Christmas Joy Offering

One way we at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church aid church leaders around the country and the world is through participation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Christmas Joy Offering. Funds contributed to this offering provide support to: (1) current and retired church workers and their spouses with financial need; and (2) leadership development among the primarily students of color at three PC(USA)-related schools.

Support given in the past to these ministries has even aided folks in our congregation. The late Mary Love shared how an Assistance Grant financed by the Joy Offering tided her over financially during a difficult time. Lemuel Garcia Arroyo, who worshiped with us until he was transferred back to Texas, shared how he learned and grew as a student at one of the schools supported by the offering, the Presbyterian Pan American School in Kingsville, Texas.

Advent and Christmas is a time of peace, hope, joy, and love—a perfect time to help church leaders by giving generously to the Christmas Joy Offering. You may do so by writing Christmas Joy Offering on the memo line of your check placed in the offering plate at Sunday worship, December 22, or by going to the CHPC website and clicking into Online Giving and then on Christmas Joy Offering. Give joyfully!

Help Decorate the Church for Advent

Advent, a holy time to prepare our hearts for celebrating the birth of Jesus, began on Sunday, December 1.

The windowsills in the sanctuary are beginning to 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 during Advent to place in one of the windowsills.

Update

An Advent Reading Theater

Sunday, December 22

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

Due to Phil testing positive for Covid, this Sunday's Advent Reading Theatre has been postponed until next Sunday, December 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.

Citywide Summit on Gun Violence December 16

The Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods and Louisville Metro’s Department of Public Health and Wellness are co-hosting a "Citywide Summit: Mobilizing Louisville's Gun Violence Reduction Ecosystem" on Monday, December 16, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., at the Louisville Marriot East, 1903 Embassy Square.

You can RSVP for the summit You can RSVP for the summit here.

Soni Castleberry has registered and would welcome other CHPCers to join her. She is happy to drive up to four other folks. Please contact her at soni.castleberry@gmail.com if you would like to ride together.

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. Updates on locations will be posted in upcoming Westminster Weekly.

• 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 Mary (continued)

The idea that Mary is “God-bearer” (theotokos, in Greek) was affirmed by the church in 451, at the Council of Chalcedon. This is the Council that formulated the Christology we still confess today: that Jesus Christ is “fully human and fully divine.” To confess that the young woman named Mary is the bearer of God is consistent with this affirmation. Born to a human woman, Jesus Christ is as fully humanas every baby ever born. His birth to a human woman who is uniquely God-bearer reminds us that this human son is also fully divine.

Recognizing Mary as God-bearer leads us to ask questions about the character of our relationship to God. What does it mean to say that Mary—and we—are the bearers of God?

As the story of Mary shows us, to recognize the sovereign activity of God does not mean we need to minimize or deny our own participation in the divine work. To say that God is in control does not mean that God contributes 100 percent and we contribute nothing. On the contrary, the story of Mary shows us that God’s work includes us—not as worker bees who are brought on the scene to bring to fruition the druthers of the master, but as God’s creative partners in the ministry of reconciliation. The work associated with the coming of the Kingdom is all God’s, and also ours.

The idea that human beings are called to creative partnership with God is bound to make us uncomfortable. Even if we acknowledge Mary as “God-bearer,” it may be difficult for us to believe that we, like her, play integral roles in the coming of God’s Kingdom. There are good reasons to be skeptical that we have the capacity to “bear God.”

Excerpt from an article by Cynthia L. Rigby published in the April 2004 issue of Presbyterians Today.

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