Our Christmas Eve worship service will be held at 6:00pm on Tuesday, December 24th in the sanctuary.
Adult and children’s choirs will sing, the children’s message will be an extended story time, and familiar carols will be sung. Bring your family and friends to celebrate this special evening together.
For any of us who have experienced loss or are in the midst of struggles, the holidays can be a particularly painful time, stirring up grief in acute ways. As a result, churches of every denomination and style have adopted the practice of a “Blue Christmas” service. We continue this tradition with a Blue Christmas service on Thursday, December 12th at 6:00pm in the sanctuary.
This time of worship is designed to provide space for prayer, reflection, and remembrance in the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle. It will include special music, candle lighting, and the sacrament of holy communion.
All are welcome to join us for this contemplative service of worship. A dessert reception will follow in the Fellowship Room. Invite a friend or neighbor!
This year our Toy Shop, that benefits Pantry guests, will be held on Tuesday, December 10th. Please consider donating toys to support our cause.
Toys are needed for ages 2 through 18 years old and should be dropped off before Sunday, December 8th. Please place your unwrapped donations in the toy chest that’s at the bottom of the Sanctuary stairs.
And for those not interested in shopping, you can contribute with a monetary gift by selecting the Pantry Toy Shop Fund through our online giving portal at Give Now – First Presbyterian Church Green Bay or send a check to the office at 200 S. Ashland Avenue, 54302 and note Toy Shop in the memo line.
As guests arrive for the Pantry between 10am and noon, they’ll receive a slip of paper to shop the toy shop. We’re in need of 3-4 of Santa’s elves to be personal shoppers for our guests.
Personal shoppers will assist our guests to choose from the age-appropriate selection of toys. If you’re able to help as a personal shopper elf, please call Jane Bies at 920-621-6400.
Thank you for your support and for helping us make a Merrier Christmas for those in need!
It’s time once again for our Annual Youth Group Lock-in! This annual tradition started many, many years ago with the task of wrapping Christmas gifts for Tank Elementary School families that our church previously adopted for Christmas each year.
The Christmas Prayer Basket campaign, supported by the Outreach Committee, selects three families to adopt each year and this year its from nearby Lincoln Elementary School. We obtain wish lists for the children and adults in each family and those wishes are placed in three separate baskets on the table in the back of the Narthex. Congregation members select from the tags and return gifts unwrapped to the church by Thursday, December 12th. And the following night of the 13th is when our Youth Group gathers in the Memorial Room to wrap the dozens on dozens of presents generously donated by our members.
Although the primary purpose for the youth getting together is to wrap all those presents, the larger picture is having our youth connect with the local community and with those who’re less fortunate than us. Our youth focus on seeing those who are sometimes forgotten and unseen during the busy hustle and bustle of the Holiday season. The lock-in is the fun part of it but moreover youth draw a connection to how fortunate we are to be blessed in so many ways. It’s easy to take for granted our blessings and there’s no better time of year than Christmas to reflect, remember and give thanks for all those blessings.
We gather at 6:30p on Friday, December 13th to wrap, retire to the youth group room for our sleepover and return home the following morning after breakfast. It’s a memorable and rewarding experience for all who participate. If you’d like to know more or get involved in this year’s lock-in, please contact Joel Morien at ce@firstpresgreenbay.org. And thank you to all our members who will generously donate those gifts for the youth to wrap!
Please join us on Sunday, December 22nd before worship at 9am in the Fellowship Room for our monthly Fourth Sunday Forum!
For the month of December our featured speaker will be Loni McCormick and her presentation will focus on Christmas Characters Around the World.
During the Forum you’ll learn how different cultures and countries celebrate Christmas Characters. So many rich traditions and the stories behind how the tradition came about will be just some of what you’ll learn during Loni’s presentation. You may even walk away with some thoughts on new traditions to include in your own Christmas celebrations.
And, the forum wouldn’t be complete without festive Christmas treats and coffee to enjoy!
We hope to see you there!
You may have heard the monthly mid-week concerts, but now we are delighted to welcome the Griffon String Quartet to play for our Sunday morning 10am worship service on December 15th.
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear these four wonderful string players during this special season. Bring a friend or neighbor!
The snow has begun to fly so the time has come to have some fun on the slopes at our annual Ski Trip! This year we’ll once again be joined by our friends from First United Presbyterian Church of DePere.
And, although primarily coordinated with Youth Group, the ski trip is considered a family event so all are welcome to join!
Our ski destination is Ski Brule and we’ll be checking in on Friday, January 31st, checking out Saturday, February 1st at the Chicaugon Lake Inn.
We will need a minimum of 20 skiers to take advantage of the Ski Brule group discount so spread the word to family, friends and neighbors. The more the merrier!
If you’re interested in joining the fun, please reach out to Loni McCormick at (920) 655-8258 or email pmccormick1@new.rr.com for our registration form.
We hope to see you on the slopes!
Break out your favorite Christmas pajamas or ugly Christmas sweater or even just a festive tie—it has become our tradition to celebrate the Sunday between Christmas and the New Year by encouraging folks of all ages to wear pajamas or other seasonal garb to our 10am worship service!
The Worship committee will serve hot chocolate and donut holes BEFORE worship in the back of the Sanctuary. Our service will feature all the Christmas carols you want to sing one more time, and Bruce Deadman and friends on brass will add to our festivities.
Please join us!
In early Christian tradition, Saints’ days began as a way to mark the anniversary of a martyr’s death — his or her “birthday” as a Saint. By the middle of the church’s first millennium, there were so many martyrs that it was hard to give them all their due. All Saints’ Day was established as an opportunity to honor all the Saints, known and unknown.
All Saints’ Day has a rather different focus in the Reformed tradition. While we may give thanks for the lives of particular luminaries of ages past, the emphasis is on the ongoing sanctification of the whole people of God. Rather than putting Saints on pedestals as holy people set apart in glory, we give glory to God for the ordinary, holy lives of the believers in this and every age. This is an appropriate time to give thanks to members of the community of faith who have died in the past year.
It is our tradition to remember and give thanks for all the “Saints” of this congregation and throughout our extended families who have gone on to their heavenly homes in the past year. On Sunday, November 3rd we will celebrate All Saints’ Day in worship, remembering especially Harland Merrell, Wayne Price, and Theda Nero. As photos are projected, we will join in prayer for all the Saints and remember each name. As the names are read, a family member or friend will come forward to light a candle for each one. Following the recognition of all our members, others will be invited to come forward and light a candle for a friend or family member they have lost in the last year as well. We’re delighted to have a harpist to accompany our commemoration this year. We remember and give thanks for all those who have gone before us to show us the way—don’t miss this special worship experience.
December 1st is the first Sunday of Advent and our annual Advent Workshop will be held that day following worship in Banner Hall. Look forward to lunch and plenty of activities to start off the season.
A new Bible study for Advent will begin on Wednesday December 4th at 6:00pm online and Thursday December 5th at 10:30am at church. We will be studying together the book Season’s Greetings: Christmas Letters from Those Who Were There.
Twelve vividly-imagined letters from the familiar characters of this narrative speak to the many meanings of Christmas—awe, wonder, disruption, scandal, and hope. The author is a seminary classmate of Pastor Katie’s and promises to make a Zoom visit to us sometime during the study! Books will be available in the church office for $10. Join us!
