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CONNECT
A quarterly Newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church of
Murphysboro and Pinckneyville Illinois
Fall Newsletter 2016
(From the Pastor) Faith is the Victory
This has been a horrible, violent summer. More questionable killings of African-American men
in police custody. Assassinations of police officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas, by African-
American military veterans, no less. The murder of fifty people in the Pulse Nightclub in
Orlando, a club that caters to a LGBTQ clientele. The shooter purportedly had ties to radical
Islamic groups but may have also been gay himself.
On top of all this, ISIS and individuals loyal to ISIS carried out deadly terror attacks in
Bangladesh, Baghdad, Istanbul, and Nice, France, killing hundreds. If you are like me, you are
sitting on pins and needles, waiting for the “next shoe to fall,” if you’ll forgive me for mixing
metaphors.
I feel kind of helpless; I don’t know what to do. Our governmental leaders don’t seem to have
any good answers either, except to increase security everywhere and drop more bombs on
suspected terrorist targets. In other words, the only thing the authorities seem to know to do are
the same things they’ve done in the past that haven’t seemed to slow down the violence at all.
It would be easy to give up in such a situation, to check out, to isolate oneself, and take on the
philosophy of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die.” That’s a tempting response,
I must admit.
And if WE are downhearted and discouraged, what about members of the African-American
community who think they are not being heard and that their concerns for their safety at the
hands of law enforcement are not being taken seriously? What about the police officers in this
country, who must be afraid for THEIR lives as well and probably feel like they are under siege?
What about those who serve in our military forces, particularly the ones who ae battling
terrorism on the front lines in the Middle East? I cannot imagine the stress they are under and
how futile and thankless some of them may feel their work is from time to time.
continued from page 1 of From the Pastor
Yes, it would be easy to give up in the face of such discouraging scenarios. Easy, but wrong.
See, all of these things are bad, evil. But God was around before bad things and evil things and
people came into being and God will be there when such things have gone away forever. Evil
doesn’t last; God does.
But evil is still here with us now with all of the attendant horror and suffering that goes with it.
How does knowing that one day it will be gone help us now?
Well, I could think of a number of reasons, but here are a few. One, evil, then, is contingent,
unnecessary, temporal. Now that doesn’t minimize the harm it causes in the interim. But evil
isn’t eternal, not like God, love, peace, joy and the many other divine blessings that we get to
experience in this life.
And because of the eternal life that we have by God’s grace been given through the life, death,
and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we are eternal too. So, as powerful as evil
and its sidekick suffering seem to be, we’ll outlast them. We will win the race. Victory will
ultimately be ours, because Christ is already victorious over sin, death, and hell. Two, evil does not have ultimate power. The power of God, the power of Christ, is greater by
far than the power of evil. Evil is a product of this world, not the next world, the spiritual world,
and like all things of this world, its power to do harm, while great, is still relative. Jesus reminds
us in the Gospel of John, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Because of our
relationship to God through Jesus, we have access to that same power as we struggle against evil.
Furthermore, if we equate evil with darkness, as the Bible does, in the Gospel of John we are
also reminded that light, especially the light of God as wielded by Jesus, always overcomes the
darkness. When Jesus’ light is shining, darkness always has to flee. And Jesus shares his light
with us. He has given us his light as a mighty weapon in our struggle with evil.
But here’s the thing. The power of God, the power of love and light and peace, does not work in
the same way as the power of evil. It is not as “in your face,” as it were; the power of God is
more subtle and not as overwhelming. God’s power is immense, no doubt about it. It is strong,
but it is a kind of controlled strength.
I am reminded of something the wizard Gandalf says in the movie version of “The Hobbit:”
“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have
found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay.
Small acts of kindness and love.” That’s the kind of power I am talking about.
The power of God, and since God is love it is essentially the power of love, is a kind of “soft”
power. It is the power of goodness and of sacrifice, of meekness and humility. As such, it may
not sound like much, but one underestimates the power of God at one’s peril.
continued from page 2 from the Pastor
Jesus on the cross demonstrated the effectiveness of this power. Evil in all of its raw
malevolence and bloody violence threw everything it had at Jesus, and its power hammered at
Jesus on the cross with all its fury. But Jesus won, not evil.
The power of evil was broken by the power of love. Jesus took all of the world’s hate, envy,
greed, and idolatry, indeed, all sin, into himself and absorbed it and destroyed it and made it as
nothing. Jesus won the field, won the day. Christ was the victor.
However, his victory went unobserved by all except those who had the eyes to see. His was a
quiet victory, but it was victory nevertheless. And now his victory is ours. We appropriate that
victory by faith; as the hymn says, “Faith is the Victory That Overcomes the World.” May we
remember that when what we see in the world is less than encouraging. Evil may have its day in
the sun, but one day the sun’s going to go down.
GENERAL NEWS Pastor Sam is leading a six week study featuring Reading the Bible for Understanding this fall.
This study is part of the “Being Reformed: Faith Seeking Understanding” series published by
the Presbyterian Church USA Store (www.pcusastore.com). This study introduces important
means to consider when interpreting different parts of the Bible: narratives, poetry and wisdom,
and letters. It also reviews what Reformed and Presbyterian Christians believe about the nature
of the Bible, and texts and translations that are available to us. The study meets on Sunday
nights at 5 p.m. at Murphysboro and on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. at Pinckneyville.
Both churches recently purchased new copiers, Secretary Connie at Pinckneyville and Secretary
Phyllis at Murphysboro are elated, elated I tell you!
Who is the Presbytery of Southeastern Illinois?
