The Outreach and Mission Committee is beginning to collect needed articles for the Giffen Elementary School’s “Clothes Closet.” Articles may be left in the box designated for this purpose in Assembly Hall. Our O&M Committee is also making $1,500 available for Ms. Terry, who supervises the Clothes Closet, to spend for immediate winter needs. Debbie and Eric Fagans will be assisting Ms. Terry.
*Needed for our box: healthy snacks, soap, wash cloths, towels, deodorant, tooth brushes, tooth paste, several bath mats (for the school showers), small hand gloves, small feet socks.
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If you have a prayer concern or a prayer need that you would like to have lifted in prayer on a continuing basis, please remember the prayer chain. You can email a request to firstpresprayer@yahoo.com or call the church office (518-449-7332). These will be forwarded to the First Pres prayer chain, a group of people that have committed to pray for the needs of others as they arise. These requests for prayer are separate and/or different from the “prayers of the people” that are wonderfully available each Sunday.
Please send any prayer requests to Jamie to be included in worship on Sunday.
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New Educational Opportunity
Members of First Presbyterian’s Antiracism Task Force Will Lead
“Dismantling Racism, Building Racial Justice in Institutions”
When: Four Wednesdays, 7—8:30 pm
Where: FPC’s Rose Room
Format: Pre-recorded webinars and group discussions; webinars
produced by Crossroads for the Association of Partners
in Christian Education and the Presbyterian Youth Workers
Association
January 11: “How does Christian Education uphold white dominant values
and stifle racial justice work?”
January 18: “What is antiracism, and what does it require of Christians?”
January 25: “Why must Christians denounce white supremacy and embrace
a gospel vision for antiracism?”
February 1: “How can Christian educators cultivate values that challenge
white supremacy?”
Contact the church office (518-449-7332 or info@firstpresalbany.org) in advance to sign up & obtain the video link. Participants will be asked to view a 1-hour webinar at home before each gathering. On the Wednesday evenings, we will watch a related 30 minute Q & A segment together and then discuss.
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Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Celebration
January 15, 2023 at 7 PM
Macedonia Baptist Church
26 Wilson Avenue, Albany NY
Featuring Rev. Jamel K. Robinson of Mt. Zion Baptist Church
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Capital Area Council of Churches Emergency Overflow Shelter
First Pres has made a commitment for several years to provide dinner for the men at the overflow shelter https://www.capareacc.org/projects/emergency-overflow-homeless-shelter/. This shelter serves people who have no other shelter options in Albany County during the cold weather, November until April.
Our slot is the third Monday of the month. We only have 4 slots left this season: January 16, February 20, March 20 and April 17.
Cooking a hearty dinner for 19 hungry men may sound daunting. Here are some ideas to make it more doable:
- Sign up to share a week with another church member.
- Your church small group could take one week & challenge other small groups to do the same
- You love to bake….but do not cook – volunteer to make dessert.
- You don’t cook!! How about purchasing a ready-made dessert or contribute money to a member who is cooking to help defray the overall cost.
See the signup sheet and info page in the narthax. Please contact Karen Brown karenlbrown1@gmail.com or 518-817-2295 for more info.
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2022 BOOKS CLOSING Friday, Jan 6, 2023
All reimbursement requests must be in by Tuesday, Jan 3, 2023
