Earlier this month, per the recommendation of the COVID Task Force, the session approved a motion to begin resuming some of the worship practices that had been suspended throughout the course of the pandemic. One such practice is the regular rotation of volunteer ushers.

As we begin the process of organizing head ushers for each month of the upcoming year, we wanted to take a moment to thank a few people who have faithfully tended to this responsibility in order to minimize the number of people interacting in worship:

Tripp Hinkle, Marianne Cone, and Bobbie Thurlow have devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy over the last year to opening the sanctuary, ensuring everything was in order and sign up genius arrangements clear, and tending to all the clean up and lock up responsibilities. They have taken on these tasks for almost an entire year so that the rest of us could enjoy in person worship. When you have a moment, please share your appreciation!

Now, it's time to offer them a period of rest and get back to ushering! Below we have provided sign up genius links for both head ushers and ushering teams. If you have never served as head usher before, there is a newly edited guide and plenty of volunteers and staff that will be happy to walk you through the process.

This commitment is for the 11am service only.

HEAD USHER SIGN UP:

(This person coordinates the ushering team, manages the offering, and closes up the sanctuary at the end of the service. These volunteers typically sign up for a month at a time, but you can split your month with another individual if that works better for your schedule.)

USHERING TEAM SIGN UP:

(Beginning in March we will resume the passing of the offering plate. In addition to other duties, these are the ushers who pass the plate during the service. These volunteers typically sign up for a week at a time. This is a great opportunity for youth to be involved in worship!)

If you have any questions you'd like to ask before signing up, please do not hesitate to contact our current Head Usher Coordinator, Tripp Hinkle at jah0095@auburn.edu

With thanks for all who have served and hope for the year that is to come,

Kathy & Nick

9 a.m. - Worship with communion in the sanctuary

9:45 a.m. - Sunday School

11 a.m. - Worship in the sanctuary

Kathy Rushing will be out of the office on jury duty February 7-18. Please email staff to make an appointment if you plan on coming up to the church during the week.

Masks are still required, and for contact tracing purposes a sign-in sheet will be placed on the small table outside the kitchenette where you will be asked to provide your name and the date/time/purpose of your visit. Small group gatherings must still be arranged with your designated staff person. Thank you for your patience and understanding as the staff continues to operate without designated volunteers to answer the door and phones.

Circle 1 will meet at 9:30 a.m. at Becky Buchanan's, 1245 Grove Park, Auburn.

Circle 2 will meet via zoom at 9:30 a.m.

Circle 3 will meet at 2:30 p.m. in the church library.

If you are not already in a PW Circle and would like to join, you are most welcome. Circle leaders are Barbara Dunham #1 (229.881.2957), Susan Stanley #2 (334.203.1951), and Barbara Fletcher #3 (334.203.1484).

During its Zoom on-line meeting on January 17, the Session…

• learned that the church’s income for December 2021 was $113,008; expenses, $65,357; and net income, $47,651; and, for January through December 2021, income was $769,199; expenses, $727,431; and net income, $41,769;

• elected Barbara Fletcher session clerk for 2022;

• approved postponing presentation of the 2022 budget for approval until the March meeting and giving the Finance Committee authority to pay normal operating budget expenses and emergency expenses as they occur until the annual budget has been approved;

• approved the Annual Report to the General Assembly; and

• learned that eleven students and chaperone Catherine Wolfe attended the college retreat at Montreat in January.

Editor’s Note - Though he did not include this excerpt from the meeting minutes in his notes: The Clerk of Session (Barbara Fletcher) as well as the entire FPC Session expresses their sincere thanks to Terry Ley, who faithfully edits the session minutes each month and summarizes them for newsletter purposes. We are grateful for his gifts and faithful use of his red pen!

Church members may read the complete, approved minutes for this meeting in the church office. The next stated meeting will be February 21 at 6:15 p.m. via Zoom.

As we start the new semester, I hope you will join me in praying for and supporting the students to call us a church home away from home. One way to support UKirk is to sign up to provide a meal for our Sunday evening dinners and Bible studies. Every Sunday at 7pm, about 15 students gather to share a meal and then to dig into scripture together. Providing a meal is a tangible way to show our love and care of the college students, and it’s also a great way to get to know them. And, if cooking isn’t your speciality, you are welcome to cater a meal from a restaurant or donate to the UKirk Meal Fund (please make a check out to FPC with “UKirk Meal Fund” in the memo line).

You can find more details and the sign up to provide a meal here.

Caroline Barnett

We have a new Sign-up Genius page for those wishing to provide flowers for the Sanctuary! If you would like to cover the cost of flowers for Sunday morning worship, please sign up for a date here: https://tinyurl.com/Sanctuaryfloral.

If you are unable to sign up online, you may contact Sarah Wolak at 334-728-7853 to sign up for a date. While the Sign-Up Genius page only has one slot available for each week, you are welcome to split the cost with another family-- just be sure to write both names in the comments section. The cost of the flowers has been increased to $50 per arrangement, not including tax and delivery fee. As before, you are welcome to bring the arrangements home after the service, or to leave them to be delivered to other members of the congregation.

On January 3, the FPC Session approved the following recommendation from our COVID Task Force:

As a result of this new policy, here is what you can expect over the next several weeks in worship:

Many thanks to our COVID Task Force and Session members for continuing to discern measures for our congregation that will do our best to ensure the health and safety of our members, friends, and visitors.

All updates on our current COVID policies can be found at www.fpcauburn.org/covid

The Community Market is in the process of transitioning back to personal choice shopping from their pandemic distribution model. As a result, they are looking for individuals/groups to join them in this effort. At this time the FPC Mission Committee is considering how to coordinate this through the church, however we do not want our planning to slow things down! If you are interested in volunteering soon, we encourage you to contact Mattie Subba directly: msubba@foodbankofeastalabama.com, 334.749.8844

Please look for more details to come in the weeks ahead on how you can support the Community Market and East Alabama Food Bank through FPC's Mission Committee programming.

Children Pre-K through 5th grade

•   The nursery is now available from 9 a.m. until noon on Sunday mornings for children birth to age 3.

•   Godly Play: After the Word to Grow By (at 11 a.m. worship), children ages 4 to 1st Grade will go to the Godly Play room to worship together for the remainder of the worship service.

•   Children’s Sunday school will meet this Sunday from 9:45 – 10:45 upstairs in the children’s classrooms.

•   Worship bags are also available for all children during worship.

•   Masks are required indoors for children 3 & over and youth, as well as all adults working with them.

Jr. and Sr. High Youth

•   Food Project Saturday Mission Event: Saturday, Feb. 12, our Jr. and Sr. High youth will volunteer at the Food Bank and assist with collecting, weighing, and sorting food items. We will meet in the church parking lot at 8:30am and ride together over to the Food Bank. We will return to the church by noon. Closed-toed shoes are required. Don’t miss this awesome opportunity to lend a hand to those in our community who struggle with food insecurity!

•   Jr. and Sr. High Sunday school meets weekly from 9:45 – 10:45am upstairs in the Sr. High room.

•   Jr. High youth will meet at 4pm

•   Sr. High Youth will meet at 5pm

•   1st Wednesday Youth Fellowship, Feb. 2, 7-8pm

Birthdays

Jan. 30 - Eunice Bonsi

Feb. 1 - Paul Dimick

Feb. 3 - Jamie Wheeles

Feb. 4 - Sally Boswell, Emmett Winn

Feb. 5 - Kelly Cochran

Hope everyone is having a great week! Here are the prayer concerns for our congregation: