Join us on Friday, August 20 from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm where we will gather outside on the grounds of St. Mary Magdala Center (2800 Rolston St) for a drink and to enjoy each other's company. Even though we'll be outside, masks are still recommended. Some of you have traveled with Michael to Taybeh Brewery in Taybeh village, and many more have drunk Taybeh beer and wine during our travels throughout Palestine.

Beers available will be Taybeh Golden and Taybeh Dark, and the wine will be Cabernet Sauvignon. Drinks are paid for at the event. As they say in Taybeh, “Drink the resistance!”

*Special thanks to Gary and Linda Kerr for making the run to Boston to pick up the beer and wine.

The Safety Committee, Deacons' Worship Board, and Executive Council of Plymouth Church have reviewed and approved a Safe Church Policy to be presented to the congregation for final approval at a future congregational meeting. To introduce the congregation to this proposed policy, there will be several after-church gatherings to review the proposal and ask any questions you may have. The first workshop will be on Sunday, August 22 at 11:15 am following worship in the Folsom Room.

“With Thanksgiving for the past, with joy in the present and with hope for the future we celebrate this renewal of Plymouth.” Plymouth Church presents the “Rejoice & Renewal Celebration” on Saturday, September 18 at 5:30 pm at the Mizpah Shrine Center Imperial Room located at 1015 Memorial Way, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805.

The evening will include a free catered dinner and music. A registration form can be found at the button below and will ask you to select your dinner choice: homestead chicken (rotisserie grilled half chicken), or vegan friendly pasta primavera (bow tie pasta with broccoli, carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, onions and ripe olives in an herbed olive oil). Please register for each individual person who will be in attendance and their dinner choice. Registration ends at 11:59 pm on September 7.

If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact Monty Millage at [email protected] or (260) 602-7209. If you have trouble completing the registration online or need to make a change to your registration, please contact our Communications Specialist Elizabeth Pruitt at [email protected] or (260) 423-9424.

Register today and help us celebrate our future with respect for the past!

After an extended break, Plymouth’s Book Study, open to anyone who self-identifies as a woman, will be resuming in a refreshed format this fall. We have decided to choose books related to one of our four covenants (Open and Affirming, Just Peace, Global Missions, and Earthwise). It is expected that most books will be discussed in just one session, which will allow persons to choose when a topic is of special interest to them.

We plan to meet on the third Tuesday of each month, and our first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 21, from 12:00 pm to 1:15 pm, when the book will be Flight Behavior, a novel by Barbara Kingsolver.  

We also hope to make plans for future books, so if you are interested in sharing a book – either fiction or non-fiction – we hope that you will be able to come. In any case, if you have a book to recommend but cannot attend, or have any questions, please contact Judith Beineke at [email protected].

The Evangelism & Marketing Board has ordered new Plymouth t-shirts, and will have them available soon! There is no set price. Suggested donations are $5 for children’s sizes and $10 for adult sizes, to help offset the cost, but this as a “pay what you can” situation. Whether you are able to donate at the suggested level or a little more or less, it is important to us that anyone who wants a t-shirt can have one.

Keep an eye out for updates about their arrival – or a table full of t-shirts in the Folsom Room.

Merry Christmas! Wait! It’s only late summer, but orders need to be placed for wreaths now. St. Joe Tree Farm is graciously working with Standish Circle to keep the tradition of selling wreaths for you to order and receive in time for the Christmas holidays. The profits are used to assist the Christmas family that Standish/Knit & Kibitz adopts each year. Unfortunately, swags and roping will not be available this year as the greenery comes from Oregon and Washington where fires and extreme heat have really damaged, if not wiped out, the crops. The pickup will be at Plymouth and handled in a noncontact manner. We plan to do the wreath pick up on Sunday, November 21 at the porte-cochere.

Orders and payment must be received before Sunday, September 12. To complete an order form, either click the button below to print off the form and return it to the Plymouth office or pick up an order form at the front office on Sunday mornings, starting today, August 15. Checks should be made payable to Plymouth Church and include a notation stating "Standish Wreaths" on the memo line.

Last year, Plymouth hosted Study Connection via zoom for six children who attended Fairfield Elementary school. We plan to offer the Study Connection again beginning early to mid October in person in the Folsom Room, COVID permitting.

