Independent Presbyterian Church
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

News & Events

For more information,
go to IPC's   CALENDAR OF EVENTS 
 
 photos by Paul Romjue, Director Christian Education
   
Upcoming Events at IPC
2012
February 21  Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper sponsored by Boy Scouts

February 22  Ash Wednesday   Services Noon and 6:30 p.m. with Holy Communion

February 26  3rd Graders Worship Retreat
February 26  Youth Small Groups begin again
February 27  Birmingham Men's Club
February 28  4th Quarter Lunch Bunch at The Bright Star. Transportation provided.

February 29  Noon Chapel Service "Service for Wholeness"

March  No Parent's Night Out in March 

March 11  Evening Prayer Service with Communion 4:00pm Sanctuary

March 14  Children's Musical "Oh, Jonah!"   6:30pm next door 3116 Highland Ave.

March 15  Presbyterian Women Spring Social at Susan Haskell's home

March 25  "Remembrances of Things Israel"  Presentation of Israel Trip 10 am 

March 27  IPC's 4th Quarter Lunch Bunch at the Bright Star Restaurant  Transportation provided

April 1   IPC Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic Lunch after 11;00 service  Details

April 13    Parents Night Out     (NOTE:  No Parents' Night Out in March)

 
E-Update   weekly IPC enewsletter     Sign up for E-Update!      
The Window    monthly IPC newsletter  
Pathways booklet  Describes all the ways to be involved at IPC  
         
 
 Tornado Relief
 Click here for information from Rev. Susan Clayton on how you can help.
 Christian Service Mission
  
Or you can sign up here to volunteer:   
Hands On Birmingham
http://www.handsonbirmingham.org/
 
 
        Service for Wholeness
A service for wholeness will be included in the Wednesday noon chapel service on the last Wednesday of every month. 
 
       Healing was an integral part of the ministry of Jesus that the church has been called to continue as one dimension of its concern for the wholeness of people.  Through services for wholeness, the church enacts in worship its ministry as a healing community.  Beginning the last Wednesday of February, a service for wholeness will be included in the Wednesday noon chapel service on the last Wednesday of every month.  This service includes prayer and the laying on of hands by an elder or minister.  Healing is to be understood not as the result of the holiness, earnestness or skill of those praying, or of the faith of the ones seeking healing, but as the gift of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Wednesday chapel services also include a brief homily and the celebration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  If you have any questions about the service for wholeness, please call Rev. Lucy Turner at 933-3706.
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
ASH WEDNESDAY:   THE SEASON OF LENT will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22, with the service of Holy Communion and the imposition of ashes at 12:00 noon and 6:30 p.m.  In the Sanctuary.
 
  
 
 
  
 
Habitat for Humanity Lenten House Build:  Building on Faith
     IPC will be participating again in this year's Lenten House Build. Please prayerfully consider this wonderful opportunity to help a family and a community.  Click here for all the details.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Please note:   The IPC Presbyterian Women Social Event has been changed to Thursday, March 15, 2012.
IPC Presbyterian Women Spring Social Event
All women of IPC are invited to the Presbyterian Women Spring Social Event.
Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
at the  home of Susan Haskell
2964 Cherokee Road
Mountain Brook   35223
    Enjoy catching up with friends, meet new ones, and hear an update about First Light Women's Shelter
Please register online or call the receptionist (933-1830) so we will know how many to expect.
Suggested donation at the door is $5.00 per person.
Parking is limited, so carpooling is encouraged.
We look forward to seeing you on the 15th!
 
 
 
IPC Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic Lunch
 
Sunday, April 1, 2012  
Right after 11:00 Worship Service
in the Park by the Church
 
 
 
 
 
    Photos by Virginia Jones 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
All Saints Service at IPC November 6, 2011
Listen to the Litany of the Saints, IPC Choir chanting the names of those in our church who have died during the year. This moving service allowed us to thank God for their lives and for the hope of resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
 
   There was a BLESSING OF THE PIPES on Wednesday, October 12 at 8:00 a.m. We celebrated  the arrival of the new organ and sang and prayed it into the sanctuary!   Click here for details and photos.
 
