Tuesday 17 March 2020
A Daily Emailer from
Dr. Peter Yau
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois

Dear Friends, 
 
The COVID-19 pandemic requires that we take action to avoid catching and prevent spreading of the virus.  FPCC has cancelled our regular worship services and will use live streaming instead.  We suggest that you follow the standard guidelines.

•       If you feel sick, having a fever (above 100.4F), with respiratory infection symptoms, do not go to work, call your medical providers for consultation, self-quarantine.
•       Avoid gathering with more than 10 people
•       You are more vulnerable to the virus if you are older than 60 years old or anyone with underlying health conditions (cardiovascular diseases, immune compromised, diabetes, asthma etc.)
•       Practice good personal hygiene; do not touch your face (including nose and mouth).
•       Wash your hands with soap and water. Use hand sanitizer if you cannot wash your hands.
•       Avoid touching suspicious surface in public places, if possible sanitize first.
•       Cover your cough, wear a face mask if you are sick.
•       Keep a distance of 3 ft. between people.
•       No handshake, hugs etc.
•       Practice Social Distancing.

As a body of Christ, let’s practice our love for each by checking on the elderly, the frail and those who otherwise might be left behind. Yesterday, 5 people approached me saying they were out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I told them we will share what we have with them. In Acts 2:44-45.  “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”
 
If you have any needs or wish to talk to someone, please call the church office, our ministers, elders and deacons.
 
News:
 
SONG FROM JEAN RENE. Our friend Jean Rene Balekita wrote a song in response to the COVID-19 pandemic fear. Find it on our church Facebook page. 
 
SUNDAY WORSHIP. We will be worshipping next Sunday remotely on-line. Tune in on Facebook or firstpres.live
 
The Good Word:
Psalm 91:1-2      
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
 I will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
 my God, in whom I trust.”
 
Let Us Pray:
Be good to me, dear Lord, for the sea is so wide and my boat is so small. 
(Breton Fisherman’s Prayer)
 
PEACE,
 
Peter Yau
(217) 621-0448

Monday 16 March 2020
A Daily Emailer from
Pastor Matt
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois

Dear Friends, 
 
Since our world is working so hard to practice “social distancing,” I’ve decided to reach out for an electronic “touch” every day. If all goes well, expect an email from the church every morning with a hello, a tidbit of news & congregational prayer concerns, a scripture, and a prayer. I hope you won’t mind my filling your in-box with seven mails per week. I think you understand why I think it prudent.
 
News:
 

1.   BAD MAIL. Fraudulent emails are going out from a scammer claiming to be “Pastor Matt.” Please note these emails are coming from pastormattmatthews@gmail.com, which is NOT my correct address. Please do not respond to these messages. My correct address is matt@firstpres.church. If you are unsure, contact the church office.
2.   PHONE CALLS. Your church will send occasional pre-recorded phone messages to you. We believe “human touch” is important, and if we can’t touch, we can (and should) be reaching out with our voice.
3.   SUNDAY WORSHIP. We will be worshipping next Sunday remotely on-line. Tune in on Facebook or firstpres.live
4.   REACH OUT. Telephone a church member or a friend to say “hello.” Social distancing may be wise to slow the spread of Coronavirus, but isolation is not good for our spiritual and mental health. So, “get out there” not physically but with a phone call, note, email, Facebook post, ZOOM call to family, et cetera. Forward parts of this email to somebody you love.
5.   EXPERTISE. Dr. Peter Yau is coordinating First Presbyterian Church’s response to Coronavirus. He’s monitoring the CDC and local Health Department and guiding us in terms of keeping our flock and community safe.

The Good Word:
Philippians 4:4-7                          
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
 
Let Us Pray:
O loving God,
to turn away from you is to fall,
to turn toward you is to rise,
and to stand before you is to abide forever.
Grant us, dear God,
in all our duties your help;
in all our uncertainties your guidance;
in all our dangers your protection;
and in all our sorrows your peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN. 
                                                  (attrib. to Augustine of Hippo, 354-430)
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church

To Members and Friends
Of First Presbyterian Church Champaign
Friday 13 March
 
Dear Friends,
 
In my frenzy to get “Corona News” out to you earlier, I forgot to share my weekend movie suggestions. Since travel these days is not wise, take some road trips with me via film. “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” is one of Roger Ebert’s favorite films. It’s funny. It’s predictable. It’s sweaty. There’s slapstick. Steve Martin and John Candy deserve each other. Enjoy.
 
It’s a double feature. Try Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.” 
 
See Mr. Ebert’s reviews below.
 
Also, my friend David LaMotte is streaming a live concert tonight from Black Mountain, North Carolina. Follow the links below.
 
BIG peace to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
First Presbyterian Church Champaign
A (cool) congregation of the PC(USA)
Church: 217.356.7238; Cell: 864.386.9138
WWW.MattMatthewsCreative.Com
 
Friday night at the movies:
Ebert’s take on the movie “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-planes-trains-and-automobiles-1987
 
 
Friday night at the movies:
Ebert’s take on the movie “Midnight In Paris”
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-in-paris-2011
 
 
My friend David LaMotte is offering a live-stream concert on his public Facebook page. Click this link: David LaMotte Community. 
 
