Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is in touch with presbyteries in affected areas of Texas to offer assistance. We are standing by with resources and National Response Team members ready to deploy when it is safe to do so.

You can join in the response and encourage those in need by stand-ing in the “GAP” — Give. Act. Pray.

Give

To support PDA's emergency response and recovery efforts, gifts can be designated to DR000169-Harvey. Do-nate by credit card by visiting presbyterianmis-sion.org/GIVE-HARVEY If you prefer to mail a check, send to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), PO Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA, 15264-3700

Grace Presbytery has set up a special fund. Please make your check out to Grace Presbytery and mark it for Hurricane Relief Fund. Send to Grace Presbytery, 6100 Colwell Blvd, Irving, TX 75039.

FPC is also taking checks. Just memo for Harvey and turn in to the church office.

If you are an animal lover, the SPCA of Tex-as is in need of donations to provide shelter to pets relocated. Go to www.spca.org/give or www.spca.org/foster if you want to foster an animal. Many animals and pets are being relo-cated to shelters around Texas. Check with you local shelter to see if they need donations.

In the DFW area, Trusted World is accepting material donations at 15660 N. Dallas Pkwy from 3-8 pm. These items go to the area shel-ters. Needed are new underwear and socks, warm ups, toiletries and hygiene products, ba-by formula, baby wipes, bottles, Graco Pack n Plays. It is important to be cautious about ma-terial donations as it is easy to overwhelm shel-ters and responders with items not needed.

Also, please do not use this as an excuse to clean out your closets.

Act

In the DFW area, there are four large shel-ters in Dallas and one in Fort Worth. They may need volunteers to work at the shelters. You may register at http://voly.org/disaster. At this website you can sign up and get a background check.

PCUSA is also asking for Gift of the Heart Kits: Cleanup Buckets and Hygiene Kits. Details at https://pda.pcusa.org/page/kits/ FPC is con-sidering this project. Watch for details of how you might donate or help.

The needs are ever changing as we get more information. You can keep informed through the Grace Presbytery Facebook page, website or eNEWS.

Pray

Please join us in praying for courage for those who are suffering; wisdom and diligence among agencies and individuals assessing dam-age and directing relief efforts; and for gener-osity to flow as powerfully as rivers and streams, as we respond to the deep human needs left in the wake of the storm. We need your help. Please give generously.

Out of Chaos, Hope

It has been difficult and yet amazing to watch what hurricane Harvey has wrought on the Gulf coast. As a native Texan I don’t recall ever seeing rain and flooding on this scale. It’s really heart-breaking to see so many displaced people who have lost virtually everything and now must start over. I simply can’t fathom what they are going through. Though Harvey has finally dissipated, the recovery process will take months or even years. And as the Presbyterian church provides help in a variety of different ways with money, food, water, clothing, and housing, we must also continue to lift our prayers for the spiritual well-being of all those who understandably feel that life has become truly overwhelming. To address that specifically, John Fattaruso and I are working to organize a trip by our choir down to the shelters in Dallas where so many of our fellow Texans now found themselves. Music can lift spirits, bring hope, and provide need-ed peace and comfort when words often fail.

Our newly remodeled CE building has officially reopened and it looks terrific! If you were not here for the open house you owe it to yourself to go and have a look. It will provide a marvelous environ-ment for our children, our Taiwanese congrega-tion, our First Friday program, and other communi-ty groups who’ll come to use it as time goes on.

Registration for the choir’s trip to England next June continues through September. We have reached sixty travelers and the excitement and anticipation is really starting to build. As our airfare is confirmed we are now taking a closer look at the land arrangements. The hotel business is very competitive and changes with the wind. We want to make sure that we have the best accommoda-tions with the best value in the most desired loca-

tions in each city. Our tour company will be making site visits to each hotel over the next few weeks to make sure that we’ll receive the quality we expect and deserve. If you are thinking about going please call me and let me know. I can send you the infor-mation via e-mail or you can pick it up here at church.

The Rev. Tom Gibbons recently retired from almost 27 years of service at St. Barnabas Presby-terian in Richardson. Tom and I have known each other for several years and have become even clos-er friends as our church choirs have sung together on numerous occasions. I was invited to Tom’s re-tirement party and it was a wonderful tribute to a genuine man of God who has devoted his life to preaching the word, teaching, educating new min-isters, spiritual formation, and the overall well-being of the church. There were members from his first congregation in Houston present as well as members from the PNC that called him to St. Bar-nabas. Jan DeVries from Grace Presbytery spoke and was very eloquent and inspiring in her re-marks. I was very honored to be there as a repre-sentative of FPC on what was a very emotional day for Tom.

The Sanctuary Choir has resumed rehearsals and has begun preparing a special musical presen-tation for Reformation Sunday in October. This will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Luther Reformation. If you would like to come and sing with us, then please give me a call and let’s get you started.

Grace and Peace, Ralph

Worth reading: Rwandan Women Rising

In the spring of 1994, the tiny African nation of Rwanda was ripped apart by a genocide that left nearly a million dead. Neigh-bors attacked neighbors. Family members turned against their own. After the violence subsided, Rwanda's women—drawn by the necessity of protecting their fam-ilies—carved out unlikely new roles for themselves as visionary pioneers creating stability and reconciliation in genocide's wake.

Today, 64% of the seats in Rwanda's Parliament are held by women, a number unrivaled by any other nation.

While news of the Rwandan genocide reached all corners of the globe, the nation's recovery and the key role of women are less well known. At a time of cul-tural chaos, women stepped for-ward to help. They found ways to use their professional capabilities

Continued on page 3

Pastor David is taking a break due to the press of his pastoral duties. “The Pastor’s Page” will return next month. The following piece is by Bligh Jones, a member of Government Street Presbyterian Church. This article appeared in the September/October 2011 issue of Horizons, The Magazine of Presbyterian Women.

The word conjures up so many memories. High school days in the fall, with the homecoming queen and her red roses. Cheerleaders popping up like jack-in-the-boxes. For me, looking for a dress to wear to the dance was much more important than studying for a test. I didn’t care so much for the color or style but I would just die if someone had the same dress in a smaller size!

Perhaps you think about homecomings as fam-ily reunions where everyone wears a t-shirt with the family name and dates of the event printed on them. I see these every year. The participants trav-el in vans and exit them like clowns at the circus. I appreciate the organization behind these events, having put together a few myself. Family home-comings are the best!

My mother was one of six children, and when a niece or nephew got married, everyone in each family attended. It was a great opportunity to

“remember when,” reconnect and show off new ad-ditions to the clan. No need to plan activities— to-getherness was all that mattered. The only thing necessary was a box of tissues—we’re the sort who laugh and cry at the same time.

My church has celebrated a number of homecomings as well. At one such event, pictures were displayed of weddings held at the church. What a hoot! The flowers ranged from huge bouquets to single stems. Dresses might be long, with lace and beading, or little slips with not much adornment. And the hairstyles! Permed hair from the 50s, long and straight hair from the 60s, and veils from the 70s that were massive! The men’s looks were as varied as the women’s, between military uniforms, bell-bottoms, ruffled shirts, and pin-striped “morning suits.” I really do believe that every guy married in the 70s had a mustache!

The best thing about a homecoming—whether it be a fall football game, a family reunion, or a church-wide event—is that people get the opportunity to celebrate each other. We get the chance to be to-gether and take great delight in our friends, family, and community, remembering the past and having a great time in the present. What a gift to have people you can call “home” - as long as no one else is wear-ing your dress in a smaller size!

and collaborate in ever-broadening circles of re-sponsibility. And each contributed to rebuilding the nation.

These women did not seek the limelight or set out to build a movement; rather, they organized around common problems such as health care, housing, and poverty to serve the greater good. Their victories were usually in groups and wide-ranging, addressing issues such as rape, equality in marriage, female entrepreneurship, reproductive rights, education for girls, and mental health.

