Blog

Worship with Us | Week of November 14, 2021

Here’s what’s happening this week in worship. As a reminder, our services are currently being held virtually. Click here for a live feed of worship services at their scheduled times. Please note, there will be an error message if there is no live broadcast. Read More

Church School Classes | November 14, 2021

Here’s a list of what’s happening this week in our Church School classes. We offer Christian Education classes for persons of all ages, from infancy through adulthood, on Sundays, 9:45–10:45 am, unless otherwise noted. Read more about our adult classes and children and youth offerings. Read More

PW Thank Offering to be Received

Since 1888, Presbyterian Women have given a “special offering to the Lord” as a tangible expression of gratitude for our many blessings.

Last year’s PW Thank Offering responded to the needs of women in prison, children, families in poverty, the hungry, and the sick with grants of $5,000–$50,000.

All members and friends are invited to support the PW Thank Offering during worship on Sunday, November 21. Make checks payable to “Presbyterian Women in ELPC” and write “PW Thank Offering” in the memo line.

For more information, email PW.ELPC@gmail.com.

Volunteers Needed at EECM

ELPC lives into being a Matthew 25 church by preparing and serving meals to residents at East End Cooperative Ministry—and we need more help! Please consider volunteering for one of these dates:

Breakfast:

  • Sunday, November 14 | 6:30am
  • Sunday, December 12 | 6:30am

Dinner:

  • Thursday, December 2 | 5:30pm

The need is great, the work is fun, and the fellowship is wonderful! If you’re able to help on any of these days, contact Becky Gloninger at 412.913.6070 or rag15@verizon.net.

ELPC is Adopting a Refugee Family, and We Need Your Help

Acculturation for Justice, Access, and Peace Outreach (AJAPO) and Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS) are refugee settlement agencies in Pittsburgh, and they’re currently strained by the sudden arrival of Afghan refugees. AJAPO asked us to help with a Congolese family arriving in November that they anticipate may need additional support. One member of the family has a temporary disability pending surgery. It turns out ELPC is well placed to help, as one of our congregants is a former Congolese refugee and is willing to help.

The plan is straight forward. We will stand this family up, providing household goods, clothing, mentorship, and friendship.

We are seeking volunteers and donations to assist with this effort. Specifically:

  • Four Lead Adopters who are willing to donate time and energy to help the family with their transition to Pittsburgh. You will help introduce the family to Pittsburgh, help them navigate the common and mundane, keep tabs on things they need that the congregation can donate, and just generally being a good friend and mentor to this family. Expect to donate 1-3 hours of your time for the first few weeks, tapering over time as the family becomes settled. AJAPO will provide training for those interested in getting involved.
  • Setting Up House will require significant donations. The refugees come with little, and will need everything. One of the lead adopters will set up a registry, periodically updated to show what is needed. Please hold donations until the family has arrived—the church has no storage space.
  • Cash Assistance to help with setting up this family. We anticipate providing rental assistance, plus the occasional supply of groceries or take-out. The Justice Committee has generously committed funds toward this effort. Please feel free to chip in!
  • And Covering Contingencies will be that last bit of work. We haven’t done this before, and something won’t go as planned. If you can’t be a Lead Adopter, but would be willing to answer the phone when we need an extra hand, we’d really appreciate it! We’re also looking for professionals with medical, legal, educational and other backgrounds who would be willing to provide advice and referrals on an as-needed basis.

Contact Eric Jester at eric@new-burgh.com if you’re able to help.

Worship with Us | Week of November 7, 2021

Here’s what’s happening this week in worship. As a reminder, our services are currently being held virtually. Click here for a live feed of worship services at their scheduled times. Please note, there will be an error message if there is no live broadcast. Read More

Church School Classes | November 7, 2021

Here’s a list of what’s happening this week in our Church School classes. We offer Christian Education classes for persons of all ages, from infancy through adulthood, on Sundays, 9:45–10:45 am, unless otherwise noted. Read more about our adult classes and children and youth offerings. Read More

Stewardship Sunday: Follow as God Leads

Stewardship | noun: Supervising or taking care of something such as an organization or property.

What an awesome role we all play. We get to take care of this congregation; these ministries: children and families, worship, Christian Education, mission, the Happy Wanderers, the LGBTQ ministry, choirs, staff, and so much more. We get to take care of this magnificent building: its mechanics, the beautiful tower, the rain garden, meeting rooms, the kitchen, and worship spaces.

We reflect on the past 18 months when ELPC staff and volunteers creatively provided uninterrupted ministry in worship, outreach, Christian Education, building safety, and pastoral care. At the same time, congregational giving was steady and strong. We rejoice in God’s faithfulness.

This year’s Stewardship theme is Follow as God Leads. As we look ahead with faith to be led where God leads us in 2022, we’re setting a goal of $760,000 in pledges, a 4% increase over last year. Bring your pledge card to church on Stewardship Sunday, November 7, or submit your pledge online or by mail. You also may bring donations for the EECM Food Pantry. If you’re unable to attend worship in person, we also will be collecting food donations in the Staff Parking Lot following our Sanctuary worship service, 12:30–1:30 pm. Requested items include canned fruits and vegetables, cereal, crackers, dried fruit, individual fruit cups, jelly and peanut butter, pasta and sauce, rice, salt/seasonings/spices, and soups/broths.

Submit Pledge Online

Mission Money Makes a Difference in Haiti

For the past 47 years, ELPC has partnered with the Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF) to support their medical mission around the world.

When Haiti experienced the devastation of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in August, MBF responded almost immediately. In September, the ELPC Mission Board responded to the call to fund medical care for the people of Haiti by donating $10,000. ELPC’s donation helped to support medical personnel from the Hospital St. Croix, which dispatched mobile teams to areas that were all but unreachable to care for Haitians living in remote areas.

This is but one example of ELPC mission dollars in action, making a difference throughout the world. For additional information, visit MedicalMission.org.

Pastoral Message | November 2021

Every so often I read a sentence that stops me in my tracks. Here is the opening line from a book review:

In the deep sea, it is always night and it is always snowing.

The first half of that sentence made perfect sense. In the depths of ocean, we are beyond the reach of sunlight and so it must always be night. But snowing? Surely the author isn’t suggesting that particles of ice and snowflakes are floating in the water at the bottom of the ocean. So I read further:

A shower of so-called marine snow—made up of pale flecks of dead flesh, plants, sand, soot, and dust—sifts down from the world above…Many deep-sea creatures eat snow, or they eat the snow eaters.

“Marine snow” is such a vibrant image. It takes something familiar from my experiences here on land (snow) and transports that image into a place beyond my experience yet still just as alive and real (the ocean floor). Before reading that sentence, I’d pictured the ocean depths as dark and sterile; after reading the sentence, that place was changed forever into something active, mysterious-yet-graceful.

The language and rituals of faith ideally have that same impact on us. We walk through the world, processing what we see through the lens of human mortality, flesh and blood. But then a phrase hits us and opens up an entirely new reality:

Now we see in a mirror dimly; then we will see face to face…
I am with you always, even to the end of the age…
[God’s] power is at work within us, able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine…

Suddenly what we see is not all there is to see. This realm of touch, sight and sound is not all there is. There is a larger reality of spirit, of grace, of loving intentionality, of eternity. Our entry into that world is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And even if the full mystery of that gospel is beyond our minds to comprehend, it changes our lives forever by accepting that such a gospel exists—and exists for us.

The month of November has mundane doorways that invite us to walk through them and glimpse the life-changing, ever-near spiritual side of life. It may be what it feels like to carry a bag of groceries into church on Stewardship Sunday so that someone else may not be hungry. It may be putting together an Advent wreath of candles and imagining time from the perspective of the Christ who was, who is, and who is to come again. These are “thin places” in which eternity draws near and captures our spiritual imaginations once more.

The book review ended by noting that the marine snow and luminous wonders of the deep are mostly hidden from our view. As soon as you stop thinking about it, the deep can so easily vanish out of mind. The same can be said of faith and of God’s spirit that surrounds us each day. This day, take time to think about the wonder that is the spiritual door opened for us in Christ Jesus.

—Randy Bush