Article Submitted to by Cindy Bean, Stated Clerk
“Southeastern Illinois Connection Newsletter”
As we move through 2016, we are 83 congregations, 99 Teaching Elders, and
Camp Carew. Our churches span from Hoopeston to the North and cairo to the
south from communities all along the Indiana border from Paris, New Providence,
and Shawneetown to Tilden and Chester on the west.
We also have within our bounds, two service organizations –Kemmerer Village
and the Illinois Presbyterian Home –that have board members from the Presbytery
of Southeastern Illinois and our neighbor to the north, Great Rivers Presbytery.
We even have a university in our midst that has roots in the Presbyterian church –
Millikin University.
The Presbytery comes together in meetings four times a year in which
commissioners appointed by each congregation and the minister members make
decisions concerning the ministries of the Presbytery.
The Presbytery of Southeastern Illinois was formed in 1972 from three
presbyteries. Our oldest churches include Donnellson and Golcanda, both were
organized in 1819. Our newest one, copper Creek, was organized in 2012.
We look forward to celebrating 45 years in faithful ministry together in 2017.
The Presbytery committees are composed of volunteers from Ruling Elders from
the 83 churches and the 99 minister members. There are 22 churches being served
by full time called and installed pastors. As of today, our smallest church has 5
members and the largest church has 687 members.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF MURPHYSBORO, IL Address: 51 Crescent Drive, Murphysboro, IL 62966 Phone: 618-684-3466
Secretary e-mail: neacephyllis@yahoo.com Office hours: Tuesday, Thursday – Friday, 12:30 pm -4:00
Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
MURPHYSBORO NEWS
PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN OF MURPHYSBORO by Peggy Carpenter, Current President
Presbyterian women meet on the first Tuesday of most every month at 10:00 a.m.
The women begin the meeting with the Bible study, Fruit of the Spirit. It is
exciting and informative. Following that portion of the meeting, there are
refreshments, and fellowship. Then the group continues their meeting to discuss
activities we are involved in. All women are welcome!
This is our busiest time! It is the time of year we start planning for Christmas. We
start collecting items, like small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, small
packages of Kleenex, etc. to take to area nursing homes and the Women’s Center
in Carbondale.
We also will be collecting winter outerwear, such as gloves, mittens, scarves, hats,
and socks for the mentally challenged who live in Murphysboro.
PW women also send out birthday, get well, and miss you cards.
Hope you can join us!
In response to the June flooding in West Virginia, and the more recent catastrophic flooding in
Louisiana, our church put together a number of “health kits,” kits collected by Presbyterian
Disaster Assistance, to send to survivors of the flooding. The kits are shipped to a warehouse in
Little Rock, Arkansas, and from there are sent to disaster zones. First Presbyterian of
Murphysboro collected enough items for three cleanup buckets. The buckets included such items
as all-purpose cleaning solutions, masks, gloves, clotheslines, clothespins, scrubbing brushes,
detergent, and so forth. Way to go church!
continued Murphysboro News
Our new pictorial directories have been ordered and are on their way. They are beautiful! Julia
Morrill has done a good job as the editor with the able assistance of Murphysboro secretary
Phyllis Neace, among others. If you want a directory, we'll be glad to order one for you. Just let
us know by October 25. The directories will not cost more that $15 a copy, and will probably be
less than that with various discounts that Walgreen’s offers. Call or email the office if you want
one; we will also have a sign-up sheet on the table in the back of the sanctuary.
M’boro Prayer List Peggy Carpenter / Bill Mitchell Donita Bailey-cancer treatments Sonja Crain Naomi Potter Nancy Baker Outreach Committee Labyrinth Project The Government Ellen Thomas Flooding in Louisiana Jim Bolton Anna Mae DeRossett Starletta Kerley Wendy Neal Bill Craig the family of Bill Mitchell’s granddaughter Jessica Carlotta Ahlfield (Matthew’s Mom) heart surgery Victims & Survivors of Hurricane Matthew
NOTE: If you are receiving this Newsletter in the mail, and have a computer with Internet,
we now have the Newsletter on-line to view. To save on postage if you could call us to let
us know that you know longer need it by mail. Thank you!
FIRST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF PINCKNEYVILLE, IL Address: 3811 State Route 13/127, Pinckneyville, Il 62274 Phone 618-357-8017 Secretary Connie Moore e-mail: fupcpville@frontier.com Office hours: Monday, Tuesday 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. And Friday 9:00 a.m. – noon
PINCKNEYVILLE NEWS P’ville Prayer List Karen Lopez John Nehrkorn Doris Rottschalk Ruth McDaniel Cyrus Keller Family of Larry Hardin Family of Alice Giacomo Chuck Dobrinick Daughter Moving to Hawaii
Louisiana Flooding
Henry Walton
Victims & survivors of Hurricane Matthew
***********************************************************************************
In response to the June flooding in West Virginia, and the more recent catastrophic
flooding in Louisiana, our church put together a number of “health kits,” kits
collected by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, to send to survivors of the flooding.
The kits are shipped to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, and from there are
sent to the disaster zones. First United Presbyterian collected seventeen hygiene
kits (consisting of items such as nail clippers, wash clothes, soap, toothpaste, and
so forth) and twenty-three school kits (bags filled with various school supplies).
Way to go church! We had almost one-hundred percent participation from those
who attend Sunday worship services.
****************************************************************
There will be a church wide breakfast followed by a congregational meeting at
Pinckneyville on November 13 beginning at 8 a.m.
Our new pictorial directories have been ordered and are on their way. They are
beautiful! Julia Morrill has done a good job as the editor with the able assistance of
Murphysboro secretary Phyllis Neace, among others. And good news! A generous elder,
who wishes to remain anonymous, has agreed to purchase enough for everyone. We are
very grateful.
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