“On every continent, there are countries where a dramatic increase in women’s influence has led to a peaceful foreign policy, higher education lev-els, longer life expectancy, safer streets, even cleaner water,” writes Jimmy Carter. “These gains aren’t coincidental.”

Their accomplishments provide important les-sons for policy makers and activists who are work-ing toward equality elsewhere in Africa and other

post-conflict societies. Their stories demonstrate that the best way to reduce suffering and to pre-vent and end conflicts is to elevate the status of women throughout the world.

In Rwandan Women Rising, author Swanee Hunt tells the stories of some seventy women who overcame unfathomable brutality, unrecoverable loss, and unending challenges to rebuild Rwandan society.

Swanee Hunt chairs the Washington-based Institute for Inclu-sive Security. She was U.S. ambassador to Austria (1993–97) and she is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, CEO of Hunt Alternatives, and a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR and written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the International Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe, among other publications. She is the author of several other books published by Duke University Press.

Rwandan Women continued from page 2

Several years ago Pastor David suggested that after all the angels were chosen, the Mission Minis-try put requests for gift cards on the Angel Tree. This program was successful thanks to the gener-ous nature of our congregation and we have con-tinued to place gift card requests on the tree each holiday season.

Realizing that people are in need throughout the year and not just during the holidays, the Mis-sion Ministry has placed a Giving Tree in the nar-thex. The gift cards are for the pastoral emergency fund, gasoline, bus passes, McDonalds, etc. You may take one or more from the tree, write in a dol-lar amount, clip your check or cash to it and place it in the offering plate .

These gift cards make huge difference. Some-times a gasoline gift card or a bus pass allows a person to go to a job interview or get to a job. A gift card to Walmart allows a child to have a jacket, or school supplies. A gift card to the pastoral emer-gency fund may help pay a person's rent or electric bill. The possibilities are endless for making a difference in our community.

Area Presbyterian churches will join together to provide gently used clothing for students at the Presbyterian Pan American School in Kingsville, Texas. Many of YaYa’s fellow students come to the school with very few possessions. They need all

sizes of clothing: khakis, jeans, dress pants, sports-wear, shorts, shoes, warm-up suits, jackets, hood-ies, sweaters, coats, umbrellas, backpacks, rain ponchos, prom dresses, purses suits, sport coats, dress shirts, belts, ties, baseball bats, balls, hel-mets, mitts.

These items will be collected in baskets around the church and taken to West Plano Presbyterian by September 30. We also need volunteers to sort and transport the items. Look for flyers or contact Jeanne Stone for more information.

Knitted or sewn items should be turned in to the church office by Wednesday, September 13, for delivery to the Richardson Interfaith Alliance. The goal is to produce 100 warm items. If you need pick up, contact Lea Perkins. Remember you are invited to join Art “Therapy” on Thursday, September 7, to work on your donation.

The Mission Ministry would like to express its gratitude to the congregation for its generous sup-port of the Caring Fund. We collected $1,235, which included a generous gift of $500 from the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church. Also the response to Tools 4 School was overwhelming! The school supplies were divided equally between the Net-work, Terrace and Mark Twain Elementary schools. Thank you so much for your continuing support.

PCUSA mission co-worker models servant-leadership

Opportunities for Ministry

The Rwandan genocide that swept the country more than 23 years ago, left the nation with an impoverished and traumatized population. But PC USA mission co-worker Kay Day is focused on the future, not the past. She believes the thoughtful theological leaders she and others are working to train will build the future.

Day works as a professor of theology (biblical interpretation and homiletics) at Protestant Uni-versity in Rwanda. The institution is supported by five Protestant denominations, including the Pres-byterian Church of Rwanda, a PCUSA mission part-ner. The school opened in 2010, but its roots go back to the founding of the School of Theology of Butare years earlier. Students study divinity, edu-cation and community development. The school strives to produce graduates who will contribute to

Rwanda’s spiritual, intellectual and socioeconomic life and become pillars of reconciliation, mutual respect and societal development.

