Church guide

On Sunday, July 21, 2019, we will explore the tough love God shows in the book of Amos.

We will be joining our Westminster friends in their building on Sunday, July 7 at 10 a.m. for a shared communion service.

We will be joining our friends at the Galena United Methodist, Lord of Love Lutheran and Westminster Presbyterian for a four-church worship service at the Galena Center for the Arts on Sunday, June 30 beginning at 10:30 a.m. Please join us there!

Sunday, June 16, 2019 is Trinity Sunday, so the focus of our service will be on Proverbs 8 — the Lady Wisdom passage

Sunday, June 9 is Pentecost Sunday. We will celebrate Pentecost — the birthday of the Christian Church — with cookies and beverages after worship. The worship itself will include a brief Pentecost video and a sermon about the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11.

On Sunday, June 2, 2019, we will host the Westminster Presbyterian congregation for a shared communion service beginning at 10:00 a.m.

We are hosting a three-congregation Maundy Thursday service at 7 p.m. on April 18, taking part at the United Churches Good Friday service noon April 19 at the Galena United Methodist Church and having two services on Easter morning. The Sonrise service begins at 8 a.m. April 21 and will feature the world premiere of a movie written by the pastor and featuring two actors from the Main Street Players. The movie is called "The Gift of the Resurrection." That service will be followed by a breakfast hosted by the choir. Then we will have a traditional Easter celebration at 10 a.m. Please join us for any or all of those events.

First Pres will celebrate Palm Sunday on April 14 with palms and a look at how Jesus reframed the role of the Messiah and how we can reframe our own situations to better deal with them.

First Presbyterian Church will celebrate St. Patrick's Day with an Irish Potluck after worship on Sunday, March 17, 2019.

On Sunday, March 10, we enter the season of Lent with a look at the temptations of Jesus as reported in the 4th chapter of Luke.

Due to the weather, we are cancelling today's (Feb. 12. 2019) Stone Soup Kitchen event. We will check to see if it is possible to reschedule it for the 26th. In either case, we still plan to hold Stone Soup Kitchen on Feb. 19th.

On Sunday, February 10, 2019, we will have a special hymn sing service. The congregation will sing all or part of 11 different hymns — all of which were selected as favorites by our members. Some of them will be used as parts of the service; six of them will be alternated with stories selected to highlight themes of the hymn lyrics during the sermon portion of the service.

We will have a guest preacher on Sunday, January 27, 2019. Rev. George Calhoun will talk about the story of the Good Samaritan in a sermon entitled, “Number 39."

How can you shake those seasonal doldrums when winter wraps its icy fingers around your heart and shows no sign of letting go? How about by enjoying an outing with free food and free entertainment? Isn’t that a good excuse to escape the house and avoid cabin fever? The Stone Soup Kitchen is an annual event hosted by the First Presbyterian Church of Galena, which invites the entire community to gather in the warmth of their building for some wintertime fun. The church will offer a free soup supper to anyone who would like to come. They will do this on each of the first three Tuesdays in February. All three Stone Soup Kitchen events will last from 5-7 p.m. There is no cost, no hidden agenda, no obligation of any kind and no program. It is merely a group of people getting together to enjoy each other’s company and to try to beat the winter blues. The whole point is to be good neighbors to the Galena community. For that reason, the congregation has already lined up volunteers from both the congregation and from area residents who aren’t otherwise associated with the church to help with these suppers. The church has also had a generous response from Galena’s musical community when recruiting people willing to offer their talents to entertain the diners. The church plans to have at least three different soups, including a vegan option, each week. They’re also planning to serve breads, beverages and desserts. No one is required to bring anything for this meal, although if anyone would like to volunteer to make food for any of these events, please call the church office so the event coordinators may put that intended donation on the church’s Stone Soup calendar. The name “Stone Soup Kitchen” comes from an old folk tale in which a stranger arrives in town with a cooking pot, which he fills with water from a stream and then adds a stone to it. When the local people ask him what he’s doing, he tells them that he is making stone soup. It was a time of famine, so the townspeople are definitely interested in hearing how you could make soup with merely a stone. Gradually he convinces each bystander to go home to add a small ingredient — such as carrots or seasoning — to add a little touch of flavoring until the imaginary stone soup becomes a genuinely delicious meal, created through the community’s sharing of their previously hidden resources. The end result was a true community building event. The First Presbyterian congregation believes that their Stone Soup Kitchens have been equally successful in bringing people of the Galena community together. This will be the fifth consecutive year that the church has sponsored the Stone Soup Kitchen. First Presbyterian Church is located at 106 N. Bench Street in Galena. Those attending the Stone Soup Kitchen should go to the basement entrance on the north — the Hill Street— side of the building.

We will be sharing a worship service on Sunday, Dec. 30 at the Galena Center for the Arts with three other congregations: Galena United Methodist, Lord of Love Lutheran and Westminster Presbyterian Churches. The service starts at 10:!5 a.m.

On Christmas Eve, we will host a candlelight service at 7 p.m. with plenty of Christmas songs to celebrate the joy of Jesus' birth at Bethlehem.

On Sunday, December 2 we will begin the Advent season by hosting our friends from Westminster Presbyterian church for a shared communion service. The pastor will begin a three-part sermon series based on Charles Dickens’ famous short story, “A Christmas Carol.” The part for Dec. 2 will be based on “The Spirit of Christmas Past;” tDec. 9 will be “The Spirit of Christmas Present;” and Dec. 16 will be “The Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come.”

On Sunday, November 4, we will celebrate a belated All Saints Day with a portion of the worship service dedicated to honoring our loved ones who have died. We will also share the Lord's Supper. Please join us for this meaningful worship experience.

October 7, 2018 is World Communion Sunday, so we will be joining our friends at the Galena United Methodist Church, Grace Episcopal Church, Lord of Love Lutheran Church and Westminster Presbyterian Church for a shared service on that day. We will have our worship at the Galena Center for the Arts (219 Summit Street, Galena IL 61036) starting at 10:15 a.m.

We will have the honor of hosting Doug Tilton, the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s co-ordinator for missionaries serving in the southern portion of Africa, on Sunday, September 23. Doug will speak with the adult Sunday school class from 9:00-9:45 a.m. Then he will help lead worship — including preaching the sermon — 10:00 a.m. That will be followed by a potluck to give those who attend to talk with Doug further or ask him questions. Please join us if you are able.