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Balmoral Presbyterian Church
Where the Spirit Takes Flight
BPC NEWS BRIEF
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
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mailing address: Balmoral Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 17309, Memphis, TN 38187
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NEWS THIS WEEK
- WORSHIP for SUNDAY JUNE 6, 2021
- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW about ATTENDING WORSHIP IN-PERSON JUNE 6....and how to view the Service online.
- AROUND MEMPHIS
- SHELBY COUNTY is DOING WELL
- REMINDERS:
- HIGHLIGHTS of UPCOMING EVENTS
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WEEKLY INFORMATION
- Birthdays
- Calendar of Events
- OUTREACH OPPORTUNITIES
- CONTACT INFORMATION
- Building Information
- BPC Photos
- Worship last Sunday
LINKS to DOCUMENTS:
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SUNDAY
WORSHIP
Balmoral Presbyterian Church
Sunday, June 6, 2021
BALMORAL WORSHIP at 11:00am
IN BPC's SANCTUARY
Scriptures: Psalm 138 (selected verses)
& 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Sermon: "A Spirit of Faith"
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SEE ARTICLE BELOW for SPECIAL NOTES ABOUT ATTENDING IN-PERSON OR
HOW to TUNE-IN for our LIVE-STREAM ONLINE SERVICE.
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CIRCLE of FAITH WORSHIP at 9:00am
IN BPC's Fellowship Hall
and on Zoom
Everyone is also invited to join the Circle of Faith's return to In-Person worship service! To enter the building, use the north side of the Fellowship Hall door.
For those that cannot attend in-person, the link to join by Zoom will also be listed each week in the ONLINE EVENTS calendar in this Newsletter!
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You will still receive emails on FRIDAY & again on SUNDAY with links to the the services online access for Worship & a downloadable Sunday Worship Guide.
Previous Worship Services at Balmoral are still available on the
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WHAT to EXPECT on SUNDAY, JUNE 6 |
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It's an exciting Sunday for everyone!
But it will be different - so here's what to expect.
- Have your mask on when you get out of the car. Masks must remain in place until you are back in your car after the service.
- You may want to bring a sweater, ladies - the air will be set lower than usual to keep air circulation going.
- Enter through the Sanctuary doors.
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Please remember to remain masked and socially distanced as you enter and at all times inside the building.
- A greeter will be at the door to direct you to the bulletins and hand sanitizer stations. Bulletins will be a one sheet of paper.
- Ushers will direct individuals and family groups to seats, seating people from front to back in the sanctuary.
- There will not be any congregational singing during the service.
- At the end of the service, ushers will dismiss congregants in family groups, back to front.
- Please do NOT congregate in the narthex or entry ways and please stay masked and socially distance until in your vehicles.
PLEASE ALSO REVIEW ALL OF THE POLICIES & PROCEDURES for ATTENDING IN-PERSON WORSHIP at BALMORAL IN ARTICLE BELOW.
A special note:
On Sunday, June 6, 2021 at 10:45am, there will be 10 minutes of special gospel guitar music played in the sanctuary before the 11:00am worship service to remember Tom Kernan.
If you do not plan to attend the 10 minutes of music beginning at 10:45am, on Sunday, June 6, 2021, BPC ushers will guide you into the sanctuary to be seated quietly.
We will remember the members of Balmoral Presbyterian Church we have loved and lost during 2020 and 2021 before we begin worship with a moment of silence and the chiming of a bell to honor their memory.
The Introit and Chiming of the Hour of the Worship Service will begin at 11:00 am.
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LIVE STREAM ONLINE WORSHIP |
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Not ready to be indoors in a crowd? Balmoral's service will ALSO be LiveStreamed online as well, for those who want to "be there" but still need to be able to worship at home, remotely. You will receive an email on Friday and again on Sunday morning with a copy of the bulletin and a link to the LiveStream online service. |
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PROTOCOLS for WORSHIP
IN-PERSON BEGINNING JUNE 6
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Balmoral will be opening the building for in-person Worship for both BPC and for Circle of Faith beginning June 6. Those worshipping at Balmoral Presbyterian services will meet in the sanctuary at 11:00am; those worshipping with Circle of Faith will meet at 9:00am in the Fellowship area.
What to Know about Policies and Procedures beginning Sunday, June 6
The BPC COVID-19 Task Force has been intentional about keeping EVERYONE - Worshippers, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, the Worship team and staff, and the SEED staff and children SAFE.
While worshipping at BPC or Circle of Faith services:
- Everyone must wear masks and honor social distancing rules (6 feet) at all times while in the building.
