the PRES September 2017 Vacations are but a memory! School will be back in session soon! MARK YOUR CALENDARS Worship Sept 10th 10:30 am Sunday School & Adult Forum Resumes on Sept. 17th at 9:30 am Choir meets at 9:15 (9/10 only) Choir Resumes on Sept. 17th Pot Luck Dinner Sept. 17th Fall begins Sunday, September 22nd Mark Your Calendars! September 10th, 2017
GO THE DISTANCE I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"* We are familiar with St Paul's words to Timothy. Rally Day is typically a time to reset our spiritual discipline after the more relaxed summer atmosphere. September 10, Coach Steve Wallace will focus on how spiritual discipline is much like athletic discipline. He will be joined by the Rally Day Choir lead by our own Brenda Browne. Bethany Mandes and the Children will teach all of us My God is So Big, complete with motions. Ken Ross will commission our dedicated Sunday School teachers, students and congregation to continue our race and "Go the Distance." Remember that Church Services will return to our regular time of 10:30 am on Rally Day, September 10, 2017. Hope you join the "race" with us. *2 Timothy 4:7 Submitted by Linda Duttera, Photo by Jane Wilson CHILDREN'S SUNDAY SCHOOL Starting Sunday, September 17th Sunday School classes for K-8th grades will resume on Sunday, September 17th. Our young members will attend services through the Children's Sermon, and then they will be dismissed to join their Sunday School classes. The teachers will be the same as last year: Younger Class - Jeff Goddard and Bethany Mandes * Older Class - Jen Connolly and Cathy Michini We look forward to seeing familiar faces, and hopefully some new ones too! Please reach out to one of the teachers with any questions. * Bethany Mandes heads up our Christian Education Program. ADULT FORUM Adult Forum returns beginning Sunday, September 17th, for an eight-part series: ”The European Reformations,” lead by Ken Ross. As we approach the 500th anniversary of the publishing of the 95 Theses, find out what all the shouting was about. Here is what we will survey:
Each session is self-contained. You do not need to attend all eight sessions to get something out of the series. The Adult Forum meets in the parlor one hour and fifteen minutes before the worship service. Submitted by Rev Ken Ross
300th Celebration: Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, 2800 West Cheltenham Ave. Celebrate Our Past and Present Witness through a Commitment to Children and Restorative JusticeWe invite you to join us as we celebrate 300 years and raise $300,000 for our ministry partners. This one-time offering will be equally distributed to eight local initiatives as they launch new efforts to elevate the education of children, disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, and promote restorative justice. In this unique moment in our history, we trust our combined efforts will continue to embody the Good News of Jesus Christ in at-risk communities as we stand alongside our neighbors in the Greater Philadelphia and Chester area. Together we can impact the Greater Philadelphia area more than we could do alone. New Video Series Featuring All Eight Initiatives Check out eight two-minute videos on each of our featured initiatives. View them by clicking each initiative to the left or by visiting our YouTube Playlist. Share these videos with your congregation, youth ministry, small group, friends, in worship, with prospective ministry partners, and more. Click Here for Group Discussion Questions. What is the school-to-prison pipeline? Children and youth who live in contexts of poverty, demonstrate varied learning disabilities, lack access to quality education, and are vulnerable to potentially biased in-school disciplinary actions are at an increased risk to incarceration as both juveniles and adults. Numerous ministries in our midst, to include those selected for this campaign, work to disrupt this pipeline as they provide programs, services, and leadership opportunities for young people in communities and neighborhoods most at risk. What is restorative justice? As individuals who have been previously incarcerated seek to re-enter society, various initiatives in the Presbytery of Philadelphia model God’s love and grace through services and programs to help individuals find employment, develop leadership skills, and reduce risks for recidivism (returning to prison). FROM OUR DEACONS The Deacons would like to thank everyone for their participation in this summer's Lemonade on the Lawn, which will be held through October 1st. It continues to be a wonderful time of delicious food and fellowship in the warmer months. The Deacons will meet in September after a summer break to plan for the coming year. After last year's launch of our new Care Circle initiative, we plan to grow this program further and will provide more information in the fall. As always, the Deacons are here for the ministry and care of our congregation. Please reach out to one of us if you have need for congregational care or prayer. We're here for you! Submitted by Jessica Richardson
