This coming Sunday, December 9, is the joyful culmination of a long and exciting visioning process. During worship we will dedicate our pledges to This Time, This Place: The Campaign for Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. Each family unit or individual will be invited to complete a commitment card and place it in the offering plates as they are passed. Even if you have already made your campaign pledge, we ask that you complete the card so that together all of our gifts can be lifted in prayer and dedicated to the glory of God.

My brother was home from college and I was a busy high school student. Neither of us felt any guilt when we refused to help our parents decorate for Christmas. We didn’t have the time or the patience to haul boxes from the basement, test bundles of tree lights, unwrap ornaments, or help move furniture. Maneuvering around the boxes stacked in the living room, we escaped for the afternoon. I remember coming home, happy to see the lights flickering in the windows, the large evergreen wreath on the door, and a sense that the season had truly arrived. Entering the house, I realized my parents had made a unique choice in decorating that year. In years past, my brother and I had intentionally ignored the childhood art projects and old family ornaments that had been carefully preserved in pieces of old newspaper.

Presbyterians love education. From the very beginning in Geneva and in Scotland, Presbyterians were working to assure that every member of their community could read and understand the word of God.

That early interest in education has only grown in our 500-year history. Presbyterians were quick to establish universities, seminaries, and schools around the world. They started Sunday Schools to help educate children and adults working in mills. Our love of education was never limited to scripture and the church, but toward the formation of the whole child: body, mind and spirit.

July seems to be a good time to get away. I say that because it feels like half of our congregation is “down the shore,” and I’m currently wandering the halls of our office suite in the Ministries Center wondering where everyone is who is supposed to work here. 

In this Sunday’s 10:00 a.m. worship service we will commission our Middle School Mission Team to New York City (July 8-12) and our High School Mission Team to Mexico City (July 22-28). I am reminded of a brief prayer by John Phillip Newell as our teams prepare to disembark:

Every two years Presbyterian Elders and Pastors, youth, young adults, volunteers, activists and lay people gather for our denomination’s General Assembly. This year’s assembly took place last week in St. Louis, Missouri, as the church gathered to discuss issues related to fossil fuels, immigration, mission partners living and working all over the world, ongoing issues in Israel and Palestine, issues of inclusion and justice across our nation, Christian education and evangelism, and even restructuring our national church and local churches to put their best foot forward for the future.