The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice will hold a grand opening and homecoming celebration on Saturday, September 7 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. The center is located in Durham at 906 Carroll St. All are welcome.

You are invited to a special showing of the film Origin on Saturday, August 24.  FPC will host two screenings.  The first will be from 2:00-4:00, and the second screening will be from 6:00-8:00. A discussion will take place over a pizza dinner at 5:00 pm in Watts-Hill Fellowship Hall.

Origin is a highly acclaimed film and dramatic, poignant narrative that follows Isabelle Wilkerson’s inspiration and research while writing the book Caste: The Origins of our Discontent. The book topped the New York Times non-fiction best seller list.  The film Origin follows Wilkerson as she considers the ways in which caste operates through American racism from slavery through the modern day, anti-Semitism during WWII, and the caste system in India.  It explores the ways in which oppression and marginalization  of groups may be clothed differently in distinct moments of time and space, yet share the same insidious origins.  FPC’s Racial Equity Task Force invites you to watch this autobiographical film that is simultaneously disturbing, hopeful, and all together moving.  We hope we can also reflect on the questions the film raises and what it calls us to do.

Please sign up HERE and let us know your preferences if you’d like to join us for pizza.  We would appreciate a reply by Thursday, August 22, though you are welcome to come to either showing of the film without a reservation.

 Thursday, July 4 from 10:00-11:30 a.m.

Stagville Plantation at  5925 Jock Rd, Bahama NC

Join fellow FPC members at the annual community reading at Stagville Plantation of Frederick Douglass’ 1852 July 4th address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.”  The reading is outdoors from 10:00-11:30 a.m.  Bring a chair and your own copy of the address.  Link to the reading:

https://historicsites.nc.gov/news/events/frederick-douglass-community-reading-2024

Thank you to the 23 donors who showed up on Thursday, August 1 to give blood. You helped make our summer blood drive a success!

We will hold another blood drive on Thursday, November 7 from 1:00-6:00 p.m. in the fellowship hall of the church.

If you are healthy and it will be over 50 days since your last blood donation, please sign up to give. Most donations take about an hour.

Go online to schedule your appointment:

RedCrossBlood.org. FPC’s code is firstpres. 

Walk-ins are also welcome.

For more information on giving blood, contact Julie Whiddon (919-730-6673), FPC’s organizer and Red Cross volunteer.

The church office and day school will be closed on Wednesday, June 19 in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.

Juneteenth Day (June 19th of every year) marks Major General Gordon Granger’s announcement of the abolition of slavery in Galveston, Texas on June 19th, 1865. His arrival came two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, but was big news to those still enslaved in the state. However, freedom has never been a straight forward process. For many, proclamations and amendments were simply words. 

For those looking to research and share African American history during and after the Civil War, the Presbyterian Historical Society has a number of resources available including: 

African American History Blogs

Blog Posts

Topical Guides

Presbyterians and the Civil War

Presbyterians and Civil Rights

Collection Guides 

Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Missions for Freedmen Records

Guide to the United Presbyterian Church of North America Board of American Missions Dept. of Negro Work Records

Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Council on Church and Race Records

This Juneteenth, make learning about the history of emancipation (and the many events that followed) a core part of your celebration.

For more information on the resources held at PHS, contact [email protected].  

The Stewardship Committee is inviting all members to participate in an online Time & Talent Survey to connect members to ministries of our congregation. 

Please take 5 minutes to complete it using this link: https://forms.gle/Ts8UqmQUcfpr2rG37

Please submit your completed survey by May 21^st.

A paper copy of the survey is available for members who do not have online access. Pick up a copy from the table in the foyer. Please return your completed survey to the church (box in the foyer) by the requested deadline.

Link to view live stream service

On Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. a Service of Ordination will be held for Heidi Biermann in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church, Durham. Heidi is being ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament by the Presbytery of New Hope.

Maundy Thursday – March 28

Evening Worship at 7:00 p.m. in the FPC Sanctuary Watch live – A worship service with Holy Communion to commemorate Jesus’ last supper.  This service will include a stripping of the chancel.

Good Friday – March 29

Stations of the Cross at 12 Noon around Downtown Durham – A spiritual pilgrimage of the Holy Week texts in Durham’s downtown context, beginning at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and ending in FPC’s sanctuary.

Service of Tenebrae at 7:00 p.m. in the FPC Sanctuary – An ancient service that makes use of gradually diminishing light through the extinguishing of candles. This increasing darkness symbolizes the approaching darkness of Jesus’ death and of hopelessness in the world without God.

Easter Sunday – March 31

10:00 a.m.  Easter Welcome Snack (Watts-Hill Hall) watch live – 11:00 a.m.  Worship and Communion in the FPC sanctuary (Mindy Douglas, preaching)

The One Great Hour of Sharing Offering (will be received to provide relief to the hungry, poor, oppressed, and those affected by natural disasters.  A specially marked envelope will be provided in the bulletin for this offering on Easter Sunday. You can also give (DONATE) online via this website.

Please join us for the 2024 McPherson Lectureship on Sunday, March 10, with Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School.

Dr. Jennings is a graduate of Calvin College, later earning the M. Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary and the Ph.D. in Religion and Ethics from Duke University. He taught at Duke Divinity School and served as the interim pastor of several North Carolina Churches, before accepting his current position at Yale. Jennings is an ordained Baptist minister who is widely recognized for his writing in the areas of liberation theologies, cultural identities, and anthropology. He is the author of The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale, 2010), Acts: A Commentary, The Revolution of the Intimate (Westminster/John Knox, 2017), and After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging (Eerdmans, 2020).

If you’d like to order copies of Dr. Jennings’ books in advance from Rofhiwa Books, please use this link.

Sunday, February 25 and March 3

In anticipation of Dr. Jennings’ visit, we will discuss some broad ideas from his writings in the Faith and Community Faith Formation Class. Steve Rimmer and Lea Bingham will lead the discussion on February 25, and  Susan Dunlap will lead the class on February 3. Participants could re-read Chapters 1-10 of the Book of Acts in preparation.

Sunday, March 10

Dr. Jennings will be speaking at the following events:

9:45-10:45       Faith and Community Faith Formation Class, Watts-Hill Hall

11:00-12:00     Worship Service

3:30-5:00         Community Conversation Watts-Hill Hall (childcare available, but please RSVP  by calling the church office)

The McPherson Lectureship is dedicated to enriching the faith and life of First Presbyterian Church as well as the Durham, NC community. This lectureship is made possible through an endowment initially given to FPC by the McPherson family in memory of lifelong members Dr. and Mrs. Samuel D. McPherson, Sr, and Dr. Samuel D. McPherson, Jr. It was established in 1999 by Mrs. Margaret “Peaches” McPherson (wife of Dr. McPherson, Jr.) and her family. Following Mrs. McPherson’s passing in 2018, the lectureship now also honors her life of service and generosity.

Monday, March 11

9:00-10:45        Clergy Breakfast, Watts-Hill Hall (please RSVP to the church office)