First Presbyterian Church  |  701 Florida Avenue  |  Bristol, TN 37620  |  423-764-7176  |  fpcbristol.org

In This Issue
Worship
About Windows
Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion
FPC Holiday Schedule
Come Warm Yourself in the Parlor!
Christmas Eve Cookie Delivery This Sunday
Five Cents A Meal Offering New Year's Eve
Family Promise Rotation Week of Jan. 7
Music Notes
Pray for One Another
Gifts to the Church.
Church Officers
Church Calendar
Worship
December 24
4th Sunday of Advent
ONE Worship
Lessons
2 Samuel 7:1-11,16
Luke 1:26-38
Sermon
Congratulations!
Dave Welch
Hymns
People, Look East
Love Has Come
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Anthem
The Christ Child Lay on Mary's Lap
Last Sunday's Attendance
8:30: 133; 11:00: 115
About  
Windows
Deadline for contributions to Windows is the Monday of the week of publication. The newsletter is emailed a minute after midnight on Thursday morning.

Windows is a publication of First Presbyterian Church, Bristol, TN. Please direct questions and suggestions to the editor, Kathy Acuff, kacuff@fpcbristol.org

Windows

on First Presbyterian Church

December 21 & 28, 2017
Christmas Eve Candlelight Communio n

Please join us for our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion service with lessons and carols at 7:00 p.m. in the sanctuary. Dave Welch will bring the message, and the evening's special offering will go to the Minister's Discretionary Fund. Please join us Sunday, December 24, for this beautiful worship experience. Bring the whole family; our nursery will be open!
FPC Holiday Schedule

Take a break tonight and enjoy an evening of worship led by Annie Osborne, Aidan Moore, and Jenn Sproles. Join them in the Fellowship Hall Thursday, December 21, at 7:00 p.m. to sing, reflect, rest, focus, listen, and be renewed through singing Christmas songs old and new. All are welcome to enjoy this beautiful evening.  The nursery will be available.
This Sunday morning, December 24, everyone is invited to stop by the parlor for hot coffee, tea, or cocoa between 9:30 and the start of our 10:30 a.m. ONE Worship service in the sanctuary. After worship, stay to help the Children's Ministries box cookies and take them to those in our community who work on Christmas Eve. In the evening, at 7:00, we will hold our Christmas Eve Candlelight and Communion service in the sanctuary and collect an offering for the Minister's Discretionary Fund.
We will hold ONE Worship in the Fellowship Hall on New Year's Eve, Sunday, December 31, at 10:30 a.m. and take up an offering for the Five Cents A Meal program.
Worship Schedule
Date
Time
Event
Place
Thurs., Dec. 21
7:00 p.m.
Night of Christmas Worship
Fellowship Hall
Sunday, Dec. 24
10:30 a.m.
ONE Worship
Sanctuary
Sunday, Dec. 24
7:00 p.m.
Candlelight Communion
Sanctuary
Sunday, Dec. 31
10:30 a.m.
ONE Worship
Fellowship Hall
 
Come Warm Yourself in the Parlor!

Everyone is invited to stop by the parlor for a hot beverage on the morning of Christmas Eve! Come anytime between 9:30 and 10:30, when ONE Worship begins. You can choose among regular and flavored coffees, hot teas, and cocoa. Yum! We'll also have this special coffee hour before the New Year's Eve ONE Worship the following Sunday. All ages can enjoy this new fellowship time together!
Christmas Eve Cookie Delivery This Sunday

If you would like to participate in our Christmas Eve Cookie Delivery, bring a batch or two of cookies to ONE Worship this Sunday December 24. After the 10:30 a.m. service, we will box up assortments of cookies and deliver them to the firefighters, police officers, nurses, and others who work on Christmas Eve. This is a very rewarding effort, and we encourage you to participate!
Five Cents A Meal Offering New Year's Eve
During our New Year's Eve service December 31, we will collect an offering for Five Cents A Meal, benefiting area programs that fight hunger. About 85 percent of this offering will go to Hunger Grants of Holston Presbytery and 15 percent will go directly to Bristol Emergency Food Pantry. Look for the bread pans!
Family Promise Rotation Week of Jan. 7

