East Liberty Presbyterian Church

Bearing Witness: Nell & Poll Documents at Heinz History Center
2025-09-08 10:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | PA
In June, our congregation learned about the lives of Nell, Poll, Sam, Savara, Jack, Sukey, Isaac, Frank, Het, and Maria—the family enslaved and sold by two of our founders.
The Reparations Ministry Team and Facing Systemic Racism Committee invite you to the Heinz History Center Detre Library and Archives on Saturday & Monday, September 6 & 8, 10 am–12 pm, to view the primary sources we relied on for our research: the bills of sale for Nell and Poll, the registry of births of babies to enslaved mothers, and other documents that gave us insight into the lives of the family. We will provide a brief recap of the information from our program in June, and an archivist will be on hand to answer questions about the materials, which will be available for you to view in person. Viewing the documents can be a powerful experience and is a chance to bear witness as we begin to reckon with our church’s tie to enslavement.
Afterward, attendees are encouraged to visit the “From Slavery to Freedom” exhibit, which provides information relevant to enslavement, abolition, and the civil rights movement in Pittsburgh.
Attendance is free, but space is limited. Call or text Hollen Barmer at 412.512.0786 with any questions.
Sign up online

Visitor Sunday
2025-09-14 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | PA
What brings you to church on Sunday? It may be for divine inspiration after a challenging week, to find peace in our sacred space, or to connect with friends, new and old, within our congregation. We hope that all these reasons—and more—pull you in for worship and reflection.
On Sunday, September 14, we will celebrate Visitor Sunday. We encourage you to invite someone—a newcomer to Pittsburgh seeking community, a family member, a friend, or a neighbor, someone who may appreciate experiencing a moment of God’s grace in our Cathedral of Hope. If you attend online, welcome a friend or relative to participate alongside you.
As part of Visitor Sunday, we will have joyful music, and our Membership and Outreach Committee will sponsor a Social Hour after the 11 am service. Visitors are encouraged to stop by our visitor table for a gift bag after either the Journey service or the Sanctuary service. A church tour will be available after the 11 am service as well.

Family Picnic and Games
2025-09-21 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | PA
Join us after worship Sept 21st for a picnic and games in the play yard on Balm Blvd. as we kick off the year and share information about our 25/26 program year. RSVPs to Sara Hackett appreciated but if you decide that day you can join us … PERFECT!
The Children and Families Ministry team is hosting monthly family events to foster a caring community of families at ELPC, where kids and adults feel loved and empowered to explore their faith.
Save the Date for our Monthly Family Events on the Third Sunday of the month …

October 19 – Bowling at ELPC
November 16 – Arts and Crafts
December 21 – Hot Chocolate following the Christmas Pageant
January 18 – Host a Variety Show at the Nursing Home
February 15 – Make Dog Treats for Ellie’s Pet Pantry
March 15 – Board Games with the Happy Wanderers
April 19 – Bowling at ELPC
May 17 -Service Projects around the Church

Taizé Social Gathering
2025-10-01 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-05 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-12-03 20:00 - 21:00, 2026-01-07 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
Join us on the first Wednesday of each month following our Taizé prayer service for a time of fellowship with some light refreshments in the Narthex.
Taizé is a unique spiritual community at ELPC, and we desire to have time for those who gather to get to know one another, converse, and move from solitude into community and expand the connection that exists amidst our prayerful songs and quiet meditation.

World Communion Sunday & International Lunch
2025-10-05 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | ELPC – McKelvy Room (114), 116 South Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
On World Communion Sunday, October 5, the ELPC Board of Deacons will be hosting “A Taste of Nations” International Lunch. Join us in the Fellowship and McKelvy Rooms after our Sanctuary worship service for a sample of global cuisine. There will be sign-up sheets at the Penn and Highland entrances for the congregation to indicate their donations representing their favorite ethnic dish.
For more information, please contact Deacon Linda Sanders or Peta Harrigan Cole.

Full Inclusion Sunday
2025-10-12 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | PA
Join us for worship on Full Inclusion Sunday, October 12. In the afternoon, our Cathedral Concerts series will present an Organ and Winds performance featuring Windfluence—a Pittsburgh-based professional woodwind quintet—and organist, Dr. Edward Alan Moore. The concert will feature the Concerto for Organ and Wind Quintet by Daniel Pinkham.

Walk, Give, Change the World
2025-10-12 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | PA
CROP Hunger Walks are community-based walk fundraising events held in cities and towns across the U.S., created to support the global mission of Church World Service, a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster. After a CROP Hunger Walk ends, 25% of the funds raised is returned to the host community to support local hunger-fighting efforts.
This year’s Pittsburgh East CROP Hunger Walk will take place on Sunday, October 12, and 25% of what is raised will support the local hunger work of Wilkinsburg Community Ministry (WCM), a four-star rated charity by Charity Navigator, that has served the community of Wilkinsburg for over 55 years. WCM currently provides both a storefront and a mobile pantry, serving people at seven locations, to better reach our hungry neighbors.
If you’d like to participate, register as an individual, sign up for the Waverly Presbyterian Church team, or consider making a donation. There are 1.5 mile and 4-mile courses available. Participants will gather at Waverly Presbyterian Church (590 South Braddock Avenue, 15221). Registration begins at 1 pm and the walk begins at 2 pm. Enjoy a leisurely stroll around the East End and do some leaf peeping while supporting our neighbors in need!
REGISTER OR DONATE ONLINE

Cathedral Concert - Organ and Winds
2025-10-12 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | ELPC – Sanctuary, 116 South Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
Organ and Winds
Windfluence – Pittsburgh based professional woodwind quartet. https://windfluence.org/
Edward Alan Moore, organ
Featuring the Concerto for Organ and Wind Quintet by Daniel Pinkham
The concert is free and open to all. A freewill offering will be received at the concert.
Click the button below for the printed program:
CATHEDRAL CONCERT PROGRAM – October 12, 2025

Family Bowling
2025-10-19 12:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | ELPC – Bowling Alley
Families with children and teens are invited to stay after Sanctuary worship on Sunday, October 19 for pizza and bowling. RSVP to Sara Hackett.
The Children and Families Ministry team is hosting monthly family events to foster a caring community of families at ELPC, where kids and adults feel loved and empowered to explore their faith.
Save the Date for our Monthly Family Events …
November 16 – Arts and Crafts
December 21 – Hot Chocolate following the Christmas Pageant
January 18 – Host a Variety Show at the Nursing Home
February 15 – Make Dog Treats for Ellie’s Pet Pantry
March 15 – Board Games with the Happy Wanderers
April 19 – Bowling at ELPC
May 17 -Service Projects around the Church

ELPC Connections Potluck Lunch
2025-10-19 12:15 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | PA
“What if we heard the voice of God saying ‘How can you be lost when I am right here?’”
With those words from Pastor Michael’s sermon on September 14 ringing in our hurting hearts, we invite you to celebrate our Connections Ministry’s 2025–2026 season kick-off with an ELPC Connections Potluck Lunch following Sanctuary worship on Sunday, October 19, in the Good Samaritan Room!
Connections events build bonds, forge friendships, and create community that heals the disconnected, the fearful and the lost—including us—through monthly, small-group activities.
Jesus as shepherd rejoices when the lost—an unseen, unknown, or uncertain person—is found. Connections—a home meal, a concert, a hike, etc.—celebrates when we beloved folks find each other.
Jesus welcomed those accepted and rejected by society and so do we. That’s why we added an intentional LGBTQIA+ affinity group to affirm Pastor Michael’s words that “divine love always seeks us out.”
Even if you’ve yet to register for a Connections group, we’d love to get to know you at the ELPC Connections Potluck Lunch. For planning purposes, please sign up online.

Sign Up

Christ always had room at his table; so do we at ELPC!

Reformation Sunday
2025-10-26 12:15 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
Join us for worship on Reformation Sunday, October 26. Following our service, our Facing Systemic Racism Committee will give a presentation. Then at 3 pm, our Cathedral Concerts series will present the Fox Chapel High School Chorus and Orchestra, led by Ben Murray, choral director, and Mairi Cooper, orchestra director. The concert will feature Illuminare for string orchestra, piano, and choir by Elaine Hagenberg.

Cathedral Concert - Fox Chapel High School Chorus and Orchestra
2025-10-26 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | ELPC – Sanctuary, 116 South Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
Fox Chapel High School Chorus and Orchestra
Benjamin Murray, choral director
Mairi Cooper, orchestra director
Featuring Illuminare for string orchestra, piano, and choir by Elaine Hagenberg
The concert is free and open to all. A freewill offering will be received at the concert.
Click the button below for the printed program:
CATHEDRAL CONCERT PROGRAM – OCTOBER 26, 2025

Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time
2025-10-29 17:30 - 19:00, 2025-11-05 17:30 - 19:00, 2025-11-12 17:30 - 19:00, 2025-11-19 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | PA
What if you could encounter Jesus with fresh eyes—free from assumptions, clichés, or familiarity?
Join Pastors BJ and Michael this fall for a four-week journey utilizing Marcus Borg’s influential book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Together, we’ll explore Jesus as:

Spirit Person – a man deeply connected to the sacred
Teacher of Wisdom – offering timeless guidance for life today
Social Prophet – challenging systems of injustice
Movement Founder – inspiring a community of transformation

Each session will blend teaching, scripture, conversation, and spiritual practices, creating space not just to learn about Jesus, but to experience his presence anew.
We’ll share dinner together at 6:30 pm, and you’re warmly invited to stay for our contemplative Taizé prayer service at 7 pm. Come curious. Come hungry. Come ready to meet Jesus again—for the first time.
Please register using the form below. You only need to register ONCE for the series, although this form is found in all 4 instances of this event, it is just there for ease of access to people joining.

Contemplative Retreat: Giving Our Deaths Away
2025-10-31 - 2025-11-02 | Villa Maria Retreat Center, 2067 Evergreen Rd, Pulaski, PA, 16143, United States
From Friday–Sunday, October 31–November 2, join us for a Spiritual Life retreat on Halloween, All Saints Day, and the Day of the Dead at the Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center in Pulaski, Pennsylvania. Amid our normal retreat rhythms of solitude and community, silence and conversation, stillness and activity, we will explore our mortality, our hopes and fears surrounding death, and what our tradition(s) have to say about death and eternal communion we have with saints and ancestors.
According to the Spanish mystic John of the Cross, we have three essential struggles in life: 1) To get our lives together, 2) To give our lives away, and 3) To give our deaths away.
What is asked of us in the first two struggles is more obvious and captured in the first half of life. But what does it mean to give our deaths away in the later parts of our life? How we approach death and dying leaves a legacy, a particular spirit, which either nurtures or haunts those left behind. If we die at peace with ourselves, loved ones, the world, and with God, then like Jesus, we will leave behind a spirit that nourishes, warms, consoles, and gives our loved one’s sacred permission to be at peace. How do we do that? What are our stories, fears, concerns, and anxieties that inhibit us from giving our death away.
Join us as we sit with these questions, listen to God and ourselves, and explore this on retreat in community with one another.
RSVP to Norma Meyer at 412.441.3800 x211 by Sunday, October 19. Cost options are listed below. Contact Pastor BJ to discuss scholarships.
One Night

Friday–Saturday or Saturday–Sunday | Private Room and Common Bath | $100

Two Nights

Friday–Sunday | Private Room/Common Bath | $150

One Day

Saturday | $50

Fall Pie Festival
2025-11-23 12:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
The Spiritual Life Committee invites you to our fourth annual ELPC Fall Pie Festival following Sanctuary worship on Sunday, November 23, in the Fellowship and Garth Overlook Rooms.
Bring your favorite fall pie (sweet or savory) to share with our congregation! Please join us for a time of celebrating the fall harvest and anticipation of the arrival of the holiday seasons.
Let us know what type of pie you’d like to bring by completing the form below, or by contacting Norma Meyer at 412.441.3800 x211. Sign-up sheets also will be available at our Sunday worship services in November.

Hanging of the Greens
2025-11-23 12:30 - 15:00 (America/Halifax) | East Liberty Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
Opportunity knocks for volunteers! Did you ever want to decorate a Gothic Sanctuary for Advent? Now is the time! ELPC is looking for volunteers to decorate our Sanctuary following our Fall Pie Festival on Sunday, November 23. Meet us in the Sanctuary after enjoying some pie!

Cathedral Concert - Christmas in East Liberty 2025
2025-12-12 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | ELPC – Sanctuary, 116 South Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
Our Cathedral Concerts series returns with the year’s most anticipated concert, Christmas in East Liberty, on Friday, December 12, 7:30 pm!
This annual, East Liberty tradition will feature holiday favorites, along with performances by The Brass Roots with conductor Daniel Curtis, the ELPC Chancel Choir under the direction of Dr. Edward Alan Moore, guest organist Ethan LaPlaca, saxophonist Mike Tomaro, and narrator Jim Cunningham. The concert also will include a new setting of It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Mike Tomaro.
Join us in the Sanctuary or on YouTube or Facebook. The concert is free and open to all, so bring your family and friends! A freewill offering will be received.
The concert is free and open to all. A freewill offering will be received at the concert.
Christmas in East Liberty 2025
The Brass Roots – Daniel Curtis, conductor
ELPC Chancel Choir – Dr. Edward Alan Moore, conductor
Ethan LaPlaca, guest organist
Mike Tomaro, saxophone
Jim Cunningham, narrator

Featuring a new setting of It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Mike Tomaro
PROGRAM – Click here for the PDF of the printed program
O Come, All Ye Faithful – arr. Willcocks
Hark the Herald Angels Sing – arr. DiLorenzo
Ave Maria – Biebl/arr. Yager
I Wonder as I Wander – arr. Tomaro
Mike Tomaro, saxophone
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas – arr. DiLorenzo
Jim Cunningham, narrator
Sussex Carol – arr. Willcocks
Carol Fantasia – Mary Beth Bennett
Intermission
White Christmas – Berlin/arr. Tomaro
Twelve Days of Christmas – arr. Holcombe
Silver Bells – arr. Connick/Gardner
Christmas Toons – arr. DiLorenzo
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Pola, Wyle/arr. Tomaro
PREMIERE – commissioned for Christmas in East Liberty 2025

We the Messiah – A Hip Hop Remix of Handel’s Messiah
2025-12-15 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | PA
Join Pastor Michael and other Pittsburgh faith leaders as they help narrate the production of We the Messiah, a Hip Hop remix and social justice reimagining of Handel’s Messiah. This theatrical concert is a crescendo call for collective action and an instrumental invitation to awaken the Messiah that lives in us all. ELPC community members contributed to the project earlier this fall through activism conversations that helped shape the community-voices component of the production.
Performances are on Friday, December 19, 7:30 pm, and Saturday, December 20, 3 pm & 7:30 pm. Tickets are free, but please register at kelly-strayhorn.org.

Hot Chocolate Reception - for EVERYONE, including families
2025-12-21 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | PA
EVERYONE is invited to a Hot Chocolate Reception following the Christmas Pageant which **NEW THIS YEAR** is part of our 11 o’clock worship.
This is part of our monthly family events hosted by The Children and Families Ministry Team to foster a caring community of families at ELPC, where kids and adults feel loved and empowered to explore their faith.

Un-hanging of the Greens
2026-01-04 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Halifax) | ELPC – Sanctuary, 116 South Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
We’re looking for volunteers who would like to help take down and put away our Christmas decorations following our Sanctuary worship service this Sunday, January 4. Even if you can only stay to help for a few minutes, it would be a tremendous help. Thank you in advance!

Cathedral Concert | Cody Conley and Friends
2026-01-04 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | ELPC – Sanctuary, 116 South Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15206, United States
Cody Conley, violin
Devin Arrington, violin
Grace Burns, piano
Featuring a new violin duo composed by Devin Arrington for Cody and Devin.
Program
Click here for a PDF of the printed program.
Scherzo in C minor (violin and piano)
Johannes Brahms (1883-1897)
Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 17 – Devin Arrington 2025 (premiere)
III. Sicilienne
IV. Finale con brio
Cody Conley, violin
Devin Arrington, violin
Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 2 (Violin and piano)
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio cantabile
III. Scherzo: Allegro
IV. Finale: Allegro; Presto
Intermission
Sonata for Violin and Piano
César Franck
(1822-1890)
I. Allegretto ben moderato
II. Allegro
III. Ben moderato: Recitativo-Fantasia
IV. Allegretto poco mosso

Environmental Team January Book Study
2026-01-05 08:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | PA
For its next book, the Environment Team of the Justice Committee has selected Shade: the Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource by Sam Bloch. The discussion session will be held on Thursday, January 22, 7 pm, via Zoom.
In his new book, environmental journalist Sam Bloch encourages us to look to the past for solutions to our ever-warming urban areas as climate change creates heat waves that are more frequent, hotter and longer lasting. Bloch’s call for more shade in urban areas, with more trees in parks and residential areas and new ways to design public areas and buildings, comes as policy makers grapple with a growing crisis in heat-related illness and death.
For further information and the Zoom link, contact Nancy Heastings.

Impactful Advocacy
2026-01-12 19:00 - 20:30, 2026-01-14 10:00 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | PA
We learned at our October Adult Education presentation on Impactful Advocacy that individualized calls and emails to legislators are more impactful than form letters and emails. To facilitate such advocacy, the Environmental Team of the Justice Committee will offer two, identical info sessions on Zoom. The first will be held the evening of Monday, January 12, and the second will be held the morning of Wednesday, January 14.
You will receive examples, tips and tools. We ask you to bring an issue or cause that’s important to you. We will practice on a common issue.
If you are interested in participating, but did not attend our October presentation, you can request the recording link. Contact Nancy Heastings for more information or to register.
