We have returned to limited, in-person worship, with masks, distancing, limited seating, and other safety measures, and resumed our normal schedule of 9:00 contemporary and 11:00 traditional worship. We are having hybrid Sunday School classes for youth, with an in-person and online offerings. Adult classes have resumed as normal. We are offering a limited nursery, the size of which will depend on the availability of volunteers and staff to work it. We also have Kids’ Kirk and other activities.

We are now livestreaming both the 11:00 service and the 9:00 services. You can stream our services on YouTube here or on our Facebook page, or replay them through the video player on our website.

The Stewardship Committee is excited to announce that God has richly blessed our 2021 Stewardship pledge campaign. Thanks to your faithfulness and generosity, we are only $6,000 away from meeting our 2021 pledge goal of $653,000. These gifts will allow our church to continue all its vital ministries to our local community and our mission partners overseas. Join us in our prayers of thanksgiving to our heavenly Father! And as long as you’re in the clouds, watch the video we prepared in our gratitude to the congregation.

If you have not yet pledged and would like to do so, please contact the church office for assistance. As we look toward the easing of this pandemic, we can all seek to offer our gifts of time and talent (as well as our financial resources), serving God together as one body.

With grateful hearts,

Your FPC Stewardship Committee (Blake Bassett, Rhonda Comer, Chase Mitchell, Laura Ong, Matt Peltier, Karen Pennington, Annette Tudor, and John Vann)

Please join our community online for a virtual prayer meeting this Friday! Bring your heart, your burdens, and your faith as we draw near to God in prayer.

Topic: FPC Community Prayer

Time: February 5, 7:00 p.m.

Join Zoom meeting here.

Meeting ID: 826 4875 1043

One-tap mobile:

+13017158592,,82648751043# US (Washington D.C)

+13126266799,,82648751043# US (Chicago)

We are collecting Goldfish, the little cheese crackers, for the students of our neighborhood school. Please leave your contributions in the corner of the Fellowship Hallway where the little house usually stands. It will return anon. Thank you!

Sunday’s prelude, “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir” (“From deep affliction I cry out to you”), is a Lutheran hymn of 1524 with lyrics, by Martin Luther, paraphrasing Psalm 130. Johann Sebastian Bach’s setting (BWV 686) employs a counterpoint of six voices, including a double pedal with the cantus firmus in the tenor voice. In 1873 the Bach scholar Philipp Spitta singled out this chorale prelude as follows: “It is significant of Bach’s manner of feeling that he should choose this chorale for the crowning point of his work. For it cannot be questioned that this chorale is its crowning point, from the ingenuity of the part-writing, the wealth and nobility of the harmonies, and the executive power which it requires.”

The music for communion is Dale Wood’s 1974 setting of the African-American hymn “Let Us Break Bread Together.” Wood (1934–2003) was Editor Emeritus of The Sacred Music Press; Organist and Choirmaster of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin in San Francisco, CA; and Director of Grace Cathedral Boys’ Chorus, San Francisco.

Sunday’s postlude, “A Thornbury Fanfare” by Malcolm Archer (b. 1952), is dedicated to Robert Hall and the centenary of the organ at Thornbury Church in Bristol, England. Archer’s distinguished career in church music has taken him to the posts of Organist and Director of Music at three English cathedrals, Bristol, Wells, and St Paul’s, and for 11 years, Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College. He has for many years directed the choir for the Jean Langlais Festival in France. It was my pleasure to sing under his direction one summer at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians Worship and Music Conference in Montreat, NC. /Bob Greene

David Akard Jr.: to the Local Missions Fund from Trulafaye Tolliver Baer, from Bob & Joday Blevins, from BTES, from Charles & Peggy Carter, from Dillow-Taylor Funeral Home, from Stephanie Elliott, from Rita Gayewski, from Jones Family & Staff of Anderson-Laws & Jones Funeral Home, from Julie King, from Betty Kirksey, from Larry & Janice Kiser, from Gene & Kathy Kistner, from Jason, Alicia & Max Mumpower, from Randy, Lucie & Rachel Petty, from Craig & Brennan Rockett, from Dotty Royston, from Russell County Funeral Home dba Combs Funeral Home, from Rebecca Rutherford, from Kay Stueve, from Mr. & Mrs. Jack Woolley; to the Minister’s Discretionary Fund from Diane Harrison

Mack Calcote: to the Capital Campaign Fund from Manfred Stibbe

In honor of:

Donna & Roger Sikorski: from Lynn & Angel Dougherty

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