Month: September 2024

World Communion Sunday and International Food Potluck

Cheri Simonet
World Communion Sunday

Sunday – October 6, 2024

World Communion Sunday began way back in 1930. The PC(USA) has long promoted this occasion with encouragement to its churches to not just offer “communion as usual”, but to explore the use of different breads, global music, and creative liturgy to enter into the spirit of the celebration and allow congregations a taste of the sacrament from our sisters and brothers around the world.

We will celebrate this year with Christian churches around the world as we share the sacrament together on Sunday, October 6th. Each tray passed will offer several different kinds of bread from which to choose, symbolizing different communities around the world who share the sacrament with us. We look forward to a special message in this service from Taylor Wittman, currently serving in the Peace Corps in Albania.

International Food Potluck

Following our celebration of World Communion on Sunday October 6th, the congregation is invited to a very special potluck lunch in Fellowship Room.

We will continue the global community emphasis by inviting your international food contributions for the potluck—plan to try out a new recipe or bring a favorite from your own ethnic background, but the point is to have a wide variety of foods from around the world as our lunch together. We first tried this last year and had a great time tasting Swedish meatballs, Greek lasagna, Indian curry and more.

Bring a label for your item with ingredients listed or make one with blanks provided here as you drop it off that morning. We want to inform everyone about what they can expect as we enjoy fellowship around the tables and sample foods we may have never tasted before!

Imagine: Picture the Possibilities

Cheri Simonet
Generosity Campaign

The Generosity Team is hard at work designing a creative way to consider the future of our church and the responsibility the whole church has to contribute to that future.

Sundays in our Generosity campaign this year will be October 27th, November 3rd and November 10th. We are grateful to everyone who has answered our request for large empty picture frames—watch for how those will be used in the Sanctuary and Fellowship Room in the coming weeks!

For now, you are simply invited to begin to imagine: imagine what God wants us to look like, imagine what our mission outreach could become, imagine what we could do as a congregation if we had the resources needed to move into our future with faith.

Hope: A User’s Manual – New Bible Study

Cheri Simonet
Bible Study

October 23rd & 24th

When it comes to hope, our culture peddles a lot of cheap knockoffs. But that kind of “hope” falls short when things are bleak—which is exactly when we need hope the most.

This new study centers on a book about real hope—a spiritual counternarrative resilient enough to endure crises and crushing defeats without forsaking the here and now. Author MaryAnn McKibben Dana reflects on what hope is not (optimism, toxic positivity, scripty-font platitudes on Instagram), what hope is (a story we live by), and where to find it in hopeless times (in the messiness of our imperfect, flawed, beautiful human bodies).

This six-week study will be offered on Wednesday evenings at 6:00pm via Zoom and on Thursday mornings at 10:30am in-person at the church. The study will begin October 23rd and 24th and books will be available one week prior at a cost of $10.

Join us as we surround ourselves with hope!

Fall Women’s Retreat – A Recipe for Connection

Cheri Simonet
Women's Retreat

Women of all ages are invited to join us for a 24-hour retreat this month at Imago Dei Village Retreat Center in Clintonville, less than an hour’s drive from here. We will begin with dinner on Friday night October 25th and conclude after lunch on Saturday, October 26th.

Accommodations are in a lodge with bedrooms for 2 or 3 women and private bathrooms with showers. Cost will be $75 for each participant, and scholarships are available. There is a full kitchen, so we will share cooking duties and include 3 meals: dinner Friday night, then breakfast and lunch on Saturday.

Our theme for this time together is A Recipe For Connection. We will spend the time thinking about food, family, traditions, and the connections we create as women together. We will view the 2009 movie Julie & Julia, which is a wonderful biographical comedy drama written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in the title roles. The film contrasts the life of chef Julia Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell, who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog, which made her a published author.

We certainly can’t promise to “master the art of French cooking”, (the title of Julia Childs’ cookbooks) but we might attempt a few fun recipes from it together!

Please let Pastor Katie know if you are interested or sign up on the bulletin board at the church.

Trunk-or-Treat 2024

Cheri Simonet

Has your neighborhood ‘aged out’ of trick-or-treating? Do you buy too much candy and then get stuck eating it all on your own? Or, are you happy enough to turn off your lights and hide in the basement on Halloween?

We have a deal for you!

It’s time for our 3rd annual Trunk-or-Treat when we seek to meet our neighbors and community where they are.

Trunk-or-Treat will happen in our church parking lot from

4:00—5:00 pm on Sunday, October 27th

The trunks of our cars will be open and decorated for the Halloween season, parked around the perimeter of the lot. Each car needs to be hosted by its owner. Children of this church and those from the neighborhood are invited to come trick-or-treat at our trunks, moving from one car to the next collecting treats and perhaps play a game or otherwise interact with each trunk host.

Sounds like fun, right? Now we need the trunks to make it happen!

With your trunk open and your heart wide, please volunteer to join us!

To participate, sign up on the bulletin board or call the church office at 920-437-8121 or email office@firstpresgreenbay.org to get on the list.

Check out a few trunks from our past Trunk-or-Treats!