- Masks will be distributed to those who need them before they enter the narthex.
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Worship leaders in some cases will be permitted to remove their masks while speaking at the podium at an 18-foot distance from congregants.
- Vaccinations are encouraged but not required for participating in worship.
- Children are welcome in worship as always. NO CHILD CARE will be provided.
- No food or drink is permitted in the building. Drinking fountains will not be available for use.
- The SEED program areas of the building are RESTRICTED AREAS and should not be entered.
- The kitchen cannot be entered and will not be used.
- There will be no congregational singing.
- But there WILL be participation in music and worship as directed. There will also be soloists and small musical ensembles, using safe protocols.
- During responsive readings and throughout worship, worshippers should remain masked at all times.
- Name tags will NOT be used.
- All hymnbooks, Friendship pads and Children's worship bags have been removed from the sanctuary and are not to be used.
- Hand sanitizer stations will be placed at the sanctuary entry area and use encouraged.
- Bulletins will be at the hand sanitizer stations for worshippers to pick up.
- Worshippers will be asked to take their bulletins home for disposal.
- For entering and exiting the sanctuary, worshippers are asked to follow guidance from ushers. The ushers will direct incoming congregants to seat front to rear. When departing the sanctuary, ushers will direct outgoing congregants to proceed rear to front.
- Balmoral worshippers are asked to continue submitting their tithes and offerings electronically or by mail - Offering plates will NOT be passed in worship.
- There will be no food collection for the Food Cart.
- BPC Worshippers will have access to the restrooms at the end of the hall in the new building. Hand sanitizer will be available there and its use encouraged.
- Sanctuary internal and external doors will be kept open to increase ventilation.
- Circle of Faith worshippers will enter by the side door of the Fellowship area and will use the restroom near the Fellowship area.
- All worship protocols listed above will be used for CofF services as well.
- Hand-sanitizer will be supplied at the entry to the Fellowship area and the restroom and encouraged.
- The person arming and disarming the alarm will use the church office door.
For everyone's safety, we ask that anyone who is experiencing symptoms of illness (EG: sore throat; fever or chills; cough; shortness of breath or difficulty breathing; fatigue; muscle or body aches; headache; new loss of taste or smell; congestion or runny nose; nausea or vomiting; diarrhea) not enter the building and, instead, participate in worship through livestream.
These procedures will be repeated in your Worship email reminders, along with a copy of Sunday's bulletin, on Friday and Sunday mornings. They may also be listed in the weekly BPC COVID-19 Task Force emails.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE: The Church Office will NOT be staffed. Please continue to use your contact lists to reach us!
These procedures are expected to remain in place for June. As the summer progresses, and as (hopefully) numbers of cases & deaths continue to fall, more people getting vaccinated, and new CDC guidelines are issued, the Task Force will be monitoring the situation to see if any changes to these policies should be changed.
A full copy of ALL of the updated Policies and Procedures that were approved at the last Session meeting, is available at the link below.
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VISIONARY PEOPLE:
"WE’LL UNDERSTAND IT BETTER BY AND BY"
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For now, we must be visionary people
‘more moved by our possibilities than our present realities’ says Rev. Dr. Neichelle Guidry, Festival of Homiletics preacher.
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
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LOUISVILLE —
The Rev. Dr. Neichelle Guidry opened a Festival of Homiletics worship service last week by singing a hymn she’s returned to often during the pandemic, “We’ll Understand It Better By and By”:
“When the morning comes/All the saints of God are gathered home/We’ll tell the story how we’ve overcome/For we’ll understand it better by and by.”
“I think of this song, and it’s hard to divorce the lyrics from the memory of mass choirs decked out in robes, rocking from side to side and singing those powerful words,” said Guidry, the Dean of Sisters Chapel and director of the Women in Spiritual Discernment of Ministry (WISDOM) Center at Spelman College in Atlanta.
“We the saints of God will gather in our eschatological home and we will tell the story of how we got there. It will be clear to us how we persevered and made it home to glory, how we endured trials and tribulations and made it over to eternal life on the other side, and why we were born at this time,” Guidry said. “The song talks about hope for the future, and it also speaks to a hope that can hold us in the present.”
Those lyrics make her think of her grandmother, who used to tell her granddaughter when “I was confused about anything, she always said this: ‘You’ll understand it better by and by. Just keep on living.’”
Paul is saying something similar in the text Guidry selected for her sermon, “A Visionary People,” heard by more than 800 people during the final day of the online festival. In 1 Cor. 13:12-13, Paul writes these familiar words: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
“We don’t see everything as we ought to, but we will,” Guidry said. “We will understand it better by and by.”
