Con Spirito Concert on Tuesday, Feb. 28

Join us for the next concert in our Con Spirito series!

Save the date for the next concert in our Con Spirito series featuring the Concordia University Symphony Orchestra from Irvine, CA, on Tuesday, February 28^th at 7:30 p.m.

With an enrollment of nearly 4000 students, Concordia University Irvine strives to prepare students for their various callings in life.  Concordia offers degrees at all levels at their beautiful Southern California campus. Affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Concordia is dedicated to excellent teaching, scholarship, and the promotion of demonstrable learning. 

The aim of the Music Department is to develop general musicianship, performance, musical collaboration, and critical listening. Ensembles are open to students interested in studying to be professionals as well as those who desire to perform for the joy of music.

The program scheduled to be performed includes:

Bach: Cantata Ich bin in mirvergnügt (“On Contentment”) BWV 204, mvt. 3 (student soprano soloist)

Rouse: Flute Concerto – Mvt. 4&5 (student soloist)

Bach: Fugue from Sonata #2 for Solo Violin (student soloist)

Bach:Cantata Ich bin in mir vergnügt BWV 204, mvt. 5 and 8 (student soprano soloist)

Copland: Appalachian Spring (Suite for Full Orchestra)

John Williams: Suite from Far and Away

Hymn Concertato: “For All the Saints” (arr. Alex Guebert ’10)

Education Series

Matthew 25, Part II: Dismantling Structural Racism 

In the spring of 2021, the First Presbyterian Session voted to become a Matthew 25 congregation. Matthew 25 is a movement within the larger Presbyterian Church, designed to focus the hearts and minds of disciples on the challenging, justice-focused ministry priorities taught by Jesus in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The Matthew 25 movement has three foci – 

• Dismantling Structural Racism, the focus of our February sermons; 
• Eradicating Systemic Poverty, which we explored last fall; and, 
• Building Congregational Vitality, which we will focus on this spring.   

Adult Mission Trip Save the Date
Mission Committee members are arranging a second mission trip to Dawson Springs, Kentucky from May 14-20, 2023 to help rebuild homes after a catastrophic tornado in 2021. A group from First Pres worked in the area last fall. You might not recall the specifics of the storm, as there have been so many disasters of all kinds. To refresh your memory, in December, 2021, a violent, long-track tornado moved through Western Kentucky, causing catastrophic damage and taking 57 lives. Residents are still in the rebuilding phase. 
 
This area is about a 3-hour drive from St. Louis, which means it's convenient even if you can only come for part of the week. We will be working with The Call to Build and they promise there will be plenty of work for all skill levels. 
 
Our housing hosts are the congregation from Hanson United Methodist Church, Madisonville, KY.  We will be staying in their church, and they are generously providing housing free of charge, as well as lunches. We will share a dinner with them one evening during the week.
 
We will host an Informational Meeting on Sunday, March 26 at 10:00 in the Fireplace Room. At this meeting, we will share trip details and answer any questions you may have. 
 
If you're interested, just pencil in that week. Please let one of the trip leaders know if you have questions and/or if you plan to join us so that we can count noses. Thanks so much.
 
Liz McCane (lizmccane@gmail.com)  
Georgina Sikorski (gwsikorski@gmail.com)
Linda Jarrett (write4you@sbcglobal.net)
Lucy Tidwell (lucytidwellco@gmail.com)

Christian Concerns Class

Join us on Sunday at 9 a.m. in the Fireside Room or on Zoom for our Christian Concerns Class. Dr Paul Robinson from Concordia Seminary will conclude his 4-week series about The History of Preaching.  

Did you know that people asked questions during St. Augustine’s sermons? Or, that medieval preaching set the basic structure of sermons until the 20th century? The four sessions of this class will introduce you to the history of Christian preaching through some of the church’s most famous preachers and their sermons.
If you would like more information or the Zoom link, please contact Ann at ann.willie@hotmail.com.

The Zoom link is :

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83836320060?pwd=dytxcWYxZ2NJNFlEaTBmWlVBRkNndz09

Meeting ID: 838 3632 0060

Passcode: 63122

If the link does not open directly, copy it and paste it into your internet Search window and find us there.

Veterans' Personal Hygiene Items
During the month of February, we will be collecting personal hygiene items for local Veterans, in partnership with Youth in Action. Please bring your donations of shampoo, deodorants, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. to church. We will have a box set up near the information desk for donations. Thank you for your support!

A Lenten Bible Study
Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. during Lent you are invited to a book study, Meeting Jesus at the Table by Cynthia Campbell and Christine Coy Fohr. Each week we will look at a story of Jesus eating with people and what we can learn from these meals. After the class, if you would like, we will go to eat lunch at a restaurant somewhere in Kirkwood. 

The class began on February 22^nd, Ash Wednesday. After class we will go to the Ash Wednesday worship Service and then to lunch. We will not meet on March 1^st. The class will continue on March 8^th through April 5^th. We will meet in the Fireside Room.

Book Clubs

We have several active book clubs! Check out the info below!
 

Tuesday Book Club: Tuesday Book Club will be discussing First Mothers, the Women Who Shaped the Presidents by Bonnie Angelo beginning February 14 and for five subsequent Tuesdays at 10 AM. The book reveals the influence, stories, and times of presidential mothers from FDR to Bill Clinton. Interested persons are welcome to join in. For questions, please contact kochkarenp@gmail.com.
 
Wednesday Book Club: The next meeting for the Wednesday book club will be March 29^th (note the date change) at 1:30 over zoom.  We will be discussing The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall.
 This book traces two married couples whose lives become entangled when the husbands become copastors at a famed NYC congregation in the 1960s. Please contact julia@abreu.net for more information.

History Book Club: The History Book Group now meets every month, 10:30 on the 4^th Thursday of the month. We’re reading Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror about how Europe’s 14^th century – a time of plague, distrust of institutions, climate change – echoes in 21^st century Western civilization.  All are welcome. For more info, contact Carlin Scanlan (ccscanlan@swbell.net) or Don Lewis (donlewis610@gmail.com).

Give Online
Have you tried giving online? You can do a onetime gift or set up reoccurring payments and pay with ACH direct from your checking account, via credit card or using GooglePay.
 
Go to https://www.shelbygiving.com/app/giving/kirkwoodpres and follow the prompts, text GIVE to 314-293-4922, or scan the QR code to go directly to our giving portal. If you have any questions, please reach out to accounting@kirkwoodpres.org.