Windows

August 24, 2023

Service Opportunities

A Place to Be, Family Promise’s day center for unhoused people in Bristol, always needs donations to support operations and provide for patrons. Most needed are blankets, backpacks, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, and men’s and women’s underwear, pants, jackets, shoes, and T-shirts. Try to keep these in mind as you glean things from your closets and shelves.

To donate items, email Dottie Havlik at [email protected] or text her at 423-956-6747. She will receive and deliver your donations, including snacks.

Another way to assist with this local effort for our unhoused neighbors is to volunteer to serve an occasional meal at the day center, as we do for Sharing Christ. We need a group of people to provide the components for a hot lunch (casseroles, hot veggies, fruit, dessert) and folks willing to go to the day center for a couple of hours midday to set up, serve, clean up, and perhaps visit with some of the patrons. If you can help in any way with this meal, please contact Beth Flannagan at 423-956-3837 or by email.

Be a Reading Buddy

Reading Buddies is gearing up for another school year. Thirty minutes of your time will make a huge difference in the life of the elementary student you will partner with! Last spring’s reading scores underline the importance of this help to elementary school students. Please email Kay Ward to let her know you want to be part of this important program with Bristol Tennessee City Schools.

Our Choir Wants You!

The Sanctuary Choir has resumed weekly rehearsals on Wednesdays at 7:15 p.m. Come sing with us! The choir is a welcoming place for all singers, young and old. We would love to start our year with some new faces. If you have an interest in or any questions about the choir, email Pat Flannagan.

Student Fall Retreat

Labor Day Weekend

Sixth through 12th graders, sign up for a Labor Day weekend of fun and fellowship with your friends! Student Ministries invites you to our Fall Retreat weekend at Look Up Lodge in Travelers Rest, SC. This is an annual favorite that you won't want to miss! We will leave from the church Saturday morning and return Monday afternoon. The price is $200 and includes transportation, lodging, meals, camp activities, and programming. Sign up to go by submitting the registration form and paying the nonrefundable $50 deposit. Pay online here. Choose “Fall Retreat” in the drop-down menu. If you have any questions, email Katie Arnold or call or text her a 770-296-1671.

Get the Latest on Our Summer Missions Wednesday Night

After our fellowship dinner next Wednesday, August 30, we will hear the latest on our summer mission work with Montana Indian Ministries and Great Escape. Bob Green, John Bechtold, and Anna Booher will tell us about our team’s work in Montana this summer. Katie Arnold and her youth interns will bring us up-to-date on Great Escape. The meal will be at 5:30 in the fellowship hall, and the Adult Enrichment program will begin at 6:15 in the chapel. Please join us!

Gifts to the Church

Memorials and honoraria are published in the newsletter only after the family has been personally notified by our business office. Today we gratefully acknowledge a gift to the Brazil Fund in honor of Bud and Marge Branscomb’s 60th wedding anniversary.

Organist's Footnotes

Gaston Gilbert Litaize (1909–1991) was born in Ménil-sur-Belvitte, Vosges, in northeast France. An illness caused him to lose his sight just after birth. He entered the Institute for the Blind at a young age, studying with Charles Magin, who encouraged him to move to Paris and study with Magin and Adolphe Marty at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Youth), which he did from 1926 to 1931. Concurrently, he entered the Conservatoire de Paris in October 1927, studying with Marcel Dupré and Henri Büsser, as well as privately with Louis Vierne. Over the course of six years, he won first prizes in organ, improvisation, fugue, and composition, as well as the Prix Rossini for his cantata Fra Angelico. In 1938 he finished second to Henri Dutilleux in the Prix de Rome, said to be the first time that a blind person was accepted in the competition.

He began working as organist at Saint-Cloud in 1934. After leaving the Paris Conservatoire in 1939, he returned to the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles to teach harmony. In 1944 he began a 30-year directorship of religious radio programs, where he oversaw five weekly broadcasts. He took up a position in 1946 at St François-Xavier, Paris, where he remained the organist until his death. In 1975 he retired from radio and began teaching organ at St Maur-des-Fossés Conservatoire, where he gained numerous disciples. He died in 1991 in Bruyères, Vosges.

Litaize composed Douze Pieces (Twelve Pieces) early in his career (1931–1937). He dedicated “Prière” (“Prayer,” our opening voluntary) to the memory of Philippe Montégut, who taught singing at the National Institute for Blind Youth for more than 30 years. This slow-moving piece builds tension with dissonant harmonies and increasing registration, then subsides without resolving that tension. “Scherzo” (our offertory) is a playful piece meant to be played blindingly fast (pardon the pun). It is marked “vivace e leggiero” (“lively and light”) with a metronome marking of the dotted-quarter-note = 84. Perhaps Jean Langlais, to whom this piece is dedicated (“á mon ami Jean Langlais”) was able to perform it at that tempo. Litaize dedicated his exciting “Toccata sur le Veni Creator” (our closing voluntary) “to my dear teacher Henri Büsser.” Hopefully, it will be exciting enough at a more playable tempo, considerably slower than his indication of the half-note = 112.

We want to pray for and celebrate with you! Send us your prayer requests and glad tidings.



To the Church Triumphant

Wayne Ausmus

August 21, 2023

Nancy Carter

August 23, 2023

In Our Prayers

We have several unnamed or private requests. Please pray for the members of our community

who wish to remain anonymous.

The session continues to encourage masks for those at higher risk of complications from COVID-19 or not fully vaccinated. The session encourages everyone to consult their medical professional about vaccinations and boosters.

Monday is the deadline for contributions to Windows. Subscribe to our free e-newsletter by sending your name and preferred email address to the editor.

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We encourage you to use text, mail, or our website to safely continue your faithful support of our ministries. Give online here; choose a fund from the drop-down menu. Text fpcbristol to 73256 to send your pledge, offering, or special gift to the church. Messages and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. Text HELP to 73256 for help. Text STOP to 73256 to cancel. If you prefer, you may mail your contribution to the church.

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