Memorial Service

During the prayer time at our recent worship services, we have been praying for Polly Cushman and the Cushman/Rice family.

Polly’s great grandson, Ezekiel, died on October 31 following a car accident. He was the son of Polly’s grandson, Isaiah Rice.

A memorial service will be held at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, December 1, 2024, at CHPC. Pastor Tami will be leading. All are invited.

Help Decorate the Church for Advent

Advent, a holy time to prepare our hearts for celebrating the birth of Jesus, begins on Sunday, December 1. Beth Yeager will begin decorating the sanctuary for Advent and Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving, and she would appreciate some help! If you can help decorate, please contact Beth at Elizabethcyeager@gmail.com or at 502-693-6159.

The windowsills in the sanctuary will be filled with symbols of Jesus' birth (manger scenes, candles, stars, angels, etc.) If you have an item that is special to you and reminds you of God's gift of Jesus to the world, please bring it to the church any time before or during Advent to place in one of the windowsills.

Highlights of the November 20, 2024, Session Meeting

Among other actions, the Session:



• Voted with regret and in Christ’s love to send a letter of transfer for Amy and Alan Pauw to Highland Presbyterian Church.
• Voted to call and then send an email and membership update form to a short list of people who have been inactive for several years asking them if they wish to be removed from the church rolls.
• Affirmed participation by the prayer group for the Middle East in a pilot program called “Friends of Palestinian Detainees” initiated by Friends of Sabeel North America.
• Accepted a recommendation by the Personnel Committee to renew Tami Recob’s contract as part-time stated supply pastor for another year and approved a process for seeking feedback from the congregation to help the Personnel Committee in its annual review of Tami and the rest of the staff. Members of CHPC are invited to send comments about strengths and areas for improvement for Pastor Tami and other staff to Marsha Berry at marshaberry@twc.com.
• Organized a task force to look at color options for painting the front door of the sanctuary building.
• Heard a report from Soni Castleberry and Polly Cushman, commissioners to the November 16 meeting of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery at La Grange Presbyterian Church.

An Advent Reading Theater

Sunday, December 15 and 22

9:30 a.m. -10:30 a.m.

Before church on Sundays December 15 and 22, Phil Lloyd-Sidle will host an “Adult Sunday School” group reading of the Nativity morality play by Charles Williams entitled “The House by the Stable.” It is a thought-provoking, humorous, and insightful play about the birth of Christ that can speak to us now. We will devote both Sundays to the reading of the play (different participants taking the roles) as well as discussion. Bonus: there will be coffee cake and coffee!

Note: Charles Williams was a friend and contemporary of T.S Eliot, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others in mid-20th century England.  He was most known as a novelist, but also published poetry, works of literary criticism, theology, drama, history, and biography.

It's Not Too Late to Pledge

Sunday, October 27, was Commitment Sunday at CHPC. Thank you to all who have already made a pledge to God and the church to give in 2025, in gratitude for God's abundant blessings. Your gifts of money and time enable our ministries to continue!

If you have not yet made your commitment, please prayerfully consider what you can give next year and bring our completed pledge card to church or mail it to the office. If you need a pledge card, please contact the church office or pick one up on the narthex on Sunday.

Prayer and Action for Middle East

If you are struggling with your feelings about all that is happening in the Middle East and yearn for shared information, prayers, and other possible responses, please join our small group. Here is our regular schedule:

• 1st Thursday each month, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., we meet in homes so location will vary. On December 5 we will be hosted by Carol and Don Mead. Please bring a snack to share. Their contact information is in the church directory. Please RSVP directly to them if you want to come or to Soni Castleberry at the email listed below. Ask Soni about carpooling too.

• Other Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., on Zoom. Feel free to join us on Zoom, in-person, or both. This group has enabled such support for one another. We would be grateful to have others to join us. Email Soni at soni.castleberry@gmail.com to get the Zoom link and to be added to the group email list for regular communication.

DID YOU KNOW?

What Presbyterians Believe About Advent:

Especially in the cultural and commercial season of Christmas, the spirit of Advent seems to strike a discordant tone—like hearing “Jingle Bells” in a minor key. Indeed, it is difficult for congregations to sustain “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” while “Here Comes Santa Claus” is spilling out of the nearby mall.

Fortunately, the design of the lectionary allows worship planners to get a head start on Advent in the final three weeks of the Christian year, after All Saints’ Day, which is observed on November 1. An emphasis on the promise of God’s new Creation and the future coming of the Lord gives us an opportunity to testify to the hope that is in us before the countdown of shopping days until Christmas begins. This feature of the lectionary is a remnant of earlier church traditions that observed a six- or seven-week season of Advent, a practice well worth reconsidering in our own time.

As we “prepare the way of the Lord,” may these ancient patterns of the Christian year reform and transform us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to live out our faith in Jesus—the Alpha and Omega.

Excerpt from https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/pt-1119-wpb/

December Birthdays

Please remember these wonderful folks in prayer and, if possible, reach out to them with a card, phone call, text, email or however you choose to honor them.

To double-check your listing, contact Soni Castleberry at soni.castleberry@gmail.com or phone or text at 502-417-6481.

December 3- Martha Neal Cooke

December 6- Doug Yeager

December 7 - Andrew Hartmans

December 9 - Julie Leake

December 12 - Nelly Ngandu

December 16 - Connie Foss

December 22 - Peter Kemmerle

December 30 - Leland Bell

December 31 - Phil Lloyd-Sidle