Come chop, slice, dice, and stir! We need you to help make soups to share with hungry neighbors. We’ll cook up several batches together on Saturday 3/16 and freeze them to share on Sundays throughout the Spring. No special skills required. We’ve got the recipes and ingredients, you bring the love! See you there at noon, or whenever you can make it!
Lent: Whole Church Bible Study
This year for Lent, we’re trying something new! What if we all spend the entire season studying and reading and praying and pondering on the same text? What if we read or pray it every day? What if we meditate on it? Or if we memorize it? Or if we print it out and put it on our fridge, on bookmark it in our computer, or write it in our own handwriting in our journal? What might we hear, see, or notice? What if it helps us hear, see, or notice something in our Sunday morning readings? What if we all get sick of it and never want to read another psalm ever again? I suppose we won’t know until we try.
So, this year, we’re all going to spend Lent with Psalm 139. The really, really good bits, and the hard parts too. You’re invited to read it daily. To spend some quality time and really dig in, or to rush through it and see what God can do with that, too. Throughout the season, we’ll find some ways to share what we’re hearing and learning and noticing, and we’ll continue to share resources around Psalm 139 as we dig deeper. But for now, for this season of Lent, let’s just read, one psalm, all together.
Psalm 139
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Annual Meeting - 2/11
The Session of Church of the Pilgrims has called a Congregational Meeting, our Annual Meeting, for Sunday, February 11th at 12pm. We'll present the Annual Report and share the 2024 Budget and celebrate with delicious treats, too! Since we're approaching Ash Wednesday (next week) we thought this meeting should have a bit of a Mardi Gras theme! So, come for the annual report, but stay for the king cake!
Click here to read the Annual Report.
Winter Book Study - 2/28
Grab you best lighting and a warm and cozy drink and get ready to snuggle up with a good, political, religious, non-fiction read! We're going to read Kristin Kobes Du Mez's bestseller, Jesus and John Wayne.
We're going to meet at church to discuss as we go-
Wed. 1/24 6pm - Chapters 1-5
Wed. 2/7 6pm - Chapters 6-10
Wed. 2/28 6pm - Chapters 11-16- CANCELED!
RESCHEDULED: Monday 3/25 at 6pm - Chapters 11-16
Oh, and some of our readers are going to bring a simple soup meal to share. Dinner and discussion, what could be better?
So go get your copy from the library, download the audio book, or head to your favorite local bookstore and pick up a copy and get reading!
Cuba Supply Drive - now through 2/11
We're getting ready to go back to Cuba! Six Pilgrims will be traveling with others from New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and Immanuel Presbyterian Church to visit Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana-Reformada de la Habana (First Havana) next month!
Our Cuban friends have been living in incredibly difficult conditions, with extreme limits on basics like food, soap, and medicine. We have the opportunity to share our abundance with the First Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Havana. This year there is a shopping list through MyRegistry. All goods will be shipped directly to NYAPC regardless of where they are purchased. Similar to last year, the biggest need is for powdered milk and toilet paper. There are also options for over the counter medicines and toiletries for the elderly.
If you prefer to purchase outside of MyRegistry you can bring your donations here to Pilgrims and leave them with Erin. Funds for goods or airline baggage fees can be donated on MyRegistry. Along with the supplies we are soliciting used suitcases (that won't be returned) for trip participants to hand-carry all the donations on our flight to Havana.
Your supply drive donations will be used to stock First Havana’s medical clinic and “store,” all provided at no charge to church members and the local community. Please help us bring these items to our Cuban friends by buying supplies or making donations.
If you have any questions, please contact Pastor Erin or Mitch Fulton. Thank you!
Lent Worship Planning Meeting - now 1/31
Do you love worship? Do you love parts of worship?
Do you want to come to church on Wednesday 1/31 at 6:00pm (new date!) to talk about worship with some other folks who love talking about worship? We’ll look at the readings for Lent and share ideas and dreams and make a plan for the season together.
Come be a part of making our worship together happen!
Issues Among Us - Jan 14
Let's make it a whole day of church fun! After worship, after the congregational meeting, we will go as a group over to the MLK Library for a screening and panel discussion with the filmmakers of "The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks."
Here's how the library explains the movie and the event: The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks, based on the bestselling biography by Jeanne Theoharis and executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien, corrects the record on Rosa Parks’ often-overlooked accomplishments and the erasure of her radical politics. In short, what we are taught in school about Rosa Parks is a mere fraction of the full story about who she truly was.
Doors open at 1 p.m. and the screening will begin at 1:30 p.m.
Directors Yoruba Richen and Johanna Hamilton expertly weave together interviews from academics and activists such as Bryan Stevenson, Patrisse Cullors and Ericka Huggins, along with personal stories from her family, and remarkable footage of Mrs. Parks herself, to dispel myths and to illuminate her decades-worth of extensive organizing, strategizing, and activism in the pursuit of Black liberation. Lisa Gay Hamilton lends her talent in the documentary as the voice of Mrs. Rosa Parks.
Congregational Meeting - Jan 14
The Session of Church of the Pilgrims has called a Congregational Meeting for Sunday, January 14, 2024 after worship (approximately 12 noon) to elect an elder to serve on session, to make changes to the bylaws, and to vote on the pastor's terms of call. You are invited to participate in person or on zoom. The detailed agenda and documents for your review were shared in the 1/10 Updates and Invitations email.