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Knights of the North Castle: Quest for the King's Armor

Place: American Church in Paris
Dates:  Monday-Thursday 23-26 August 2018
Times: 9h-12h
Who: Children ages 3-10

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Please mark your calendars for Vacation Bible School at ACP. Our theme is "Knights of the North Castle: Quest for the King's Armor," which "invites children to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God’s power by exploring how we put on the armor of God."

All children from ages 3-10 are welcome. Although the program will be conducted primarily in English, VBS is for open to to all children regardless of spoken language or level of ability ages 3-10 years old.

As long as it remains safe and prudent to do so, we will be hosting VBS in person! This means that we will need lots of adult volunteers to assist, so please contact Allison Wheeler, Children’s Ministry Director if you'd like to join us as a knight at the VBS roundtable.

Register your child here

The Rev. Dr. Paul Thomas Rock grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, Springfield, Virginia, and Stillwater, Minnesota. Paul has been engaged in mission and pastoral work for 25 years, beginning with a three-year stint as a tent-maker missionary in Budapest, Hungary. He served as an associate pastor in Santa Clarita, CA (Los Angeles area) and at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian in New York City before coming to Second Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Missouri. He received his Doctor of Ministry in 2011 from Drew University. He earned his Master of Divinity with honors from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1998. Paul has two books published by Westminster John Knox Press.

Paul is a disciple of Jesus Christ for many reasons. He has always been spiritually inclined and curious and was raised in a loving family where Christian faith and practice shaped routines and formed character. Through three years of mission work and three years of seminary, God’s Spirit lovingly helped Paul reconstruct his young adult faith and he fell in love with the Jesus of his Reformed heritage.  He is tremendously thankful that, throughout his life-long faith journey, he has never felt separated from God’s immense and encompassing love for him. Therefore, he is, and continues to be, a thankful and committed follower of Jesus Christ. In Paul’s own words, “Jesus’s love claims me and gives my life hope, sustaining strength and purpose. In response, I try to know, love, serve and follow Christ each day.”

Paul’s understanding of the Church is that it is a diverse community composed of imperfect people, filled with the Spirit, through whom God continues Christ’s work of reconciliation and healing in the world. As a part of this community, we are all invited to embrace our priestly calling and grow in knowledge, faith and skill so that each of us can be actively engaged in the furtherance of God’s Kingdom. As a pastor, Paul understands he is not the shepherd, Christ is. 
 


Here are a few personal insights into Paul:
• Paul and Stacey have been married for 28 years. Stacey is the love of his life and an Assistant U.S. Attorney. They love to travel, read, go on runs and spend time laughing with their three (brilliant) children and their greatest accomplishments: Emily, a UCLA grad living in LA, Nathan, a sophomore at Fordham University (Bronx) and Claire, a very recent high school graduate!
• His interests include a good book and a good cup of coffee, running and exercise, exploring the history and beauty of cities, stimulating conversation, getting lost in a splendid movie and watching college sports with Stacey.
• He is currently reading “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah.
• His current devotional practice is a daily scripture followed by loving-kindness meditation and prayer - and training for a 1⁄2 marathon.

For surely, I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Learn about ACP's 2021 worship services, Bible studies, small group studies and prayer, educational events, music ministries, family sharing groups and resources, youth and young adults, and fellowship initiatives below.

Click the slides or links below for more information.

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Worship

Worship in the Sanctuary at 11h and 14h.

The 11h service will be livestreamed on this website, our YouTube video channel and our Facebook page.

Children's Worship Online

Worship Online archives

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Children's Ministries

Threaded Together: A Children's Ministry Initiative

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Youth and Young Adult Ministries

ACP's Youth and Young Adult Ministries are on summer break. See you at the rentrée.

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Adult Ministries

Sunday Evening Adult Bible Study   Register here

African Fellowship Online   Register here

Tuesday Morning Women's Bible Study

Men's Ministry at ACP   Register to join the Men's Ministry

Silent Prayer Thursdays   Register for Silent Prayer Thursdays

All Church Fellowship Group   Join the All Church Fellowship Group

A Future with Hope – Strengthened through Generosity!

Jeremiah reminds of us of God's plans for a future with hope.

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

The act of generosity is an integral part, along with faith, love, and kindness, of this plan; it inspires hope.

