Back-to-School Blessing + Food Sunday, August 6

We invite all students to bring their bookbags and backpacks Sunday, August 6, for a special blessing as we begin another school year. Please fill your bookbags with items for Athens Area Emergency Food Bank: fruit juice, ramen noodles, salty snack foods (chips, cheese and peanut butter crackers, roasted nuts, etc).

You may also bring food to the church office until Friday, August 4. Alternatively, you may take your donations directly to the Athens Area Emergency Food Bank 9:00 a.m. - noon, Monday-Friday at 640 Barber Street, Athens, 30601. Please put supplies on loading dock at far end of building. Thanks for your donations in July - our neighbors in need are grateful!

Back-to-School Biscuits and Faith Formation Leader Workshop, August 6

This Sunday, August 6, all are invited to celebrate the beginning of the new school year with a biscuit brunch after the morning worship service.

The Faith Formation Leader Gathering that was planned for 11:30 a.m. in Fellowship Hall breakout area has been postponed to a future date. If you have any questions, please contact Rev. Leigh Bonner at lbonner@firstpresathens.org.

New Member FirstThings Class

Join us for our next FirstThings gathering on Sunday, August 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. This will be a time to get better acquainted, to meet the church staff, and to talk about what makes First Presbyterian Church unique. A light lunch will be provided. Please call the church office (706-543-4338) or e-mail Lucy Bell Johnson at lbell@firstpresathens.org by Wednesday, August 16, to make a reservation. Child care available upon request.

August Matthew 25 Trip

The Matthew 25 Commission plans to annually lead tours to various Civil Rights Trail sites. For the first trip, scheduled for Saturday, August 19, 2023, we will stay close to home with a visit to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

The MLK National Park Walking Tour will take about two hours and includes the visitor center exhibit, historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church: New Horizon Sanctuary, the National Civil Rights Walk of Fame, the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Dr. King’s Tomb, and King’s early home. At the National Center for Civil and Human Rights we will see an evocatively designed building that expresses the civil and human rights theme through its architecture. Inside the doors, you will visit a series of exhibits and galleries, which trace the journey from Martin Luther King, Jr., the broader civil rights era from the segregation of Jim Crow to King’s Assassination, to an international human rights movement.

RSVP (tinyurl.com/FPCM25Trip) will be needed by noon on Tuesday, August 15. A maximum of 14 people may ride in the church van, but if more are interested in the trip, we will arrange for ride sharing opportunities. For more information and questions, please contact Dan Nadenicek at dnadeni@uga.edu or call (706) 540-6013.

Itinerary:

 8:00 a.m.: Leave from church parking lot

 9:45 a.m.: MLK Park tour

12:00 p.m.: Lunch (location TBD)

 1:15 p.m.: National Center for Civil and Human Rights visit

 4:30 p.m.: Picnic and discussion at Leigh Bonner and Adam Graham’s home

 8:00 p.m.: Arrive back in Athens (those needing to arrive home earlier will be accommodated)

Summer Choir

Join us for Summer Choir! We will meet in the choir room at 9:15 a.m. on Sundays to rehearse music for that morning’s service, and sing at 10:00 a.m. worship service. Our Chancel Choir will be the foundation of this group. For more information, contact John Coble at jcoble@firstpresathens.org.

News from Family Promise of Athens

We are running low on supplies at our static site and day center! Please go to our Amazon wishlist here, or drop items off at our Day Center (First Baptist: 355 Pulaski Street) or our Static Site (Milledge Avenue Baptist Church: 1690 S Milledge Ave).

Click here to read August@First.