  • Trunk-or-Treat 2022
  • Trunk-or-Treat 2022
  • Trunk-or-Treat 2022

October 2024 Rundown

Cheri Simonet
Monthly Rundown

Church Chix Socials

The Chix had a fabulous time at their September social when they dined at Narrow Bridge. There were six Chix in attendance and they found the food to be excellent and the conversation lively. The next social is planned for Thursday, October 3rd at 6pm when we’ll be dining on the East Side of town at Mackinaw’s Grill & Spirits located at 2925 Voyager Drive. There’s a sign up sheet on the bulletin board or you can call (920) 437-8121 to RSVP or email office@firstpresgreenbay.org.

2024 Back To School Drive

Back to School Drive

Since Tank Elementary School is now closed, this year our Back to School Drive benefited students at Lincoln Elementary School. Members of First Presbyterian were once again very generous as we filled Stephanie Fahringer’s jeep and delivered everything before school started. THANK YOU to everyone for your generosity!

Dinner for 2 @ the U

Our event for UWGB students held annually at the Mauthe Center was a huge success! We had quite a few students in attendance and all were very appreciative of the dinner we offered. Thank you to everyone who donated food items and those who volunteered to help serve!

Blessings of the Backpacks

More backpacks, purses, tote bags and briefcases than ever were piled up in the chancel area of the Sanctuary and blessed on our Kick-Off Sunday on September 8th. Each piece of “baggage” blessed was given a special scripture tag to clip on, with the reminder to carry our faith with us however we carry the rest of our “stuff” in our daily lives. If you missed it, Pastor Katie still has some scripture tags if you’d like to receive this reminder.  

September Fourth Sunday Forum Recap

Our Fourth Sunday Forum returned on September 22nd when our speaker for the month of September was Outreach Committee Member and Board Member of the Presbyterian Pantry, Stephanie Fahringer. Stephanie shared with us stories about how the Pantry affects the lives of Pantry guests along with the Pantry’s history and the number of families that they impact in the community.

N.E.W. Pride Festival 2024

Our congregation was represented along with several other open and welcoming churches at the Green Bay Pride Festival on Saturday September 21st. We handed out stickers and rainbow chip cookies along with information about each church and their welcome for members of the LGBTQ community. Check out our photo gallery!

Pride Festival 2024
Pride Festival 2024
Pride Festival 2024
Pride Festival 2024
Pride Festival 2024
Pride Festival 2024
Pride Festival 2024
Pride Festival 2024

Rundowns will publish with our Connections issue on a monthly or bimonthly basis. To submit rundowns for consideration contact us at communications@firstpresgreenbay.org by the 15th of the month to be included in the following month’s publication. And, as always, we look forward to receiving your Rundown of what’s been Happening Now!

October 2024 Fourth Sunday Forum

Cheri Simonet
Fourth Sunday Forum

Our monthly Fourth Sunday Forum continues on October 27th before worship at 8:45am in the Fellowship Room. Our speaker for the month of October will be our very own Bruce Deadman who’ll speak about his recent trip to Kenya with Sandy, their “son” Ben Mwai and his family. Bruce will talk a little bit about the amazing wildlife encounters they had but will mostly talk about his strictly personal impressions of the Kenyan people and culture. It’ll be like one of those old-time illustrated travelogues!

The Fourth Sunday Forum is a program of our Christian Education Committee which started last year. It is our effort to provide more opportunities for adults especially (though all ages are welcome) to grow in faith and enjoy fellowship together. Each month brings a different speaker to this informal gathering.

Upcoming forums planned include speakers from local helping agencies, church members sharing from their personal experience, and more.

Coffee and treats are always part of the experience. Please join us!

Church Chix Gather October 3, 2024

Cheri Simonet
Church Chix

Please join us, women of all ages, for our October Church Chix Social on Thursday, October 3rd!

Our dinner reservation is for 6:00pm and we’ll dine on the East side of town at Mackinaws Grill & Spirits located at 2925 Voyager Drive.

Some Chix like to meet up for a cocktail the hour before dinner so that’s always an option and before our evening wraps up we’ll decide where next month’s dinner will be, trying our best to alternate the east side of town with the west side of town. No monthly commitment required.

To attend, you can email an RSVP to office@firstpresgreenbay.org or there’s a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board.

For more information, please contact the office at (920) 437-8121.

So, if you haven’t already RSVP’d, do it today and join the Church Chix October social for a great night of laughter that’s sure to be memorable!

Annual Fall Clean-up 2024

Cheri Simonet
Church Work Day

Saturday, October 19 from 9am to 11am

It’s that time of year when summer has faded into the crisp air of fall. And you know what that means? It’s time again for our annual fall clean-up!

We can’t do it without you. Work isn’t work when you’re surrounded by friends in fellowship. We have a FUN-filled day planned for you! Spread the word, bring family, friends and neighbors. All are welcome! Tell everyone about the FUN we have in store. Help us out in the yard with:

Raking  •  Pruning Perennials • Garden Beds

Or, you could do what absolutely everyone LOVES doing— window washing!

There’s something for everyone. Sign up sheets are on the bulletin board or call us at 437-8121 or email office@firstpresgreenbay.org to reserve your spot.

Don’t miss out on this FUN filled day or you’ll risk experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out).

Worship Service September 22, 2024

Cheri Simonet

On this 18th Sunday after Pentecost, we continue our examination of the letter of James with Pastor Katie’s reflection on “Switching the Operating System” from James 3: 13—4:3, 7-10 https://bit.ly/3XMZz00. We will install a new elder and deacon for our church. And we welcome Micah Zuelke to the organ bench, subbing in for Michael Raught.