We welcome everyone to the 2011-2012 Concert Series at Independent Presbyterian Church. All of the listed events are free and do not require advance reservations.  Details...
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
Hand-painted Roundels of IPC's stained glass
In celebration of the upcoming centennial celebration of IPC in 2015, the IPC choir is selling hand-painted roundels of the stained glass found throughout the church. There will be five different roundels, one released each year until 2015.

The inaugural piece is of the Nativity Window in the sanctuary. These treasures cost $45.00 each or three for $120.00 with an additional $5.00 shipping charge per item. The roundels are available for purchase online or from the music office at the church. You may order a roundel by calling the Music Office at 205-933-3700, or e-mail bfillmer@ipc-usa .
 
  
 

      
 
 Thank you for helping to feed those in need in our community.
Food Pantry is in need of food currently.  
  
 
Living in Service to Others
 
 
  
 
 
 
IPC Presbyterian Women QUICK  Survey of Interests.  Click to get to survey
   
 
  
 
 
 
   IPC's 4th Quarter:  Always an Adventure!!
  
  Click here to learn more about the 4th Quarter group.
   New adventures planned!
 
 
 
 
 
  
4TH QUARTER Lunch Bunch
Meets 4th Tuesday each month! 
For reservations: Contact Jeannine Usher (933.3694) if you'd like to go.
 
We hope you'll join us!   
 
 Living in Community 
 
 
 
        Sponsored by the 4th Quarter: 
Attention Bridge Players! 
Our bridge group meets on Mondays and Wednesdays in Room 306 beginning at 1:00 p.m. and all are welcome. We hope you'll join us!   For more information , please contact Jeannine Usher at 933-3694.
 
 
 
 Living in Community
 
 
 
       
 
     
 Thanks from the Knitting Ministry
The Knitting Ministry would like to thank those who have donated yarn to help us create beautiful new Prayer Shawls. We really appreciate your kind donations …. and would certainly appreciate future donations if others would like to donate yarn for this important IPC ministry. Thanks again!
 
 
 
 Please join us!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Thanks to the
IPC Mexico Mission Team
   July 15 - 24, 2011
 
On Friday, July 15,  19 people left from IPC to travel to Piedras Negras, Mexico as part of the IPC Mexico Mission Team. This group workedwith Constructores Para Cristo to build a home with and for a Mexican family in this border town. The fearless leaders for this group were Murray and Diane Beck, as it has been for so many years of faithful service! We have been taking teams to work with CPC for over 20 years. This trip provides a very concrete result: at the end of one week, the team will have constructed and dedicated one complete home. What a blessing to the family that will receive this home! This team was a mixture of youth and adults. 
Thank you for keeping the Mexico team in your prayers while they were away from us.
 They have completed their home building and are back home safely in Birmingham.
Thanks to these hard-working team members:
Murray and Diane Beck
Maggie Beck
Becky Moore
Elizabeth Moore
Lisa Burton
Olivia Burton
Leah Burton
David Delozier
Ella Horne
Will Widman
Andrew Arnold
Sara Kinney
Charlotte Kinney
Catherine Kinney
Brian and Lorraine Tell (folks from Canada who have been before)
Matt Anderson (the Tells' son who went last year)
Sara Galler (Lorraine Tell's sister)
             Vaya con Dios!   Go with God!
 
 
 
at the Children's Fresh Air Farm
 June 20 - July 29, 2011
 
 
Since 1923 our church has operated the Children’s Fresh Air Farm for underserved children in our area. After detailed study of the program, we decided last year to add an important educational component.  Now the children have six weeks of reading, writing and mathematics in the mornings, and in the afternoons they enjoy art, music, drama, science and recreational activities, including swimming and tennis. They also have Christian-focused bible study and worship with a daily service in the outdoor chapel. The children have responded eagerly to the safe, fun and loving surroundings of the camp filled with many volunteers of all ages, including many of our youth.
 
      For both young people and grown-ups, Living River: A Retreat on the Cahaba is the camp and conference center that will serve our Presbytery and church community, and be a place to reach out to others through environmental education.
 
