10:30 a.m. Fellowship time with light refreshments  

11:00 a.m. Worship with Holy Communion Mindy Douglas, preaching   Join us for worship at 11:00 a.m. in-person or online via the church’s YouTube channel

Communion at home: remember to prepare your bread and cup before worship begins.  

*****************************

PC(USA) Special Offering: The One Great Hour of Sharing Offering will be received on Easter Sunday to provide relief to the hungry, poor, and oppressed, and those affected by natural disasters and war.  Online giving is available via the church’s website. Specially marked envelopes will be in each bulletin.

Dear friends,

With shock and dismay, we learned in January of yet another attack on a Jewish congregation in the midst of their worship. Many of our Jewish neighbors in faith in Durham were deeply disturbed, their sense of security in their sanctuaries shaken. We understand. Like us, they seek to be open, welcoming communities; but this very openness was violently exploited. We feel and must communicate our solidarity with them. . . . .  

Read entire statement HERE.  

In the coming year, we encourage you to find opportunities to build friendships, to read and study, and to work together across faith lines. If you are interested in working with us to consider congregational opportunities for such study and growth, please let us know. We would love to partner with you.   In the months and years ahead, we hope to find even more ways to stand with, beside, and behind our Jewish neighbors as friends in faith and partners in ministry in Durham. Let us as a historic faith community face this challenge with the same courage and commitment as our predecessors faced their challenges.  

With hope for our future together,
Mindy Douglas, Pastor                    
Jerry Postema, Elder    

You are invited to attend a two-session presentation on how the nervous system operates under stress and how it can be supported during trauma. The workshops will be held outside at FPC, weather permitting, or in Watts-Hill Hall.

Speaker: Jane Austin, Coach, Spiritual Director, and SEP (Click here to read Jane’s bio.)  

After the workshop, you are encouraged to sign up here for a 30-minute, one-on-one session with Jane, which are being held on Tuesdays in March..

About the Workshops: “Stress? Who me? During a pandemic? In the face of grief and loss? I don’t know what you are talking about.” Or maybe you do. And here’s the thing: Times of stress can adversely affect the nervous system unless we learn to recognize certain signs and signals. In this workshop, you will be empowered with knowledge and tools to manage your own nervous systems.  “When you learn to touch into your sensations, feelings, thoughts, and perceptions without becoming activated, your capacity grows, and you become more resilient.” (Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice) As with most things, the way out is the way through. This workshop will be about taking the path of the way through hard times.   

Please join members of FPC for one or both workshops.   No fee to attend. Love offerings accepted.

The Poor Peoples Campaign March on Washington (PPC) is on June 18, 2022, and we want to get as many people from FPC to come with us.

The Racial Equity Taskforce has made arrangements with Rally.co for a bus to depart from FPC’s parking lot and travel up and back on June 18^th. It will be a full day and an opportunity to meet and march with Bishop Barber and thousands of others from across the US who come to Washington DC to highlight the poverty, racism, inequity, and injustice people face every day in the US and the systems that enforce and perpetuate it, and we want to demand a change. We have a core group who have committed to going, and we hope that you will join us in person and in prayer.

To reserve your seat, you’ll need to go online to book it and pay $95 for the roundtrip fare. When we fill this bus, we understand that the Rally.co will add another bus to depart from FPC. We hope to fill several. We don’t want the cost to be a barrier for anyone who wants to attend.

If you need financial assistance, please contact our pastor Mindy Douglas.  Given our pre-dawn departure, we’ll need to prepare a breakfast bag for each rider and ask for people to volunteer to do that and donate food/drinks for snacks and sandwiches. If you would like to be a part of that activity, please contact Jane Williams, Jon Abels, or Kathy Krahenbuhl. More details will follow.

We also welcome contributions to sponsor other riders, including those from other congregations in Durham who wish to join us. To make a financial contribution you can go online at FPC to see various ways to donate to the “PPC Bus Support” or send a text at (919) 373-3254 and write the dollar amount you wish to give (e.g. $95 PPCBus) and send it. You can also leave a check in the mailbox at church for business manager Tom Bloom with “PPC Bus Support” written in the memo line. Thank you for your support and participation.