Volume II | February 2021

Session in Session

January’s Session Notes

Treasurer Steve Hansen found the 2020 books in order. The pledged and unpledged giving exceeded the budgeted amount and we did not have to transfer the allotted money from the Foundation to the General Fund.

Pastor Mark is working on a Lenten study and preparing for the Annual Meeting. He is streamlining the various evotionals and devotionals we have been getting through email. He will have some vetted materials available on our website or through subscription for us to study.

The Personnel Committee, Armin Clobes, Dave Titus and Jessica Smith, updated, reformatted, and expanded staff job descriptions this fall, which were approved by Session in December. It was clarified that all staff reports to the pastor directly, except the financial secretary who reports to both pastor and the treasurer. The pastor job description will be updated and revised after we have our next called pastor.

Chris Hansen presented the proposed equipment order for our AV upgrade which will allow live and recorded feed to be viewed simultaneously in the sanctuary and at home. The price is about $6500, with some additional discounts possible; this is under the $7000 preauthorized by Session!

The shingles we chose for the new roof were unavailable, as they were not being manufactured during COVID. We chose the next best and they have been ordered. As soon as the weather permits the roof project will begin.

Our insurance runs through November 2021. We will review our coverage this year.

The budget is ready, however, there remains numerous unpledged members that we would like to know what their intentions are before we finalize the budget.

A Back to Church team was created to determine when we go back into the sanctuary, what protocols and procedures we will follow, sanitization needed and publicity. The stay at home option will continue with recorded services. Easter Sunday is the hoped for return to the sanctuary.

Linda Schubert was elected chair of the Nominating Committee. Clerk of Session Deb Yale and Treasurer Steve Hansen were reelected.

Submitted by Deb Yale, Clerk of Session  



On February, 17th— Ash Wednesday, 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. and again from 5:00 to 5:30 p.m., Pastor Mark will be standing outside First Presbyterian Church of Racine offering ashes for those who work or travel through downtown.

Enter the parking lot from Park Avenue, pull up by the double doors for your ashes & a prayer from Pastor Mark and exit onto College Avenue. It's that easy!

The idea for "Ashes to Go" was developed by the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. Clergy stood outside their churches and at train stations and offered the imposition of ashes to commuters.

As they say on their website, https://ashestogo.org, “Those who had no time to attend services or had forgotten about the tradition were delighted to receive ashes with a prayer as they began their day. Many responded with tears or smiles of gratitude that the church would come to them.”

We know we cannot always choose the challenges that come. But as Christians, we also know that we can choose to meet the challenges with faith, hope, courage, and imagination. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us, to say the least. We have met and continue to meet this challenge, and, in the process, we discover new ways of being the church.

One of the ways we are doing things a bit differently is with our devotions. Before COVID we had the weekly evotional and the monthly newsletter which included thoughtful and encouraging words from the pastors. When confronted with COVID enforced isolation, we made poems available every day to lift our spirits. During Advent and Christmas, we offered daily devotions on our church website and emailed directly to you.

Now we are prepared to offer something different for our daily devotions. We are offering links to the following sites that offer excellent devotional materials. Links to these devotional sites will be posted on our church website. You may also choose one or more sites and start your own subscription.

d365.org/devotions This site offer a guided reflection on a reading for each day inviting participants to go deeply into the daily reading with reflection, prayer, and the challenge to act on what one has learned.

Pilotingfaith.org This is the almost daily blog by Cameron Trimble, the author of “Piloting Faith” and co-founder of Convergence, which is the consulting group we worked in 2019 to identify our vision, mission, and our four initiatives (mission, music and art, building community, and Christian formation).

Presbyterian Outlook Lenten Series. We have subscribed to this series which gives us permission to email the daily devotions to members of our congregation. As this is for member subscribers only, we cannot post the daily devotions of the Lenten Series on our church website. To receive the daily readings of this series via email, please contact the church office.

And last, the Deacons are exploring the idea of making quarterly devotional booklets available, E.g. Daily Bread or The Upper Room. If you would like to receive a subscription to a devotional booklet, please call the church office. The Deacons need to know how many would be interested as the subscription prices vary depending on the number ordered.

