| | "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
― Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This coming Sunday we remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When he writes that "light" drives away darkness, I think of the light that God sent into the world- Jesus Christ. And it is Jesus who directs us to love one another as he has already loved us. For me, this is an important aspect of thelegacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - that he could challenge others with love even when their hate was besieging him. His words seem so simple and straightforward, but their demands on our lives are so all-encompassing. The darkness of jealousy and resentment is so disabling. The shadows of pettiness and judgment incapacitate. The despair in prejudice and hate destroys hope and dignity. We ask ourselves, "What light can I shine; what love can I share to restore my relationships with family, neighbor, church, community?" The light that Christ offers is day-by-day repentance and then following him to emulate his mercy, grace, and yes…love. Interim Pastor |
|  This week's guest preacher will be Dr. Janet Dewart Bell
Dr. Janet Dewart Bell is a social justice activist, strategist and author with a doctorate in leadership and change. She has been a member of First Presbyterian Church Brooklyn for over 30 years, having served on Session, the Corporation, and various committees. An adjunct assistant professor at Baruch College, she has been a senior executive at a number of national organizations including The Opportunity Agenda, Policy Link, National Urban League, National Committee on Household Employment. She also worked for District Council 37 of AFSCME, New York City's largest municipal union, and NPR. She is a Civil Rights Movement veteran and has been actively involved in the key social justice movements of our times. Dr. Bell is the founder and president of LEAD InterGenerational Solutions, a nonprofit dedicated to transformative change. She hosts the LEADing justice podcast, produced by Christ Neuner. Dr. Bell currently serves as Chair of the Women's Media Center Board of Directors, founded by Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan. Among her accomplishments are an Emmy® for outstanding individual achievement and programming for National Public Radio honored with a Peabody Award. She is the widow of Derrick Bell, the first African American tenured professor at Harvard Law School. To celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday, in 1995, she founded the Derrick Bell Lecture Series on Race in American Society at the New York University School of Law, where each year the First Presbyterian Church choir sings. The choir also sang at Professor Bell's memorial service in 2011. Her book, Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, tells the story of the essential role of women's leadership in the Civil Rights Movement and was an NAACP Image Award Finalist. She is co-editor of Race, Rights, and Redemption: The Derrick Bell Lectures on the Law and Critical Race Theory. This week marks the publication of her book Blackbirds Singing: Inspiring Black Women's Speeches from the Civil War to the Twenty-first Century. |
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| | | NOTE: You can find the Bulletin for Sunday's worship online here. 9:00 AM Choir Warm-Up and Rehearsal in the Sanctuary 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Power Hour Adult Christian Education and Discussion
via Zoom Worship Service Dr. Janet Dewart Bell , preaching Sermon Title: Myths, Dreams, and Miracles Biblical Text: Amos 5:21-27; Acts 2:17-21 After Service Fellowship Potluck Wednesday, January 17th 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Men's Fellowship for more information contact Dave Ehlke 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Needlework Group for more information contact the church office
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Homeless Street Ministry Peace Garden 7:00 PM Night Prayer Sanctuary Thursday, January 18th 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Food Pantry For information on how to volunteer contact
the church office Friday, January 19th 6:30 PM Women's Potluck Elliit Room |
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| | The Annual Meeting of the Congregation and Corporation of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn will be hybrid this year and held on Sunday, January 28 from 1pm—2pm. The Rev. Danila Noble will be the meeting moderator. Members are invited to join us live in the Elliott Room, where pizza and salad will be served. Hard copies of the 2023 Annual Report will be available at the meeting. A link to access the Annual Report electronically will be available in the Friday, January 26 enewsletter. |
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Power Hour The Power Hour/Adult Christian Education group is starting the new year "in the beginning" with a study of Adam and Eve. We are reading "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story that Created Us" by Stephen Greenblatt. Discussion will take place Sundays at 9:30 on Zoom. Meeting ID 890 7643 9725 Passcode 719501. On January 7 we will discuss Chapter 1. |
| Meeting Our Interim Pastor 
What's Your Story? I would like to know! I am setting aside time during the next several months to talk with individuals who would like to tell me about themselves, their work or families or hobbies, and their faith journey that brings them here to First Presbyterian and what their hopes and dreams may be for the church. Contact me to set up a time to talk at danila.noble@firstchurchbrooklyn.org. I look forward to hearing your stories. Interim Pastor Noble |
We thank you for submitting an estimate of giving in support of FPC and its mission. As of last week, we have received 76% of our 2024 pledge goal. Making a pledge is important because it helps those responsible for putting our church budget together to do so wisely. It is also an expression of trust that God will meet our needs. As a community, we've witnessed God's abundant grace in so many ways. If you haven't already done so, please fill out a pledge card located in the pews, or submit your pledge online at www.firstchurchbrooklyn.org under Make a Pledge. No gift is too small. |
| Hearing Help We have a wireless headphone listening system available for anyone who is hearing impaired. For more information please see any tech operator for assistance. |
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Come be a part of the inspiring Sunday Worship and Fellowship by volunteering to be a greeter, usher, reader, host of fellowship hour!!! We need people to share the richness and grace of this community each week and demonstrate the radical love that is First Church Brooklyn. Please join us by following the QR, link or signing up on bulletin board in narthex of the church. |
| Recently at First Church Brooklyn |
| Session Digests 2024 Dear Friends, We invite you to check out a summary of the most recent Session meetings for your reference and information. Please let us know if you have any questions, we are grateful for your interest and support. Thank you for being a part of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn community. Current Ruling Elders: Jon Abernethy Diana Lee Patrick Tirino Christina Adorno Dimitri Moise Joyce Waller Nate Dudley Zayn Silva Jenny Gage Terrance Stroud Diane Greene Sarah Wyss David Jones Emily Thomas Rev. Danila Noble - Moderator Elder Barbara Cummings - Clerk |
| Looking for Food and Fellowship Volunteers First Church Brooklyn serves a Sunday fellowship lunch once a month at the Church of the Gethsemane, our sister Presbyterian church in Park Slope, Brooklyn, whose members are mostly formerly incarcerated. First Church volunteers prepare a meal, either at home or at the church's kitchen, attend worship at 11:00AM, and serve lunch after service to approximately 15-20 congregants. It's a wonderful opportunity to make good food and even better friends. We are looking for volunteers for January and February, on whatever Sunday works for you. Please contact Marta Nelson if you have questions or would like to volunteer. |
| White Rose Ministry (Cuban partnership) Announcements **UPDATED**WHITE ROSE MISSION TRIP RESCHEDULED!
