Starting Sunday, January 19, there will be a four-week chapel class series on the parables of Jesus. Rev. Garrett Pogue will lead the session on January 19, on the parable of the Prodigal Son. Rev. Sara will lead the session on January 26, on the parable of the Good Samaritan. February 2 will be the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus with Rev. Garrett Pogue, and February 9 will be on the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard with Rev. Sara Ofner-Seals.

Chapel class begins at 9am every Sunday and is open to all adults in person or on zoom. The password for zoom access is 461025.

Each year, Plymouth participates in a service of music and quotes remembering the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work and legacy. The service this year will take place at Pilgrim Baptist Church on Sunday, January 19 at 4:00 pm. Several other congregations and clergy from the community will be in attendance and participating in the program. Plymouth members are strongly encouraged to attend. Pilgrim Baptist Church is located at 1331 Gay St. in Fort Wayne. Those wishing to carpool can meet up at Plymouth’s parking lot, with a plan for departure by 3:30 pm. We hope to see you there!

In this book we follow Chemist Elizabeth Zott, who is by no means an average woman of the 1950s. Her male counterparts at the Research Institute take a rather unscientific view of equality. And so unfolds her humorous and unconventional story. Plymouth's Women's Book Study members invite you to join them to discuss Elizabeth and her struggles on Tuesday, January 21st. We meet at noon in the Amistad Room. WBS welcomes anyone who self-identifies as a woman. The February book will be Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult, and March's, Red Dust by Gillian Slovo.

To commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Day, the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace is hosting the Honorable Rev. Wendell Griffin for a program entitled Palestine and the Black Church, on Thursday, January 23 at 6:00pm at Plymouth Church.

Wendell Griffen is a retired judge; Baptist pastor; Co-Chair of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, a national network of African-American religious leaders working for social justice. In 1984, he became the first lawyer of color admitted to partnership of a major Arkansas law firm. In 1985, Gov. Bill Clinton appointed him to Chair the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission; in 1995, appointed to the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Wendell and the Proctor Conference have been very strong in their support of full Palestinian civil, political, and human rights.

This program is free and open to the public, and will be livestreamed and recorded on the ICMEP YouTube Channel at the link below.

Our Annual Business Meeting will be Sunday, January 26 after worship. This congregational meeting is where we will vote on the 2025 annual budget, approve the October meeting minutes and Annual Report, and hear some updates and brief presentations. All members are eligible to vote and are encouraged to attend. Non-member participants are invited to attend as well but are not able to vote. A lunch will be provided by the Youth Group after worship and we will have the meeting in the Folsom Room.

It’s cloudy and it’s cold, and the Congregational Life Board knows you’ve been hankering to play some Euchre. The Board is hosting the 3rd Annual Plymouth Euchre Tournament in the Folsom Room on Saturday, Feb 1st from 2 - 4:30 pm. This is a round robin tournament which means you will play with a different partner every game. The winning player will earn the coveted Plymouth Euchre Champ title for 2025.

We will have water, coffee and snacks to enjoy while playing. Since this a tournament, it is not a good time to learn Euchre. Come anyway and you can meet many Euchre players at Plymouth who would love to show you how to play at another time. We will also have a variety of games for people and youth who do not know how to play Euchre. It’s a great way to meet fellow Plymouth people. Sign-up sheet will be in the Folsom Room.

The Southern California Nevada Conference of the UCC has put out an appeal for assistance for the eventual recovery efforts from the ongoing wildfires in the Los Angeles region. Your gifts will support immediate needs and long-term recovery efforts as they work with local communities to ensure an equitable approach to their long-term recovery. You can click the button below to give directly to them online.

Our nursery needs more adult volunteers! You can volunteer once a month, or even every two months, to assist our child care director, Michelle Grim, on Sunday mornings. All volunteers who work with children must have been attending Plymouth for at least six months and will require a background check. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Rev. Sara Ofner-Seals at smo@plymouthfw.org.

Plymouth is currently working on a potential partnership with InAsMuch ministries to provide showers to unhoused members of our community. We are currently looking for volunteers to assist in this effort. Volunteers will be needed on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, from 9am-12pm. Shifts could be once a week, or once a month, depending on your availability. If you would like to learn more, or sign up to volunteer, please contact Rev. Sara Ofner-Seals at smo@plymouthfw.org.

Happy New Year from the Plymouth Office Staff. With the new already upon us we are working on some housekeeping items. For this week, Tony Ray, our office manager, is working on cleaning up our key log. If you have keys to the building, please reach out to him via email at tdr@plymouthfw.org and let him know the numbers on each of your keys. This will allow for an update to properly keep track of all church keys. Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

The Plymouth Reproductive Rights Action team is sponsoring a teacher training for OWL - Our Whole Lives - a faith based, comprehensive sex education program. The training will be held March 7-9.

There is a cost for the training, however, scholarships are available for Plymouth members to cover the cost in part or in full.

For more information, or to register for the training, email plymouthreprorights@gmail.com.

While the city opted not to use Plymouth as an overflow shelter space for families this winter, we can still help with the emergency shelter efforts. The city is in need of supplies for the family overflow shelter -- you can use the Amazon wish list below to donate!