We will worship online this Sunday, March 7th. We will broadcast via Facebook live on our church Facebook page located here: https://www.facebook.com/cmpcusa. The live stream will begin around 10:15 am and the service will begin at 10:30 am. Rev. Scott Hoffman will lead us in worship. The sermon will be "Cleaning House". The scripture readings are Exodus 20: 1-17 and John 2: 13-22. The Word in Music will be Peter’s Denial and Pilate's Dream, arr. J. Marinelli, solos by Joe Marineli.
Anyone with an internet connection can access CMPC's live and recorded worship services (and other Facebook content). You do not need to have a Facebook account to access our worship services. Click on the link on our main website (www.cmpcusa.org) to access our public Facebook page for worship (or see other inspirational posts). Bulletins for all the services are posted here. If you are having difficulty getting to the content, please contact Kathleen (office@cmpcusa.org).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Communion Sunday
This Sunday is Communion Sunday. How to prepare:
The sacrament of Communion is meant to be accessible to all; remember bread and wine were on the Passover table and available to everyone regardless of status. Our time of celebrating Holy Communion is to be intentional about remembering God’s love and grace for us. As such, we encourage you to take time to prepare at home (just like the Elders and Deacons at church prepare for us when we celebrate Communion at church!) Here are ways you should prepare the table at home:
Create a worship space.
Consider what cup and plate is meaningful to hold the elements.
Gather the bread and the juice/wine ahead of time. Don’t have grape juice or wine? Substitute what you think appropriately embodies God’s grace.
Be sure to have all of this prepared before we begin worship on Sunday morning. If you are unable to join us for worship live you are certainly permitted to observe the sacrament whenever you “tune in” to the recording. However, we do highly encourage everyone to make every attempt to partake of the sacrament during the livestream Sunday morning so as to more fully participate in the communal aspect of the Lord’s Supper.
“See” you Sunday morning!
End Of Life Series 3
The Care and Wellness Team’s sponsored End of Life Series will continue on Sunday, March 14th at 12:00, with the third presentation of its four-part series. Pastor Scott will cover what is involved in planning a funeral or memorial service.
Please note that all talks will be recorded for the congregation to utilize as a reference.
To register for this talk, please click here so that we may share the Zoom link and materials.
Holy Week at CMPC
We may not be able to gather together in the sanctuary or fellowship hall during Holy Week this year, but that isn’t going to stop us from finding meaningful ways to connect to one another while worshipping God. Please join us for any or all of the activities we are offering during Holy Week in 2021.
Palm Sunday
This year we are offering honest-to-goodness palms for anyone who would like them—just like old times! Palm distribution will take place in the church parking lot on Saturday, March 27 (exact time TBD) so that worshippers can have real palm fronds to wave as we sing and chant our Hosannas in virtual worship on Sunday, March 28th. If you would prefer to make your own palms to wave feel free to print out and color the palm fronds found here and have them at the ready on Palm Sunday.
Maundy Thursday
It has been too long since we last enjoyed a meal together as a church family—and Maundy Thursday is one of our favorite meals to share each year. So, this year the Worship and Music committee is offering meal pick-up at the church during the afternoon of Thursday, April 1 (exact time TBD). The meal will be simple as always—soup and bread—and will be accompanied by communion elements. Then, we will gather virtually (via zoom) in the evening to share the meal together (utilizing breakout rooms to allow for more intimate and manageable conversation) and then worship—including the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Sign-ups will be required to ensure enough food for everyone. Mark your calendars now and stay tuned for more details. (P.S—everyone is welcome to participate and there is no requirement to partake of the food and/or communion supplies distributed that day—you can certainly provide your own!)
Good Friday
Join us on the “front lawn” of the church building (facing Shaker Drive, by the new upper parking lot) on Friday evening April 2 at 8:00 pm for a special Tenebrae service—a service of light and darkness—as we mark the solemn holy day on which the Prince of Glory died. This is a “bring your own chair” event. If the weather does not permit for an outdoor service the service will be moved to a live broadcast on Facebook Live.
Easter Sunday Sunrise Service
Bright and early on Easter Sunday morning we will gather to worship the Risen Son as the sun rises. Weather permitting we will worship outdoors in the beauty of God’s creation beginning at 6:45 a.m. All are welcome to join in this simple and powerful worship experience. In the event of inclement weather the service will be cancelled. Come dressed for the weather. We hope to see you there!
Easter Worship
Come one, come all to worship on Easter Sunday morning when we will pull out all the stops to bring our worship to the Risen Lord! Come, add your voice to the millions celebrating around the world to mark the blessed day as we unite our voices in song: Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia! We will worship virtually (on Facebook Live) at 10:30 am.
