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The Chimes nline
Newsletter of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
SUNDAY Schedule Sunday, May 5 Annual Meeting & Picnic • Prayer breakfast for Homeless persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Service 8:15 am, Winship Chapel • The Mustard Seed Bookstore will be closed all day. • No Sunday School • One Worship Service 10:15 am, Sanctuary
• Annual Meeting - 11:15 pm Sanctuary • Retirement Celebration 12:15 pm, Fifield
Sunday, May 12 Mother’s Day • Prayer breakfast for Homeless persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Service 8:15 am, Winship Chapel • The Mustard Seed Bookstore 9:00 am - 1:00 pm • Worship Service - 9:00 am, Sanctuary • Cherub Choir - 9:30 am • Sunday School for All Ages - 10:05 am • Fellowship Hour - 11:00 am Fifield Hall • Worship Service - 11:15 am, Sanctuary • Five @ First - 5:00 pm, Reception Room
May 5 & 12, 2013 Christ at the Center Annual Meeting
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n May 13, 1990 – M o t h e r’ s Day – we began our ministry here as pastor and people and I preached a sermon entitled “Consider Your Call” from the text in I Corinthians 1:26 where the May 5 - George Wirth Apostle Paul wrote to preach to those first century Christians: “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters.” That will be the same title and text for May 5 as we conclude 23 years of worship, work and witness together at the corner of 16th and Peachtree Streets. On behalf of Barbara and myself and our family, we want to thank all of you for your support and love, and for the faith and friendship we share with one another in this great church! Having said it many times before, let me say it again once more: “there isn’t any congregation I would rather serve than this one,” and now the time has come for me to retire. Believing that the Lord has called all of us into ministry and mission, I am confident that First Pres will continue to move forward “from strength to strength” (Psalm 84). That will surely be true under the leadership of Dr. Joanna Adams, who has been called as your new Interim Senior Pastor, and who is a dynamic preacher, a caring minister, a longtime Atlanta “mover and shaker,” and a close friend to many of us. My prayers are with her and with you as a new chapter in the life of this church begins next Sunday, which is Mother’s Day, May 12, 2013 – how about that for the providence of God! The Wirths are looking forward to the weekend of May 3-5 with great anticipation. With “Christ at the Center” of our life together, we have good reason to rejoice – so I invite you to join us, and please bring your family and friends with you! Faithfully and Gratefully Yours, George B. Wirth
M o t h e r ’ s D ay
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ay 12th promises to be quite a day in the life of First Presbyterian Church. Not only will it be M o t h e r’ s D a y, i t will also be the first Sunday in almost a quarter of a century May 12 - Joanna Adams without George Wirth to preach sitting in the Pastor’s chair. In worship, we will acknowledge the sadness of saying farewell to George, even as we celebrate all that has been accomplished during his legacy-making ministry. I am confident that hope and joy will show up as well, for we will be taking our first steps together toward a new tomorrow. As your incoming Interim Pastor, I find my heart brimming with excitement over the adventure ahead. Your Pastor Nominating Committee will soon be about its important work, but let’s be clear: God is calling this church to a full life of witness and service right now. Let’s assume a posture of committed openness, grateful for the traditions that have formed us and at the same time open to the new. No one ever said change was easy, but we all know it is inevitable. Learning how to live with change is the key that unlocks the door to the future. We who follow Christ ought to be the kind of people who cannot wait to get up in the morning to see what new thing God is doing. May the Spirit of the Living God be the wind in our sails, and may the light of Christ illumine our way across this sea of change. With a hopeful heart, Joanna