       "In this significant and beautiful place, the Presbytery will build Living River, a retreat where young people will continue to discover the awakening power of an outdoor camping experience with a Christ-centered message. Where adults, families, and congregations can also step away from the demands of their everyday lives and make space to listen to God's voice."   Living River Task Force
    Find out more about Living River
                                                  Thanks to the
IPC Africa Mission Team
 
 
 
 
  
IPC Choir PerformanceTour
June 25 - July 6, 2011
Prague, Bratislava, and Vienna
 
 
 The IPC Choir sang July 3, 2011, in the annual Music Festival at the Valtice Castle.  Here Dr. Jeff McLelland conducts the IPC Choir in the Valtice Castle Chapel.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 Below: from Choir Member Karen Jeane's Facebook page:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  June 25 - July 6, 2011
 The IPC Choir and others spent five nights in Prague, three nights in Bratislava, and two nights in Vienna. Besides singing concerts and services, tours to monasteries, vineyards, castles, and scenic villages rounded out the schedule for this wonderful trip.
 
          
   
 
 
Welcome Home to IPC member Morgan Murphy!
 
 Morgan returned to Birmingham May 12. He has been serving this year in Afghanistan.   We're glad to have you back, Morgan! 
 Lt. Cmdr Morgan Murphy served as Director of Media Outreach for ISAF - the International Security Assistance Force helping to keep the peace in Afghanistan.
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
  Due to construction in our sanctuary, IPC held its Easter Sunday service at the Alabama Theatre.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
 
 IPC Habitat House Dedication:
 was held on Good Friday, April 22, 2011,
  Thanks to all the wonderful volunteers!
                                 Read interview with Nate
WELCOME TO OUR  ASSISTANT YOUTH DIRECTOR NATE SELL. Nate, a 2010 graduate of The University of the South at Sewanee, will be working full-time with interim youth director Aly Butts, members of the IPC youth group, and their parents. We're glad to have you with us, Nate!
   Nate, who recently completed thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, is a lacrosse player, an Eagle Scout, and an avid cyclist.  He also has extensive experience in outdoor leadership programs.
     Nate has said that as he reflected on his own youth group experience he "realized that my youth group was the first example of true Christian community in my life.  That group was there for me when I needed to see God's love most.  We bonded over the events that were planned, but the significance did not lie in those events.  It was in the community that developed from them, and the common foundation it created in the lives of my friends and myself that remain to this day."
Nate is located in room 216 and can be reached at 933-3708 or at nsell@ipc-usa.org.
 IPC Youth Group
 
 
 
 IPC Choir CD!  
 A Babe is Born
 
 
 A Babe is Born  CD   $20.00 each
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
Unemployed? 
Underemployed?
Need to Change Careers?
 
IPC member Deb Baragona, MS, LPC, CDMS, is a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor with over 20 years' experience helping people overcome obstacles to employment or find more satisfying work.  She has volunteered her time and expertise to provide one-on-one career assistance services at no charge to IPC members under the direction of Lucy Turner in Congregational Care and Counseling.   DETAILS
 
 
  
 
ATTENTION:  Young Adults  (Highlanders)    
   
HIGHLANDERS:  There is a "newly revamped" Highlanders group at IPC for young professionals (married or single) ages 23-30.  If you are interested in this group, please contact Cindy Shaw at 933-3693
 
HIGHLANDERS has a church school class.  Please join us!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
"Independent"
Original aquatint etching on fine paper
 image size 8x10/ matted 16x20
 
This image is part of a 100 limited edition series created by Jill Marlar. Jill is a "Four Year Olds" teacher in the Day School and also a printmaker specializing in aquatint etchings on zinc plate, printed on fine European paper. Her love of IPC and the Day School inspired this print which she is offering to those who might be interested in owning their own original. Each print is hand printed by Jill and is available for $100 each, with fifty percent donated to the IPC Day School. If you are interested please contact:
                                                  
Jill Marlar
jmarlar@bham.rr.com
(205) 602-1256 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
NOTE:   This tradition will continue as soon as we are back in the Sanctuary when the construction work has been completed.

