Bridgeport Presbyterian Church NEWSLETTER OF BRIDGEPORT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH NOVEMBER 2015 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 11 WWW.BRIDGEPORTPRESBYTERIAN.COM You re Invited to... Bridgeport Presbyterian Church s Thanksgiving Dinner Sunday November 22 at 5:00 pm Turkey, gravy stuffing and bread will be provided Please sign-up for a potluck item to bring always giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20 Church Events November 2 PW Bible Study 7 Mission Dinner 8 PW Fall Gathering 9 PW Bible Study 9 Resource Management 11 Blankets for Ruby 15 Congregational Meeting 16 PW Bible Study 18 Men s Breakfast 22 Thanksgiving Dinner 23 Congregational Life 25 Thanksgiving Worship 29 Hanging of the Greens
Men s Breakfast The Men s Breakfast Group will meet at 7:00 AM on Wednesday, November 18th, at Eat n Park. Bring a friend along and join us. As always, you are encouraged to invite a friend or neighbor to join with us for a time of Christian fellowship. Anyone with an idea for a program may contact Dave Davis, who has graciously stepped up to the plate to organize the group this year. This year we will be hosting the Thanksgiving Ecumenical service on Wednesday, November 25 at 7:00 p.m. Our choir and chimes will provide music and Father Kappa will be preaching. Donations will be collected for Shepherd s Corner of household goods and personal care products. November Birthdays 2 Gail Liebig 9 Lori Gray 3 Annabel Timms 9 Roxanne Loar 4 Steven Loar 10 Fred Evans 7 Britney Hitt 13 Georgia Faith Mathews ll 9 Alison Deem 14 Stacey McMullen 17 Carrie Wickline
My CREDO Experience In the fall of 2014, I received an invitation from the Board of Pensions of the PC(U.S.A.) to attend an eight-day conference, a program of the Board called CREDO. Little did I know then that accepting that invitation would be life changing. Every pastor I knew who had participated in CREDO had said it was an intense but fulfilling week and one of the best continuing education weeks they had spent. In Latin, CREDO can be translated to mean I believe. But its deeper meaning is I give my heart. At that deeper level, participating in a CREDO conference becomes a work of the mind, heart, and spirit. Modeled after the highly successful Episcopal CREDO, our Board of Pensions realized that clergy burn-out was an issue that had to be addressed. Thus, the beginning of Presbyterian CREDO. There are four main components that are addressed in each CREDO conference: Spiritual, Vocational, Health and Financial. The Spiritual component offers a sacred space where each participant can reflect on their relationship with God. The Vocational component provides an opportunity for reflection, discernment and planning in career and work. The Health component encourages reflection on physical and emotional health, stewardship of the body and the development of a plan to address health needs; while the Financial component explores all aspects of personal financial management and encourages participants to reflect on their Godgiven resources and how best to use them in response to God s call. The Board realized that these four components can directly and indirectly affect a person s holistic health and that by addressing these issues the Church could greatly increase clergy recruitment and retention. The faculty were very compassionate and well informed in their areas of expertise. We had lectures as a whole and met with them individually. We spent a lot of time in worship, prayer and solitude during the week. I am grateful to the staff, the other students, the Board of Pensions, and of course to the congregation for this experience. Blessings, Pastor Robin
THANK YOU CHURCH FAMILY The Outreach Committee would like to thank all of the church family members for their generous contribution of gently used coats and sweaters over the past month. When we bagged them up on Monday, we found we had 7 large bags of coats and sweaters/sweatshirts. As you may remember, we are taking them to the director of the Clarksburg Mission with the request that they be used for their clients this winter and not given to the store to be sold. From the looks of the multitude of warm clothing, there will be some very happy and warm people this winter. Again, thank you. Advent begins on Sunday, November 29 th. Please plan to stay after worship to help decorate our church. There will be special projects for the children and Youth, while the rest of us prepare our church for the Advent season.
