Hillside Messenger
Hillside Presbyterian Church Newsletter
October 3, 2020
World Communion Sunday

The first Sunday in October is designated as World Communion Sunday, which celebrates our oneness in Christ with all our brothers and sisters around the world. Thus it is appropriate that World Communion Sunday is also a time when we receive the annual Peace and Global Witness Offering as a way of continuing the ancient Christian practice of sharing what we have with brothers and sisters in need. You will soon receive information from the Stewardship Subcommittee about how to give to the Peace and Global Witness Offering.

Join us for worship (via Facebook) on Sunday at 11:00 a.m.
World Communion: A Presbyterian Gift

World Communion Sunday (originally called World Wide Communion Sunday) is a gift of the Presbyterian Church to the larger ecumenical church. The first celebration occurred at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1933 where Dr. Hugh Thompson Kerr served as pastor.

John A. Dalles, a PCUSA pastor who has researched the history of World Communion Sunday notes this in his blog entry, reprinted from the October 7, 2002, issue of Presbyterian Outlook:

Davitt S. Bell (the late Clerk of Session and church historian at Shadyside) recalled that Dr. Kerr first conceived the notion of World Communion Sunday during his year as moderator of the General Assembly (1930). Dr. Kerr’s younger son, the Rev. Dr. Donald Craig Kerr… related that World Communion Sunday grew out of the Division of Stewardship at Shadyside. It was their attempt to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity...(when) asked how the idea of World Communion Sunday spread…he replied,

“The concept spread very slowly at the start. People did not give it a whole lot of thought. It was during the Second World War that the spirit caught hold, because we were trying to hold the world together. World Wide Communion symbolized the effort to hold things together, in a spiritual sense. It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Find the full article at https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/worship/special-days-and-emphases/world-communion-sunday/
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Hillside Presbyterian Church Mission Statement
The mission of Hillside Presbyterian Church is that of the church universal: to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of humankind. We are committed to being an inclusive, intergenerational church by creating a caring, Christian community. Hillside reaches out to diverse ethnic and religious groups in our community and beyond to foster a better understanding of all people. We are a servant people, responding to those in need, doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.
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