The Rev. Elisee Musemakwelli, vice chancellor of the university, believes Day models the teach-ings of Christ inside and outside the classroom and is helping to grow the church. “Youth are present and participating in the activities of church,” he said from his office in Kigali. He called the PCUSA partnership “a blessing” and said, “Day is a valua-ble member of our community.”

Day works to model servant leadership for her students, but emphasizes that Jesus is the one and only true leader of the church. “We are following him,” she said. “He was a servant leader. We need leaders to follow that example.”

The movie Places in the Heart tells the story of Edna Spalding, a widowed white mother in a small Texas town during the Depression. Against all odds, with the help of a transient black man and a disagreeable blind boarder, she plants and har-vests forty acres of cotton to keep her home. Throughout, characters engage in murder, adul-tery, theft, assault and plain mean-spiritedness. The final scene shows a congregation in a local church gathered for Communion.

As the bread and juice are passed down the pews, the camera focuses on one face after anoth-er: first, anonymous members of the community; then Edna’s sister, who passes the tray to her cheating husband; then members of the Ku Klux Klan, who share the elements with the black man they had beaten up; Edna herself; and finally, in a glimpse of life beyond death, Edna’s husband, the sheriff who had been shot and killed at the begin-ning of the film. Sheriff Spalding then passes the bread and cup to his killer, saying, “The peace of Christ.”

This vision of sharing bread with unlikely peo-ple across lines of difference captures the heart of the modern ecumenical movement. In the 20th century, many Christians in the U.S. and Europe were inspired by a vision of church unity, rooted in God’s reconciling love in Christ for the “whole in-habited world” (oikoumene).

Several factors contributed to this. The 19th-century missionary movement had inspired coop-eration among churches and denominations. Churches in Europe reached across divides caused by centuries of religious conflict and two world wars. This ecumenical movement produced na-tional and international organizations seeking church unity, including the World Council of Churches in 1948.

It was a bold vision, rooted in the conviction that in Christ, God seeks reconciliation of the whole world. In recent years, however, some of the original ecumenical energy has faded and divisions have re-emerged.

Does ecumenism matter? Yes, now more than ever.

One text on unity, Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John 17:20–23, includes the repeated petition “that they may all be one.” This prayer for unity does not simply — or even primarily — call for un-ion of official church organizations. Jesus here voices his eschatological longing for all of humani-ty to be reconciled to one another and to God. Like Isaiah, Jesus imagines lions and lambs, wolves and

sheep, looking at each other in surprise and shar-ing a meal. Such a prayer for unity does not mean that differences are erased; it means that differ-ences are embraced.

We can think of ecumenism in three ways: offi-cial, everyday and “wider ecumenism.” Each points to the reconciliation for which Jesus prays.

Official ecumenism. In 2013, after years of discussion, Catholic and Re-formed Protestant Christians in the U.S. signed an historic agreement affirming “mutual recognition of baptism.” This significant step in official ecumenical agreement embodies the conviction that at least in baptism, there are no divisions.

Everyday ecumenism. At Columbia Seminary, where I teach, Baptists, Meth-odists, Anglicans, Pentecostals, nonde-nominational Christians and Presbyteri-ans study theology together. Students learn that theology itself is dialogue. Every day, students learn to listen respectfully to other Christians across time and space (and across the classroom) who interpret the gospel differently. In the pro-cess, they learn to voice their interpretations of sin and salvation, cross and resurrection, with cour-age, but without shutting down their fellow stu-dents. This too is ecumenical dialogue.

Wider ecumenism. Increasingly, Christian leaders are seeking common understanding not only with-in Christianity, but also with other religious tradi-tions. This is especially vital in these days when emphasis on Christian unity can unwittingly con-tribute to prejudice against Muslims (for example, in proposed differential treatment of Muslim and Christian refugees from Syria). If narrow definitions of ecumenism work against Christ’s call to care for vulnerable people anywhere, then we need to wid-en our definition.