The world s largest Christmas project of its kind, Operation Christmas Child, uses gift-filled shoeboxes to share God s love in a tangible way with needy children around the world. Our children and Youth will be filling shoe boxes on Sunday, November 15 th, during Sunday School. You are invited to drop off items in the bin by the front door if you would like to help. Here are some suggestions: Best Gifts: For any age boy here, what they really want is a soccer ball. So get the best quality mini soccer ball that you can fit into the box when it is inflated (or send a deflated ball with a pump) and you can basically forget about anything else! Brand new nice short-sleeved shirts (with no writing on them) for boys and girls. Kids here have few clothes and often wear old, ripped, hand-me-downs, so nice new shirts are really appreciated and will probably fit. (I don t know any obese Senegalese kids.) Small flashlight with batteries (Most families don t have electricity so a working flashlight is gold!) Good quality melamine plate, bowl, and/or cup (Practical and also special.) Soap AND a plastic soap dish that has a cover. When you bathe standing on a big rock in the dirt as kids do here, you really need the soap holder. And families never have enough soap. (Funny note: the kids didn t know what the soap was because it was in a box. I am sure they would have figured it out though, even without our help.) Toothbrush in a toothbrush holder. Again, the plastic case for the toothbrush is really great when you don t have a sink/counter/tiled bathroom but rather brush your teeth outside squatting over dirt and need to keep it in your room. Pencils, erasers, colored pencils, and sharpeners for all school-aged kids. And good quality pens for kids aged 10-14, in black, red, green, and blue. All of these are required for school and the ones from America last so much longer than the cheap ones available here. Great Gifts Jump ropes Band-Aids Hard candy and gum Comb Hair elastics or head bands for girls Marbles Harmonica Sunglasses for older kids Socks For the youngest girls, a baby doll with light brown skin and no hair (good for a child of any color) Toy car, truck or airplane for the youngest boys (The ones with bigger wheels that are made for toddlers and are larger than Matchbox size are good. Matchbox wheels are so small; they don t work well in dirt.)
Angels From the Realms of Glory This is possibly the best written, sacred Christmas carol which helped launch a revolution that continues to impact millions of lives today. At its heart is its writer, an Irishman, born in November 1771. James Montgomery was born in Scotland and his father was an Irish Moravian missionary. When his parents were called to evangelistic work in the West Indies, the child was sent to a Moravian community in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland. By age 7 James was at Fulneck Seminary in England and just 5 years later the parents he barely knew died on the mission field. Montgomery flunked out of seminary school and became a bakers assistant for a short time. By age 20 he was little more than a vagrant, moving from job to job, often unemployed and homeless for weeks at a time. Montgomery's only interest was writing. He spent what little money he had on pencils and paper, taking hours to compose poetic odes on everything from loneliness to faith. Though no publisher was interested in his work, the radical editor of the Sheffield Register saw something in the young man's raw talent. For the next 2 years Montgomery got paid to do what he loved most to do--write stories. At 23 when the newspaper's owner was run out of town for writing radical editorials concerning Irish freedom, the missionary's son took over the Register. When Montgomery was not waging an editorial crusade against English rule and slavery, he was reading his bible in an attempt to understand the power that motivated his parents lives and ultimately led to their deaths. In time, his Scripture study and rebellious zeal would blend and send the young man on a new mission. One of the first hints of this change was revealed on Christmas Eve 1816. At this time the papers readers discovered a different stance from the fiery editor. On that day, his editorial brought everyone who read his paper together. Written in the same poetic verse that Montgomery had employed during the aimless wandering of his youth, "Nativity"--what would eventually become the carol "Angels, from the Realms of Glory"--told the story of angels proclaiming the birth of a Savior for all people. English and Irish, rich and poor, Anglican and Moravian, Eloquent, beautiful, and scripturally sound, Montgomery soon touched more lives for Christ with the stroke of his pen than his parents did in all their years of missionary work. Somewhere, some 20 years after it was written, Henry Smart, the son of a music publisher, listened to the Irishman's words. Inspired by the wisdom, power, fire and beauty he saw in "Nativity," Smart composed a tune to go with the poem, When published, the Montgomery/Smart collaboration had a different title and a new, vibrant life, "Angels, from the Realms of Glory" would not only be welcomed as a new Christmas carol, it would soon become one of the songs that opened the door for a new, joyful, and uplifting musical style in hundreds of English churches. Excerpt from "Stories behind the best-loved Songs of Christmas" by Ace Collins We Gather Together has been one of Thanksgiving favorite hymns. It was actually written in the 1600 th century in Holland in celebration of freedom from Spain and their religious freedom to worship as they chose. The words, Thou, Lord, was at our side, all glory be Thine and Thy Name be ever praised! O, Lord, make us free! AMEN
Fall Festival
Bridgeport Presbyterian Church The Church Office is open Monday-Friday 9:30am 12:30pm Email: Pastor Robin Ray pastorrobin@bridgeportpresbyterian.com Email: Office office@bridgeportpresbyterian.com Website: www.bridgeportpresbyterian.com Pastor Robin Ray 842-3332 Clerk of Session Ruth Allen 842-3638 Treasurer Rocky Loar 884-6719 Choir Director Beth Armentrout 745-4881 Presbyterian Women Barb Judy 842-5607 Janitorial Support Sharon Salate 842-2211 Bookkeeper Janice Oldaker 842-2211 Bridgeport Presbyterian Church 1 John Calvin Drive Bridgeport WV 26330