Welcome to the Commonplace Blog of Faith Des Peres Presbyterian Church. Weekly updates of events and happenings will be posted here, as well as photos and reminders.
Our grateful acknowledgement goes to Bud Schuller, father of Clarissa Schuller-Meyer, for a special donation. This allowed us to upgrade the childrens' area. Stop by to see the "New, Improved" Nursery
We would like to thank Ben and Ashley Laws and Beth Willock (with family) for completing the nursery updates. Ben assembled our shelving and Beth added the final touches.
With appreciation,
The Faith Formation Team
A congregational meeting is called for Sunday, April 15 to act on the dissolution of Pastor Anne Epling's relationship with Faith Des Peres Presbyterian Church. The meeting will be held in the sanctuary immediately following the worship service. Annie informed Session on March 19, 2018 that she has accepted another call for service as head of staff at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne, Ind. We are excited for Annie and the Epling family for this wonderful opportunity and at the same time are sad to see them leave Faith Des Peres. Please plan to attend the congregational meeting on April 15.
Come join members of Faith Des Peres at Food Outreach on Saturday morning, April 28th. There we will pack food into individual meals that will be given to those living with HIV/AIDS and cancer that are living at or below the poverty level. We start at 8am and are done before 11 am. Food Outreach requests that volunteers be at least 11 years old and in 5th grade. Sign up in the Gathering Space. Food Outreach is located at 3117 Olive Street. Meet us there.
Madeline O’Meara, choir section leader at Faith Des Peres, will be hosting a musical recital on April 28th, 2018 at 7:30 pm in the sanctuary. This is a totally free event, though she will be accepting free will donations if anyone feels inclined to give. All donations will be going towards her tuition for a summer program she is attending this summer. She was accepted to Opera NEO, which is a prestigious music program in San Diego, California. She will be accompanied by Ines de Erausquin. All are welcome and there is NO need to RSVP. If you have any questions, please contact Madeline via email: momeara4477@gmail.com Thank you and we hope to see you there!
Mark your calendars now for Sunday, April 29. That's the day we will celebrate Annie and her time as Faith Des Peres' pastor. The worship service at 10:30 a.m. will be Annie's last Sunday in the FDP pulpit, and Session is planning a special luncheon after church for all of us to spend time with the Epling family and share many fond memories. Hope you can be with us on April 29. More details will be available soon.
Our mission is to be stewards of the Earth and our community, and we invite our friends and neighbors to join us this growing season in our Community Garden. Gardeners of all skill levels are welcome. We encourage those with growing experience to share their knowledge and expertise with new gardeners. For more information visit http://www.faithdesperes.org/mission-index/#community-garden Come Grow with us!
I hope you can join us for GO Sunday! This is the Sunday we serve go out to serve our community because after Easter Jesus told the disciples to go into the world. We have a number of places for people to serve. Don't forget to wear your FDP t-shirt and be here at 10:00!! We start earlier so people don't end too late. Lunch is provided. More information about each site can be found here.
I hope to see you Sunday at 10:00!
Annie
After the resurrection, Jesus told his disciples to “Go!” and this Sunday we’ll do just that! Sunday we’ll go into the community and serve five organizations in our community. Worship on Go! Sunday will be at 10 a.m. and is a brief commissioning service before going out to serve; coffee and doughnuts will be available at 9:30 am.
Our mission is to be stewards of the Earth and our community, and we invite our friends and neighbors to join us this growing season in our Community Garden. Gardeners of all skill levels are welcome. We encourage those with growing experience to share their knowledge and expertise with new gardeners. For more information visit http://www.faithdesperes.org/mission-index/#community-garden Come Grow with us!
We would like to thank Ben and Ashley Laws and Beth Willock (with family) for completing the nursery updates. Ben assembled our shelving and Beth added the final touches.
With appreciation,
The Faith Formation Team
A congregational meeting is called for Sunday, April 15 to act on the dissolution of Pastor Anne Epling's relationship with Faith Des Peres Presbyterian Church. The meeting will be held in the sanctuary immediately following the worship service. Annie informed Session on March 19, 2018 that she has accepted another call for service as head of staff at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne, Ind. We are excited for Annie and the Epling family for this wonderful opportunity and at the same time are sad to see them leave Faith Des Peres. Please plan to attend the congregational meeting on April 15.
Come join members of Faith Des Peres at Food Outreach on Saturday morning, April 28th. There we will pack food into individual meals that will be given to those living with HIV/AIDS and cancer that are living at or below the poverty level. We start at 8am and are done before 11 am. Food Outreach requests that volunteers be at least 11 years old and in 5th grade. Food Outreach is located at 3117 Olive Street. Meet us there.
Mark your calendars now for Sunday, April 29. That's the day we will celebrate Annie and her time as Faith Des Peres' pastor. The worship service at 10:30 a.m. will be Annie's last Sunday in the FDP pulpit, and Session is planning a special luncheon after church for all of us to spend time with the Epling family and share many fond memories. Hope you can be with us on April 29. More details will be available soon.
Dear Faith Des Peres Friends,
I could try and convince you to come to Easter worship (10:30am) because the music will be great, the sanctuary will look beautiful, and the message will have meaning. All of which is true and reason enough to come.
