On Friday, the celebration committee met to start brainstorming around what it might look like for us to gather in person for celebration once the county allows us to do so. We had lots of good ideas—from meeting out of doors, to making use of several rooms on a Sunday—but really we have no idea what will happen because we don’t know…

As shelter-in-place orders have kept us from worshiping in the MPC sanctuary for Sunday Celebrations, I have made it a personal goal never to film a video for online celebrations from the same place in my house. Recently I invested in a powerful light that makes it possible for me to film in front of windows, but still, I’m running out of locations in my house and yard…

It is hard to imagine it, but this is our eighth online celebration, and while I cannot say I feel as if the process is getting easier, I can say that we’re getting better at making it happen. I appreciate all of your patience, support, and feedback along the way.

Dear Church Family, Welcome to this week’s online celebration. A big thanks to everyone whose talents and time have gone into creating this. We pray that it may inspire, comfort, and uplift your spirits during this season of Easter, when we look for signs of new life in a suffering world. Please join us for coffee hour at 11, as well, if…

Greetings to you! It is hard to believe, but this week’s online celebration is the sixth such celebration that we’ve done since precautions around the spread of COVID-19 kept us from worshiping together on March 15. We are learning and experimenting, and your ongoing feedback is helping us to make these video celebrations better each week.  This week is “Doubting Thomas Sunday”,…

We have come to the end of what some observers have called the Lentiest Lent of all Lents. The 40 days that lead up to Easter are usually a season of voluntary asceticism, when we choose if we will give something up, and what we will go without, but this Lent those decisions were made for us, and now the mother of…

This week we will meet again online. There is a youtube video playlist for worship, and a zoom meeting for Family Hour at 11 AM. Please join us in prayer, lament, celebration, communion, and fellowship!

During Lent, we have been using water as a central metaphor and symbol during worship, and this week we are focusing upon the water that Jesus turned into wine, at the behest of his mother, in the second chapter of John. The transformation of what is ordinary into that which is holy is manifested in the conversions of our kitchens and living rooms into sanctuaries and our dining room tables and hearths into chancel furniture.

As we’ve done before, have a separate video for each element of the celebration. Two videos were pre-recorded last week at church, and the rest come from the houses of church members and staff, some come from friends’ recommendations around the web, and one was filmed by the side of the road in Arvin, California.

Because the State of California has recommended that people over the age of 60 avoid gatherings of more than ten people, Talitha and I will be making a series of videos for you to watch instead of gathering in the sanctuary. The videos will take you through most of the elements of a Sunday morning celebration at Montclair Presbyterian Church.