On Wednesday we began our forty-day journey known as the season of Lent in preparation for the celebration of Easter. Throughout the centuries, Christians have used these days as a time of spiritual reflection, letting go of some of the things that distract them from following Christ, and intentionally adding some new “holy habits” to their lives. Traditionally, these have included prayer, fasting, study, and service to others.
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All Saints Day 2023
Murphy-Harpst Children’s Center
August 1, 2023
Dear Peachtree Road Member,
I hope you are well. Today I am writing to invite you to participate with your fellow members of Peachtree Road UMC in a special offering on Sunday, August 13, to benefit the Murphy-Harpst Children’s Center.
In 1914, Ethel Harpst was assigned by the Women’s Home Mission Society of the Methodist Church to teach children, conduct worship, and care for the sick in rural Georgia. In 1924, the Society established the Ethel Harpst Center, located on 160 wooded acres in Cedartown, Georgia, to support her work. Several years later in 1931, Sarah D. Murphy, a Spelman College student born to former slaves, established a school at the edge of Cedartown for poor African-American children. Then, in response to the plight of so many of her students abandoned by their parents, Sarah transformed her school into an orphanage. After her death in 1961, the national Women’s Division of the Methodist Church took over the Sarah Murphy home. Then, in 1984, the two homes merged into the Murphy-Harpst Children’s Centers. The vision of Sarah Murphy and Ethel Harpst continues to this day. That’s the history of this ministry.
For almost a century, the Spirit of Christ has been prompting individuals and congregations to embrace the vulnerable youth in our state. This program provides a safe and nurturing environment where severely abused and neglected children and teenagers can thrive and heal from trauma. They provide:
- Residential treatment for adolescents and teens
- Transitional living for older teens and young adults
- Specialized foster care for children of all ages
- Recreation therapy such as equine therapy, sports leagues, clubs, and more
- Community services including family therapy, life skills, and substance abuse counseling
Through the years, Murphy-Harpst has successfully treated thousands of children by building the environment necessary to reverse the cycle of a lifetime of cruelty and neglect. In the name of Christ their lives have been transformed.
Peachtree Road UMC member Martha Carroll chairs the Murphy-Harpst Board of Directors and is a passionate advocate for this ministry. She joins me in encouraging your generous support to some of God’s most precious children. Please mail your check made payable to Peachtree Road UMC and marked for “Murphy-Harpst” to the church. You also may give online through the church’s website here. Thank you for your faithfulness to all of our church’s ministries – and, especially, this one!
Grace and peace,
Bill Britt
Senior Minister
Anniston Civil Rights Trail
Doxology Youth Choir Disney Revue!
Remembering the Saints
Elizabeth B. Stephens
Elizabeth Blount Stephens was born in Andrews Chapel, Georgia, approximately 70 miles south of Atlanta, on June 19, 1924, and passed away on January 8, 2020, in Atlanta. Piano and organ were her passions and talent, and she became the organist at the Thomaston Methodist Church early in her teens until she and her new husband, Charles Preston Stephens, moved to Panama with the Coca-Cola Export Corporation in August of 1946.
Over the next sixteen years Betty and Press moved from Panama to Brazil, to Chile, to Peru, and finally to Caracas, Venezuela, each time discovering the American church they joined was in need of an organist or an organist/choir director. Every time she would humbly take on the role with the caveat it was to be only until they found the new staff member, but her tenure always lasted until they moved to a new country with their three children. She brought a level of excellence and sophistication to the music programming in those sanctuaries the likes of which congregants had never heard or seen before. Her children, Pike, Press, Jr. and Sally, as a result of Betty’s passion for high quality music, sang in every choir at every age.
Returning to the United States in 1961, Betty found herself the organist and choir director at the Darien Methodist Church in Connecticut where she spent hours each day practicing preludes and postludes for Sunday services. In 1972, four years before Press’s retirement from Coke, Betty and Press moved back to Georgia and settled in Buckhead where Betty resided until her death. Of course, following her long career as a “temporary/full time” organist, she became an assistant organist at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, playing Chapel services for over twenty-five years before finally retiring at the age of seventy-five.
A true champion of all organists throughout the world, she would often be seen at organ recitals and festivals in each of the cities of her residencies abroad as well as in her prolific world-wide travels from 1946 through 2014. Almost every Sunday afternoon when she was in Atlanta, Betty would be at the organ recital before the Evensong service at the Cathedral of St. Phillip.
In addition to being a committed member of American and Methodist churches across the hemisphere, she led the Community Concert Association in Darien, joined the Board of Directors of the fledgling Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta becoming one of the longest serving Board members in their history, and served on the Board of the Georgian Chamber Players for several terms. Her philanthropy benefitted those organizations as well as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art, and the Alliance Theatre. Betty said on many occasions, “If Atlanta is going to become a world class city, it must have a strong arts community”. It is with great admiration and pride that the Stephens family brings to Peachtree Road United Methodist Church the Elizabeth B. Stephens International Organ Competition.
Carolyn Stephens
Dear Peachtree Road Family,
I write this note to express my deep and genuine gratitude to you, for your overwhelming kindness and generosity. Anthony and I are truly thankful for the love and appreciation you have shown through your farewell gifts to us.
My time with you was a tremendous blessing. Not one day of the five years that I served you did I work. No, each day was a gift I received. It was a gift in which I found joy and delight because I got the opportunity to walk alongside you on your faith journey, and to experience with you the presence, power, and goodness of God, doing ministry together. It is now a treasured gift because I got to know your hearts and have built wonderful and life-long relationships with so many of you.
I have been truly blessed in more ways than one because of you, and you have indelibly carved your place in our hearts.
Thank you,
Carolyn and Anthony