Presbyterian Visitor
March 1, 2026
Last month, the youth of our church participated in the annual Souper Bowl of Caring. Thanks to everyone’s support we were able to collect over 200 non-perishable foods for our local food pantry. This event encourages our youth to get involved with our mission work.
Along with the Souper Bowl of Caring, our annual Congregational Meeting was held during worship service. Due to an issue with the copier, we were unable to print enough color copies of the Annual Report for everyone. We are happy to report that the issue with the copier has been resolved. If you would like a color copy of the Annual Report, please let the church office know and one will be printed for you.
Due to an issue with the printer, the church office was unable to print all the Annual Reports in color. We are happy to report that the issue with the printer has been resolved. If you would like a color copy of the Annual Report, please let the church office know and one will be printed for you.
The Session will be meeting on Wednesday, March 4th at 5:30 p.m.
Our church will be hosting Soup on Saturday on February 28th. Volunteers are still needed to work. This mission is a wonderful way to share God’s love with others in our community.
Don’t be late for church!! Daylight Savings time will begin on Sunday, March 8th. Don’t forget to set your clocks AHEAD one hour before going to bed on Saturday night.
Teresa Chesnut is once again looking for used books for military personnel (please remember nothing religious). You can leave the books at the church in the library or contact Teresa and she will pick them up.
Trustees
The trustees have completed the painting of the classrooms, hallways, and Fellowship Hall. A decorating committee has been established, with the help of the Session, to redecorate the interior to make our church inviting to all. If you have ideas or would like to serve on this committee, please see Kara Talbott.
In the next few months the trustees will be looking into repairing the parking lot, expanding the narthex, and remodeling the restrooms. Estimates for these projects are being obtained.
The March Trustees meeting will be held on Sunday, March 8th following worship service.
Women’s Association
In February the Women’s Association met at the home of Karen Ruggles. During the meeting the women gave donations to Autism Rocks and Greene County Right to Life and to the Trustees to help with the painting and some miscellaneous electric issues that they have discovered.
The March Birthday Gathering will take place on Thursday, March 5th at 9:30am at Rejavanated. Everyone is welcome.
The first of the Women’s Association Pre-Tasting Dinners will take place on Thursday, March 12th at 6:00pm in Fellowship Hall. Start looking through those Main Dishes and Salad recipes. Don’t forget to bring the recipe along with your dish. The hostess for this meeting will be Ardith Richardson with devotions given by Karen Ruggles.
March Rotary Lunches:
Date Chair
March 10th Jane Lueking
March 24th Ardith Richardson
Pastor’s Message
It’s a difficult time in the world these days. There is incredible uncertainty around the globe. Ideological battles are being waged in statehouses, across the media, and literally out in the streets. For many, day-to-day existence is a struggle for myriad reasons.
In a congregation as politically diverse as ours, it can be difficult to discern how to speak faithfully into the midst of this. On the bulletin board above my desk at home, I have pinned up this benediction from William Sloane Coffin:
May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short;
Grace to risk something big for something good;
and Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth,
and too small for anything but love.
Coffin was a Presbyterian minister who inhabited multiple worlds during his lifetime. He served in WWII, and as a CIA operative, and he was an activist for civil rights and nuclear disarmament. He attended Yale, where George H.W. Bush tapped him to be a member of the elite secret society, Skull and Bones. He was also arrested multiple times for his activism.
We very often separate truth and love. We speak truth, but not in a loving way. Or we love, but believe that means we need to stay silent about some truth. What Coffin does in this benediction is marry truth and love.
To be both truthful and loving is a skill, and one that is not particularly easy. But like anything complicated, we can begin with a small step. One such step is to recognize the humanity of every person, whether or not we agree with them.
It is common to label others when we talk about them: monsters, radicals, terrorists. Such labels diminish others, and—more importantly—dehumanize them. When we dehumanize others, we cannot love them as the children of God that they are. When we dehumanize others, we cannot shine the light of Truth into the world, a Truth that sees every one of us as beloved.
May we, as faithful Christians, seek to see others as God sees them—fully human, fully beloved. It may not fix everything that is wrong with the world, but it will certainly make it a better, and a more faithful, place.
In hope,
Pastor Hana