225th Anniversary Events

 

As part of our 225th Anniversary Celebration, the Heritage Committee wants to collect materials for a multimedia presentation and historic preservation project.

We ask you to dig into those boxes and albums stored away in a closet or drawer for documents pertaining to church history, old pictures, newspaper articles, etc.   We especially would like pictures of previous ministers: E.M. Umbach, Paul Floyd Jones, Ivan B. Clayton, and Ronald Creager.  For some reason we have an adequate number of John L. Martin pictures.

 

Please bring these items to the church on Sunday, March 16th.  The church has purchased a new scanner for this purpose.  So immediately after the worship service on the 16th the committee will be able to scan your items and return them to you while you wait.  If you have a story connected with the pictures, just write it up, identify the people in the pictures and we’ll include this in the preservation project.

 

If for some reason you are unable to be present on then 16th, call Carolyn Martin and she will gladly come to your home, take the items to the church to be scanned and return them to you.

First Presbyterian  announces the First Event in its year long 225th Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday, February 16th, at 7:00 PM join members of the community in a wonderful concert event featuring The Overmountain Singers and The Skinner Family.

Step back 225 years as The Overmountain Singers entertain with Celtic and Folk Music incorporating close harmony and traditional instruments. Then travel forward in time with the amazing Bluegrass sounds of The Skinner Family.

This event is free to the public and all of the community is welcome to this first great event for the year long 225th Anniversary Celebration of The First Presbyterian Church.

Saturday, February 16, 2008
7:00 PM



Overmountain Singers

 The Skinner Family

 

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First Presbyterian welcomes Michael Morgan to East Tennessee March 1st and 2nd

 

Michael is an acclaimed organist and will perform an organ recital Sunday March 2nd at 3 p.m.  The recital is free and open to the public.   He will also play at our 11 a.m. worship service.  Michael also has a collection of first edition Bibles from the Reformation era.  He will be displaying these during our adult forum at 9:45 a.m. 

Michael will also present his Bibles at the March 1st Presbytery meeting in Morristown.  



Michael's Biography
Michael's list of books for the display of Bibles

 

 

 

Michael Morgan Biography

Michael Morgan, CCM is a native of Georgia, and long-time organist at Atlanta’s historic Central Presbyterian Church. He also serves as Seminary Musician at Columbia Theological Seminary. Previously he served congregations in Florida, California, and Arkansas. He hold a B.M. degree from Florida State University and a Masters from Clark Atlanta University, and did post-graduate work with Richard Purvis at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

 

He has played worship services and recitals at Presbyterian music and worship conferences in North Carolina and Texas, and across the Southeast, Texas, California, New Mexico, Kentucky, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania; and in Switzerland, England, and Spain. He has participated in organ seminars in Great Britain, Germany, and France. He holds the highest degree of certification (CCM) conferred by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians.

 

Michael is currently serving as Dean of the Atlanta Chapter, American Guild of Organists; Treasurer of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians; and is a member of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada.

 

His primary interest is the history and literature of the English Bible, Psalms, and liturgies of the English Church. His library of English Bibles, Testaments, Psalters, and liturgies is one of the most complete collections in the country. In 1999 his paraphrase of the Psalms, The Psalter for Christian Worship, was published by the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

 

The development of the English Bible is one of the most interesting and exciting stories in the history of the church.

 

Its translation is marked by such colorful figures as Archbishop Cranmer, Henry the Eighth, “Bloody Mary,” Oliver Cromwell, Queen Elizabeth, John Calvin, Martin Luther; dedicated men like John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Miles Coverdale, John Rogers.

 

Its history incorporates the Angles, the Saxons, the Papists, Protestants, Puritans, Presbyterians; Roman and Reformed Churches; the Scottish, the Irish, the Anglican, the American tradition.

 

It is a tale of war and peace, heroes and martyrs, kings and queens and peasants at the plow.

 

The English Bible at various times was derived from the Vulgate Bible of St. Jerome, the German Bible of Martin Luther, the original and early versions, and the French, Italian, and Dutch Bibles which flourished at the dawn of the Reformation. In its pages are reflected all aspects of the culture.

 

As Enlightenment spread and theological insights deepened, as doctrine and dogma of Catholic and Protestant became distinct, so did the translation of the Bible develop and improve. Old verses took on new meaning. Re-translation of single words changed meanings. Annotations and prologues came and were soon replaced by others more in keeping with the time.

 

Some of these translations were scholarly; some were obscure; others were theologically good, bad, or indifferent. But all served the common goal of providing to the English-speaking Christians and Jews who would read them the Sacred Scriptures in a language and idiom that would speak to them in their time and place.

 

This display of English Bibles offers the opportunity to see first-hand those Bible versions which have most influenced our faith and beliefs. Included are translations in the Tyndale – King James tradition which are most familiar to us, as well as many of the private and independent versions and paraphrases which have inspired and amused readers and collectors of the English Bible for years.

 

Included in the display among the “traditional” translations is a full set of the English Reformation Bibles from Wycliffe through the most important revisions of the King James Bible. Among the private translations are those by Hammond, Baxter, Mace, Harwood, Wesley, Dickinson, and others. Several important paraphrases of the Psalms are represented as well, including Sternhold and Hopkins, the Scottish Psalters, Archbishop Parker’s version, Ainsworth, and the famous Bay Psalm Book.

 

List of Books for the Display

 

A.  Pre-Reformation English Bibles

Wycliffe New Testament, 1382

Wycliffe/Purvey New Testament, 1388

Wycliffe Psalms, 1382-88

 

B.  Tyndale-King James Tradition

Tyndale New Testament, 1550

Coverdale Bible, 1551

Matthews’ Bible, 1549
Great Bible, 1540
Erasmus’ Gospels, 1548
Geneva Bible, 1582
Bishops’ Bible, 1572
Tomson’s New Testament, 1607
Rheims/Douai Bible, 1582/1609-10
King James Bible, 1611
King James Bible, 1616
King James Bible, 1638
King James Bible, 1762
King James Bible, 1769

C.  Independent Translations

Westminster Assembly Annotations, 1651
Hammond, 1653
Westminster Annotations, 1653
Haak, 1655
Baxter, 1685
Mace, 1729
Doddridge, 1739
Guyse, 1739
Wesley, 1755
Harwood, 1768
Thomson, 1808
Dickinson, 1833
Webster, 1833
Leeser, 1853
Julia Smith, 1876

D.  Psalm Versions

Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter, 1567

Archbishop Parker, 1567

Ainsworth’s Psalter, 1617

Scottish Psalter, 1611

Scottish Psalter, 1635

King James’ Psalter, 1636

Sandys’ Psalter, 1637

Bay Psalm Book, 1707

Barton’s Psalter, 1682

Rous’ Scottish Psalter, 1650

Patrick’s Psalter, 1694

Tate and Brady’s Psalter, 1696

Mather’s Psalter, 1718

Watts’ Psalter, 1719

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Saturday April 12th -Contra Dance with callerJim Kirkpatrick and music by the Ripshin Ramblers 

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October 18th Rick Simerly and the Milligan Jazz Ensemble

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Creative Expressions of Spirituality

Nancy Earnest is preparing for a display of artistic endeavors from members and friends of the church to be exhibited from mid-September through October 18th with the items auctioned and proceeds benefiting mission projects. 

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Jubilee Convocation

Keep checking back for news about our Convocation this Fall.

Scholar in Appalachia

Keep checking back for news about our Scholar in Appalachia this Fall.

 

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