Bridging Worlds: The Parables of Jesus and the Nearness of God

In parables Jesus connects our world with God’s Kingdom. Jesus engages us in vivid stories that connect us with God and each other, honoring and crossing the spaces between. The word Parable comes from the Greek παραβολή (parabolē), literally "throwing" (bolē) "alongside.” As we look at self, systems and society alongside each other parables reveal God’s just love and teach us the way of Jesus.

Click the slides or links below for more information.

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Lent at ACP

Morning Prayer – Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays 8h-8h30 via Zoom 

Sanctuary Sessions – Wednesdays

Wednesday Evening Adult Learning:
Bridging Worlds/Bridging the Gaps – Wednesdays 19h30-21h via Zoom

Silent Prayer – Thursdays 19h-20h via Zoom

Give up your old eyeglasses for Lent

Mondays 1, 15 & 29 March 19h30-21h via ZOOM

Register here to receive Zoom link.

Starting Monday 1 March we will have three virtual book discussions on our collective reading of the widely heralded book on arbitrary social divisions, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, written by Isabel Wilkerson. Kate Snipes will guide the group in discussion with two guest professors.

The group will meet every two weeks starting 1 March 19h30-21h. Our first discussion will cover the introduction through page 35. We will follow with more reading and discussions on 15 March 19h30-21h and 29 March 19h30-21h.

For our first session Dr. Asa Lee, a Dean at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. has agreed to start our conversation based on his experiences and reflections on the book. Dean Lee is the Director of African American Church Studies at Wesley and teaches courses in the study of African American religious experience and practical theology.

For the second or third session, Sathianathan (“Sathi”) Clarke will join us to give his observations on the book and his experience with the caste system in India. Dr. Clarke is a Chair in World Christianity as Wesley, a professor of theology and presbyter of the Church of South India. He was a professor in India and a visiting professor at Harvard's School of Divinity before joining Wesley and spent many years working with the Dalit (untouchable) community in India.

Online Course beginning Monday 22 February, 20h30 to 22h

11 week course

Got questions about life? Try the Alpha Course

Ever wanted to explore the meaning of life or ask challenging questions about the Christian faith? Do you have a family member, friend, neighbor, or colleague who is asking questions about life? If you've answered "yes" then the Alpha Course is for you!

Alpha is an opportunity for anyone to explore the Christian faith in a relaxed, informal, and friendly way. It welcomes all those big questions – and it's free!

For more information, and to register for the Alpha course, please feel free to contact the Alpha team here. Once you’ve registered you’ll receive an email from the Alpha team shortly before the first session on 22 February with all the information about how to connect.

New Member Orientation
4 March 19h30-21h via Zoom

All who are interested in becoming a member at ACP are invited to sign up for a Zoom Membership Orientation Meeting on Thursday 4 March at 19h30-21h.

Register here

(Please note, upon registering you will receive a membership orientation packet prior to our meeting. Registering for the membership orientation meeting does not obligate you to become a member of ACP.)

In this casual/interactive Zoom meeting with your pastors, you'll learn about the history, the vision, beliefs, values, and governance of ACP. You'll get to know your pastors and some of the members of our lay care ministry team. You'll surely get to know some of the people who share your interest in joining the church, and together we'll explore opportunities for involvement that will enable you to serve, connect, and grow at ACP.

On Sunday 7 March all participants in the Membership Orientation meeting are invited to an in-person (socially distanced) Meet and Greet at ACP following our 11h worship service. We will have some light snacks and take some time to get to know one another better.

ACP's reception of new members is scheduled for Sunday 21 March during our 11h service.

Christians and Anger: Friend or Foe?
Tuesday 16 March 19h30-21h via Zoom.

Register here

The prolonged Covid-19 pandemic has presented many challenges for us to contend with as we continue to rearrange and cope with life in ways we don't want to. Bouts of depression, shortness of temper, lashing out, strained relationships, passive aggressive behavior, negative self-talk are all common experiences – and they all point to anger issues.

Although given and received, anger is rarely talked about by Christians, leading us to be confused with its appropriateness, bewildered as to whether it is sinful or not, and troubled by how to deal with it in helpful and life-giving ways.

Join on Tuesday, 16 March for a special Thurber Conversation with Dr. Rod Wilson, a pastor and clinical psychologist who has authored two books on anger- Exploring Your Anger and Helping Angry People.

Reading materials will be sent to all registrants ahead of our Thurber Conversation.  

Dr. Rod Wilson served as President of Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia from 2000-2015. Originally trained as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Wilson pursued theological training after completing his doctoral work. He has been involved in the field of counselling and consulting for over thirty years. He is currently Teaching Pastor at Capilano Christian Community as well as Senior Advisor with A Rocha Canada, and consultant with various organizations. Dr. Wilson has also authored two award winning books, Counseling and Community and How Do I Help a Hurting Friend? Dr. Rod is enjoying life in Vancouver, BC with his wife Bev.

Thurber Conversations are an adult community gathering and growth time that is open to all.

Video recordings of selected past Thurber Lectures and Conversations here

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 Online

Children's Worship Online

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Children's Ministries

Kids' Monthly Bible Study, 7 February

ACP Youth Music Ministry Fall program

Threaded Together: A Children's Ministry Initiative

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Youth and Young Adult Ministries

Youth program - Theology on the Ground

Young Adults program - Theology on the Ground

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Adult Ministries

Sunday Evening Adult Bible Study

African Fellowship Online

Tuesday Morning Women's Bible Study

Women's Monthly Bible Study: Women of the Old Testament, 28 March

Men's Ministry at ACP

Women's Monthly Sunday Fellowship, Sunday 28 February 16h via Zoom, Anna Dai will speak about her personal and faith journey from China to Paris and the American Church in Paris.

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 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.

One of ACP's goals is for 100 individuals or families in our congregation to take the spiritual step of committing to be generous contributors to God’s work at the ACP by pledging their donation for 2021. This goal is not focused on the amount that each individual or family commits but about the very act of pledging to be purposeful about our role in carrying out the ACP’s mission. Last year, 45 families took this spiritual step despite many others giving – please help us meet our goal of 100 in 2021!

Let's show our collective generosity, pledge now 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.