Wednesday, January 27^th, 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
In-person worship will begin soon. The Covid-19 is working out plans with the Session. The rough start-date is February 21. Stay tuned. In the meantime, sign up for your vaccine! 
 
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JOIN US TONIGHT! We’ll gather at 7:00 for our weekly Zoom. This week our friends on our Spiritual Formation team will lead us in a conversation about . . . democracy. Join us for this timely talk. Pat Phillips offers this: In a TED talk, “How to revive your belief in Democracy”, Eric Liu says, “I believe we are at a moment of moral awakening, the kind that comes when old certainties collapse.”  Civic religion as he calls it, is about commitment to one another and our common ideals, not at all a renunciation of Christian beliefs, but to explore the alikeness of apparently unlike people leading to real community.  We keep hearing, ‘we’re all in this together.’ Are we?

Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.
 
News
 
Remember: When we get wind of Covid vaccine schedules, we are forwarding them to you as soon as we receive them. The schedules fill up by the next day, so be diligent. 
 
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Last night our church celebrated our occasional Zoom Dessert. Several folk reported that these were fun movies: 

•       Eye in the Sky (action movie)
•       Space Cowboys (comedy)
•       This Could Happen to You (comedy involving Lotto tickets, a waitress, and a cop)
•       A Man Called Ove
•       Soul (the fun, new Disney movie)

Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter): 
 
Marilyn Hunter Shimkus shares this fun joke:  A dog went to college. When he had finished his course, his master asked him what curriculum he had studied. Dog replied, “languages.” Master asked him to please say something in another language. Dog said “Meow”
 
Good Word: 
 
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27:1)

LET US PRAY: 
 
Christ, be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.  
—St. Patrick
  
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Much, much love to you all.
  
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church