November 2022
From The Pastor’s Desk
The church liturgical year begins each year with the first Sunday in Advent. This year that will be the Sunday after Thanksgiving, November 27. At this time of year, we normally think of preparing for winter. The leaves change their color and this year we have seen a magnificent display on the hillsides of western Pennsylvania. The flowers that we have enjoyed all summer are preparing to hibernate for the winter. We think of the approach of cold weather and snow. Outdoors, God’s creation is preparing to weather the winter so that in the spring new shoots of green will start to appear.
At The Presbyterian Church of Plum Creek, we have been preparing for the fall and winter in a different way. This past spring, we hired a new part-time Director of Christian Formation. Carolyn Leah has been busy with the Christian Formation team to inject new life into our education programs for the youth in the Plum area. We had a very successful summer camp that included partnering with the youth from Beulah Presbyterian Church. Carolyn has been busy making plans for the new church year, September through May, that includes a makeover of one of our education rooms into a youth worship room. The youth are invited to be in worship through the Children’s Message and then go to the youth worship room where they are encouraged to wonder about and express their interpretation of the scripture for that day’s worship. On Sunday, October 16, we dedicated the worship room and the tools that our youth and their leaders will use to explore God’s word to them. For that service the youth, led by Carolyn Leah, lead us in worship with an introit played on handbells, and by serving as the liturgist for the full worship service. On that Sunday, I realized how blessed we are to have the youth and their leadership who are willing to participate with us in worship.
This month after we celebrated Worldwide Communion on October second, we sent out two teams of two people each to celebrate home communion with members of the church who are not able to worship with us. Two ruling elders visited two members of the congregation fully expecting to provide them a connection back to our church and provide the opportunity to participate in personal worship and communion. The feedback that I received from their visit is that the home communion experience resulted in a mutual sense of connection and excitement. I went with another ruling elder to visit with a member who is in a personal care facility and is suffering from dementia. When we arrived at the facility we were greeted by her son and were able to celebrate communion with the member and her son. You never know how far your visit will reach until and unless you are willing to go. All our visits were well received and very much appreciated, by both those being visited and those making the visits! If you have ever served as a Deacon or as a ruling elder (on session), you can be part of our outreach to members who are not able to celebrate communion with us. If you are willing to participate in this very meaningful ministry, please contact me. It is my hope that we can build home communion teams that can rotate their service so that no one is serving every month and we are able to increase the circle of home bound members and supporters that we are able to visit.
These two ministries, the youth worship experience, and celebration of home communion is evidence to me that while the fall may mean the flowers and plants that we have enjoyed in our yards and gardens are dying to prepare for the winter season, there are shoots of new green growth here at The Presbyterian Church of Plum Creek!
Updating the status of the electrical work from last month. The session approved a bid from Hedeen Electric to replace and improve lighting in the parking lots. When that work is complete, we will continue to work with Hedeen Electric to address other improvements to the building's lighting and electrical systems.
To God be the Glory!
Pastor Frank Hancock
Email: pastor@plumcreekpc.com
Office: (412) 793-4525
Cell Phone: (412) 860-3719 – Please feel free to leave a message
