Gary Zatkins

I just learned that today is Gary Zatkins last day with the Philadelphia Fire Department.

Jonnie Smith

Phil Ryken read the following commendation at Jonnie Smith's retirement luncheon yesterday:

January 31, 2008

Whereas Johnnie Mae Smith is a precious daughter of God, a beloved sister in Christ, and a valued member of Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church;

Whereas our sister has served faithfully for the past 40 years in the offices of the United States National Park Service;

Whereas she is being honored for her service on this, the 31st day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand and eight;

Whereas the National Park Service is a venerable institution that serves the common good by enabling the citizens of our own country and visitors from around the world to appreciate the history of the United States and the beauty of God's creation;

Whereas Johnnie is loved by all who know her for her warm smile and joyful spirit; and

Whereas she will continue to serve both God and her neighbor by using her gifts to teach a Bible study at the United States Federal Detention Center and in other ways;

Therefore be it resolved that we praise God for Johnnie Mae Smith, that we honor her for public service, that we join her family, friends, and colleagues in offering many good wishes on the occasion of her retirement, and that we pray for God's continued blessing on her life.

The Session of Tenth Presbyterian Church

Ryken on Ward

The following is from Phil's posting at reformation21:

Over the last few days I have been devouring Michael Ward's remarkable new interpretation of The Narnia Chronicles by C. S. Lewis. The book is called Planet Narnia, and it was published this month by Oxford University Press.

Dr. Ward and I were students together at Oxford, where we spent happy hours together at the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society. His new book grows out of his doctoral work on Lewis at St. Andrew's University. Its central argument is that each book in the Chronicles is related in theme, imagery, and theology to one of the seven heavenly bodies (the five visible planets, plus the sun and the moon), as understood in Medieval cosmology. I find the book's argument thoroughly convincing. It is also spiritually nourishing. Dr. Ward shows how each book draws out a different aspect of the character of Aslan, which is also to say a different aspect of the character of Christ.

This Sunday evening at 8pm Dr. Ward will give a talk at Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church. It is entitled: "The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God: C. S. Lewis, Narnia, and the Planets." As an added attraction, the Sunday evening worship service (6:30pm) includes "The Heavens are Telling" from Haydn's Creation.

Sunday Singing

Hymns for Sunday morning:
296 - All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name!
429 - Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured
257 - Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
378 - Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face

The Westminster Brass will be playing.

This is a communion Sunday. Be preparing your hearts now to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Member available to train you (see details below)

Red Cross Training
First Aid Emergency Life
Saving & Preventive Training
Samuel Thomas 610-470-9070
Red Cross Certified Provider
· CPR/AED training reflects the latest science for First Aid
· CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular care for conscious and unconscious choking victims
· Perform CPR on Adults/Child/Infants
· Use AED on Adults & Children
· Learn to be a confident and certified babysitter

Do you know this oustanding person?

Each year, the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) recognizes the nation’s most outstanding students in the field of public relations. This year's oustanding public relations intern in the nation is.....(drumroll, please) Rebecca Timms! Rowan University will be running the announcement in the Inquirer on the week of February 3 - Monday, Wedneday and Friday. Congratulations, Rebecca! (but we really are not surprised!)

Free Legal Clinics

Free Legal Clinics at the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians will take place every month, on the second Tuesday of each month. The next Legal Clinic at the Welcoming Center will take place on Tuesday, February 12, from 3.00 p.m. - 6.00 p.m. This clinic is for anyone in the immigrant community who needs to speak to an attorney. The attorneys volunteer their time for the clinic, which is free of charge. Consultations can take place in French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Indonesian, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Gujarati, as well as English. We can also use a telephone interpretation service, or clients may bring their own interpreter if they prefer.

Margaret Hilsdon
Program and Volunteer Coordinator
Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians
One Penn Center
1617 JFK Blvd, 13th floor
Philadelphia PA 19103
Phone: (215) 557-2626
margaret@welcomingcenter.org
www.welcomingcenter.org

New Blog Postings

Check out these new blog postings:

Nancy Siegel has posted about the next steps for the Capital Campaign.

Cora Hogue describes her trip to Angkor Wat.

You will find both blogs on the right hand column under Tenth Related Links.

The Batzig Blog

Intern Nick Batzig has an interesting blog. It will especially appeal to book devotees. Check it out at www.feedingonchrist.blogspot.com.

Of Narnia and the Super Bowl

The big event is Sunday night, actually two big events. You know what they are - worship and the presentation of C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.

