We have added a “Donate” tab to our menu bar on the top of the page. This now allows the church to benefit from your financial support by accepting credit cards for payment. You will be asked to register just once by filling in your information and then you will see a page that will allow you to provide your credit card information (encrypted) to allow the church to benefit from your generous support. Thank you.
First Presbyterian Church Is Open!
We still have one section of the sanctuary cordoned off for those who need more space for health reasons.
SO PLEASE COME TO WORSHIP IN PERSON SUNDAY!
Our Food Pantry will remain open Monday and Thursday of each week. To stay in the loop, everyone is encouraged to sign up to receive emails at stauntonfirst@gmail.com.
Current Activities:
Or https://www.youtube.com/channel UCKHIfTGhCeY9LqfE7xftS1A
Weddings Interested in having your wedding at First Presbyterian Church? Please see our updated guidelines here. Some of the following activities are happening in person and online as we are gradually and carefully moving toward reopening. Please see the top of our web page for details on our online activities and continued Food Pantry hours. Thank you! Sunday Worship Book Study Class: 9:45 am (snacks at 9:30 am) - Library Adult Sunday School 10:00-10:45 am (now meeting in church parlor) Youth Sunday School 10:00-10:45 am Elementary Sunday School 10:00-10:45 Church Nursery: 10:30 am-12:30 pm Chancel Choir Rehearsal: 10:30 am Morning Worship: 10:00 am
Youth Group 12-2 pm (alternates with Youth Sunday School, please call to check times)
Wednesdays Bible Study: Wednesdays at 10:00 am in the Library and via Zoom Chancel Choir Rehearsal: 7:30 pm Visit the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic Website - > http://www.synatlantic.org/ | September 2021 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, This is not a regular cheerful chin-up pastoral letter. This is more of a repent-and-be-saved letter. I am not a “fire and brimstone” preacher, but we frankly have a lot of literal fire and brimstone going on in the world right now, ecologically speaking. When God set the rainbow in the sky and promised that he would never again destroy the earth, did he think that the “end of the world” would come one smokestack at a time, one hive collapse at a time, one songbird at a time. I wonder if the four horsemen of the apocalypse, named in Revelation, Ezekiel, and Zechariah as Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death, aren’t sick and tired of riding generation after generation after generation warning us that if you break it, you buy it. Did you know that when Jesus talks about Gehenna, it’s not an underworld in another world, but the image of the actual garbage heap of Jerusalem, built on an old site where the innocent were burnt as sacrificial offerings. Have mortals made the whole world a Gehenna? People, the ocean caught fire. The icecaps are melting. This summer we’ve already seen the hottest day EVER, not just in Death Valley, but in Palm Springs, Northern Ireland, Greece, the Tri-cities in Washington, etc., etc., etc. We’re all in the same handbasket. As we consider the imminent destruction of all the things God spoke into being at the hands of humankind, this is truly the moment for us to repent and be saved. God pronounced Creation good. The first commandment God gave to humans was to till the earth and have dominion over it. I want all of us to think about how many examples in the Bible there are of good kings and bad kings. We have reign, but to what end? Will we remove ourselves from the throne based on our inability to be good and wise rulers? The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. Remember in Jesus’ parable of the wise steward, the owner asks for an accounting of what was given the steward to manage? Let us all begin making wise choices for the earth. Here are some things you can do: 1. If you want to go big on our home, see Virginia Interfaith Power and Light (https://vaipl.org/). 2. Recycle your plastic bags by dropping them off at our pantry, and try to remember to use those reusable bags we all have in the back of our car for groceries. 3. Separate and clean your tin, plastic, and paper- and if Staunton Recycling can’t come to you (because of loss of employees), take it to recycling at the Staunton Recycling Center – right beside the football field at Gypsy Hill Park. Hours are: Mon. 11 to 6; Tues. 7 to 2; Wed. Closed; Thurs. 11 to 6; Fri. 7 to 2; Sat. 8 to 12; Sun. closed. 4. Investigate your favorite companies’ manufacturing and waste policies. Buy green. 5. Buy local. I personally should have bought stock in Amazon, I ordered so much from it during the beginning of the Pandemic. But every truck on the road with yours and mine and the other’s cardboard box for the week adds up. 6. Train yourself to group your errands and take someone else who needs to run errands with you. Grocery store, post office, hardware, dollar store, done for the week. One day of exhaust from your car as opposed to two cars going four times. I’m sure you can think of other things we all can do! Share them with me and each other, for the beauty of the earth. Love, Pastor Karen |