our own actions violate moral obligations, while receptive moral injury arises when someone we trust breaks that trust—such as through betrayal or shifting expectations without consultation.
In professional and institutional settings, moral injury often emerges during difficult decisions, such as budget cuts, staff reductions, or structural changes that disrupt expectations and relationships. These moments reveal how deeply our communities rely on mutual commitments to fairness, trust, and shared well-being—and how painful it can be when those commitments are strained or broken.
Please join us on Sunday April 26th at 2:00 pm at 400 New St in New Bern to learn more from The Rev. Dr. Nancy J. Ramsey.
Rothermel Foundation presentations are free to the public and last approximately one hour followed by a short question-and-answer session with the presenter.
For more information please visit RothermelFoundation.org
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MAY 15
Lunch Wagon Trip - Somerset Place
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You’re invited to join us for a day trip to Somerset Place on Friday, May 15! Come enjoy a 90-minute guided tour of this beautiful 19th-century North Carolina plantation.
This outing is a wonderful opportunity for fellowship and learning together. Please note that the tour includes walking and stairs as we explore the plantation’s outbuildings. The tour fee is $5.00 and will be collected when you board the bus.
Creswell is about a two-hour drive from New Bern, and we’ll make rest stops along the way for your comfort. The bus will depart from the front parking lot at 8:30 am and return around 4:30 pm.
We’d love for you to join us! To sign up, call the church office or use the SignUp Genius.
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MAY 24 - SEPTEMBER 6
Moving to One Church Service
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CATHERINE CAMPBELL
Children, Youth, and Family
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Good News Bears T-Ball
Wednesdays starting April 1
Take me out to the ball game! Join Good News Bears T-Ball at Fort Totten Park at 6:00 pm on April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, and May 6, 13, 20.
Bring a chair since bleacher seating is limited. Snacks will be provided for players each week and there are snow cones for everyone! Bring your own refreshments or have a picnic dinner if you like.
Fun, friends, cheering, and playground time guaranteed.
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Children’s Sabbath
Sunday, May 3
At 11:00 am worship, our kids will sing, lead as liturgists, and we will bless our Preschool staff.
K-5 students who want to read during the service should email Pastor Catherine by April 15.
Stick around after worship for a BBQ chicken fellowship meal, plus bounce houses, snow cones, and family fun for everyone.
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Vacation Bible School
June 8–12
Get ready for a fun-filled week of Bible stories, games, crafts, service, and tasty snacks. Vacation Bible School runs from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and welcomes current Grades K-5 to register as participants and Grades 6-12 to register as volunteers. Families with Nursery or PreK kids should contact Catherine directly to register.
VBS would not be possible without adult volunteers. If you want to help lead, craft, or serve snacks, please let Catherine know. Volunteers are invited to a meeting at 8:40 am on May 31.
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WENDY MOELLER
William Lee Hawkins Library
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| |  | I love a good list! In my head, taking up real estate for literally years, I’ve been juggling all sorts of quirky lists. One of them is a list of foods for which I can remember the very first time that I ever tasted them. With my formative years having been in the casserole heavy climes of the midwest, it might not surprise you that the list includes fried shrimp, avocados, grits, capers, oysters, caviar, pho soup, along with German chocolate cake (I was a Scandinavian Baptist, not a German Lutheran!). Another of the lists are new words and when I first discovered what they meant. As an example, I remember with clarity the day I first discovered the meaning of SERENDIPITY. It was fourth grade, Franklin Elementary School in San Diego. Our class of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders was tasked with starting a school newspaper. No one could decide on a name for the paper until Mrs. Came suggested SERENDIPITY and explained to us what it meant. And so the theme for the library article in this month’s newsletter is SERENDIPITY. Here are some synonyms or near-synonyms (another slightly more technical term I just learned in January —wink-wink to my JESUS - A PILGRIMAGE [232 MAR] Faith Formation class!) - coincidence, answered prayer, providence, fate, God-wink, but not “good luck”, as one of our previous ministers convinced me from the pulpit one day, as he argued that we Christians should be loath to attribute things to "good luck".
So what offerings are there in the William Lee Hawkins Library addressing any of these concepts as they relate to our faith? May I offer up….
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—WHEN GOD WINKS by Squire Rushnell [122 RUS], newly donated and one of a series of books on this topic by the same author. Rushnell has a whole series of these God Winks books, brought to my attention by one of my RCS volunteer buddies. He is a former TV producer (Good Morning America) and vice-president at ABC over children’s programming, a later day Mister Rogers, of sort.
—SMALL MIRACLES: EXTRAORDINARY COINCIDENCES FROM EVERYDAY LIFE by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal [133.8 HAL], two women of the Jewish faith with direct ties to the Holocaust and who write frequently on anti-semitism.
—THE INVISIBLE HAND: DO ALL THINGS REALLY WORK FOR GOOD? by R. C. Sproul [231.4 SPR], a famous Presbyterian preacher of the late 20th century.
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—TRUSTING GOD by Jerry Bridges [248 BRI], author also of RESPECTABLE SINS: CONQUERING THE SINS WE TOLERATE [241.3 BRI], which, while not on the topic for the month, I discovered in my search and which has intrigued me enough to be put on my personal reading list for the next months.
—ANGELS ON EARTH - INSPIRING STORIES OF FATE, FRIENDSHIP AND THE POWER OF CONNECTIONS by Laura Schroff [177.7 SCH], an author recommended by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Laura Bush and Malcolm Gladwell, amongst others.
| | These six authors highlighted this month (I am including also Father James Martin who wrote the JESUS - A PILGRIMAGE book which I tangentially referenced), represent about as broad a spectrum as you might imagine. Some of you will be in complete agreement with the God Wink premise. I have heard your stories and I have a couple of my own. Others of you, whose theology (what you think about God) differs, may find the need to pushback a little bit; in my mind that is one of the very reasons why we read widely. Let me suggest for you as you deliberate, this quote from one (may you discover which) of the books, “God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.” And if you need an illustration of what a “God wink” might look like, pull up this recent episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes or ask a few of your First Pres friends for their stories. | | The books will all be on the big library table in the William Lee Hawkins Library on the second floor of the Ministry Center for the month of April. I will be interested in hearing any reactions. | |
STACEY GRIFFITH
Backpack Blessings
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March's Backpack Build was another great outreach opportunity that many in our congregation participated in.
Stan Van Horn and Taylor McClellan who came multiple times, along with so many other faithful members of our team: Wendy Moeller, Gray Wheeler, Cory Hunter, Nancy McAden, Pat Gillis, Kirsten Sonstegard, Gwen Lessard, Beth Paul, Olivia Peterson, Judy Paquin, Dru Wilkins, Carla Brantner, Anne Goldman, Pam Gaskill, and Sheila Orth. Our own Jane Dail is a Board Member and delivery fairy who picks up the allotted bins for our targeted school, and delivers them to the counselor on site. The hospital also produces volunteers as well as financial support. This is a great community effort and each of us is an important piece of it. We are now serving over 1100 kids in our 3 county area...a sadly growing number that has been climbing for some time now.
Also of note, long time co-chair of Backpack Blessings, Ruth Powers, announced her retirement after the conclusion of this school year. Fortunately, her replacement has already been selected and will work with Ruth this summer during our summer program to insure a smooth transition.
As always, all this would not be possible without the generous staff support we receive, along with the monies, prayers, and willing hands and hearts that our membership brings faithfully to this important ministry!
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