All are invited for Lenten Evening Prayer each Wednesday during Lent. This informal and contemplative time of worship will include scripture, song, and prayer. We will gather in the sanctuary each week at 6:30 and the service will last approximately 45 minutes. February 17 and 24, March 2, 9 and 16.
A Message from the Pastor – January 2016
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
Just minutes before Christmas Eve candlelight worship was to begin, I was excitedly told, “Go outside, quick, and see our stained glass windows from the outside!”
With cell phone camera in hand, I went out the red corner doors into the dark evening. I turned around and saw the glowing reverse image of our large colored windows. In daylight, the sunshine outside brightens the colors inside. This night, the light inside illuminated the darkness with vibrant beauty.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
These words of scripture from the Gospel of John were read each Sunday as we lit the candles on our Advent wreath. Both an announcement and a promise, the light of our revealed Savior is the good news which we proclaim with our lives and cherish in our hearts.
The light of Christ glows within this church. Through members tended, food donated, meals shared, children hosted, money collected, Communion served, and meetings attended, we are the church, making Christ’s light shine in this place.
This calendar year, we celebrate the shining light that is The Oak Lane Presbyterian Church as we mark our 125th year on this corner. Let us take into this new calendar year the image of the light within that illumines the darkness. May the light that shines within each of us, and within the church gathered, inform our work, inspire our witness, and ignite in us new possibilities in our 125th year.
Rev. Judith Brackett
Ambassador – November/December 2015
Click to read the November/December 2015 edition of the church’s newsletter
Advent 2015 at OLPC
A Message from the Pastor – November 20, 2015
Dear Friends,
We are a couple weeks away from Advent, the beginning of a new church year. Moving closer to this changing of the liturgical season, I am hearing details and tales of cherished traditions from Advents past. Several people have spoken to me about a vintage nativity set that has not been in use for a number of years. While un-cluttering the Gardner Room, I discovered boxes of the bubble wrapped holy family and their adoring visitors. I am thrilled to report that Joseph has been re-glued and is ready to kneel in awe over his new son. And thanks to the work of clearing out a corner of the sanctuary, this year there will be room at Oak Lane for the Christ child to lay his head.
Cherishing the past. Un-cluttering. Kneeling anew. Making room. Sounds like the essential ingredients of something brewing among us at this time, in this place!
In late October, I recommended to the Session that we suspend all December committee meetings. Citing intense busyness and visible exhaustion, I would like us to embrace Christ’s coming again with as much simplicity of schedule that we can allow. Instead of meetings, I have asked that we gather for meals, three Wednesdays in December, to break bread and share fellowship. For some, December races by in a blur of activity. For others, a melancholy silence has replaced the bustle of the way it used to be.
Wherever this Advent finds you, I invite you to find a place here, in Sunday worship, on Wednesdays at the table in the Social Hall, and at our holiday special events.
May we prepare our hearts and minds for the possibilities being birthed in us this Advent.
In Christ,
Pastor Judith
The Stained Glass of OLPC
Click to view as a slide show.
6th Annual Blood Drive and Coat/Shoe Drive – December 9, 2015
Join in Our Oak Lane Holiday Tradition at the
6th Annual Blood Drive and Coat/Shoe Drive
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
3 – 8 pm
Oak Lane Presbyterian Church
11th Street & Oak Lane
You don’t need to be a blood donor to bring
COATS, HATS, SCARVES, GLOVES, AND MITTENS
to help need families in Northwest Philadelphia
and SHOES for the IDAAY Project.
Feel doubly good by giving the Gift of Life and the Gift of Warmth this holiday season!
For more information or to schedule an appointment to give blood
Contact Peggy Weston at 215-224-4547.
Sponsored by THE OAK LANE COMMUNITY ACTION ASSOCIATION, Events Committee.
2015 Christmas Bazaar – December 5, 2015
The OLPC Christmas Bazaar will be held on December 5, 2015.
Holiday fun and Vendors’ spaces are available for $35.00 per table. See our Vendor Registration Form.
Plan to come out, volunteer, and join the fun! We will have a raffle, White Elephant table, baked goods, Santa and of course, delicious foods and snacks. Don’t miss it!
For more information, please contact Harriett Atkerson at 215-888-9018.
PWOL Soup & Sandwich Day
The Presbyterian Women of Oak Lane held a Soup & Sandwich lunch for our friends and neighbors on Friday, October 23, 2015.
Click to view full size photos.
Rolling of the Scrolls – Thursday, November 5, 2015
“Rolling of the Scrolls”
A Memorial Service
Thursday, November 5th, at 7:00PM
Scripture…Candles…Hymns…
A moving service in memory of loved ones.
$10.00 per loved one to be remembered.
Forms need to be handed in by Sunday, November 1st.
Rolling of the Scrolls Form
Sponsored by the Fund Raising Committee