As we face the COVID challenge together, we hope the devotional materials: our evotionals, Pastor’s letter in our newsletter, the Presbyterian Outlook Lenten Series, d365, Piloting Faith blog, and the devotional booklets, will give you the encouragement to face this challenge with faith, hope, and courage.



The first revived book club meeting via Zoom came together on January 8 via Zoom with a nice attendance. The group presented mixed reviews of our chosen book for January. We plan to gather again on February 12, 2021 at 3:00 PM to express our feelings about a book called “Holes.” Again we are going to be virtual using Zoom. If interested in joining our discussion, please let me know. Or you can click here and save the Zoom link for use on the 12th!

The author is Louis Sachar and here is what Kindle has to say about it:

"Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.”

Other books that have been suggested for our reading development:

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes:

The Kindle synopsis is too long to repeat here, but it ends with "Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic--a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond."

How to be an Indian in the 21st Century by Lewis V. Clark, II:

"In deceptively simple prose and verse, Louis V. "Two Shoes" Clark III shares his life story, from childhood on the Rez, through school and into the working world, and ultimately as an elder, grandfather, and published poet. How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century explores Clark’s deeply personal and profound take on a wide range of subjects, from schoolyard bullying to workplace racism to falling in love. Warm, plainspoken, and wryly funny, Clark’s is a unique voice talking frankly about a culture’s struggle to maintain its heritage. His poetic storytelling style matches the rhythm of the life he recounts, what he calls "the heartbeat of my nation.” Kindle Review

Promised Land by Barack Obama:

“Barack Obama is as fine a writer as they come. . . . [A Promised Land] is nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence, the prose gorgeous in places, the detail granular and vivid. . . . The story will continue in the second volume, but Barack Obama has already illuminated a pivotal moment in American history, and how America changed while also remaining unchanged.”—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The New York Times Book Review

Linda Schubert, on behalf of the First Pres Book Club

Our church is expecting several grocery deliveries over the next few weeks and YOUR HELP is needed!

If you are available on any (or all) of the following dates, to help unload the deliveries, please be at the church ten minutes before the scheduled time:

• Friday, February 19th - 1:00 p.m.
• Friday, February 26th - 1:00 p.m.

To download and print

the February calendar

in color click here.

To download and print

the February calendar

in black & white click here.

716 College Avenue

Room 202

Racine, WI 53403

(262) 635-0261

director@RacineArtsCouncil.org

It is no fun being stuck inside in the winter and especially not be able to spend time with friends and family around the fireplace during these pandemic days. The Racine Arts Council’s mission is to bring art to the people, and people to the arts and we have some great ways to do that in this winter! Quilts on Barns continues to be an exciting program of the Racine Arts Council. A winter tour of the quilt barns will give you new perspectives of Racine County. On your way to beautiful barns, the farm fields might be frozen, cold and covered with snow, but the Horned Larks gather across the fields gathering their tidbits of food. Go discover the beauty of rural art in the town of Norway and see Jean Jacobson’s Tulip Basket quilt barn as her landscape provides for a picturesque scene up on the hill. Enjoy the drive along Lake Michigan on your way to the Windpoint Lighthouse where you will see the Mariners Compass on a barn near The Prairie School entrance. Spend time in Caledonia visiting eight different quilt barns, hiking the Caledonia Conservancy trails and taking time to visit a local coffee shop for a hot chocolate to finish your day!

The DeKoven Center on the shores of Lake Michigan is one of our historic treasures in the downtown area of Racine. As part of our ArtStart program, the Racine Arts Council is collaborating with organizations to provide a beautiful outdoor walking art gallery on their tree-filled grounds. The Pillars Assisted Living residents painted butterfly signboards for the first installation between the Chapel and pool area. Spectrum School of the Arts is working on a second installation of signboards, painted from “things they have seen” on the DeKoven property, to be hung on trees in the front area of the grounds. Come and take a stroll through these beautiful grounds, yes, even on a winter’s day!