Join us for the 2008 Wiseman Lenten Series

Wednesdays at noon at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Tulsa

709 S. Boston Ave.

We offer a special opportunity for ministers and others to share in a luncheon dialogue with each speaker in the Miller Library immediately following the noon service.   Seating is limited, so please contact the receptionist at 584-4701 to reserve your place! We also offer a lunch in Wiseman Hall for all interested attendees (small charge).

February 13     Rev. Catherine Purves
Pastor, Bellevue United Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg, PA

Catherine Purves, a native of Philadelphia, is a graduate of the College of Wooster, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Currently, she is the minister of Bellevue United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh where she is committed to the worship of the church, its educational ministry, the supervision of seminary assistants, and pastoral care. Catherine serves the borough of Bellevue as a police chaplain and she is president of the Fellowship of ministries, an ecumenical clergy group that also includes representatives from local social service agencies.

February 20     Rev. Mateen Elass
Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Edmond, OK

What are the odds that a son born to a Muslim father, raised for more than a decade in Saudi Arabia, schooled in western philosophy and psychology, and then trained in eastern mysticism, should become a resolute Christian and a minister of the gospel? But Rev. Mateen Elass sees this prelude to his pastoral ministry as witness to the amazing power of God to find and call his children to service-regardless of the odds. Pastor Mateen's prior ministry includes an associate position for a small-town Presbyterian church in Wyoming, solo pastor of a young suburban church in Arizona, and Minister of Adult Education at First Presbyterian of Colorado Springs, a church of more than five thousand people prior to coming to First Presbyterian, Edmond, in July 2007.

February 27     Rev. William E. W. Robinson
Ph.D. Student at Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, VA

Will served as an associate pastor at First Church from 1999 to 2005. In the fall of 2005, he began work on a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia. In his Ph.D. studies, he has examined the sources for the New Testament's view of the Spirit, looking specifically at the apostle Paul's understanding of the Spirit's role in the Christian's life and faith. Will enjoys teaching and preaching and does so whenever possible on campus and at local churches in Richmond, and he's delighted to come back to First Church and Tulsa, to be reunited with a people and city that so nurtured him and his family!

March 5     Dr. Douglas Fletcher
Pastor (currently on sabbatical), Westlake Presbyterian Church, Austin, TX

Doug Fletcher is a son of First Church. This was his first call to ministry and he was ordained in our sanctuary. With a PhD from Princeton in Biblical Studies, he served for the past 15 years as senior pastor at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX.

March 12 Rev. Fr. William M. Christ
Pastor, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Tulsa, OK

Fr. Bill and his wife DeAnna moved to Tulsa in 1990 with their six children (currently they have five grandchildren with another on the way). Educationally, he has an undergraduate degree in Psychology, an M.A. in Counseling Psychology, an M.Div. in Theology, and is currently completing his project and dissertation for a D.Min. in Pastoral Counseling from Phillips Seminary here in Tulsa. Fr. Bill has been active in the local ecumenical movement and is currently on the Board for the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry.