ORANGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL MEETING JANUARY 22, 2023
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This Sunday after worship, we had a big task. The sanctuary needed to be undecorated. The candles (all 78 of them) had to be taken down and packed into boxes. The wooden candleabras needed to be moved back to their basement storage room. The Crismon ornaments had to be removed from the tree and put away. The Crismon tree had to be placed back in its box and taken to storage. Wreaths outside the front door needed to be removed and bagged up for storage. The greenery swags had to be taken down and packed away. It was a daunting task -- but it was done in record time. Several members of the congregation stayed after worship and started in. Thanks to everyone who helped. When we all work together, we can accomplish much. (And no one person has to work too hard.) Something special happened at OPC Christmas Eve. We presented Lessons and Carols. Thanks to the efforts of our music director Theresa Torian, the sanctuary was filled with glorious music. We're especially grateful to all the talented musicians who donated their time and talents to be with us that evening. The church was filled with long-time church family members and newcomers. We greeted friends both old and new. Families and extended families came -- and a few came by themselves. 142 people raised their voices in song, marking the significance of this special day. Below are just a few of the highlights of this very special service. We received a lovely card this past week from the Orange County Habitat for Humanity. We don't often hear from the folks we help. But it sure feels good when we do! Inside the card was the following message: Dearest Friends at OPC: A time to appreciate people who mean so much. It was a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving thanks to you! Thank you so much for partnering with us to provide blessing (in the form of $80 Food Lion Gift Cards) to 15 of our Habitat Partner Families! (here in Orange County) God's loving hand and heart... Thanks to all at Orange Presbyterian Church! - Jo-Anne McCausland A native of Martinsville, Virginia, I graduated from Martinsville High School in 1967 and entered the Virginia Military Institute, where I received a B.A. in English in 1971. Soon afterwards, I entered Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and earned a Doctor of Ministry degree in 1976. Following graduation, I was ordained to the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments in the Presbyterian Church, and from 1976-1983 served as the pastor of several Presbyterian churches in North Carolina. In 1983, I returned to Virginia in order to do graduate work in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. During that same period, I served for about six years as the installed part-time pastor of the South Plains Presbyterian Church in Keswick. From there I went to St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, where for almost 15 years I served as the school chaplain and taught Religion, Latin, and English. Afterwards, I went to Tandem Friends School in Charlottesville, where I taught comparative religion, Latin, and English. While at Tandem, I felt the “pull” of parish ministry reasserting itself and decided to accept a call to serve as the pastor of the Louisa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a position I held for almost 17 years until my retirement in 2018. On a personal note, I have two sons, Tom and John, both of whom live nearby; and I have two grandchildren, Evelyn and Jack. I am married to Patricia Fleshman, a native of Louisa, and we live in the Spring Creek community in Zion Crossroads. It is clear to me that the Orange Presbyterian Church has a long and distinguished history, and, with God’s continued guidance, an equally promising future. As a Presbyterian minister who is “retired but not tired,” I look forward to talking with you about the possibility of providing part-time pastoral leadership to your congregation. - Denny Burnette This late 19th-Century stained glass panel is a survivor of our previous church building. We had it displayed in our narthex. But over time the leading had deteriorated, and the panel was in danger of falling apart.
But now the panel has now been completely restored. After several months, this reminder of our past hangs once again in our narthex.
Advent VolunteersDecorating the Sanctuary (week of November 20th)
Advent Candle Lighting and Reading
Readers for Christmas Eve Service
Undecorating the Sanctuary (first week in January, 2023)
Hidden somewhere in this collection of hand-made potholders is a duck. If you have trouble spotting it, you'll have another chance.
All of these will be on sale at our OPC Christmas Bazaar. You can examine them closely then. But only if you show up early. We don't expect these to remain unsold long!
On Saturday, October 15, OPC held another Christmas Bazaar workshop. And it turned out to be doubly productive. The primary goal was to decorate the wooden Christmas trees Jennie Hill Robinson had made for the bazaar. She crafted them out of old pallets, both recycling and keeping bazaar costs low (can't get much lower than free). While some of the participants worked on decorations, others started another project. This year we'll be offering magnolia wreaths. Saturday the second crew got the straw wreath forms wrapped in gold foil, ready for the magnolia leaves. That will be a workshop for another day. At the end of just a few hours, work was done. And more importantly, members of our church family spent time together talking, laughing, and doing God's work. |
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