But at the end of the day, I hope you'll come on Easter because you need to hear the Easter story. You need to hear it because Easter is the assurance that whatever happens to you, whatever a day may hold, God has the power to strengthen and uphold you; whatever you may face, you do not face it alone, that nothing you encounter is stronger than God’s love; that ultimately God gets the last word; that in the end, God’s love is triumphant.
You can't get that message at home, on Facebook, at an egg hunt, or eating a Cadbury egg. You just can't.
So I hope you'll come, and I hope you'll invite someone to join you who also needs to hear this message. (Don't we all need to hear this message?)
And when you come, I hope you'll bring lots of food for Feeding the Flock (we're having communion). Because we're also called to practice resurrection, and one way we do that is by serving others.
So I hope you'll come.
Because Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!
Blessings,
Annie
It’s a communion Sunday which means the kids will pull the wagon and collect food for Circle of Concern during the offering time. The idea behind Feeding the Flock is that while we are spiritually fed at Christ’s table, we are called to physically feed others. This is an important outreach ministry of Faith Des Peres, and is one that gets everyone involved. Even if you forgot food today, you can always donate food to Circle of Concern by dropping it off at the church. Thank you.
In the season of Lent, we brought our prayer concerns and uncertainties to the cross as a way of giving those concerns to God. Now at Easter, our prayers and concerns are transformed with the resurrection, because with the resurrection God makes all things new. The cross will remain up through the Easter season which ends on Pentecost Sunday (May 20). Thank you to Ben Laws for making the cross and to the Worship Arts Center for covering it with flowers and our transformed prayers and uncertainties.
A congregational meeting is called for Sunday, April 15 to act on the dissolution of Pastor Anne Epling's relationship with Faith Des Peres Presbyterian Church. The meeting will be held in the sanctuary immediately following the worship service. Annie informed Session on March 19, 2018 that she has accepted another call for service as head of staff at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Wayne, Ind. We are excited for Annie and the Epling family for this wonderful opportunity and at the same time are sad to see them leave Faith Des Peres. Please plan to attend the congregational meeting on April 15.
Mark your calendars now for Sunday, April 29. That's the day we will celebrate Annie and her time as Faith Des Peres' pastor. The worship service at 10:30 a.m. will be Annie's last Sunday in the FDP pulpit, and Session is planning a special luncheon after church for all of us to spend time with the Epling family and share many fond memories. Hope you can be with us on April 29. More details will be available soon.
One Great Hour of Sharing 2018
Faith Des Peres is collecting the One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) offering on today. OGHS is a Presbyterian Church (USA) ministry that supports Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Hunger Program, and Self Development of People. This year’s goal is $1750. Help us help others. Thank you.
We have five great projects for Go! Sunday 2018, outlined below. Don’t forget to sign up in the Gathering Space.
Blanket Making (FDP Gathering Space) – Mary Dingus will lead this project to make 9 – 10 fleece tie-blankets for children at Children’s Hospital. No sewing skills needed! If you have good cloth-cutting scissors or shears, please bring them. We need 10 – 12 volunteers for this project. Community Garden (FDP Garden) – Jim Gerst will lead this project to prepare our Community Garden for the spring planting season. FDP donates some of the food grown in our garden to Circle of Concern, where we also donate food through our Feeding Our Flock food collection each month. This group will help prepare the top soil and get the garden ready for spring planting. Bring gardening tools and gloves if you have them. We need 8 – 10 volunteers for this project. Lydia’s House (Location will be provided to team) – Erica Abbett will lead this project. We will meet at the Lydia’s House corporate offices and then travel to our work location, where we will do light yard work (mulching, weeding), planting of potted flowers and general clean up in the front yard. FDP will provide flowers, planters and mulch. Please bring yard work and gardening tools, gloves. We need 8 – 10 volunteers for this project. Buddy Packs (FDP Fellowship Hall/Basement) – Gina Bright will lead this project, which will include packing 100-plus Buddy Packs for April delivery, plus doing inventory of current Buddy Pack supplies and cleaning and organizing the Buddy Pack storage closet and room. We need 8 – 10 volunteers for this project. Provident Mental Health Awareness Ribbon Making (FDP Adult Discussion Room) – May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Barb Abbett will lead this project to make 500 green Mental Health Awareness ribbons that Provident, which provides mental health counseling and suicide prevention/intervention support, will send to friends, donors and staff in early May. Provident will provide ribbon and safety pins for this project. Please bring scissors for this project. We need 6 – 8 volunteers for this project. Lunch Makers – We need five people to make lunches for our Go! Sunday volunteers. Each lunch maker will be assigned to a Go! Sunday project and will pack lunches for the number of people signed up for that project. Lunches can be lunch meat sandwiches and should include a small piece of fruit and small bag of chips. Numbers will be communicated to lunch makers by Thursday, April 5. Bottled Water – We are also looking for people to donate approximately 80 bottles of water (2 bottles per volunteer) for our Go! Sunday volunteers. Please contact Erica Abbett if you can donate water and let her know how many bottles you will provide.
Worship on Go! Sunday will be at 10 a.m. and is a brief commissioning service before going out to serve; coffee and doughnuts will be available at 9:30 am.
