Worship

& Sunday School

10:00 a.m.

June Newsletter Deadline:

May 21st

Please send submissions via email

To see our worship up close at home, click one of the links below!

From the Pastor's Desk

As spring continues to spring and summer lurks not-so-quietly around the bend, I offer the lyrics of one of my favorite modern hymns for reflection as we make our way into the warmer months. May we all find God's Spirit speaking in our midst...

Speak, O Lord, as we come to you

to receive the food of your holy word.

Take your truth, plant it deep in us,

shape and fashion us in your likeness

that the light of Christ might be seen today

in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.

Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience, holy reverence, true humility.

Test our thoughts and our attitudes in the radiance of your purity.

Cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see your majestic love and authority.

Words of power that can never fail, let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds,

help us grasp the heights of your plans for us.

Truths unchanged from the dawn of time that will echo down through eternity.

And by grace we'll stand on your promises

and by faith we'll walk as you walk with us.

Speak, O Lord, 'til your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory.

Blessings,

Pastor Janie

Together in Worship

Holy Communion

This month we will celebrate the Lord's Supper on Sunday, May 7.

Did you know?

Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast... (C. Wesley)

Like everything else within Christianity, Pentecost continues to fulfill God's promises to the children of Israel. As the people were gathered for the festival of Shavuot (in Greek Pentecoste), Jesus's followers and those gathered around them found that miraculous events began to occur. Just as incredible things, circumstances beyond the imagination surrounded God's gift of the Law at Sinai, which is what Shavuot remembers, so too, the gift of God's abiding presence on earth arrives with remarkable spectacle.

So often we want to think of God being tied up with civilization and stabilizing influences. And yet, we know that God's Spirit was present at the creation of the earth, hovering and brooding over the waters as wind or breath - present and working with the chaos. At Babel, God drives the people from the city by causing pandemonium to erupt with an abundance of languages. In Egypt, God does not raise the people up to overthrow their overlords in place but draws them out into the wilderness in disorder to wander. Jesus spent his entire ministry stirring the pot and causing a ruckus. It should be no surprise, therefore, that God's Spirit arrives like a hurricane and fire and brings the sounds of Babel in full force.

God loves to show up in surprising ways and to remind us that it is so often through the most confusing or tumultuous or even the hardest of times that we grow the most. Mainly because we are most open to God's work within us.

As Pentecost approaches again, may we be open to God's work in and through us and throughout all the world.

Coming This Summer...

We're going back to the beginning. The very beginning. To the original soap opera that got this whole party started: the Book of Genesis. Join us in worship this summer to learn more about our matriarchs, patriarchs, and what our Biblical creation stories can teach us!

Learning Together

Special JAM Event!

Don't forget, THIS Sunday, May 7, we are going to take some thyme from our spring schedules to soil ourselves a bit, rather than just planting ourselves on the couch. Join us at 4:00 p.m. on the Walnut Lawn as we add and wet some plants in the front beds of FPCH so that come this summer we will won’t be wondering if anyone botany! Dinner to follow.

Summer Childcare - Nursery

Starting on Sunday, May 28, our Sunday School teachers will officially be off for the summer (getting that break they all deserve!). That means that we will need all hands on deck keeping the "nursery," which in the summertime includes all children Kindergarten and down through worship. It is true that everyone who works with our children need background checks and clearances, but we will be happy to assist you in attaining them. So, if you love kids, please consider helping us out one or two Sundays this summer. Sign-up sheets are next to the Church Office. Thank you!

Help our Youth Group!!!

Beginning THIS Sunday, May 7, our FPCH Youth Group will be raising funds for their Summer Mission Trip to Erie, PA with this year’s Choose Your Own Music Sale. That’s right, for the correct price you will be able to pick your favorite hymn for the upcoming special Sundays of the 2023-2024 liturgical year. Or, if there is a hymn or worship song you particularly hate, you can even cancel it, if the price is right. All proceeds will go to support the youth on their trip this summer. Get ready to pull out your music books & calendars to support our younglings!

VBS is COMING!

June 11-15, 2023

Change the world this year in Operation Restoration! At VBS 2023 our kids will learn how they can become menders of God's world in their everyday lives through storytelling, action-oriented activities, music, games, dancing, and so much more!

To register now, click the button below!!!

In Fellowship Together

First Nights @ the Park are back!

On the 2^nd and 4^th Sunday evenings of the month we will be out in the park with fun, food, and fellowship from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.! Bring your friends and join us as we enjoy some time together on the first night of the week with our First Pres family!

In May, we will be at Chimney Rocks Park in Hollidaysburg on Sunday, May 14 and at Highland Park in Altoona on Sunday, May 28.

Serving Together

Pentecost Offering

On Pentecost Sunday, May 28, we will participate in one of the four annual special offerings of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): The Pentecost Offering unites us in a church-wide effort to support young people and inspire them to share their faith, ideas, and unique gifts with the church and the world. A gift to the Pentecost Offering helps the church encourage, develop, and support its young people, and also address the needs of at-risk children. 40% of the Pentecost offering will be retained by our congregation to support at-risk youth in our community. The remaining 60% is used to support children-at-risk, youth, and young adults through ministries of the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Caring Together

Please hold in prayer members of our church family and friends who are in special need: Reggie Arford, the Atherton-Lingafelt Family, Marlene Aurandt, Ann & Laird Benton, Julia Benton, Nancy Buchanan, Eleanor Carson, Anne Forsht, James Hammonds, Rodger & Sally Hammond, Paula Heim, Ticky Hendricks, Bobbi Hill, Ron Kennedy, Norma McPhee, Betty Meyer, Tristan Meyers, Ellie Morgan, Binky Moxin, Eleanor Myers, Lisa & Pat Myers and Family, Sarah Ocker, Ray Overdorff, Pat Parnell, Ed Pratt, Jill Reigh, Aleta & Brad Reist, Tony Romano, June Slep, Doug Soisson, Carol Stultz, John & Diane Stultz, Bill & Deb Wandersee, Phil & Stacey Willis and Family, Bonnie Ward, Avery Marie Wineland.

Please also hold our troops in your prayers, including Trent Sipes, Kyle Gardner, Andrew Rosamilia, Cameron Sellers, and Harrison Heim, who are directly related to our congregation. Pray for our leaders and the leaders around the world as they are making decisions in the coming days. And please pray for all those who find themselves in harm's way that they may know God's presence and that they will have what they need.

Giving Together

What does FPCH mean to you?

The Presbyterian Church of Frankstown (changed to Hollidaysburg when the borough was formed) was organized out of a tent on a hillside at the head of Scotch Valley two hundred and thirty-five years ago in 1788. The Presbyterian Cemetery still lies on the hollowed ground of our first building and beyond. And the souls of the bodies that now inhabit that earth have seen every manner of life over the more than two centuries that have passed. So many of them were a part of the legacy that carried our church family forward and had a lasting impact on our community. The question now is how will we ensure Christ's ministry in this place will be able to continue another fifteen years? Fifty years? Two hundred years?