Senior High Mission Trip Fundraiser a success!

Thank you to everyone who made donations of volunteer time and items for our rummage sale this past Saturday.  We were able to raise money tp support scholarships for participants in our 2013 summer Senior High Mission Trip with the Appalachian Service Project as well as provide necessary items to those in need locally for a very discounted price!

If you wish to make further finanical contributions toward the mission trip you can support the bake sales on May 5th and June 9th after worship or simply desginate a financial gift toward the SH mission trip.

We have over 20 youth and several adults who will travel for a week to West Virginia to assist in home repairs for those in need this coming July.

HOLY WEEK EVENTS AT CPC

Please join us!

Thursday, March 28^th at 8 pm in the Sanctuary for our Maundy Thursday Worship including the Motet Choir, the Celebration of the Lord's Supper, worship leadership from Rev. Don Steele and several CPC members, as well as a service of Tenebrae candle lighting.

At 9:30 am on Good Friday, March 29^th all children and their families are invited to join Rev. Cynthia Betz-Bogoly in the annual Children's Walk with the many churches of Summit.

We begin in the CPC auditorium and then walk from church to church throughout town to hear, see, sing, and learn the story of Holy Week led by youth, musicians, and pastors from our neighboring churches.

We will walk from CPC to the Memorial Hall of St. Teresa of Avila Roman Catholic Church, then to the lawn of Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, from there we process to Christ Church’s Barnwell Hall, and then into the Sanctuary of Christ Church, from which we head to the Memorial Garden at St. John's Lutheran Church, and finally finish our walk in the sanctuary of St. John's Church.

At noon on Good Friday, March 29^th Rev. John Illian will lead worship in the chapel

On Easter morning, Sunday, March 31^st

·  Sunrise worship is at 6:30 am in the Memorial Garden with a message preached by Rev. Don Steele followed by a continental breakfast

·  9 am worship features the children flowering the cross in the sanctuary

·  11 am worship in the sanctuary

·  11 am children's crafts, snacks, and a movie in the auditorium

 

Palm Sunday Evening Worship

On the evening of Palm Sunday we gathered to praise God using our voices and our bodies.  We focused on finding our own answers  to the question "Is Jesus Who You Expected?" through exploring scripture and discussion with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We offered up our palms in praise through artistic expression reaching toward Jesus' glory just like those who gathered along the roadside reaching out in praise to Jesus as he triumphantly entered Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week.  We offered up our love and prayers through the creation of care cards for those in our faith community who are hurting.  We also gathered around the Lord's Table to celebrate Communion and later in the evening we shared around the dinner table in a delicious meal prepared by some of our church volunteers.


using paint this Palm Sunday to add our palms of praise to the image of the triumphant cross

Pastor Cynthia delivering the evening message on Phillipians 2:5-11

exciting news for our sister church!

La Iglesia Presbiteriana Nuevas Fronteras is being officially chartered by the
Presbytery of Elizabeth as a PC(USA) congregation on March 17th.

This is the congregation with partner with for the annual Sharing Tree providing gifts for needy families at Christmas as well as the monthly soup kitchen at which our senior high students and adult volunteers prepare and serve a hot meal for those in need in Plainfield.

CPC volunteers preparing dinner

 

CPC volunteers cooking!



serving line full of delicious free food preprared by CPC members!



church auditorium where dinner is served and free clothing distributed

baked apples!

Lenten Worship

Last night over 50 worshippers gathered to continue our Lenten Journey together through song, prayer, praise, fellowship, sharing personal reflections on scripture with each other, and the study of God's Word.  We brought our footsteps to the base of the cross because each life is a journey we must travel with a deep consciousness of God.  Every journey in our lives as Christians brings us to the foot of the cross.

SOUPER BOWL OF CARING FEEDS OUR NEIGHBORS IN NEED

On Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, our middle school and senior high students volunteered for the SOUPER BOWL OF CARING food drive at CPC spearheaded by our confirmation students.  We collected $256 and over 300 food items to support SHIP - Summit Helping Its People.  Also, over 20 volunteer youth and adults helped to advertise, collect, and sort the donations.

entering into Lent

            This past Sunday, our middle school students served dinner at SHIP to those in need in our community and orur senior high students gathered to make Valentine's Day cards as well as have a silly gift exchange.  These two ministry programs partnered with our morning worship services and Sunday School allowed our youth to live as disciples of our Lord.
            Now as we enter into the Lenten season today our congregation will gather in the chapel at 8 pm for our Ash Wednedsay worship serivce.

Ash Wednesday is a day of mourning for our sin and the sins of all humanity before God, a recognition of our mortality save for the grace of God, and a request that the Lord remember our creation and breathe new life into our burned-out, dusty lives once more.  It is Christ, not us by our own actions, who saves us from the ravages of sin, and it is upon Him that our hope is placed.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a time where we undergo a discipline that helps us become better disciples.  Traditional Ash Wednesday services include an imposition of ashes, which is the marking of an ashen cross on our foreheads with the pastor’s thumb dipped in a little olive oil mixed with the ashes of last year's Palm Sunday branches.  The mark of the cross upon the forehead, like the mark of Cain (Genesis 4), is God’s mark of grace upon us that we might not die even though we are obvious sinners.

This evening we will also be celebrating the Lord's Supper together as we begin our Lenten journey.