Following the evening service, beginning at 8:00 in Fellowship Hall, Dr. Michael Ward from Cambridge University, will present "The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God: C. S. Lewis, Narnia, and the Planets." Dr. Ward has published a new book entitled Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis. Phil Ryken is quite enthused about it. Click here for the author's website.

Now, a word about a third lesser event - the Super Bowl. How can a Philadelphia sports fan countenance watching this year's game? It is a lose-lose event. On the one hand are the Patriots, the football equivalent of the Evil Empire who relentlessly squashes every opponent with smugness. Their yearly ride at the top only exposes what we have poorly imitated. Then we have the Giants - the Giants! Please remember that they rank only behind the Cowboys in being our arch-rivals. If they win, will we need yet another reminder of how all the other Eastern Conference teams have won at least three Super Bowls to our zero? Do we need for New York to have yet another reason to snub their noses at us? Really, the new mayor ought to order all broadcasts of the game to be shutdown in the city.

Apartment for Rent

I used to be a regular worshipper at tenth. i have just moved to NYC. however, i still own a coop. apartment in northern liberties. i am hoping to rent it to someone from tenth. i am hoping you will post this info on your blog. the apt is furnished, or semi furnished, negotiable. the rent is 770 a month including all utilities. there is free parking, a shared court yard, friendly neighbors, even a fig tree! there are hardwood floors and two walls of windows in the living room. anyone interested can call me at 267-847-9401, they can also email me at omalb077@newschool.edu
Thank you,
Barbara O'Malley

Hindsight on Hindsight Questions

Comments and questions have been raised regarding Hindsight Biblical Counseling that will be offered at the church on Tuesdays, beginning February 5. Let me try to answer and clarify them.

1. My apologies for not being clear that this is a fee based service. The counselor will charge $110 per session. A session typically runs over 60 minutes up to 90 minutes.

2. The only persons who can answer questions about insurance coverage is your insurance provider. Neither the church, nor anyone else can answer that question, not even the counselor. We do know that counselees who have used Hindsight services in other churches have received insurance coverage.

3. Will financial assistance be available for counseling? The policy that is in place now remains for Hindsight counseling as well. Any Tenth member may approach his or her deacon or deaconess to request assistance. Pastors and elders who refer members to counselors may request financial assistance on members' behalf. As they do now, the deacons and deaconesses will treat each request confidentially.

Let me know if you have any other questions or comments that would be good for me to post. This is a new venture and I want to give as much clarity as possible.

Again, though. Let me remind everyone that Hindsight Counseling is not a replacement of the pastoral care that pastors and elders provide; nor will we stop referring members to counselors who have helped us. This is an additional service to offer.

Nursery Volunteer Training on Sunday!

There will be a nursery volunteer training this Sunday at 9 AM in 315 17th St. BasementFront. Any Tenth members interested in serving in the nursery, or current nursery volunteers who have not attended a prior training, are encouraged to attend. Contact Kristen Harnly (610.449.0353 or kharnly@msn.com) for information or to register.

Capital Campaign Blogger

Another blogger has moved onto the block. Sarah McInnes is hosting a blogsite for the Capital Campaign. To step up the competition with me, she is offering a feature that sends blog updates to your email.

The blog is now available at http://www.this-people.blogspot.com. There is a "subscribe via email" link to the right of the page. If you would like, by providing your email address you should receive the posts shortly after they are posted.

Full-time Bookkeeper Sought

Tenth Church is seeking a full-time full-charge bookkeeper (competitive salary and good
benefits; see job description ). Send résumé/cover letter to Pat Canavan at
pcanavan@tenth.org or mail to him at Tenth. We are looking both in and out of the Philadelphia area.

Presbytery Overture

This past Saturday, the Philadelphia Presbytery met to deliberate on several matters, each related to the role of women in the diaconate. One product produced from the meeting is an overture to be sent to this summer's General Assembly. Below is an excerpt from that overture which presents the proposal. It follows a number of "whereas" statements.