The date for our 2024 Mission Trip to Cuba has changed. Instead of the trip occurring during the spring, we have opted to reschedule it so that it takes place in the fall of 2024. We expect the 10 to 12-day trip to fall sometime between mid-September and the end of October. Specific information regarding the Mission Trip will be provided to First Church Brooklyn members and supporters by April of next year. We encourage you to place this very special experience on your 2024 travel calendar.
For more information, please contact Patrick Dail (mobile: 347-880-1530, email: LPatrickDail@gmail.com). Vamos a divertirnos mucho y aprender mucho!! |
| Food Pantry  Serving Thursday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM On Thursday, January 11th, our pantry served 122 clients with the help of 13 volunteers. We are maintaining food bins and a community fridge at the church to provide round the clock support to the food insecure and unhoused. If you need food, please help yourself. If you have food to share, thank you for dropping off. Volunteers are welcome to arrive on Thursdays between 8:00 and 11:00 AM to serve in the pantry. No advanced notice required. Please contact the church office to inquire about volunteering. We look forward to serving with you. Jane Woland Pantry Coordinator |
| Congregation and Community News |
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Youthful Fellowship - Second Thursday of the Month from 7:00-9:00 PM at the Manse 20s and 30s are invited to gather for food and fellowship, engaging in discussion, playing games, watching films, going on outings, building community around kindness and care. Come on over! |
| Queerly Beloved Fellowship - Every 3rd Sunday of the Month Whether you identify on the queer spectrum or as an ally…all are welcome to build a community of radical inclusion and love every 3rd Sunday of the month. Please gather at the front of the sanctuary right after service. |
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Join us in the Peace Garden to team up and launch out into the streets for community building with our homeless neighbors! We'll invite those we meet to dinner, hand out hygiene supplies, and build relationships of mutual support. |
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Men's Fellowship Book Discussion The Men's group meets for breakfast and book discussion Wednesdays at 8:00 AM. Please contact Dave Ehlke if you have any questions. Our current book study is: The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 - 2017 By Rashid Khalidi, Fajer Al-Kaisi, et al. 
A landmark history of 100 years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history. In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, "in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone." Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi's great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members - mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists - The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process. Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day. |
| Bring your favorite dish to share with the community every second Sunday of the month. Not only can we share delicious and loving crafted delights but create heart-warming memories with each other. Please bring the recipe so we can create a First Church Brooklyn Cookbook in the near future. |
| STAY CONNECTED TO THE PRESBYTERY OF NEW YORK CITY First Church Brooklyn Community: Stay connected with the latest news and opportunities in and around the presbytery by subscribing to Happenings In & Around the Presbytery, the Presbytery's electronic newsletter. Stay updated and apprised of Presbyterian events, resources, grants, and opportunities. Church members can fill out the contact information form so that their email addresses can be added to the subscribers list. Click here for the Contact Information Form. Once completed return the form to the presbytery office or email it to Yzette Swavy-Lipton. |
| Prayer Requests "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." (1 John 5:14 NIV) Our world is changing daily, and yet we still believe in the power of prayer. We still desire to pray with and for our community. If you have a prayer request – a joy or a concern, please send your prayers to us at info@firstchurchbrooklyn.org. We will add prayers to our worship bulletin each week and keep your prayers in our hearts and on our lips for the week to come. |
| Worship service video is streamed live over the internet. We provide the worship bulletin on the website so that you can follow along. Tune in to worship at 11:00 AM Eastern time, 10:00 AM from July 4th through Labor Day weekend. If you have access to a screen of any size, try our Video LIVE Stream on our website and our Facebook page. |
| We're Social: Like us. Follow us. See us. Hear us. Watch us.    
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| Wednesday "Flash" Text Devotionals 
Sometimes the weeks are long, right? Our Wednesday morning "flash" text devotional is a piece of inspiration or scripture meant to help give you a boost in the middle of the week. To sign up, simply scan the QR code at the right or text the word DEVOTIONAL to 718-689-6171 to sign up. This number is private to First Church for this ministry and your information will not be sold or distributed in any way. |
| A full calendar of church events can be found on the church website. |
| This week's eNewsletter was edited by Christina Adorno. Photos provided by Jim Johnson. |
| Online Donations: Set up a recurring gift to the church through a secure online account. To set up an account or to edit an existing gift, go to First Church Brooklyn's website. Flower Donations: We welcome flower donations of $75 or more in memory or in honor of friends and loved ones. Please contact Annie Solages in the Church office via email. Appointments with Ministry: Staff may be arranged by calling the Church at 718-624-3770, or via email. |
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