Liturgist Coordinator

Are you looking for a way to support worship at First Church without taking on a monthly committee meeting? The First Church worship committee is looking for a new Liturgist Coordinator. This important volunteer is responsible for lining up a liturgist each Sunday. Don't worry, there is no shortage of potential liturgists! Becky Thompson has built a strong cadre of liturgist volunteers over the years she has served so successfully in this role. She will turn a well-tuned process over to her successor. If you are interested, please contact Peter Thomas (pjthomasmathbio@gmail.com).

Are You Interested in Learning More About Joining First Church?

Please join us for an informal Inquirer’s Gathering in the JFO Room following the worship service on October 12th. 

Wherever you are on your faith journey, your questions are welcome, and conversation is invited.

ALL are invited!

We look forward to seeing you!

The church will receive new members on October 26th.

Kitchen Cleaning Opportunity

On Monday, October 13, a fall cleaning focus will be on the First Church kitchen. Join with friends between 10 am and 2 pm to help organize and clean this much-used space. Cleaning products and tools will be provided for this "many hands make light work" opportunity. If you want to learn more, speak with Lori Taylor or Sandy Matthews. Or just come on Oct. 13!

Special Meeting of the Congregation

In preparation for renovation of the First Church organ we will hold a meeting of the congregation immediately following worship on Sunday, October 19. At that meeting we will discuss and vote on the anticipated expenditure for the work required for the repair and maintenance of the instrument.

Please plan to attend so we have the quorum required for a vote. Thank you.

Volunteer Opportunity with Oberlin Weekday Community Meals

First Church supports the longstanding tradition of the Oberlin Weekday Community Meals (OWCM) program. OWCM has been serving regular hot meals in our community for over 30 years out of the Christ Episcopal Church Parish Hall kitchen. Following the Covid pandemic OWCM currently provides meals 4 days a week with dine-in meals on Mondays and Thursdays from 5-5:45PM and take-out on Tuesdays and Fridays 5-5:45PM. Paid staff does most of the food prep, however opportunities exist for regular and periodic/substitute volunteers to provide plating, serving and clean-up. It can be a very enriching experience to share a good nutritious meal with members of our community that you may not normally have the opportunity to commune with. To volunteer, contact them at chef@christchurchoberlin.org.

First Church building rental opportunities

The First Church buildings offer numerous opportunities for meetings, rehearsals, concerts, weddings, and family events. After long study, a reasonable rental fee schedule has been worked out to offer fair use of the facility to our members and our neighbors. Large rooms (the Meeting House, Fellowship Hall, or JFO Room) and small rooms (upstairs classrooms, Room 4, Reading Room) can be reserved by the hour or by the half day. Discounted rates for church members and community partners may be available. The city of Oberlin has limited spaces available for events, and we are happy to offer our facility to help fill that need for our neighbors.

There Are Requirements for Making Submissions to our First Things First eNews!

In an effort to make our eNews more readable and shorten the length, we have created new guidelines for submitting posts! The guidelines are as follows.

1. As usual, the deadline for submissions for the upcoming First Things First is Wednesday prior to 10 AM.
2. We will not be putting in any non-First Church job postings.
3. We will not be putting in any full flyers as the submission (however, we will put in a button that links to a PDF of the flyer).
4. There is a word limit of 100 words for the text of a submission.
5. You may insert links into the text post for more information, either by button or hyperlink in the text.
6. You may insert PDFs (accessible by buttons) for more information, a flyer, or anything else that would be helpful for the post, but the document must be in PDF format. Any other document format will not be included in your submission.
7. You may send one picture that you have the rights to use (i.e. a picture that is not subject to copyright, we suggest using the site pexels.com).
8. The submission will run for a maximum of 2 weeks in the eNews. These 2 weeks do not have to be consecutive.

When sending in your submission, you must have

• The title of the post
• The text of the post (maximum of 100 words)
• Which 2 weeks you'd like for your submission to run

When sending in your submission, you could have

• If you'd like, one picture
• If you'd like, PDFs (and what you'd want the title of the button that links to it to be)
• If you'd like, the links for spots in the text post (and which word(s) you'd like to be the hyperlink or what you'd want the title of the button to be)

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we try to make our eNews experience more manageable for our readers!