On the day of Pentecost, the Apostles gathered together. Suddenly a violent wind from heaven descended with tongues of fire as each spoke, filled with the Holy Spirit. In this moment the ancient limitation set in place at Babel was lifted as the visitors to Jerusalem, from every nation, heard and understood. Join us as we examine the theology of Pentecost, Babel and Beyond!

FPC member Dr. Tracy Eure, DVM answers questions about dog and cat behavior, health, nutrition, and more. What diet do you recommend? How do I house-train my pet? Should I brush my dog's teeth? Why does my cat eat grass? What’s my pet’s ideal weight? Learn how to love and care for your four-legged, furry family members!

Creating a beautiful container garden is as easy as 1-2-3! Simply choose your pot, your placement and your plants. In this seminar FPC's own Director of Communications, Rebecca Topping discuss sun options, shade options and help you assemble a little pizzazz for your front porch or patio.

We have endured a year that is unique within our lifetimes and memories. Uncertainty still occupies our thoughts, but a bright future remains visible. Join Dr. Mike Hooper for this discussion about our distant and recent history, the science that partially explains our current circumstances, and the reason he belies that the future remains promising. In our time together, he will cover the impact of infectious disease on human history, the progress of modern medicine, the science of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and available vaccines, and the hope that lies ahead for mankind.

Every story has a beginning, an end, and a muddle. Join Jim for this two-part series to take a deep dive into the scriptures and themes at the beginning of the Bible and at the end - and see how that informs everything in between.

Join us for the second part of this series as Jim takes us through one of the most misunderstood books in Bible and helps us interpret the fullness of the story from start to finish.

As the COVID-19 Vaccine becomes more widely available, many wonder what the coming year will look like. Worshipping from home has become the new normal as churches have pivoted to move services on-line. Zoom has allowed us engage in fellowship from home. As we emerge from pandemic routines, will there be a mad rush to physically get back into the pews or will we continue to “do church” from home? Joel has spent much of the pandemic researching trends in online church and connecting with online ministry leaders across the country. Join us as he shares what he’s learned and what is on the horizon in Online Ministry at FPC!

Have you ever wanted to learn how to throw a perfect spiral, or how to mimic the throwing motion of Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes? Former Old Dominion Quarterback Coach & current University at Buffalo Assistant Coach Ron Whitcomb will take you through the ABC’s of how to properly throw a football from “THE GRIP to the RIP.”

FPC Member and Elder Natt Gantt discusses how we have experienced remarkable growth in the prevalence and influence of digital technology on our lives in the past 20 years. From social media to smart phones, from the internet to Instagram, digital technology is shaping and forming us; and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made our reliance on such technology more real.

Can you imagine yourself walking alongside Jesus through Holy Week? The excitement of the crowds on Palm Sunday…the spiritual depth of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. From his arrival in Bethany to his death on the cross, each of the four Gospels provides a glimpse of the story. Journey with us through Scripture, as we seek to weave a more complete picture leading up to Good Friday and Jesus Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

The Beloved Community is inclusive of people with different gifts, challenges, shortcomings and opportunities. It's a vision of living
and worshipping together.

Bonhoeffer’s "Life Together" provides a vision of the work of the Spirit to form such community where there is unity in diversity.

Each spring we don our Easter best and join other believers in celebrating the Risen Lord. But how much do we really know about this faith-defining holiday? What is the core belief celebrated on Easter? Isn’t Christmas more significant? How did the early Church celebrate Easter? When did the Easter bunny hop in? And what about Easter eggs?

In this talk, Dale will explain how the early Christians dealt with the challenges of unity and diversity by reworking their identity in terms of Christ and the Spirit. Christ brought unity out of diversity by reforging the people of God as his body, the new nation and temple in such a way as to relativize divisions of class, ethnicity, and gender. Lest unity become uniformity, the Spirit enhanced a new diversity in unity in a way that allowed for class, ethnicity, and gender to contribute to the fulness of the body of Christ. To see this, he will begin with modern definitions of race and ethnicity before turning to the way the New Testament understood those distinctions. He will then explore case studies in New Testament texts deriving from the challenges early Christians faced in living out what it means to be one new humanity. The purpose is to reinforce the central claim that through Christ and the Spirit, God is creating a new race with a new culture out of every culture.

Join us as we discuss the characteristics of Celtic Spirituality. What are thin places? How is Spiritual Direction influenced by the Celtic idea of a Soul Friend? Join us as we celebrate the beauty of this ancient spirituality and uncover ways that it could influence our prayer life today.

Valena and Sheryl would like to recommend a few books on Celtic Spirituality this evening:

The Celtic Way of Prayer by Esther de Waal
The Celts by Nora Chadwick
Celtic Christian Spirituality by Oliver Davies and Fiona Bowie
Listening to the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality by J. Philip Newell

Kings Dream of the Beloved Community: Cross-Racial/Cultural Formation and the Church
n this discussion we will dive into King's dream. He was betwixt and between his Black Christian fundamentalist upbringing and the classical liberal theological orientation of his educational training. Both contexts informed his orthodoxy which in turn helped govern much of his lived experience. While his fundamentalist upbringing largely reflected the rank-and-file participants of the civil rights campaigns (i.e., the poor and socially disenfranchised), white evangelical responses were markedly different. This session will explore these responses to forge solutions toward achieving the beloved community.

The perennial questions that divides denominations, confuses believers new and old, and challenges every one of us: What does it mean to be saved? Is it a choice? Can you lose your salvation? What about predestination?

First Presbyterian Church Norfolk member Peggy Mackey shares an insightful history of glass making including a detailed look at the history of FPC's Stained Glass.

For more detailed information about the history of our sanctuary stained glass, Peggy recommends you visit our online history archive here: http://usgwarchives.net/va/history/firstpresby/firstpresbytoc.html

FPC MasterClass series
FPC Norfolk

FPC Member Mike Padden covers church floor plan layouts and names of areas. Parts of the sanctuary and their symbolism.

Why do churches have steeples? Why doesn’t FPC? What is a flying buttresses and what is its impact they had on church architecture? We will also learn about symbolism in the sanctuary as well as architectural styles and terms.

First Presbyterian Church Norfolk, VA
FPC Masterclass series
Church Architecture 101 with church member Mike Padden