In the verses of 1 Cor. 13 preceding verse 12, “Paul laid out the case for love. He says we won’t understand it fully until completion comes,” Guidry said. “We need to live in a state of not knowing,” much like we have for the past 15 months, living in multiple pandemics. “For some time, we’ve become accustomed to ambiguity and confusion,” Guidry said, and our vision “is often obscured” by police violence, poverty and hunger, “continuous mass shootings with no legislative intervention in sight,” migrant families “held captive,” misogyny, patriarchy and domestic violence, among others.
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“These are but some of our domestic narratives,” Guidry said. “They threaten our ability to hope and see and pray for a different future.”
“How are we supposed to hope,” Guidry asked, “if right here and right now some of us are literally choking on hopelessness?”
The tools of God “aren’t given to us merely to exist,” Guidry said. “These days are ours to claim, to create. It’s time to become visionary people more moved by our possibilities than by our present realities.” (Photo above: the Rev. Dr. Neichelle Guidry)
It’s time “to become visionary people who can speak our dreams into existence and subvert the apathy that has become our norm,” Guidry said. “This text provides a roadmap to becoming a visionary people.”
The first step is to renew our faith, because “it gets hard to keep our vision when it’s obscured by bad news and hatred,” Guidry said. “We can’t get to a future if all this turmoil is the only thing we see.”
That renewal includes refreshing one’s spiritual sources, also known in Guidry’s tradition as the “spirit of Sankofa,” the symbol taken up by the Co-Moderators of the 224th General Assembly, the Rev. Gregory Bentley and Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart. “You may feel the world is crashing down around you, but it isn’t the first time,” Guidry said. “What happened back then did not break us or stop us from pressing through to the present. We are proof that God is not done yet.”
“Every now and then,” Guidry advised, “remind yourself that this is precisely when God does God’s best work. God is still doing new things. Can we not perceive it?”
We must have hope in a vision. That was ingrained in Guidry at an early age, when preachers she heard “tapped into their sanctified imagination.” Guidry described sermon conclusions in which the preacher “had a full-on conversation with the characters in their text.
They made their stories relatable … I loved it when the preacher would announce, ‘I can see in my sanctified imagination …’ As a child, that’s when I started paying attention. It was almost like the preacher was stepping back in time, stepping into the story and then coming back and reporting on it.”
Preachers must preach with that kind of sanctified imagination, Guidry said.
“Vision is the currency of this moment, and of the future,” Guidry said. “It’s the ability to look at the rubble and say, ‘This is not the end of the story.’”
Finally, we must work in love, Guidry said.
“The glorious truth is, we are already at work” creating the church of the future, Guidry said. “We have been preaching and praying, writing the books, teaching the classes, planting new churches and revitalizing existing ones. Now we get to cast the vision and bring it into the present.”
“Our visionary God,” Guidry said, “promised that the last shall be first, and that there shall be a time when we hunger and thirst no more, when God will wipe away every tear. Because we serve a visionary God, let us live our this visionary prayer,” quoting this ancient Irish prayer: “Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart/Naught be all else to me, save that thou art/Thou my best thought, by day or by night/Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.”
“We are visionary people, and we serve a visionary God,” Guidry said. “We must get to work in love. This is God’s work for God’s people. Thanks be to God.”
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JUNE BOOK CLUB MEETS Tuesday, June 8, 1:30pm |
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All Over But the Shoutin'
by Rick Bragg
will be the subject for our June Book Club. Cathy Bailey will lead our discussion, and we will meet in person on Tuesday, June 8, beginning at 1:30 p.m. at the home of Janice Hill, 2110 Hickory Crest Drive.
The group will meet on the patio where everyone can be within the CDC guidelines for vaccinated individuals to gather together.
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If anyone has questions about the arrangements for the meeting, please give Janice a call at 901-826-9747. |
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IN THE NEWS AROUND MEMPHIS
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SHELBY COUNTY HOLDING ITS OWN
As of 10:00 am today, the Shelby County Health Department reported 38 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths, for a total of 98,757 cases and 1,675 deaths in the county.
The health department said 359,298 people have been vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports almost half of all U.S. adults now have been fully vaccinated and that more than 60% of adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
All good news, but Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi are still in the lowest numbers of vaccinations completed.
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For a PRINTABLE version of the current CDC Mask Guidelines Chart, click on the link below:
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Click the link below to get current locations for VACCINES:
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NOTE: The Daily Memphian provides all COVID-19 related information free of charge at these links as a service to the community.
