Friday, Jan. 24, 2025 Newsletter



For Sunday

9:00 a.m.: Holy Ground Contemporary Worship Service

 (in person in Fellowship Hall)

11:15 a.m.: Traditional Worship Service

       (in person in the Sanctuary, and livestreamed on Facebook and website)

A MESSAGE FROM REV. LINDSEY ALTVATER CLIFTON: TIME FOR REFLECTION

Dear ones,

Much gratitude for your flexibility last Sunday as we gathered online for worship instead of in-person! Even with careful attention to local forecasters, it was difficult to know when the heaviest snow would arrive and how quickly conditions would deteriorate, so it was better to be on the safe side.  

Frigid temperatures and salty mess aside, I’ve appreciated the added beauty of the snowfall on our community’s landscape. Day or night, the added brightness has been lovely! It has reminded me of the gifts of winter, captured in this passage from Katherine May in her book, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Time:

Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.

Once we stop wishing it were summer, winter can be a glorious season in which the world takes on a sparse beauty and even the pavement sparkles. It’s a time for reflection and recuperation, for slow replenishment, for putting your house in order.

Doing those deeply unfashionable things—slowing down, letting your spare time expand, getting enough sleep, resting—is a radical act now, but it is essential. This is a crossroads we all know, a moment when you need to shed a skin.

If you do, you’ll expose all those painful nerve endings and feel so raw that you’ll need to take care of yourself for awhile. If you don’t, then that skin will harden around you.

It's one of the most important choices you’ll ever make.

There’s a lot about that which resonates with our present moment as a congregation and as a nation. I pray that we’ll winter well together, friends… So that what needs to shed can be left behind; what needs to heal will have the time, space, and care to do so; what we need to embrace next will become clear and take root.

Prayers for the journey,

Lindsey

TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT on 8.5" x 11" paper:



Traditional Worship Service (4 pages)

UPDATE POSTPONED UNTIL FEB. 2

The Strategic Mission Steering Committee Update planned for this past Sunday has been postponed until Sunday, Feb. 2. This church-wide informational meeting will be held in Fellowship Hall, beginning around 12:30 p.m., and snacks will be provided.

A recording of the presentation will be made, and will be available later in the week. If you would like us to email you the video, contact us at info@fpc-bethlehem.org.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT FIRST PRES?

For this Sunday, Jan. 26, we’ll hold an Inquirers Seminar for Newcomers and Prospective Members. This session is for folks who might like to learn more about our congregation and our denomination and/or those who may be considering the possibility of becoming members at First Presbyterian.  

We’re planning to gather after the 11:15 a.m. service (around 12:30 p.m.), and we’ll begin with lunch, which will be provided. The afternoon will be casual and conversational, and it will offer space to connect with other newcomers. We’ll be finished by 3:00-3:30 p.m. 

If you’re interested in attending, contact Lindsey at lclifton@fpc-bethlehem.org so we have a headcount for food!

No one exemplifies this kind of unruly sacredness better than St. Brigid (471-525). When we describe someone as “saintly,” we don’t ordinarily use words like “rollicking” and “earthy.” But in her case, they’re right on target. A medieval legend (happily ignoring mere chronology) casts her as both the barmaid at the inn in Bethlehem and the midwife attending Jesus’s birth. 

The patron saint of dairymaids, cattle, midwives, Irish nuns, and newborn babies, Brigid seems to have been, at various times, both a Druid high priestess and a Christian abbess. Newell says that her life exemplifies four “thresholds or liminalities – the doorway between the pre-Christian and the Christian, the portal between the divine and the human, the relationship between humanity and the earth, and the liminal space between the womb of the universe and what is trying to come into being.” 

All are welcome to join discussion leader Steve Simmons as he guides us in learning about this fascinating bridge figure between paganism and emerging Christianity in early medieval Ireland.

BODY N SOUL  

Body N Soul, our intergenerational faith formation group, meets this Sunday between services (10:10 – 11 a.m.) in Fellowship Hall. The group shares stories, crafts, and conversation. All are welcome!

GIVING STATEMENTS: IN THE MAIL!