An orientation for new tutors is provided by Study Connection. In September there will be an organizational meeting for new and returning Plymouth tutors and subs. If interested, please apply ASAP so we can have the tutors in place and assigned when the Study Connection begins in early to mid October. Everyone is welcome to be a special friend to an elementary age child. Providing support and encouragement is the main task for each tutor and sub. Being a tutor is a great way to make a difference in a child’s life.

To apply, click the button below and complete the Volunteer Information Form. All volunteers must have a background check which is done by the FWCS and two references. If you would like to be a tutor or a substitute or have any questions about volunteering, please let Lucy Hess know by contacting her at [email protected] or 484-4430.

Due to numerous requests, Plymouth has decided to open our sanctuary on Thursdays from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm for a time of personal prayer. Please enter through the Berry Street Office entrance and check in with our receptionist. Contact our receptionist Jake Slone at (260) 423-9424 or [email protected] with any questions.

Plymouth Church has joined Instagram! If you would like to follow our Instagram to see what's happening at Plymouth each week and more, give us a follow @plymouthchurchfortwayne. If you post any pictures at Plymouth or at a Plymouth event, or have any previous posts at Plymouth, please tag us! The link to our Instagram can be found at the bottom of this bulletin and on our website.

Now that we are back in our sanctuary for worship, we again offer the opportunity to sign up for a Sunday to sponsor the chancel flowers. Members have used this opportunity to remember family and friends, celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, graduations or other events. After the service, members volunteer to divide up the flowers to take to those who are not able to attend church services. Your donation of the flowers serves two purposes: to beautify the sanctuary and bring joy to members who cannot be in church. If you wish to take some of your donated flowers home, go to the kitchen after the service to claim your bunch.

Those who want to sign up can do so by filling out the form, linked here, or they can call/email the office. Payment can be made through the donation link on our website (included in the form) or they can mail cash/a check to the office. Donations for the selected Sunday(s) must be to the office by the prior Tuesday. The cost for one bouquet is $50. If two members sign up for the same Sunday, we will have two bouquets that week.

Contact the church office at (260) 423-9424 or [email protected] with any questions.

Evangelism & Marketing wants to extend a huge thanks to all who have donated so far to our RIP Medical Debt campaign. Not only have our friends at Peace and FCUCC Angola officially joined the campaign, they’ve both now had their official in-service kickoff for their participation. With their help, we’re at 76% of our goal! When we work together, incredible things can happen.

Remember, any donation is a great donation; $1 forgives $100, $5 forgives $500 – you can do so much good with so little. In the expectation that the blessing of our abundance can do good work in the world by liberating those shackled with unpayable debts, we invite you to consider a contribution.

The fundraising campaign will run through September 26, and our fundraising goal is $20,000 – or $2,000,000 in medical debt relief – but if we end up raising more than that our joy will increase with our giving. Please feel free to share the link with your friends and family – the more the merrier! Click the button below to visit our fundraising campaign page. There is also a link on our “Contribute” page at plymouthfw.org. Scroll down and click on “Campaign." Information can also be found on Facebook. Thank you!

The Safety Committee, a sub committee of the Deacons Board, needs a CPR/Defibrillator instructor that has access to the necessary training equipment to provide recertification training for those employees, safety committee members and volunteers who took the course two years ago. We hope to find someone in the congregation with that ability. This event would be available for our new employees as well as any new volunteers. Anyone interested should contact Tom Braun at (260) 403-0384 or [email protected].

The sanctuary will soon receive a much-needed upgrade to its audio and video equipment, allowing for a wonderful expansion of Plymouth’s digital ministry. We need some folks to learn to operate the new equipment and to assist with recording the worship services. Ideally, there will be several willing volunteers, so the duty remains light. John Escosa has been faithfully serving in this capacity for quite some time, and it will be good to expand the team!

Advanced tech skills are not required. Possessing these traits will be useful:

Anyone interested in joining or learning more about the specifics of the technology team is encouraged to attend the equipment training session which will be conducted once the equipment installation is complete. Please email either John Escosa at [email protected] or Cammy Sutter at [email protected] to be notified when the training will occur.

If you have a need to visit the office, we’d love to see you! Our office is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Appointments are no longer necessary to visit the office during these days. On Fridays, our office will be open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm by appointment only. Contact the office at (260) 423-9424 or [email protected] with any questions.

The state of Indiana has opened COVID-19 vaccination eligibility to anyone 12 and older. You can click the button below to schedule an appointment. If you have difficulty registering online, you can dial 211 from any phone for assistance.