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For COVID-19 testing information, go to this link:
NOTE: Several CVS and Walgreen's locations are now currently on the updated list at the link above.
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Jack Orians (15), William Warren (25) |
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Every Monday
2:00pm Writer's Group via Zoom
1st & 3rd Thursday of the Month
Ellis Small Group 10:15 am
2nd Tuesday of the Month
BOOK CLUB meets via Zoom
2nd Thursday Evening of the Month
7:00 pm Trouble I've Seen Small Group
1st & 3rd Thursday of the Month
COLONIAL PARK FOOD DRIVE
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Sunday, June 6, 2021
9:00 AM Circle of Faith Worship in the Fellowship Hall and on Zoom
NO SUNDAY STUDIES - NEW CLASSES BEGIN in SEPTEMBER
11:00 AM BPC Worship Service in the Sanctuary & on LiveStream
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
1:30pm Book Club meets on Zoom
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During the week, only authorized personnel and the SEED school are allowed in the building.
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REMINDER: Everyone who comes onto the BPC property MUST WEAR A MASK, including those who are only in the parking lot. NO ONE is allowed in the building without authorization.
We must help to keep the SEED children safe!
Requests for use of the property (including the parking lot) MUST prepare a proposal to the BPC COVID-19 Task Force (Scott Hill, chairperson) for review; the task force will review the proposal, then make a recommendation to the Session for consideration.
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IF ANYONE IS CALLED TO SERVE....
We work every 1st and 3rd Thursday.
Colonial Park UMC
5330 Park Ave
CONTACT SCOTT DAWSON for more INFORMATION
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Pastoral Care this week will be supplied by
Rev. Anne Hagler 901.628.2104 or anneh6616@gmail.com
while Rev. Carla Meisterman is on vacation.
(Rev. Carla Meisterman 901.235.1014
or email carlam@balmoralpc.com)
Session members are your primary contact for ongoing communication. Here's the current contact list:
Lori Blackwelder .... (901) 262-8282 ............... LORIEB1165@yahoo.com
Leiza Collins ........... (901) 246-5031 ..................... leiza1016@gmail.com
Becky DeLoach ...... (901) 489-3369 ............. BeckyMD2905@gmail.com
Barry Dotson .......... (901) 277-1596 ............... barry.dotson@yahoo.com
Janice Hill ............... (901) 826-9747 ................... janicehill81@gmail.com
Beverly Hooker.........(901) 496-1241 ......................... bev.h@earthlink.net
Ted Pearson home: (901) 754-9796 ................... pearsonteda@aol.com
...........................cell: (901) 486-6117
Erich Shultz .............(901) 268-4951 ...................emshultz@bellsouth.net
John Van Nortwick (901) 605-2907 ............ jvnortwick@cornerstone-
systems.com
(NOTE: Many of these Session members are working during the day, so you may want to text them or email them.)
Keep in mind that ANY Balmoral member who is healthy will most likely be happy to help you in case of need as well!
To contact other members, the most-current contact information is available by requesting a copy of the BPC PHONE DIRECTORY from Kathy Singleton by email ksingle2@bellsouth.net or by phone or text to (901) 734-7193.
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BPC Worship
Sunday, May 30, 2021
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Prelude "There is Sunlight in My Soul Today / Sunshine"
John Giler, trombone; Leiza Collins, piano
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Hymns #306 "God of Grace and God of Glory"
and #366 "Love Divine, All Love Excelling"
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Musical Offering "The Spirit of the Lord" |
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COMMUNION
Rev. Anne Hagler
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We have been keeping reference articles in the Newsletter each week throughout the summer. It's time to take them out, BUT some of these may still be helpful, so we will store them and give you links to them, but eliminate them from the body of the newsletter itself. |
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To access a document, simply click on the link name. The document will then open in your browser as a PDF file!
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- Newsletter Articles & Photos should be emailed to Kathy Singleton at ksingle2@bellsouth.net no later than Monday at noon for the week you want the article in the news.
- Bulletin Information should be emailed to Rev. Carla Meisterman, with a copy to Kathy Singleton, no later than Monday noon the week before the Sunday you want the information to appear.
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Prayer Concerns should continue to be submitted via email to Rev. Carla Meisterman (carlam@balmoralpc.com)
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JUNE 2021
online church calendar
The calendar will take a few seconds to load and, once it opens, you will see the month that we are currently in. To see the next month's calendar, click on the arrow pointing down - it is just to the right of the name of the month. Once you click on that arrow, an icon will appear with all the months of the year listed. Click on the month that you want to see. To see a specific date, click on the number of the day you would like to see. The entire 2021 calendar is available to you.
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