CARE Group Ministry
CMPC has been incredibly blessed by the addition of our CARE Group ministry that launched a few months before the pandemic began. Over the past year our CARE Group leaders have done a wonderful job reaching out to our members and connecting those in need with those who could help. We are grateful to those who have made this important ministry possible—especially out CARE Group ministry coordinators Cindy Pettit, Markita Garner, and Sandi Chapasko. If you receive a phone call or email from one of our CARE Group leaders we strongly encourage you to reply even if just to acknowledge that you received the message. If you are a member of CMPC and have not been contacted at any time in the last year by one of the CARE Group leaders please contact the church office at office@cmpcusa.org. It may be that we do not have the proper contact information for you or that there was an unintentional oversight. Thank you!
CMPC Bridge
CMPC will be using a new system for managing contributions. The CMPC Bridge is a system we have had for many years; we are just now activating the financial management component. There are many new capabilities that Bridge will make available for us, including online pledging, reviewing your contributions any time, and emailed statements. Thank you for your support of the church financially. We believe the new system will be beneficial to the church as well as the users. You can find details in the new blog entry here.
Lent at Home in Community
Lent at Home in Community—weekly activities for people of all ages—includes six sessions using Psalm passages for the six weeks of Lent. These passages will explore sessions titled Seeing, Tasting, Hearing, Touching, Smelling, and Giving. Sessions can be done by individuals or with others in the same home. You may do one, some, or all sessions. Choose your own Lent at Home day!
You can access this week’s Lent at Home session by clicking here:
Weekly Prayer Time
All are invited to join Pastor Scott for a weekly virtual prayer time on Thursdays at noon. These prayer gatherings will take place via zoom and anyone with an internet connection and/or phone can join. We will review the prayer chain requests as well as take new requests in the meeting. The next weekly virtual prayer time will take place on Thursday, March 11th. Please use the link below to join.
Bible Basics Has Returned
Pastor Hoffman has resumed the weekly Bible Basics class. The class meets each Tuesday at 11:00 am on Zoom. If you would like to join the class please email Pastor Hoffman (pastor.hoffman@cmpcusa.org) for the meeting link. All are welcome to attend!
Is That You?
Friends, we know that many who do not have a Facebook account are joining us for Sunday morning worship, but we do not know who. If you are amongst those who join us each Sunday or even occasionally, but do not have a Facebook account please email Pastor Scott at pastor.hoffman@cmpcusa.org just to let us know you’re there. We miss you and would love to know if you’re “with” us for our virtual worship.
Investing in Our Future
In addition to the tremendous support from the congregation through our capital campaigns, the renovation and construction work for our Ministry Expansion is being financed by borrowing from the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program (PILP). In order to qualify for the best interest rate, we need to have $300,000 invested in the PILP program by members and friends of CMPC. Many of our members and friends are already participating, but our investment total recently fell below the $300,000 minimum. If you have investments that you could transfer to PILP, or if you could add to your existing PILP investment, it would greatly benefit CMPC by keeping our interest rate low. PILP offers term notes (like CDs) and money market type accounts. If you have a self-directed IRA, those funds can be invested in PILP as well. For more information about how to invest and the benefits of investing with PILP, please visit their website at https://pilp.pcusa.org/. If you would like to speak to someone who has already invested please contact Bob Ashman (rta3512@gmail.com) and he will be happy to connect you with someone. Thank you for your continued support.
Email Scam
From time to time we have been notified that church members have received suspicious emails appearing as though they are from Pastor Scott often asking for a reply or even for some sort of financial contribution. When we get word that this is happening we try to act as quicky as possible to let everyone know not to reply and certainly not to send any money or gift cards. Though this has not happened for a few weeks it is likely to happen again at some point. A few things to know before the next email is sent out:
Pastor Scott will never ask for money or gift cards through email
Pastor Scott’s email address is pastor.hoffman@cmpcusa.org. If you receive an email claiming to be from him, but showing any other email address (including variations of his actual email) delete the message immediately. In the past suspicious emails claiming to be from Pastor Scott have had email addresses that look like his, but are clearly not upon further inspection.
If you should receive an email and you are not sure if it is from Pastor Scott or not please do not reply to that email. Simply send a new email to him and ask if the previous email was indeed from him.
Church Assistance
We have heard from a few of our members that there are brothers and sisters in our church family in need during these difficult times. If you are in need (spiritual, emotional, financial, etc.) please feel free to contact Kathleen (410-997-8011 or office@cmpcusa.org) and rest assured any conversations and/or requests will be kept confidential.
Conversely, if you have a desire to assist those in need please know we always welcome donations to our Crisis Intervention Fund—which we use to assist people facing financial difficulties. Donations to the fund can be made by writing “Crisis Intervention” in the memo line of a check and mailing it in or by choosing “crisis intervention” from the dropdown menu in our online giving form located at https://cmpcusa.org/contribute/ .