Our next Family Promise week will begin January 7. For more information or to volunteer, please email Dottie Havlik at dhavlik@charter.net or call or text her at 423-956-6747. Thank you!
Music Notes
Sunday's music participants: Pat Flannagan, Bob Greene, Sanctuary Choir, Adult Handbell Choir.
Sunday's music: Our anthem, The Christ Child Lay on Mary's Lap, was composed by Craig Carnahan (b. 1951) on a text by G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). Carnahan received his BA
Craig Carnahan
from Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) and did graduate studies in composition with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler at the University of Minnesota. In the past 35 years, Carnahan has received more than 50 commissions for original compositions. In 1993 he received a McKnight Composition Fellowship to collaborate with the acclaimed poet, playwright, and filmmaker James Broughton on a setting of his libretto, The Last Word. In 1998 he was Composer-in-Residence for the American Composers Forum's Faith Partners Residency Project. And in 2008 and 2012 he received Artist Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. His music has been described as "absorbing, richly textured and emotionally stirring" (Minneapolis Star Tribune). Chesterton's text reminds us that all might not seem well in our world, but because of Christ's incarnation, "here is all aright." Alleluia!
The offertory, Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion!, recants the text from Zechariah 9:9a that is so well known from Handel's Messiah. This setting is by Kenneth Kosche, emeritus Professor of Music of Concordia University Wisconsin (Mequon, WI). A native Chicagoan,
Kenneth Kosche
Kosche earned his BS in Music Education and MS degrees at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and his DMA in Choral Music from the University of Washington (Seattle). A teacher for 40 years, he was honored by his Concordia colleagues as the Faculty Laureate in 1999. He retired in 2009. A parish musician at heart, Kosche has held minister of music positions in Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin, serving various combinations as organist, choral director, and worship planner. In retirement, he serves Trinity Lutheran Church in Billings, MT, as organist and volunteer in other musical capacities, including at Trinity's elementary school. Kosche was a 1990 Fellow in the Melodious Accord Program, studying in New York with Alice Parker, subsequently going back to New York and Minnesota on several occasions for further coaching and study. God has blessed his creative activities with the success of having more than 400 compositions for voices, organ, handbells, and instruments published by 17 publishers to date. As a composer, he believes that melody is the wellspring of composition; that careful attention must be paid to the setting of texts, as to both affect and accent; and that children and adults in schools and churches with limited resources need high-quality music to sing and play as much as those who have large choirs, organs, handbells, and instrumental ensembles.
Organist's footnotes: "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" So go the lyrics of the popular Christmas song. And yet, why does it feel like I'm caught up in a swirling vortex? Deadlines, mailings, gifts, greeting cards, travel arrangements, performances, and on and on. It is all the "stuff" of Christmas that, unfortunately, preoccupies many of us this time of year. Where can one find the time for simple contemplation of the Christ Child, the Miracle of miracles, the Gift of gifts?
We find the time here, this morning, in worship. Our prelude, "Gymnopédie No. 1," is a simple piano piece penned in 1888 by the Frenchman Erik Satie (1866-1925). So simple, "anyone" can play it. It has been called, "the most tranquil piano piece written," yet it holds the key to slowing down our daily vortex. Relax. Meditate. Unwind.
"Joy to the World," with text by Isaac Watts and tune (antioch ) attributed to George Frederick Handel, arranged by Lowell Mason, is one of our most iconic Christmas carols. Arrangements of "Joy to the World" come in many forms. Emma Lou Diemer's "Antioch" had the title "Fantasy on Antioch" in an earlier edition. It is indeed more "fantasy" than most arrangements, yet it captures perfectly the essence of joy, with its rollicking escapades up and down the keyboards.
Pray for One Another
An extensive list of prayer concerns, "Pray for One Another," is available for pickup at the church each week.
 
In Our Prayers
DeeDee Galliher
Ron Grubbs
Chili Ishmael (Claire Pruner's father)
Linda Pridemore
 
Condolences
Our love and sympathy are with Sherry Ratliff in the death of her father, Marvin Wayne Creel, November 16 in Florida; and with Jane Keeter, in the death of her husband, Clyde Wallace Keeter Jr., December 14 in Bristol.
 
Birthday Prayer Fellowship
Dec. 24     David Ratcliff
Dec. 25     Pat Flannagan, Wesley Foster
Dec. 29     Derek Dowdell, PJ Stigers, Dottie Whitesides
Dec. 31     Dave Ginn, Jason Kreiss, Teddy Testerman
Jan. 1        Dee Ginn, Patsy Frizzell
Jan. 2        Charlotte Parker, Leigh Beth Phipps
Jan. 4        Scott Sams
Jan. 5        Sujean Bradley, Maria Poteat, Jim Wiseman
Jan. 6        Camille Burt
Gifts to the Church
We gratefully acknowledge a recent gift to the Memorial Fund in memory of Dorothy and Howard Barger from Betty Barger.
We are also thankful for gifts to the Capital Fund/MEP in honor of Betsy Galliher and Linda and Dave Welch from Sam and Selma Jennings.
Gifts have been received for the Capital Fund from Jim M. Gilly Jr. in memory of the following individuals: Jean H. Eller, Mr. and Mrs. George T. Fagan, James M. Gilly Sr. and Frances Gilly Hodges, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Marvin Gilly, Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Harrison, and Irene King Newman.
Church Officers
PCUSA seal small
 
Elders
Class of 2017
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Ann Abel
Aaron Brooks
Anna Booher
Beth Flannagan
Randy Cook
Lee Galliher
Tom King
Debbie McMillin
Pete Holler
Ernie Pennington
Stuart Parker
Han Ong
John Vann
Chuck Thompson
Pete Stigers
 
Deacons
Class of 2017
Class of 2018
Class of 2019
Jim Mayden
Adam Abel
George Linke
Mark Mervis
Nancy Butterworth
Greg Roberts
Robin North
David Ginn
Nate Sproles
Jordan Pennington
Rett Stocstill
Bill Whisnant
Byron Schiesz
Ann Woods
 
Church Calendar
Sunday, December 24
9:30 a.m.       Sunday School
10:30 a.m.     ONE Worship, Sanctuary
7:00 p.m.       Candlelight Communion, Sanctuary
Monday, December 25
Church office closed for Christmas Day
Wednesday, December 27
6:00 p.m.       PNC, Room 117
7:30 p.m.       8:30 Worship Team, Fellowship Hall
Thursday, December 28
7:00 a.m.        Men's Bible Study, Parlor
Sunday, December 31
9:30 a.m.       Sunday School
10:30 a.m.     ONE Worship, Fellowship Hall                           
3:00 p.m.       Officer Training, Room 123
Monday, January 1
Church office closed for New Year's Day
5:30 p.m.       Adult Handbells
7:00 p.m.       Board of Deacons, Room 123
Tuesday, January 2
10:00 a.m.     Morning Prayer Group, Conference Room
7:00 p.m.       Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing
Wednesday, January 3
6:00 p.m.       PNC, Room 117
7:15 p.m.       Sanctuary Choir
7:30 p.m.       8:30 Worship Team, Fellowship Hall
Thursday, January 4
7:00 a.m.       Men's Bible Study, Parlor
12:00 p.m.     Noon Bible Study, Room 117
5:00 p.m.       Human Resources Committee, Room 117