EVERYONE is welcome at Smithfield United Church of Christ!
Ours is an inclusive congregation, committed to oneness in Christ across all boundaries
of race, social class, culture, gender, sexual identity, and disability.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
We celebrate Holy Communion.
Our table is an open one.
All in attendance are invited to participate.
Morning Worship – 11:00 a.m. in the 3rd-floor Sanctuary
Elevator access
A staffed nursery is available for infants through two-years-old.
Smithfield School resumes September 12 with a black and gold celebration.
Reading from Philemon
Reading from Luke 14:25-33
Sermon: Family Values?
Preaching: Rev. Elizabeth Gerchman Barlow
Liturgists: Rev. Dr. Susan Cherian
Children over the age of two will remain with their families throughout the worship service.
With some help from the adults around them, children can be full participants in the worship experience. They can stand and sing hymns, join in the Prayer of Our Savior, follow along with scripture readings in the pew Bibles, come forward to share the sacrament of Holy Communion, drop a few coins in the offering plate, and bow their heads to pray. When you sit near a child, please encourage him or her to join you in the rhythms and rituals of worship.
Worship activity bags ar available in the narthex. The bags are filled with books, coloring pages, activities, games, and toys to help children engage with the themes of each week's worship service. Bags are not to be taken home. We look forward to worshipping with our Smithfield kids!
The sanctuary is open for meditation and prayer Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
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Exude optimism to inspire optimism in others.
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New to the United Church of Christ (UCC)?
Learn more about the denomination's history, characteristics, and beliefs here and view the United Church of Christ's recently released on-line advertisement
Links to subscriptions for United Church of Christ resources:
See the on-line version of the September Spire Keep in touch with what's happening or about to happen at Smithfield Church.
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 Smithfield School notes
Smithfield School resumes Sunday, September 12, with a "Black and Gold Smithfield School Celebration at 9:45 a.m. in the Social Hall. The focus of this just published UCC-produced curriculum, Faith Practices, is "how to be faithful."
Beginning again on the 12th, children ages 3 through grade 3 will leave the sanctuary following the Children's Sermon for Children's Chapel and Pilgrim Adventures.
The Smithfield Church cookbook – Inspired to Cook – is replete with inspired and inspiring recipes. See Regina or print, complete, and submit a cookbook order form (.pdf format).
Weekly opportunities
UCC Coffee Project –
Our congregation participates in this program, offering coffee (ground and beans, regular and decaf), tea (black and green), cocoa, and chocolate (regular, dark, mint) at reasonable prices and guaranteeing fair compensation to growers in developing countries. For more information about the project, see http://www.equalexchange.com/ucc
Wednesdays, from 12:10 - 12:30 p.m., we offer a brief service for business people, shoppers, and passers-by who may want to spend part of their lunch hour in a restorative and spiritual way.
Thursday mornings, Women's Fellowship meets to sew, knit, and crochet blankets and more that are suitable for everyone from babies to adults. The over 100 blankets made each year are given to Project Linus, Pittsburgh's East End Cooperative Ministry, and to Rev. Dr. Susan Cherian (visitation minister) who takes them to hospitalized and shut-in members and friends of the congregation. All are welcome to join in this special mission to the community – women, men, teens. Unable to attend weekday meetings? You can be among those making blankets at home.
Community and Outreach opportunities
Check regularly for updated statistics of our food pantry's ministry to the downtown community. The current page provides data on the accomplishments of 2009.
Anyone needing emergency food should be advised to call the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank "Get Help" line at 412-460-FOOD, ext 456 (412-460-3663 ext 456)
Why do state and national policy and budgeting issues matter to Smithfield Church?
Here in Pennsylvania the State Food Purchase Program enables the state's private charitable food distribution network, which includes our Walk-in Ministry, to provide nutritionally balanced food packages to low-income families, children, seniors, and those with disabilities.
Nationally, funding for the Emergency Funding Assistance Program helps make up for the erosion in commodity purchasing power and the loss of bonus commodity donations to local food banks. World-wide shortages of such vital staples as wheat and corn products, milk, and rice and the economic crisis are making it increasingly difficult for many to make ends meet.
View our UCC video: Here's the Church and Here's the Steeple.
New to Smithfield? Parked in the garage?
Make the Hospitality Center your first stop.
Access
- Bulletins and hymns for the day are available in large print.
- Portable listening devices are likewise available.
- An elevator by the church's front entrance makes our second floor sanctuary accessible for anyone who has difficulties with stairs.
Parking
 We're at 620 Smithfield Street. If you park in the public garage across from the church, bring your parking ticket with you, have it validated at the Hospitality Center when you enter the building, and be charged only $1 for parking.
Please note: if you exit the garage onto Smithfield Street, a one-way street, you must turn left into the middle lane.
The lane nearest the parking garage is a bus-only lane headed in the wrong direction.
On Sundays, limited on-street parking is available on Smithfield Street.
Directions to the church
SITEMAP (Index of pages)
Many pages about past events are no longer directly accessible, but they may still be available. Check the Sitemap for them. The sitemap is also a good place to start if you want to go directly to a particular page.
Guide to Church Registers of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths and
Finding Aid for the Smithfield United Church of Christ Archives
(a .pdf document). To contact the church archivist, send an email to smithfield@verizon.net or call the church office: 412-281-1811.
Note: All cemetery records are held by the Smithfield East End Cemetery (412-422-8872).
We are committed participants
in the United Church of Christ's
God is still speaking initiative.
"Never place a period where God has placed a comma."
Gracie Allen
Questions or concerns? Call us at 412-281-1811
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updated 8/29/10
Copyright © 2000-2010, Smithfield United Church of Christ. All rights reserved. smithfield@verizon.net |
