Second Presbyterian Church
May 1, 2020
Even though the Knoxville government has given the okay for congregations to worship in person, we are still worshiping online only. The Covid-19 Task Force has been meeting and will make a recommendation to the Session next week. The Session continues to meet weekly to discuss matters related to Covid-19. There are a number of guidelines to worshiping during Phase 1 (such as no singing!) and both the Task Force and the Session will consider these thoroughly. We are committed to being data driven, not date driven, as we make decisions about reopening and want to do the very best thing for the safety of everyone in the congregation.

It may still be a while before we worship together in person, and even when we do things may look quite different by necessity. When the decision is made to return, it will be communicated clearly by every means possible with plenty of advance notice. In the meantime, regardless of what it says on the news or what other congregations are doing, we will be meeting online only until further notice.
This Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, meaning it is communion Sunday. We will celebrate communion virtually, the way we did on Maundy Thursday. Have some bread or crackers and some juice or wine on hand for Sunday morning. If you don’t have those things, whatever you have available as a substitute is fine. If you would like someone to bring elements to you, please email  [email protected]  and let Sarah know. We look forward to gathering with you (virtually) around the Lord’s Table on Sunday moning.
While we are not able to worship together in person, we will be worshiping together virtually! Join us on Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. for worship by clicking the tab above, or clicking on the "Sunday Live stream" button on the home page of our website,  www.2ndpres.org .

Also - if you click the blue button above you will be able to download the worship order so you can follow along at home!
Following the Assurance of God's Love, we will pass the peace by texting one another. Choose a fellow church member, family member, friend, relative, or loved one, have their number ready to go, and send them a text that says, “May the peace of Christ be with you!"
If you would like to have a copy of the next edition of The Upper Room Devotional, please contact Sandra Butler (by phone: 865-584-4397 or by email: [email protected]) to make arrangements so that you can get yours! 
Hello, church friends. I am Liz Peebles your traveling book lady during this social distancing period. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being at home. I am offering to fill book/media wants and deliver them to your homes (porch) and pick them back up when you are finished. I can social distance in my car. I will be wiping the books and media down with alcohol before you receive them and after I retrieve them. 
 
Here is a taste of what our church library has to offer. In the DVD category I suggest the original PBS Anne of Green Gables, Faith Like Potatoes (a story of love and hope), I Can Only Imagine, Chariots of Fire, God’s Not Dead, Woodlawn The True Story, The Hiding Place (the story of a family that fought the Nazi madness with the only weapon they had – love), Heaven is for Real, Where the Red Fern Grows I & II, Fireproof, the PBS production of Our Town, featuring Paul Newman, Won’t You be my Neighbor, Grandma Gatewood’s Walk, Christy, Luther starring Joseph Fiennes, Gospels of Matthew and John enacted using the exact words from our Bible, also Acts Parts 1&2 also enacted using the exact words of the Bible. I also have several Veggie Tales.
 
Some books of light interest: The Maise Dobbs mysteries (9 books), Out to Pasture but Not Over the Hill by Effie Wilder, The Cherry Holler trilogy by Adrianna Trigiani (features Knoxville), Snapshot by Lis Wiehl based on real events and a photo taken by Lis’ own G-man father, Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler, books by Patricia Sprinkle (highly recommended), Alexander McCall Smith’s series centering around a dog (Corduroy) and other fun characters.
 
On a more serious note are The Collaborator of Bethlehem by former Middle East bureau chief Matt Rees and The Trial by Robert Whitlow. Becoming Mrs. Lewis is a novel about the wife of C. S. Lewis. There is a fun read about the Von Trapp family and also a devotional by Maria Von Trapp.
 
If you have any other requests, I will try to fill it. The library has a wonderful selection of children’s books. Just let me know a special interest.
 
Remember, I will keep these books clean. Please contact Liz directly at 865-247-4503 or 865-660-9597.
Join Dick Dodson this week for the Faith, Science, and the Future class by phone conference on Sunday morning! 

Physically Distant Astronauts Return from Space to New Reality of Social Distancing.

Sunday’s lesson reflects on the experience of three astronauts who returned to Earth recently from the International Space Station, where they had been in relative isolation for months. After touching down in Kazakhstan, they found a dramatically changed reality in which millions of people across the globe are socially distancing, if not in quarantine. When our reality changes drastically, as the astronauts found the world had been transformed with the onset of the pandemic, we may contemplate what, if anything, we can rely upon. We recall the words of the hymn, "On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand." 
 
THIS INVITATION IS OPEN TO ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE! 

Instructions to access the class are below:   
 
Start time:  9:30 a.m.
 
Phone number to call:  712-775-8972 . Callers are asked to enter a conference code – it is  179021 .
 
Please be advised that this is a long distance call , for any who might be using a home phone with long distance charges. 
We are still updating our blog multiple times a week during our hiatus from in-person activities. It may be a devotion, an interesting story, something uplifting, something silly, or anything else that we think might be helpful. You will get an email alerting you whenever a new blog post is uploaded.

Our hope is that you will use this space to discuss the posts with one another so that we can still feel an ongoing sense of community during this time of social distancing. If there is something you'd like us to address or to share, please let us know and we'll do our best! The address is  2ndpresknox.blogpsot.com  - or you can just click the link below. 
We are going to continue our Wednesday night Bible study on Wednesday evenings at 6:00 p.m., via Zoom. 

We will send out a separate email each week with instructions on how to join in on Wednesday nights. This is a great way for all of us to be able to check in with one another, share joys and concerns and other prayer requests, join in Bible study, and have discussion together. 

We hope that you will plan on joining us at our regular time - Wednesday nights at 6:00 p.m.
AN UPDATE FROM UKIRK.   

Things look very different for us and we know they look very different for your churches too but we are all making the best of it. Ministry doesn't stop just because we can't gather in person, if anything it is needed even more so. 
UKirk has been gathering twice a week on Zoom. On Tuesdays we have a virtual coffee hour for everyone to talk freely and just catch up. On Thursdays we meet virtually for theology talks where students can submit questions and then we discuss them as a community. On Wednesdays we have been and will continue to live stream our worship services through the end of April. We chose live stream instead of pre-recording worship because we like the idea of worshipping right then with our community even if from a distance. In addition to all of this we are sending daily devotions to our students in our group message, in order to give them a little bit of hope and security during this anxious time. Each of our interns are writing a devotion once a week as well as both staff members.
 
Classes are all online for our students and some classes have proven to be even harder this way than in person. Our students are working hard during this strange and frustrating time. We are planning some fun activities through Zoom like we would usually plan our exam breakers for exam week. We are trying to bring as much normalcy to our students as possible.
 
We thank you for your continued support and prayers for our ministry and our students.
Prayer List:

Please keep the Ed Carver, Duggan family, the Thomas Family, Patricia and Geoffrey Kennedy, Frances Johnson, Mary Johnson, Bonnie Beals, Joe Beals, Emily Rose, Brice Gilmer, Betty McCollum, Emily Rose, Dee Snyder, and Jennifer Levy-Tatum in your prayers. 
 
Please contact the Church Office (523.2189 or [email protected]) with prayer concerns to be listed in the weekly email or bulletin.