‘Grand Opening’ is set Sunday
NORMAN — First Congregational Church of Norman will have a “Grand Opening” service at 4 p.m. Sunday at 601 24th Ave. SW.
The Rev. David Wheeler, the church’s senior pastor, said the congregation has made quite a few changes in the last year and wants to invite the community to join them as they embark on a new season of ministry.
Wheeler said the church had been meeting for many years on Sunday mornings at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship building at 1017 Elm but had no room to grow or to have ministry activities for children and youths.
Now, the church is sharing space with Memorial Presbyterian Church and meets at 4 p.m. each Sunday. In addition to the new meeting space and time, the church now offers children’s ministry and recently hired Vicki Schaeffer as the new music minister who will be forming a choir and working to expand the church’s music offerings.
Also, Wheeler said the church is an open and affirming church where members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community are welcome in all aspects of ministry. “We’ve revamped our ministry,” Wheeler said. “We’ve moved and we’ve been kind of calling ourselves a new church.”
The church was established in 2007 as a church plant of Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City. Since then, it has tried to serve as a voice of progressive theology and social justice in Norman.
“We’ve laid the groundwork to get us to this point and now we’re sharing our vision for a church committed to social justice because of our faith and hoping and praying that there are others who share this vision and want to join us,” Wheeler said.
For more information, call 928-9192 or go to www. normanucc.org.