Ginter Park Presbyterian Church

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January 1, 2023 - Second Sunday of Christmas / New Year’s Day
11:00am Worship

Carla Pratt Keyes, preaching

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A New Lectionary for the New Year

     Beginning this Advent, GPPC will follow Wilda Gafney’s A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church in our Sunday worship. We’ve chosen “Year A” of the Women’s Lectionary, which features the Gospel of Matthew with John interwoven, as the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) does.
     GPPC has followed the RCL for many years. We also spent four years with the Narrative Lectionary. This year we’re eager to see, as Gafney does, what it looks like to tell the good news through the stories of women who are often on the margins of scripture and often set up to represent bad news. We’ll experience how a lectionary centering women’s stories, chosen with womanist and feminist commitments in mind, frames the presentation of the scriptures for proclamation and teaching.
     We will follow this lectionary until Easter, then evaluate our experience. Please pay close attention with us! You can read more about the Women’s Lectionary and Gafney’s translations of scripture here. Although not required, the book may be purchased here
 

Special Offerings

Gifts for Residents of Neighborhood Adult Homes

     We show love and support to friends in nearby Adult Homes in two tangible ways at Christmastime.

• We work with other area congregations to host a Christmas Party, for which GPPC assembles bags of simple gifts (snacks, lip balm, Kleenex, toothbrushes, etc.) for each guest. A box for donations is in the Narthex. (The Narthex is our Sanctuary entryway.)

• We interview residents of “The Palace” Adult Home (3502 Chamberlayne Ave) to see what they need or would like for Christmas, and we make their Christmas Lists available, so that you can do a little holiday shopping on their behalf. At the start of December, you will find a Christmas tree adorned with wish lists in the Narthex of GPPC.

 

Christmas Joy Offering

     Every year during the Advent and Christmas season, we invite you to contribute to one of four PCUSA Special Offerings: the Christmas Joy Offering. This offering supports leadership development for communities of color and provides support for Presbyterian church workers in times of need. You can learn more and also donate here.

GPPC’s Pastor’s Discretionary Fund

     On Christmas Eve, we’ll invite you to support GPPC’s Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. Many times neighbors and travelers come through our doors needing assistance. Often we refer them to organizations like ACTS (which we support financially), where trained case managers work with clients to assess needs, craft budgets, and offer help with rent, mortgage, and utilities. Occasionally though, we offer direct assistance: a night in a hotel, a bus ticket, a tank of gas, an electric bill, a gently-used computer, medicine, a meal. Your gift to the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund will enable us to keep making such gifts.