Pastors’ Column

This Sunday, November 3, there will be a special commemoration of All Saints as we remember and give thanks to God for the lives of our church members who have entered the church triumphant. Those who have died within the year since last All Saints Sunday will be remembered by name during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper at both of our morning services. As we gather around the communion table to enjoy a foretaste of a heavenly banquet to come, we will recall the great crowd of witnesses who have gone on before.

It’s hard for me to overstate how much I will enjoy this upcoming Sunday, October 27. First, it’s the second birthday of our younger son, Ollie. He’s a joyful addition to our family, and we are leaning toward the idea of keeping him. It’s also Reformation Sunday, the day we celebrate our historic witness in working to reform the theology and practices of the medieval church. I will belt out one of my favorite hymns, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” with gusto. And finally it’s Dedication Sunday, the day we dedicate our pledges for the upcoming year as an act of Christian discipleship.

Inside each of us is a story. It’s the story of our lives, the tale of how we became who we are today, in all its splendor and gravity. By nature it’s a personal story, which is why passing it on to others can be one of the most intimate, meaningful gifts.

Within just a few weeks of starting here as your Associate Pastor for Mission in 2015, I was told that we would be visiting a mission partner in Mexico City that fall. In 2014, Urban Mosaic was awarded the Richard Shaull Grant for Mission in the amount of $30,000 to help them build up their innovative model of engaging in and empowering residents of the slum communities that have continued to grow outside of Mexico City.

This Sunday is our annual day of World Communion. Begun in 1933 by Hugh Thomson Kerr, pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, his idea was to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity—in which everyone might receive both inspiration and information, and above all, to know how important the Church of Jesus Christ is, and how each congregation is interconnected, one with another. By 1940, the idea spread to churches throughout the world.

Over the summer, you may have heard the news that the Presbyterian Church USA (our denomination) is the first in the nation to ordain a Minister of Word and Sacrament whose entire focus is gun violence prevention.