Keeping Flowers on the IPC Sanctuary War Memorial Every Day

  FRESH FLOWERS will be kept on the sanctuary War Memorial every day of the week to honor our country's military personnel, both past and present. 
 
 The Family of the late Major General John D. Higgins (U.S. Army) who was President of the Congregation in 1954, is honoring his memory and his service to country and church through an extended commitment of financial support for the weekly flowers on the War Memorial located just inside the sanctuary from the Parlor entrance.   
      Additional donors may still designate a particular Sunday to honor their loved ones who are currently serving or who have previously served in any branch of service by contacting Valerie Pankey at 933.7060 and sending in a check  for $20 made payable to IPC MEMORIAL FLOWERS. Please let Mrs. Pankey know the name of the honoree and the date you wish their name recognized. Members of the congregation are asked to pray for the named individual being honored as well as all service personnel.
Prayer in the War Memorial Chapel
     The IPC Spiritual Formation Group prepared a prayer for the War Memorial Chapel. (Click here for the prayer.) Copies of the prayer are also available on the War Memorial. You are invited to come by to pray and/or take a copy of the prayer with you to use or send to someone else.
 
      Living in the Spirit...
 
 

   The Angel Fund
     God’s message is clear -- provide for the needy.  They are in our community, and they are also in our pews. 
IPC serves the community in need through Community Ministries programming and activities.  For the needy in our congregation, IPC has the Angel Fund.
   This year, Rev. Lucy Turner, Director of Congregational Care and coordinator of the Angel Fund, has carefully provided financial resources to keep a family in their home, to keep the utilities on for another family, to keep a family car from being repossessed, to put food on a dinner table, to cover prescription medicines.  At an unprecedented rate, needs are being met, and the Angel Fund account is diminishing in size. Without replenishment, the fund will run out in 12 months.
   The Angel Fund was established in 2007 to provide benevolent care to IPC members, staff, and their immediate family in time of urgent need.  The pastoral staff determines the amount of support extended, and the names of recipients are held in pastoral confidence.    Contributions are needed.   If you would like to help, please send a check to the church, made out to IPC and marked for the Angel Fund.  Your financial support sends the clear message of God’s abiding love and faithfulness.  

Living in the Spirit     Living in Community    Living in Service to Others

 
 Celebrating the ten thousandth new well with clean drinking water in Africa
IPC hosted Marion Medical Mission (MMM) for a Foundation Luncheon.
Marion Medical Mission (MMM) builds shallow wells in Africa. Each well provides sustainable, clean, safe, protected drinking water to a village populated primarily by subsistence farmers. Through the program, the health, happiness, and general welfare of hundreds of thousands of villagers has been improved.  The IPC Foundation has been a major supporter of MMM since 2006.   Click here for a description of MMM in the IPC Foundation 2007 Annual Report.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Opportunities for spiritual growth and service at IPC 
   
The Pathways booklet (Pathways to Spiritual Growth and Service at IPC) is intended to help our members decide where they might like to become involved to enhance their church experience. It explains all the many activities going on at IPC in one place with detailed information on all of our offerings for study, service, and general community events along with contact information.  You can pick one up in the Narthex on Sunday mornings or at the receptionist's desk.
 
 
 
  
Living in the Spirit
Living in Community
Living in Service to Others
   
       Encouraging the church to be a community of prayer and a spiritual home.

Church-wide IPC Prayer   Click here for prayer. 

"There is such power in a community praying a common prayer and appealing to the Holy Spirit in one voice."  Rev. Lucy Turner
This prayer is to be used by all groups, classes, committees, and gatherings of church members for the rest of 2009.
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
IPC is now emailing an electronic version of the weekly Update:  The E-Update.
Printed versions will still be mailed to members' homes unless you tell us otherwise.
 
   

IPC Funeral Services

Many members have requested that we post funeral notices on our website.  We will now post any deaths that appear on the IPC Prayer List as soon as we are notified.  Then we will post funeral arrangements on the same page when plans have been finalized. The web page is located under "Care" then "Funeral Services."