In a divided and angry world, we need ecumen-ism more than ever. Jesus’ prayer “that all may be one” still summons us to reach across divides and offer bread to our neighbors — across the aisle, across the room, across the globe. As Sheriff Spal-ding reminds us, this is “the peace of Christ.” Martha Moore-Keish is the J.B. Green Associate Professor of Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary. She teaches and writes on sacramental, ecumenical, interreligious and feminist theology. This article appears in the July 20, 2017, issue of Pres-byterians Today, a publication of the PCUSA Mission Agency.

What Presbyterians believe about ecumenism

Wednesday Morning Circle

The next meeting is on October 4. Watch for de-tails in e-Press.

Thursday Evening Circle

Join our women's evening circle Thursday, Sep-tember 14, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in the church li-brary, as we begin our monthly meetings for spir-itual study and fellowship. We will discuss Session One, Brand Recognition, of Christian Study Guide and DVD: It’s Not What You Think, by Andy Stan-ley. Presenter is Ginger Anderson and hostess is Frankie Markham. All women are invited. For addi-tional information, contact Ginger (Bob) Anderson.

Sunday Book Club

Join us for this next year of good books and good discussions. We meet next Sunday, September 10, at 5 p.m. in the library. Our book is The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny. We will also select books for the rest of the year. For more information, contact Ginger (Doug) Anderson.

Retire-eze

The Retire-eze meet on Wednesday, September 20, in Ernst Fellowship Hall for lunch at 11:30 a.m., followed by the movie "Where Hope Grows." This movie was directed by Chris Dowling, son of Cheryl

and Don Dowling. For more information, contact Shirley Bridges.

Monday Book Discussion

On Monday, September 25, we meet at 2 p.m. in the church library, to discuss Gilead, the 2005 Pu-litzer Prize winner for Fiction, by Marilynne Robin-son. This is a lovely novel depicting the faith and struggles of a pastor in rural Iowa in the mid-twentieth century. In ways it may remind us of our own upbringing. Join us as Anne Healy leads our discussion. Members are reminded to bring sug-gestions for future reads, all available in paper-back. Questions, contact Anne Healy.

Shufflers

The Shufflers meet for casual bridge at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, September 27. Contact Barbara Chap-man or Frankie Markham to reserve a seat.

Tuesday Morning Bible Study

We are now meeting in the church library. For the next three weeks we will be watching DVDs by Lee Strobel, and atheist who became a Christian after extensive research on the reality of Jesus Christ. We meet at 10 a.m. and all are welcome. Good fellowship and lots of laughter—just ask Shirley Kempter! For more information contact Susan Johnson or Jan Warner.

News You Can Use

Situated just west of downtown Dallas, the Trinity River is the single largest watershed contained in the State of Texas and it is a Dallas treasure! This year the TRINITY RIVER WIND FESTIVAL artists and vendors will make it the greenest ever. The event is free and there will be food trucks, kid ac-tivities and kite flying. The Blackland Prairie Raptor Center will be on hand to showcase their beautiful birds of prey in action. The Dallas Zoo Animal Ad-venture and Texas Discovery Gardens Big Bug Booth with be there too. For more information visit www.trinityrivercorridor.org

Saturday, September 16, 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Trinity River - Dallas Floodway - 146 W. Commerce St.

Hope to see you there

First Presbyterian Earth Care Team

Trinity River Wind Festival

In a letter from Carter Blood Center: A new manager and director has made changes. In order to schedule another blood drive at your church, 20 donors must be signed up in advance.

Our last drive collected only 6 units. As a result, the Mission Ministry has decided that we cannot comply with these changes. Since we struggle to get even 6 donors, the blood drive program has been ended.

Frankie Markham Blood Drive Coordinator

Some Sad News

Re-Visiting Ernst Fellowship Hall

Have you noticed a difference as you go into Ernst Fellowship Hall? That is once again its official name, as seen by the new wording near the entrance, the picture of Karl Ernst and museum card on the side wall telling a bit of his history, and the plaque just inside the room.

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September/October 2017

January 6, 2017

International Day of Peace September 21