Here’s what’s happening in worship this week.
Worship Services
Journey Worship | Sunday, at 8:45 am
An interactive, energetic service for those seeking a fresh encounter with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our theme this month is Chosen. Pastor Patrice will preach from Jeremiah 33:14-22.
Sanctuary Worship | Sunday, at 11 am
Our largest service, with music from the Chancel Choir and an organ prelude prior to the service. Our theme for Advent is Bookends. Each week, we’ll take a theme from Genesis and explore how it is “answered” in Revelation. As we observe the first Sunday of Advent, our scripture readings will be Genesis 2:4b–17 and Revelation 22:1–7. Pastor Randy will preach and his sermon will be titled “Advent Bookends: Creation & A New Creation.”
Taizé | Wednesday, at 7 pm
An hour-long service including sung prayers; simple, beautiful music; a time of silence; spoken and silent prayers; and an opportunity for individual prayer and anointing. The Rev. Mary Lynn Callahan will lead worship. Stay afterward for Contemplative Prayer.
Christian Education Classes
We offer Christian Education classes for persons of all ages, from infancy through adulthood, on Sundays from 9:45–10:45 am. Click the links for adult class descriptions and children and youth offerings.
Contemporaries | Second Floor Parlor
Professor Stone has learned in his retirement that the reading of good sermons provides the best guide, other than worship at ELPC, for the development of his Christian life. On November 8, 15, and 29 he will share three sermons of Reinhold Niebuhr, America’s greatest theologian of the 20th Century, with the Contemporaries. One sermon will be from a recording, and two from manuscripts. Professor Stone served as his assistant from 1966 until his final retirement in 1969 and continued as a friend until his death. Dr. Stone preached his memorial sermon at Riverside Church in 1971. His most recent book on Dr. Niebuhr is Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich at Union Seminary in New York (Mercer University Press, 2012. Available on Amazon or at the Church bookstore).
This week, our lesson will be “We See Through a Glass Darkly,” based on I Corinthians 13.
Journey With Scripture | Second Floor Library
Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God—Ruth 1:16. The lectionary cycle of readings ends with stories of marginalized women—a foreigner, a poor widow, a childless wife. They love steadfastly and become pivotal figures for our faith, our history, and the Advent of our Lord. Come join us.
This week, the Mark Blank, our intern from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, will serve as facilitator. Our readings are: Jeremiah 33:14–16; Psalm 25:1–10 Thessalonians 3:9–13; and Luke 21:25–36.
Seekers | Room 234
Discussion about How Jesus Became God
What does our church teach us about Jesus as God? Pastor Randy will answer questions that have arisen from the past three weeks’ historical study of Christology and seeing Jesus as the Christ.
Soul Food | Third Floor Music Room
This week, we will conclude our discussion of chapter five of An Altar in the World, by Barbara Brown Taylor.