Feed My Spirit

Spirituality has to do with having a sense of peace and purpose. It also relates to the process of developing beliefs around the meaning of life and connection with others.
Religion, on the other hand, is a specific set of organized beliefs and practices, usually shared by a community or group.
“Spiritual but not religious” is a popular phrase used to self-identify a life-stance of spirituality that rejects organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth.

When thinking about this “spiritual but not religious” trend, I think often of St. Augustine (4th century bishop and theologian) who said: 

“many whom God has, the Church does not have; and many whom the Church has, God does not have.”

Read more...

What's New

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

While many things remain unchanged (God’s love, for example), there is always something new happening at PUCC. The consistory approved a new funeral policy so that (hopefully) there will be less confusion in the future when funerals and/or funeral lunches are held at the church. Copies are posted in the Narthex/Front Lobby – feel free to take one. The (old) Miller Hall Rental application is also posted on the same bulletin board, just in case you need a copy. The leaders of the congregation are working to organize all our policies into a notebook in the church office. This notebook will hopefully help us keep the revolving door of church leadership moving – letting those who have served for a long time take a break or retire and welcoming in new leaders.

Our consistory president, Donna Falk has been super-busy with both keeping us organized and getting the creative juices flowing with ideas to serve the community. At a recent combined confirmation/consistory meeting she invited the confirmands to share ideas of things we can do to serve the community and/or for worship. A community kick-ball game was one idea floated. How about outdoor movie night? Do you have any ideas?

Read more...

Junior Church

Sometimes we wonder – can we, a small church with a big heart do the kind of ministry we want with our children and youth? Well thanks in large part to the gifts of one of our resident teachers, Christine Henry, we were able to say “Yes!” Christine led our Junior Church on the second Sunday of the month during worship. Miller Fellowship hall has been decorated as the children learned more about “The Church” and worship. We thank Christine and her helpers for leading. We thank the parents for bringing out the children. And we thank those great kids for sharing what they learned with the rest of us.

Membership

When we join the church, we promise “to participate in the life and mission of this family of God’s people, sharing regularly in the worship of God and enlisting in the work of this local church as it serves this community and the world."
The church charter requires that members who (are able and) have not attended worship, communed, or contributed to its support for a year, be placed on conditional status. If after another year the relationship remains unchanged, the name may be dropped by a vote of consistory.

It has been a number of years since consistory has been comfortable voting any names off of membership, out of the desire to remain in relationship with all who have been a part of this church family. Unfortunately, as a result, the number of active members and those receiving spiritual nurture in the congregation is extremely inaccurate. As we approach the day when the search committee must affix a salary (based on an accurate membership number, among other factors) to the job description for the new settled pastor, we must find a way to resolve this inaccuracy.

Read more...

PAPER RECYCLING

It's here!  We now have our own Paper Recycling bin conveniently located in the middle of our parking lot.  Acceptable items are newspapers, bagged shredded documents, magazines, and all sorts of other paper.  Please do not bring cardboard or phone books.  You can bring it along to church on Sunday and someone will help you unload it; or, you can drop it off any time during the week when you are doing errands.  Tell all your friends and neighbors, too!  It is a great way to be kind to Mother Earth while raising some extra funds for the church.