To help you plan for your taxes: the Finance Office has mailed the 2024 Contribution Summaries to all donors. Email statements were sent but went to spam for many recipients.

Please contact us at BusinessOffice@fpc-bethlehem.org if you do not receive it by next Wednesday. Thank you for your continued support of FPCB!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: BES DINNER ON TUESDAY, FEB. 11

JOIN THE 'NOURISH OUR FUTURE' CAMPAIGN

Hunger in our country remains a pervasive and stubborn challenge - and here is an opportunity to make our voices heard.

On Tuesday evening, Feb. 4, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., Bread for the World, the Christian citizens’ advocacy organization, is launching a two-year campaign, “Nourish Our Future.” This session is offered in person in Washington, DC and via Zoom in support of legislation to combat hunger among children and young adults (one in four college students, for example, is food insecure). In the words of Bread’s national office:

“Come and learn about the issues and the legislative priorities we will pursue over the next two years, why they matter for children, and what you can do to make a difference. Take your place in this campaign and help us pursue a world without hunger.” 

With the arrival of new faces in Congress, it’s especially important that we let our legislators know of our commitment, and their responsibility, to make hunger among our fellow citizens a thing of the past. 

For more information about the campaign - and to sign their online petition - please visit bit.ly/3PC8Q6l, and to register for the event, click on bit.ly/3PzWlIz. 

SUPPORTING THOSE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Southern California is facing multiple uncontrolled fires, exacerbated by strong winds and dry conditions. Tens of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate and more than 57,000 homes are threatened.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is in communication with the affected presbyteries to offer resources in the aftermath of the fires. So far, we are aware of one Presbyterian church destroyed (Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church) and several more are threatened. We will know more once the fires are contained and evacuation orders have been lifted. We pray for all lives affected, for swift containment and the safety of first responders.

To support PDA’s efforts: bit.ly/4aly16T

FLOWERS ARE ON OUR MINDS…

LOOKING AHEAD…

SUNDAY, FEB. 2:

12:30 p.m.: Strategic Mission Steering Committee Update; Fellowship Hall (recording available by request)

SUNDAY, FEB. 16:

10 a.m.: Combined Worship Service, Sanctuary; in person and livestreamed on Facebook and the website

11 a.m.: Annual Congregational Meeting, Sanctuary; in person and livestreamed on Facebook and the website

12:30 p.m.: Annual Pasta Fundraiser Luncheon, Fellowship Hall – details to co

FOR SUNDAY’S IN-PERSON WORSHIP:



• Child care will be available from 8:45 a.m. -12:15 p.m. this Sunday morning; please ask an usher for directions.
• Your children are a joy in our worship services, and should the need arise, “kid bags” are available for their use while they are visiting. They are in the Narthex.
• We offer nametags for folks to wear – these are for everyone! You can pick up as you enter the worship space; please clearly PRINT your first name.

THIS SUNDAY

• 8:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: Child Care (ask ushers to direct you)
• 9 a.m.: Holy Ground Contemporary Service, Fellowship Hall (in person only)
• 10-11 a.m.: Hearts N Minds adult ed class, Parlor
• 10:10-11 a.m.: Body N Soul intergenerational faith formation, Fellowship Hall
• 11:15 a.m.: Traditional Worship Service, Sanctuary (in person and livestreamed on Facebook and our website, fpc-bethlehem.org

WEDNESDAYS: 7 p.m. - Overcomer’s Outreach Christian 12 Step Recovery Group weekly meeting, via Zoom.com (meeting #: 868 2214 2960; passcode: OO-Beth)



CHURCH OFFICE AND BUILDING INFO:

Regular office hours are Monday - Thursday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Many of the office staff are working remotely for some of the time, so please make an appointment if you need to see someone specific. The answering service (610-778-7003) can take your urgent pastoral concerns, 24 hours a day. 

IN CASE OF BAD WEATHER: Look for updates on our website (fpc-bethlehem.org), Facebook page, and WFMZ (channel 69 and wfmz.com). We will also put the info on our church phone message, 610-867-5865.