"Now therefore the Philadelphia Presbytery overtures the 36th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America to create an ad interim study committee whose members are representative of various positions within the PCA with respect to women’s involvement in Diaconal ministry, to study and report back to the 37th General Assembly, on the following:

"1) Scriptural teaching bearing on women’s eligibility for election and ordination to the office of deacon and recommending, if necessary, changes to the BCO in keeping with any findings proceeding from the study of Scripture; and

"2) Should no changes to the BCO be deemed necessary, clarifying an appropriate range of practices for the involvement of women in diaconal ministry and giving guidance regarding current differences in practice among PCA churches including but not limited to the following: (a) may churches choose not to ordain any male deacons? (b) may churches choose to commission but not to ordain male deacons? (c) may women be commissioned as deaconesses without ordaining them as deacons? (d) may the same constitutional questions, or similar questions, used to ordain deacons be used to commission deacons or deaconesses who are not ordained? (e) may Presbyteries license and ordain men who submit themselves to the BCO but who also believe that women should serve as ordained deacons? (f) may churches elect ordained men and commissioned women to serve together in the diaconate? and (g) may churches use the title Deaconess for an elected position of ministry in the church or selected to serve according to BCO 9-7?"

Hindsight Counseling

Next Tuesday, February 5, David Brown of Hindsight Biblical Counseling will begin offering professional counseling services at Tenth. David will be available for counseling 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Appointments with David are to be scheduled directly with him. You may contact him at 609.730.9600 or email dhbrown@hindsightcounseling.com. Hindsight’s website is www.hindsightcounseling.com. David's fees will be $110 per session.

For more complete information about his role at Tenth, read the article in last Sunday's Tenth Press. Click here to read it.

Calling all Cyclers

Paul "Iron Man" Reimold is looking for Tenth cyclists to join him and Dave Collins on a bike event:

29 March: The White Clay Bicycle Club Icicle Century. It's a 'metric' century (100 KM/62 mi) through Delaware, Maryland and southern Chester County in PA. Dave Collins and I are planning on it but would welcome other "Tenth Wheelers." Contact Paul at REIMOLP@wyeth.com.

Visualizations

John Voorhis sent this in:

Someone at Carnegie Mellon did some data-mining to come up with visualizations of the cross-references of the entire Bible, as well as the relationships between the people and places of the Bible. The result is a representation of the social network of the Bible. This sounds all very geeky, and it is, but should be interesting to people, nonetheless. Be sure to check out the higher resolution versions and zoom in.

See it here.

John, I looked. For some of the images, I thought I was looking at ultra-sounds. Paul Tripp might be more into this. It looks like abstract art.

Homework Assignment

Paul Tripp has been giving homework assignments on Sunday evenings. His assignment for this week is to anwer the following questions:

Is there someplace in my life where I have pointed the finger at God?
Where have I questioned God's goodness?


These are sobering questions to ask of ourselves. But I have to admit, I did think, "Can Paul really not know how Philadelphia sports fans would answer these questions?"

Rolling on the River

Check out Cora's river adventure at her blogsite (see righthand column).

Sparrows

The Sparrows Bunch from Saturday's gathering. Is that a halo over Sarah Peterman's head? They are looking for men to cook breakfast at the March 8 event. If you can help, email Dori Baggs at baggsend@juno.com.

Capital Campaign Approved

The Capital Campaign was approved at yesterday's congregational meeting with an overwhelming vote to proceed. Click here for the official motions. The unity of the congregation was very evident, but even more so was the effort by all participants to be gracious and respectful of one another. What I said at Saturday's presbytery meeting, I repeat for Tenth Church: However important decisions may be, the process of making decisions that is as important if not more. We have embarked on a journey that will stretch our faith and test our brotherly love. May God grant the grace to grow both in faith and love. Such things are the best legacy for this generation to pass on to the next.

PARISH 4/HAVERTOWN SOUP SWAP

Jane Reimold sent in this report:

Ten ladies plus 11 kinds of soup equals great fun! On Saturday morning, January 26, 10 folks gathered in Havertown, PA, to drink tea and coffee, munch muffins, fellowship, and get down to the business of swapping soups. Coolers full of delicious soup were first inspected by the TSA (terrier sniffing associate).

Variety was great. Soups included everything from a vegetable beef (the cook was on a first-name basis with the cow!) to a pumpkin bisque, Italian wedding soup, taco soup, split pea with barley, pasta e fagioli, chili with beans, African peanut chicken, bean and ham, lentil-sausage, and beef barley. One soup arrived fresh, not frozen, and immediately graced several dinner and lunch tables later that day. Prizes were given for first and last soup picked and each person went home with homemade croutons and a suggested list of things to eat with soup. Requests were made to repeat the event next year.

Pews Under Stress

We love having worshippers hang around after the services to talk with fellow worshippers. One difficulty we are having, however, is that some are feeling so relaxed they are sitting on the backs of the pews. This in turn is placing stress on these old pews requiring as much as $2,000 to repair. Help us to avoid such repairs by refraining from such sitting and politely speaking to anyone who is doing so.