Anniversary Sunday - May 4th - 9:45 AM

A special worship service in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Community Presbyterian Church.

• All hymns will be from the 1895 hymnal, which was used by Community Presbyterian into the 1930's. Old favorites will include "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus," "Onward Christian Soldiers," and "In the Garden."
  
• Liturgy adapted from the 1940 prayer book as well as old bulletins from the archives of the Presbyterian Historical Society.
• Tribute to our longest active members – Dee Ramp, Warren Rasweiler, Kay Foernsler, Elaine Burns.
• Special anthem by the choir
  
• Congregational Photo - so wear your "Sunday Best"
• Special coffee hour
  

Thoughts on Rev. Jeremiah Wright

When soundbites of Jeremiah Wright's sermons first hit the national airwaves my first thought was that I was glad that nobody from Community Presbyterian was running for president. Enough soundbites from enough sermons could make any pastor seem to say anything.

I then realized that we in the white church were getting rare exposure to an aspect of our Christian tradition of which we are largely ignorant. We know no more about what goes on inside the churches of our African-American brothers and sisters than we know about what goes on in our local mosque. We also know little about what it is like to read the Bible from the bottom up, to see our struggles in the political struggles of the Exodus or in the persecution of both the Jewish and Christian communities by the Romans.

So while much of what Pastor Wright says is inflamatory to my ears, I have found that when I dig beneath the sound bites and read the entire transcripts of his sermons, I am forced to think, to see scripture from a different point of view and listen to voices far from my own. Underneath the soundbites is a sound, well thought out, theology - one different from my own and foreign to my way of thinking - but one that is a worthy of a respectful listen.

A good place to start is the transcript of Rev. Wright's recent National Press Club speech.
For more on Rev. Wright and his ministry, go to his church - Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Happy Anniversary CPC

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to celebrate CPC's 75th Anniversary on Friday afternoon. We ate cupcakes, sang "Happy Anniversary" and at Leonard's insistance took a picture. Here's the picture.

Post Your Joke Here

Why did the cannibal get sick after eating the missionary?
You can't keep a good man down!

The Origin of the Human Race

A little girl asked her mother: How did the human race appear? The mother answered: God made Adam and Eve and they had children and so was all mankind made.

Two days later she asks her father the same question. The father answered: Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race was developed.

The confused girl returns to her mother and says: Mom', how is it possible that you told me that the human race was created by God and Papa says they were developed from monkeys.
The mother answers: Well dear, it is very simple. I told you about the origin of my side of the family while your father told you about his side.

Got a joke? Click on comments and add it to the post!

Dr. Victor Rambo

This weekend Elisabeth and I are flying to Toledo, Ohio to celebrate Elisabeth's Grandfather, Dr. Victor Rambo's, induction into to Medical Missionary Hall of Fame.

From the flyleaf of Apostle of Sight: The story of Victor Rambo, surgeon to India's blind, by Dorothy Clark Wilson:

Dr. Rambo arrived in India in January, 1924, just months after completing his medical residency and marrying. When he came to India, Dr. Rambo found that millions lost their sight through infections brought on by lack of sanitation, by ignorance and by extreme poverty. He discovered that three-fourths of these blind are curable - and he set about tackling the Herculean task of restoring their sight with the vigor of a spiritual giant, the imagination of an impossible dreamer, and the courage of an incorrigible individualist.

Dr. Rambo inaugurated mobile eye clinics, mobile hospitals and he personally performed more than 40,000 cataract operations - in the process leaving a permanent imprint on the treatment of the blind in India.

The family knows a different side - the side that says saints are hard to live with - but we all stand amazed to witness what a person with a deep passion and commitment for Jesus Christ can achieve.

More:
The Story of Dr. Rambo and a blind elephant: From the Christian History Institute

Mungeli Hospital: The home base for much of Dr. Rambo's work and still a mission hospital of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in partnership with the Church of North India.