Festival of Faith at FCPC, Abilene

First Central Presbyterian Church
Festival of Faith

September 15-16, 2024
400 Orange Street
Abilene, TX

The PDP community is welcome!

Anna Carter Florence
Guest Speaker

“A is for Alabaster: An Alphabet of Scripture Stories
for Sunday School Dropouts (and Others!)”

Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.  She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and holds degrees from Yale University (BA) and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv and PhD).  Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Anna served as an associate pastor for youth and young adults at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.

Anna’s books include Preaching as Testimony, Inscribing the Word, Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God’s Word in Community, based on her 2012 Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School, and A is for Alabaster: 52 Reflections on the Stories of Scripture (2023).  She has also published articles and chapters in numerous books and journals, including a year’s worth of lectionary text commentaries for www.WorkingPreacher.org.

Anna’s research focuses on testimony, preaching pedagogies, and creative strategies for communities to engage and encounter the biblical text for our present context.  She is a frequent preacher and teacher in the U.S. and abroad, which gives her plenty of opportunity to do what makes her happiest: sitting around a table with a group of people, a big passage of Scripture, and a big block of time to dive into it.  She and her husband, the Rev. David Carter Florence, have two grown sons, Caleb and Jonah.  They also have two dogs, two cats, and way too much knitting yarn.

Dr. Florence follows a long line of outstanding Festival of Faith speakers.  You will not be disappointed.  This series is not only for First Central Presbyterian Church but also for friends in the community.  There is no cost, with the exception of lunch ($8) on Monday noon.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
Sunday morning worship, 8:30 and 11:00 am
Sunday evening, 7:00 pm

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
Lunch in Fellowship Hall, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
‘Talk it Over’ session with pastors, professors, seminarians, 1:15 p.m.
Monday evening, 7:00 p.m.