Lectio Divina at ACP – An Advent Journey Fridays 19h00-20h00 and/or Saturdays 8h30-9h30 via Zoom, from 27 November to 19 December

The practice of Lectio Divina stems from an ancient monastic prayer tradition which emphasizes scripture as the “Living Word of God,” and is a contemplative way to read short passages of sacred text and discover meaning deeper than the literal layer.

Register here to receive Zoom link.

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ACP This Week

Sundays - Worship/Coffee Fellowship Online

Mondays - Musings with the Maestro
with Fred Gramann and ACP Musicians

Wednesdays - Sanctuary Sessions
with Natalie Raynal and ACP Contemporary Worship Musicians

Thursdays - Communion with Pastor Odette

Fridays and Saturdays - Lectio Divina at ACP – An Advent Journey

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. This month members of ACP are sharing stories about their faith journey during our on-line services, about how the ACP has brought them strength in the present and hope for the future. 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.

This year more than ever, 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 that 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, only 45 families take 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

Encountering the Christ-Child Through My Enemy's Eyes: Envisioning Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine
Tuesday 8 December at 19h30 via Zoom, Live From Bethlehem!

ACP is honored to welcome Dr. Munayer as he shares his story of working toward peace and reconciliation in Israel-Palestine. Dr. Munayer is Executive Director of Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation, an organization he founded in 1990. For more than 25 years, Musalaha has been bringing Israelis and Palestinians together, facilitating reconciliation.

A Palestinian–Israeli born in Lod as one of six children, Salim received his B.A. from Tel Aviv University in History and Geography. After his B.A. graduation, Salim did graduate studies in New Testament studies at Pepperdine University. Salim then earned a M.A. at Fuller Theological Seminary and Ph.D. from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in the United Kingdom where his doctoral dissertation was entitled “The Ethnic Identity of Palestinian Arab Christian Adolescents in Israel.”

Salim has authored several books on Reconciliation, the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict, Christians in Israel, and Christians under the Palestinian Authority. Salim’s most recent work is Through My Enemy’s Eyes, Envisioning Reconciliation in Israel–Palestine, co–authored with Lisa Loden. Salim served as academic dean of the esteemed Bethlehem Bible College from 1989 to 2008, and he continues there as professor. Salim is married to Kay and has four sons, Jack, Daniel, John and Sam.

Join us on 8 December live from Bethlehem, as we engage with Dr. Munayer and the work he is doing through Musalaha Ministries.  Register here

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 rentrée 2020 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. And be sure to attend ACP’s Ministry Fair in person or on line!

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, 6 December

ACP Youth Music Ministry Fall program

Threaded Together: A Children's Ministry Initiative

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Youth and Young Adult Ministries

Youth program - Out There: Together in One Place

Young Adults program - Out There: Together in One Place

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Adult Ministries

Making Sense of the Bible – A six week small group pursuit of greater Biblical Understanding

Sunday Afternoon Adult Bible Study

Tuesday Morning Women's Bible Study

Women's Monthly Bible Study: Women of the Old Testament, 6 December

The Alpha Course - Introduction to Christianity

Men's Ministry at ACP

Women's Monthly Sunday Fellowship, Sunday 13 December 16h via Zoom, Christmas celebration

Race, Film, and Hope: Living into Reconciliation by Dr. Greg Garrett
Tuesday 10 November at 19h30 via Zoom

Dr. Garrett's most recent book is A Long, Long Way: Hollywood's Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation (Oxford). In this powerful new book, after more than a century of cinema, he argues, movies have altered our cultural perspectives in the same way that religious narratives have. And in fact, religious traditions offer powerful correctives to our cultural narratives. A Long, Long Way incorporates both cinematic and religious truth-telling to the subject of race and reconciliation. In acknowledging the racist history of America's national art form, Garrett offers the possibility of hope for the future. His conversation with us will help us confront the ways film has often negatively portrayed minority groups thus reinforcing a racist narrative in our society and offer ways to lean into the healing and reconciliation God longs for us to know as a church.

Beloved ACP Community,

ACP will worship online but not in the sanctuary during the month of confinement for the health and safety of all.

As we live through these troubled and troubling times, know that you are a beloved child of God, that you can trust in the truth of God’s goodness, and in the prayers and presence of this Christian community.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 38-39

Grace and peace.
Pastors Odette, Doug, Jodi, Victor, Allison

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.