Musical Notes from the Music Department ! A special word of thanks to Sheila McCaffrey, Jessica Richardson, Linda Duttera, Carolyn Wallace and Bethany Mandes for sharing their musical talents for our Sunday services this summer. We are also grateful to Roberta Goren for her wonderful flute playing on August 13, 2017. East Falls Presbyterian Church is blessed with many fine musicians and singers. Anyone who wishes to sing or perform for summer services is welcome, and should let Brenda know. Submitted by Brenda Browne, Music Director DORIS M. ROSS The family of Doris M. Ross invite you to attend a worship service in her memory in the chapel of the Dock Woods retirement community, 275 Dock Drive, Lansdale, PA, on Friday, September 22, at 11 a.m. There will be an interval for greeting before the service, from 10 until 11, and a buffet luncheon to follow at 12 noon. Directions. Dock Community is located just off the Lansdale exit of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. From the city, navigate to I 476, the Northeast Extension. Take exit 31, Lansdale. Turn right onto Sumneytown Pike toward Lansdale. Turn left onto Forty Foot Road. Turn left onto Detwiler Road Take the second right onto Woods Drive. The chapel is on the right. Enter through Oakwood Court. From Bucks County, navigate to Route 63 and Lansdale. Take Rt. 63 north of the borough and follow the “dog leg” to the west.This is Forty Foot Road. Detwiler Drive will come up on the right at the Christopher Dock Academy. Follow the previous directions from there. Pastor Nominating Committee When PNC was asked about the number of Pastor Information Sheets, applications that have received and reviewed as well as a rough geographic area where the applications came from, PNC reported that "approximately 60 applications from across the country with one from overseas". PROPERTY COMMITTEE AT WORK The Property Committee would like to thank Bob, Dave, Linda & Terry for all their hard work beautifying the garden areas and grounds! The summer flowers look beautiful and the Crape Myrtle is growing quickly! The doors and bricks have also been cleaned and looking to have some repointing in areas. We have had another incident of water infiltration in the Youth Room and we are looking at regrading the ground in that area to solve that problem. We recognize the benches outside are in need of repairs and we are working on that as well. Property Committee has also been busy over the summer doing working on the kitchen project. We are working with Chris Hanson, Fred Vidi, and Joseph Matje in this planning and permitting process. The Church will have a commercial grade kitchen that will meet the needs of our congregation and the groups that use our fellowship hall. The kitchen will have a brand new oven with a fire suppression system, several work tops, under-counter refrigerators and freezers, dishwasher, and storage. We are going to have a "cafe area" out in the Fellowship Hall to use for coffee hour by congregation and our evening groups. This planning process allows for our church to meet all Health and Safety codes. If the church membership deems it appropriate, this kitchen will allow us to open up our facility to outside catering and events in the future. If anyone is currently Safe Serve Certified or would like to be, please let us know. We must have at least one person (although more is better) to meet certification requirements for the City of Philadelphia. Photo's below current kitchen We currently have spent around $8,500 on the plan drawings, engineering for plumbing/electric, and health permits. The manufacturing and purchasing of kitchen equipment has been quoted around $35,000. A quote for labor is still being finalized. The only difference in cost for a non-commercial kitchen would be around $800-1000 in just the cost of Health Department permits. All kitchens in public spaces have to meet certain health requirements for preparation, cooking, and/or storage of food. We look forward to breaking ground soon!! Submitted by Steve Wallace POT LUCK DINNER Sunday September 17th 6:00 PM The Pot Luck Dinner will follow kick-off Sunday and be a social opportunity to reacquaint after the Summer. The choir will entertain with a shorten rendition of the Strawberry festival. It will be an opportunity to energize for an exciting fall with prayerfully hope for call of a new minister. We will do a special reach-out to old friends we have not seen for some time. ANYONE WISH TO JOIN IN? Did you know that we have an IRONMAN contestant in our Congregation? Doug Allcorn was a participant in the July 22nd IRONMAN event, held in Lake Placid NY. Doug spent many hour training leading up the actual event. See Doug for more details. THE FINANCE COMMITTEE As of July 1st 2017, the Unrestricted Portfolio: $ 846,827. Gain Year To Date $ 57,916. As of July 1st 2017, the Restricted Portfolio: $ 574,173. Gain Year To Date $ 37,761. |