Your generosity in 2021 enables ACP to provide that hope to hundreds of people each day through our online Worship services, traditional and contemporary music, and the many missions and ministries and outreach activities. Our ministries – our congregation – YOU are making a difference in the lives of individuals. Your generosity is the source of so much good news in this time of uncertainty.

In 2021, as in 2020, ACP is counting on your generosity to allow us to maintain and grow our mission and ministries and to reach a growing community on-line. The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has caused dramatic decreases in our wedding revenues and certain rentals as a result of limits on gatherings. It is for each of us to look at our financial situations, and to prayerfully reflect on how we can provide our church with the resources it needs to be the Beacon on the Seine, and a sustaining force in the lives of its members and the broader community.

You can pledge your support to ACP by any amount – small or large as your spirit guides you. If you would like to pledge you can do so here:

Generosity Pledge

Interim Senior Pastor

Odette was born in Stamford, Connecticut and raised in southern California. Ordained in the United Methodist Church, she pastored, founded, and redeveloped congregations and university ministries in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area including UCLA, UC Berkeley, and San Diego State University.

With a BA in Religious Studies from California State University, Northridge, she graduated summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology with a Masters of Divinity. While a student she co-founded the Anna Howard Shaw Center, and was delegate to the World Council of Churches Consultation on Women in Theology in Cartigny, Switzerland. She taught seminarians in the practice of ministry as Faculty Director of Community Engaged Learning at the Pacific School of Religion, teaching immersion courses in Colombia, Washington D.C., and at the U.S. Mexico border, engaging Christian theology and the public square.

Her writing includes devotionals, curricula, sermons and poetry, as well as articles on social religious history, prayer, and Christian formation. Grateful to serve with the ACP in this transitional season, “In Christ, our lives and our life together are shaped and reshaped by the Spirit. Every gift is needed. Christ removes barriers we place before the Lord’s Table or the altar of our hearts.”

Odette and her husband of thirty-five years, the Rev. Jim Lockwood-Stewart, take delight and loving pride in their four grown children, and eight grandchildren, who live in California, Oklahoma, and Maryland. Rev. Jim is a retired United Methodist pastor and a bassoonist. For re-creation, Odette enjoys reading, writing, cinema, theater, studying languages, and she revels in being a flaneuse.

Get involved at the American Church in Paris.
Learn about ACP’s groups, Bible studies, fellowships, and activities.

Get involved here.

Get involved here.

ACP is committed to moving forward with in-sanctuary worship services as Covid-19 protocols allow, and also providing a quality online experience for those not able to return to church for live worship. But in order to accomplish these two things, we need people to usher and work with livestreaming.

Ushering: Volunteers are needed for each service to welcome and seat worshipers in a safe and efficient manner. Training is available and the commitment is for about 2.5 hours on a Sunday. If we have a large enough team, ushers will need to serve only once a month.

Live-streaming: Volunteers will be trained to use the cameras and software systems that ACP is putting into place. We need two people for each worship service and would hope to build a team of 6-10 people for each service. You don't have to be technically inclined as we will train you, but if you have an interest in video and sound, please offer your services.

Please do prayerfully consider how you could help out as we continue to adjust to worshiping in new and different ways. ACP's sanctuary worship services depend on volunteers.

Interested? Please contact us here.

The American Church in Paris (ACP) welcomes you to worship each Sunday at one of our three services. The 09h00 service is a weekly communion service; the 11h00 service is a traditional service with special music from one of our guest soloists or various choirs; the 13h30 service is a contemporary service with weekly communion.

Our congregation is an interdenominational and international Christian community whose mission is to bear witness by word and deed to the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, to provide a place of English language worship in the American Protestant tradition, and to engage in ministries and services that enrich the lives of residents and visitors in Paris.

The ACP is the first American church established outside of the United States. Begun in 1814, its official charter and first sanctuary were established in 1857. We have been located on the quai d’Orsay since 1931.

Stewardship plays an important role in enabling ACP to continue being an Embassy for the Kingdom of God and in furthering our individual paths of discipleship. We invite you to pray about the role of giving in your spiritual growth and to join us dedicating our pledges on Sunday. You can find our pledge forms for printing here or on-line version here.