Brian Hilligoss is opening for David, then David will start around 8:30, joined by his little son Mason for a couple of songs.

Friday 13 March 2020

Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois

Dear Friends,

During what the World Health Organization now calls a pandemic, your church is attempting to practice what are called “social distancing techniques” to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.

Your Session met last night (Thursday 12 March), prayed, and discussed at length keeping our flock and wider community safe in the face of the Coronavirus. This is one of the motions we approved:

First Presbyterian Church will worship only via live-stream for the next two Sundays (March 15 and March 22). The campus will be closed on those Sunday mornings. Our congregation is urged to tune-in electronically at home.

Dr. Peter Yau has agreed to coordinate First Presbyterian Church’s response to Coronavirus. He’s asking all of the scientific questions, monitoring the CDC and local Health Department, and guiding us in terms of keeping our flock and community safe. My hunch is, if you have questions, Peter has already been thinking them through.

Our friend Peter is Director of Proteomics and Affiliate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Illinois. He is well-connected to the scientific and medical community here in Urbana-Champaign. Not only this, he deeply loves our congregation.

Another motion your Session approved last night is that we have cancelled all church functions for two weeks—including Bible studies, women’s circles, committee meetings. Other groups that meet on our campus, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, are allowed to meet if they choose. The Kevin Chapman funeral will take place as scheduled on Monday at 2:00 p.m. in our sanctuary; let’s continue to hold that family in our prayers. The church office will remain open during regular office hours.

Your Nurture Committee will be exploring ways to visit our members who might need help learning to use their computers to join our service of worship on live-stream. Additionally, if you need anything, call the church office (217.356.7238) and our Congregation Care Deacons, staff, and Nurture Committee will explore ways of helping you. Groceries? Medicine? Please be in touch.

In a Zoom on-line meeting yesterday with area ministers, Julie Pryde, Public Health Administrator for Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, issued recommendations for area churches. These are not mandates at this moment. These recommendations guide the Session’s actions:

Ms. Pryde stressed that social distancing is the best tool we have to slow the spread of the virus.

As medical historian and epidemic expert Howard Markel recently put it, “Coronavirus is a socially transmitted disease, and we all have a social contract to stop it. What binds us is a microbe – but it also has the power to separate us. We’re a very small community, whether we acknowledge it or not, and this proves it. The time to act like a community is now.”

Your Session agreed that First Presbyterian is a church without walls. This pandemic reminds us that we will be nimble, creative, connectional. Necessary social distancing won’t weaken the ties that bind us together as community.

I encourage you to reach out to friends in our congregation via phone and email to say hello, to share a joke, to share a concern, to express care. Your church is working on ways to keep better in touch with our flock. Because connecting with our flock is vital, if we can swing the technology, all members will be getting a recorded phone call from me up to two times a week. Who in flock is most rattled by this pandemic? Who is most lonely? Let them know you care.

Online financial giving options can be found on our website. You may send your checks to the church office. Our work—and expenses will not stop. Pray for our ministry.

When our church reopens, we will continue to take every measure to keep our church disinfected and clean. We will continue to refrain from hand-to-hand touch. We are becoming experts at toe taps, elbow bumps, peace signs, winks, and other forms of meaningful, non-touch greeting.

Your Session, under Peter Yau’s guidance, will be staying up to date about Coronavirus developments; we’ll make changes in approach as necessary. We meet next Thursday in a meeting convened electronically via an on-line meeting technology. Pray for them, please. Let us know if you have questions or concerns.

As the legend goes, at the height of the Black Plague, Julian of Norwich is purported to have said these words of profound trust in the God she loved: “All will be well. All will be well. All manner of everything will be well.”

I believe that, too.

“Being” church is always an adventure. How are we going to be a church without walls? As we take a pause from meeting face-to-face, how does being church change? I’m enormously blessed to be on this adventure with you. My cell and my email is below. Be in touch.

During this surreal season of Coronavirus, focus on things besides television news.
     Pay attention to the world around you.
          Be amazed.
              Tell somebody.

I can’t wait to worship with you via our live-stream on Sunday.

PEACE,

Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church

LIVE STREAMING DIRECTIONS:
To participate in our live-feed worship service at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, visit firstpres.live If you arrive before the service has started, “refresh” the page periodically and you will see the live video appear at. 9:00 a.m.

If you are active on Facebook, you can watch the service there. Just find the First Presbyterian Church Champaign page and watch. You know what to do.

Prayer For A Pandemic

May we who are merely inconvenienced
Remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home
Remember those who must choose between preserving
their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close
Remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips
Remember those who have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money
In the tumult of economic markets
Remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home
Remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country,
Let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically
Wrap our arms around each other,
Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace
Of God to our neighbors.

AMEN.