First Church Family:
Summer is upon us! The Old Farmer’s Almanac guided both sets of my grandparents in many ways, including providing dates for planting their spring and summer gardens. Always would they make their first planting of the year on Good Friday (regardless of the exact date) and never would they set out vegetable plants on what they called: “rotten Saturday” (the day before Easter.)
About the summer, the Almanac records: “The beginning of the season depends on whether we’re speaking about the meteorological or astronomical start of the season. If you are a meteorologist, the summer season goes from June 1 to Aug. 31.”
On the other hand, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines the start of summer as when: “the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, which is located at 23.5° latitude North, and runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and southern China.”; the astronomical start of the summer season this year is 10:57am on June 21. On that day, we can expect 14 hours and 22 minutes of sunlight. From that date on, until the beginning of winter (this year on December 21), each proceeding day will have less sunlight than the day before.
There are several things to be sure to note about FUMC this summer. The most important of those is that beginning on the first Sunday of July, we are going to follow a worship in which we will combine the two regular services into one at 10:00am.
Our first combined summer worship service will be held in the CLC on July 2. From that date through July and August, and lasting until the Sunday after Labor Day, we will worship at 10:00am and alternate between the CLC and the Sanctuary.
A calendar of those Sundays appears in this newsletter. On Sundays from July 2 through September 3, Sunday School classes will decide on their own concerning the time to meet (either before the services at 9:00am or after at 11:00am.)
Another significant thing to remember is that the date of this summer’s Vacation Bible School is: July 31 – August 2.
We will communicate with you additionally, but file away the above information, and have a wonderful summer!
Blessings and love,
Dave Melton
Senior Pastor