CELEBRATE:
  • Christ's birth with your church family at our Christmas Eve worship service on December 24 at 7:30 PM! Our service will include traditional carols, communion, candle-lighting, and an original Christmas tale.
CHOIR CANTATA:
  • Celebrate Christ’s birth with your church family at our Christmas Eve worship service on December 24 at 7:30 PM! Our service will include traditional carols, communion, candle-lighting, and an original Christmas tale.
MANSE UPDATE:
  • The tenants have moved into our church manse, and all is going well! We had to take care of a few minor issues when they moved in, such as putting in additional smoke detectors and arranging for the water authority to replace a valve (at no cost to the church). The first month’s rent has been used to pay the property management company’s fee, so the church is now receiving a steady income from the manse rental. Thanks to everyone who helped with this endeavor!​
CHRISTMAS TOY SHOPPE:
  • Old Union Church will help the Lighthouse provide toys for community families in need to give to their children. Provide a gift card of at least $25 for teenagers, or a new unwrapped toy for a child between the ages of 0 and 12. Please drop off your donations in the bin in the lobby.
CHRISTMAS CARD EXCHANGE:
  • Send your holiday best wishes to your friends in the congregation with our Christmas card exchange! Please bundle your cards in alphabetical order and drop them off in the church lobby by December 15. Please only include people who attend worship. Unclaimed cards will be discarded after the first of the year.
MISSION ENDOWMENT FUND:
  • Each year the session is able to allocate money generated by the Mission Endowment Fund for mission endeavors. This year, the session had $10,000 to work with. We sent $8,000 to Buckhorn, Kentucky to support the work of its resource director as she helps meet the needs of students and members of the community in this impoverished Appalachian village. We learned about Buckhorn during our mission trip this summer. The session also added $1,000 to the money our congregation raised to participate in the holiday food drive that the Mars schools organized. The final $1,000 is going to assist with recovery efforts from this fall’s hurricanes. This is in addition to the money that congregation members contributed. Thanks to everyone for helping us to meet so many needs
​CHURCH LIBRARY:
  • Have you visited the church library lately? Thanks to Gloria Utz’s hard work and a number of generous donations, it has been updated and is ready for you to use in order to find resources to grow in your faith. Take a moment to visit it!
ADULT STUDY:
  • The Sunday morning Adult Study will consider the “Words of Advent” in December. Each Sunday we’ll talk about the meaning of the Advent candle for that day: hope, peace, love, and joy. We will use videos from The Bible Project to help guide our discussion. Adult Study meets at 10:00 in the conference room. Looking ahead: in January we will begin a study of the book of Revelation.
FREE CALENDARS:
  • You can find a variety of free calendars on the piano outside the pastor’s study, if you would like one. If you have calendars to give away, please add them to the ones already on the piano.
SCRIPTURE READERS:
  • We’d love to have you be a Scripture reader at an upcoming worship service! If the step up to the pulpit is difficult for you, remember that we have a lectern for you to use. And if you participate in worship by live-stream, contact the pastor to record your reading in advance for us to use in worship! ​
CONGREGATIONAL MEETING:
  • The congregation of Old Union Presbyterian Church held its annual congregational meeting after worship on November 10 to elect officers, approve the pastor’s terms of call, and receive the 2025 budget and other financial reports.
  • Marcy Eichenauer and Mary Rae Thompson will join session, John Davidson was elected to a second term, and Betty Cashdollar agreed to serve for an additional year. Barb Palumbo, Lisa Shaffer, and Gloria Utz are joining the deacons. Please pray for each of them as they prepare to serve.
  • The budget for 2025 is for $211.995, up $4,256 or about 2% from 2024.
​SCHOOL FOOD PROJECT:
  • Each week, Old Union prepares food bags for students at Longmore Academy who come from food-insecure families. These students get a hot meal at school, but struggle to find food over the weekend. Our bags provide two piece of fruit and two dinner and two breakfast items. Because of the increased need, we now prepare 60 bags each week, up from the 30 that we provided last year. A generous anonymous donation is covering the expense for this outreach. You can lend a hand by helping to assemble the bags on Sunday, add fruit to the bags on Thursday, or deliver the bags on Friday.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!:
  • Old Union will host a Presbytery meeting on Tuesday, March 25. Watch for how you can lend a hand as we extend hospitality to elders and pastors from our neighboring sister churches!

     MERRY CHRISTMAS!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!
​       May you have a blessed holiday season.
Old Union Presbyterian Church | 200 Union Church Road, Mars, PA 16046
​724-538-8672 | [email protected]
200 Union Church Road, Mars PA 16046