Jacques-Richard Chery (Haitian, 1928–), The Tree of Life, 1982. Acrylic on cloth.

The Easter Egg Hunt planned for last Saturday had to duck out of the rain, but it will be back this Saturday, April 3, at 1:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing children (age 18 months to fourth grade) and their adult companions, then! We will dye and hunt for eggs and pet the bunnies in the Bunny Truck!

This year, children may leave the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services during the sermon, as they do for Kids’ Kirk. Tonight, Maundy Thursday, through a small seder, Pastor Sam will teach the children about the meaning of Passover and how it points to Jesus. Tomorrow, Good Friday, Pastor Dave will teach the children about the crucifixion. Both services will begin at 7:00 p.m., and the nursery will be open. For more information, contact Lilly Osborne.

Grab your tap shoes, dust off that trumpet, teach your old dog new tricks! You guessed it—it's time to get ready for our annual Talent Show! This year we will hold it outside 4:00 p.m. on April 25. Instead of having a chili cook-off, we will have dinner for purchase.

Also on April 25, the Children’s Ministries will celebrate Earth Day at 3:00. We will plant some new trees and a butterfly garden! Parents, bring your children and come prepared to get your hands dirty! For more information, contact Lilly Osborne.

As cases of COVID-19 climb in Brazil and are followed by more deaths, many people are struggling to support their families under lockdowns and lost jobs. Our partner churches in Felipe Camarão and Cidade Nova in Natal are sharing love and hope with bags of food. Working together, the two churches packed 170 bags of food staples and distributed them Saturday. Each bag contained enough to sustain each family for a couple of weeks, and our partners plan to distribute more in April. Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Natal as they share the saving love and unending hope of Jesus Christ, especially this Easter Week, in the face of their challenges.

Randy Cook (April 1–3) heeds the call to prepare the way of the Lord by mowing the church lawn for Holy Week events and looking for disciples to help with future mowing (see below). JB Madison (April 7–10) will carry on the good work in the first week of Easter.

The FPC mowing team welcomes everyone—children can help by moving debris to the curb so that a parent or elder sibling can mow. Volunteers suit their own convenience by mowing as often as they choose (which may be only once) during the growing season. To get a place on the schedule, contact Randy at [email protected] or 423-956-1541. If you’re new to Scag mowers, he will be happy to give you a lesson on ours.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch the livestream of our early worship service and other activities. Just click here and hit “Subscribe.” You will receive notifications of new videos. We also suggest that you connect to us on Facebook. On Facebook, type in “FPC Bristol,” and several accounts will show up. Some are open to the public, while others are restricted. In either case, “Like” the page, or ask to join a group if it is closed.

Ron Grubbs: to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Peggy Peters, from Bill & Patsy Ward

Peggy Peters (sister of Dee Eldreth): to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Bill & Patsy Ward

Tony Raccioppo: to the Technology Fund from Cora Lee Raccioppo

Jim Wiseman: to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Peggy Peters

Music for Maundy Thursday: The Handbell Choir will play an arrangement of “Ah, Dearest Jesus” by John A. Behnke (b. 1953) for our prelude. Behnke is Emeritus Professor of Music of Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin, where for 29 years he taught organ and church music courses and directed The Alleluia Ringers, Concordia’s touring handbell choir.

The music for communion is an arrangement of the shape-note hymn KEDRON by Dale Wood (1934–2003). Wood’s “Meditation on KEDRON” employs the use of wedges to hold down two keys to create a drone. Since its publication in Southern Harmony in 1835, the tune KEDRON has been paired with the Charles Wesley text: “Thou Man of grief, remember me, Who never canst Thyself forget. Thy last expiring agony, Thy fainting pangs and bloody sweat.”

The postlude, “Toccata on Breslau,” by Brian Solomons (b. 1948) is based on the tune BRESLAU, originally found in As Hymnodus Sacer (1625). It is most commonly sung as “Take up thy cross, the Savior said,” although many, many other texts have used this tune as well.

Music for Good Friday: I will play one of my own compositions, “Organ Interlude,” from The Seven Last Words of Christ. This piece follows the Fourth Word, Eli, eli, lama sabachthani? (“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”). Upon hearing Christ’s exclamation, the mob mistakenly thinks Jesus is calling to Elijah, the greatest of the Hebrew Prophets. The Fourth Word concludes with their words, “Let be, let us see if Elijah will come and save him.” The Organ Interlude gives the sense of time passing as the onlookers wait, watch, and wonder what, if anything, will happen.

Music for Easter Sunday: The offertory and postlude will be the last two (of five) movements of Charles-Marie Widor’s (1844–1937) Symphony for Organ No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42, No. 1, the Adagio and the famous Toccata. Widor composed his “organ symphony” in 1879 and made numerous revisions in later years. I will endeavor to follow the composer’s metronome markings, which makes for a faster Adagio and a somewhat slower Toccata than one often hears from organists who use this piece to show off. At the age of 25, Widor was appointed provisional organist of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, the most prominent position for a French organist. The organ was the masterwork of the great, innovative 19th-century organ builder Cavaillé-Coll, and its spectacular capabilities surely inspired Widor. He remained the “provisional” organist at Saint-Sulpice for nearly 64 years!

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