Rev. Rex Childs

Rev. Rex Childs, Associate Pastor rexc@fpcnaples.org

The band is finally back together! It’s been a summer of transitions with Brice’s three-month sabbatical, my twomonth absence for paternity leave and General Assembly, and Craig’s welldeserved summer vacation. Your worship leadership is reenergized for this wonderful ministry we are privileged to be engaged in. I hope you’ll read about Brice’s sabbatical adventures on the next few pages. It was a time full of learning, making new connections and strengthening old ones.

As for me, in the midst of paternity leave, I served as a Commissioner to the 225th General Assembly of the PC(USA). I was one of four commissioners from our presbytery (Peace River). We gathered with representatives of other presbyteries from around the country to do the work of our denomination. We elected the Rev. Ruth Santana-Grace & the Rev. Shavon StarlingLouis to serve as Co-Moderators and they did an excellent job leading us through a myriad of motions and resolutions. We did more mundane work around budgets and per capita, but also continued a longstanding tradition of weighing in on social issues, including: environmental justice and divestment from fossil fuel companies, gun violence, immigration, Israel/Palestine relations as well as race and gender justice. It was an honor to serve the greater church in this way and I look forward to sharing more about it in the months ahead.

As for things closer to home, we are getting back into the swing of our routine. A new school year has begun and the preschool is up and running smoothly. On a quick personal note, Mary (pictured) has started daycare and we look forward to the day when she will be old enough to attend First Presbyterian Preschool! Youth group will also begin meeting regularly after giving our middle and high schoolers time to settle in to the rhythm of school. Committee meetings are beginning to start up as well after our usual summer hiatus and there is much work to do. Thank you to all who give of their time and talents to the work of this congregation. There are lots of exciting things in store for us the rest of the year and we hope you’re as excited about it as we are!

Peace,

Mary Childs at 10 weeks old

FROM THE PULPIT

September 4 Nancy Van Fleet September 11 Rev. Craig Goodrich September 18 Rev. Craig Goodrich September 25 Rev. Craig Goodrich