Advent Services

We’ll be holding four Advent Services in the coming Days. This coming Sunday is our annual Christmas cantata, “The Thrill of Hope”.

On Tuesday, December 20th at 6:30pm we’ll be holding our Blue Christmas Service. A Blue Christmas worship service provides the opportunity for us to gather to carve out a time of quiet reflection, to honor the emotions of the season that are not so joyful, and to be reminded that we are not alone in this season.

Join us for our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at 5:30pm. Christmas Morning we’ll be holding our regular Sunday worship service at 11am. We hope you join us for all these wonderful services! And don’t forget to bring a friend!

Christmas Joy & So Much More

Samual Polanco is no stranger to the power of walls.

Samual, a 2022 graduate of the Menaul School — a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related, grades 6–12 college preparatory school in Albuquerque, New Mexico — has known and seen walls, both literal and figurative, that separated him and others throughout his life. Now, he credits his experience at Menaul as being instrumental in breaking down life’s many barriers.

His education at Menaul was made possible, in part, by gifts to the PC(USA)’s Christmas Joy Offering, which helps provide scholarships to students. A Presbyterian tradition since the 1930s, the annual offering distributes gifts equally to the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions and to Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color. Menaul’s student body is currently represented by 21 different countries.

“When I first came to Menaul, I was able to explore the ideas I wanted to explore, learn what I wanted to learn and just be myself. And that’s what Menaul has done for all of us. We can just be ourselves here,” Samual said.

This past April, the 35 members of the class of 2022, including Samual, became student volunteers through Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian border ministry whose mission is to build relationships and understanding across borders. The students spent five days on the U.S.-Mexico border for the school’s traditional “mission week.”

John Sitler, who teaches Upper School religious studies at Menaul praised Samual and his friends, Michael Hedenberg and Abi Nyase, as among their class’s top leaders. They were all profoundly moved by what they saw and heard during mission week, especially walking the Migrant Trail to the border wall.

“It may sound like a cliché, but one thing the students got out of the experience of seeing this ‘scar’ on the earth is that the most dangerous walls are the walls in our mind,” John said. Menaul teaches breaking down walls toward our common humanity to be like Jesus, who broke down dividing walls and welcomed everyone.

John continued, “We teach that faith is to be lived out in the world. Because so many young people today see the church as building walls to isolate and separate, we at Menaul are all about opening doors to the richness of God’s Creation.”

Abi said, “To support Menaul is to support kids who are going to be the future leaders of our country.” Our gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering take down walls, break barriers, and build potential and future leaders of the Church. Please give what you can; for when we all do a little, it adds up to a lot. You can give through our congregation during the Christmas Eve Service, by credit card online at pcusa.org/christmasjoy, or you can text CHRISTMASJOY to 91999

The Perfect Gift

In the story of God, as we tell it, there is a barrier that exists between the Created world and its Creator. A wall. Sin, we say, separates us from God, and separation from God is unbearable.

And our story goes on to say that God, seeing that we had no hope in ourselves of getting over, or through or around what separates us, offered us a gift in Jesus Christ who opens a door — a door we could not open ourselves.

What a gift!

But the story goes on to say that Jesus is the perfect gift; not only opening a door but coming through it. Our story says God is with us.

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Christmas Schedule

christmas-cantata2018 This Sunday is our annual Christmas Cantata. In The Fullness of Time will be presented at 11am. The choir looks forward to performing this for everyone! Our Annual Christmas Eve Candle Light Service will take place at 3:30pm on Dec. 24th. It will be a lessons and Carols service. We hope you take the time during this holiday season to join us to celebrate Christ’s Birth.

 

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The Perfect Gift

cjo-2018-387x500In the lead up to Christmas, many of us spend time in search of the perfect gift — the gift that communicates to friends and family how much we know and love them. We search our memories for indications of what gift might cause the faces of our loved ones to light up on Christmas morning. We scour the stores and shops, hoping to come across the thing that will communicate a depth that our words cannot.

For those of us gathered together in Advent expectation, we know that the only perfect gift ever given was the one we received in Jesus Christ. At the Incarnation, we celebrate God who came to dwell among us, bringing light into darkness, and reconciliation to God and to one another. A perfect gift from a gracious God. Although we cannot give the perfect gift, we can give generously, knowing, as the New Testament letter of James says, “every generous act of giving … is from above.” And, as important as gifts to loved ones are, the Church rejoices and gives in special ways, drawing us back, again and again, to a manger scene with bowed shepherds and joyous angels, and the truth of God’s perfect gift to us.

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Christmas Services

25438678_10156069661301289_5072794156410008848_oCentral Presbyterian Church will be having several Christmas services this weekend to celebrate the season. Tonight is our first ever Blue Christmas service. If you’ve lost someone, or are feeling blue, this service of remembrance and hope is for you. On Christmas Eve we will be having our Christmas Cantata “O Come Let Us Adore Him” at 11am in the sanctuary. That afternoon we’ll be having our traditional candlelight service at 5:30pm. We hope to see everyone this weekend! Merry Christmas!

Keeping the promise of the Advent season

CJOThe following message is brought to you by the Presbyterian Mission Agency…

During this Advent season, we reflect on the Influence a promise can have on our lives. God promised each of us salvation, and kept that promise with the birth of Jesus. That promise sustains and uplifts us, during good times and challenging ones.

When we understand this deeper meaning of a promise, we also understand each of us has a special responsibility to make and keep faithful promises of our own. The Christmas Joy Offering is one way to do that. Each gift received equally supports two vital promises for our faith. Continue reading