2012 Lenten Study - God's Abundant Table

Nassau Joint Ministries presents God's Abundant Table, a Lenten journey of food, community and worship across five stand-alone sessions. Topics include God's abundance, hospitality, the link between justice and food, spiritual food and giving thanks. Sessions begin with a simple dinner at 6:45 followed by a study and then closing with worship.

Dates & Locations:
February 28 - Massapequa
Presbyterian Community Church
150 Pittsburgh Street

March 6 - Garden City
The Presbyterian Church
91 Chester Avenue

March 13 - Malverne
Community Presbyterian Church
12 Nottingham Road

March 20 - Freeport
First Presbyterian Church
178 South Ocean Avenue

March 27 - Baldwin
First Presbyterian Church
717 Saint Luke's Place

Today's Souper Bowl Shopping Hint

Thanks to Don Neugebauer for catching the great deals on canned goods at Target. Campbells Condensed Soup four packs are $2.25 each. Goya tomato sauce is $.47 each. I was able to get 42 food items - soup, rice, beans and tomato sauce - for $25.

Souper Bowl Challenge

The Souper Bowl is a national collection for the hungry held on Super Bowl Sunday. Founded by the pastor of a Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, tens of thousands of churches, schools and youth organizations participate. For a full history go to the Souper Bowl web site.

The Souper Bowl Challenge began in 2011 when Middle Island Presbyterian Church challenged other congregations in the Presbytery of Long Island to a food collection contest during the month of February. The goal: collect as many food items as possible. The congregation that collected the most per member would win. That first year Malverne & Merrick accepted the challenge. Merrick won. In 2012 two other congregations: Yaphank and Bellmore have joined in the fun.

Current Souper Bowl standings as of February 19. Graph is of cans/member.

Congregational God Sightings 2011 & Prayers for 2012

Each year at Community Presbyterian's annual meeting we collect God Sightings from the previous year and prayer for the congregation in the year to come. Slightly condensed, these are this year's God Sightings and Prayers.

God Sightings for 2011
Our contributions to local missions
The way the congregation held together spiritually and financially through a year of economic distress
Church on the Road (2)
The three sages in the Christmas Pageant (1)
The energy brought by new members (4)
Craft Fair (4)
Lenten series on prayer
Advent/Christmas activities
Working together on the boiler (7)
Near balance of the budget
Our pastor (3)
Health of family & friends
Having God to guide my life
Thrift Shop ladies
Fellowship activities (2)
My baptism
Meeting and overcoming obstacles
Everyone who helps keep the congregation going
Use of Elders for preaching
Increased number of children in church
Growing partnerships with other congregations on youth ministry

Prayers for 2012
That we continue our good deeds and spread our love (2)
Growth of Little Blessings Preschool (4)
Membership growth(12)
Spiritual growth (2)
Meet the church budget (3)
Continue participation of young families
Continued blessing of the Lord's love
Growth in wisdom & generosity
Build up Sunday School (2)
Continue on as a congregation
Become a more vibrant, exciting pathway to a close relationship with God

Confirmation Art

Church history was the topic of last Tuesday's confirmation class. While Pastor Pam tried to cover 2,000 years in an hour and a half, the kids took to drawing the history on large sheets taped to the walls. Check out the video to see their unique take.

Allyce's paper.



Everyone Else's (Including Brittany)

Annual Meeting Sunday

CPC had its 98th annual meeting on Sunday and we shared reports, reviewed the church finances, elected officers and lifted up congregational priorities. We also collected congregational God sightings from 2011 and prayers for 2012. Those will be posted as soon as we get them typed up.

Got your own God sightings from 2011 and prayers for 2012? Leave them in the comments.

Need a copy of the Annual Report? Contact the church office.

Our congregational priorities for 2012 are:
- Increase number of congregation & community dinners
- Better care of our oldest members
- Continued focus on meeting the financial needs of the congregation.

Read Pastor Fritz's State of the Church address laying out the above priorities.

Congratulations and thank you to our new class of elders:
- Lorne Birch
- June Englese
- Shel Basch

And to our new class of Deacons:
- Dorothy Grace
- Lori Basch
- Shirley Yang
- Kayla Hospodka