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Hours: Office Hours:
Revs. Ann & Bill Robertson's
Revs. Ann & Bill Robertson can be reached at:
Sunday Worship Summer Hours
Finding us: E-mail:
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The Pastors' Corner
Reading a magazine this past week, there was a picture of oil drums with a Pelican perched on one of them. It looked rather harmless until you put it in perspective and realized the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf. The lives of those people will probably never be the same. Assuredly, the lives of the birds, the fish, the wildlife, the wetlands will take years and years to return to health. The biblical notion that enough is enough doesn't register anymore. When we attended the conference in Louisville, we were troubled with the question, "What is enough?” We wonder if this question that we at Holly Presbyterian Church would like to challenge ourselves to answer honestly, in faith, together, as a community of Christ, as children of God, who have been given the responsibility to care for ALL of Creation. Maybe some of us want to and could gather this summer to consider some of the ways that we can help save the earth. How our church can make a difference. We can do this not out of guilt but with joy that each new day holds promise and opportunity for us to love ourselves, each other and this creation as something precious. What a challenge! What an opportunity! If you are answering, "yes" to the question, let us know and together we will speak and act in faith as witnesses to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Blessings and Peace, |
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From The Seminarian's Desk ...
“For I am convinced neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -- Romans 8:38-39 Dear Friends, In the second week of my internship at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, an elderly member of the Church passed away. By God’s grace, my supervising pastor was stopping by the office with her son on her day off when we received the news. The family wanted to have the service two days later and as an eager intern, I sincerely asked my supervisor if there was anything I could do to help. She then asked me to go and visit with the family with her the next day, and also asked me to help out with the funeral. I gratefully obliged. Upon readily agreeing, another all to familiar feeling started to bubble up in me. I was nervous, and over the next two days the nerves became worse. I started to worry about tripping on my words at the funeral, how my robe was too big, and keeping it together when everyone around me is crying. When I sat behind the pulpit before the service began, the nerves came to a familiar point. They felt the same as they do every time I stand up in the pulpit to speak during worship. Secularly, we might call this stage fright but in reality something else is always at work. When we are to speak God’s word, the Spirit moves in us. For others and myself, we feel the Spirit moving in us through these nerves. In speaking God’s word, not only do we feel the Spirit move through us but also feel our own fear of God. A fear of respect for the One we worship. These nerves I have are a compiling of both the Spirit at work, and my fear of God (and yes probably stage fright too). Having the comfort of familiar nerves my worries began to fade, and I was blessed in being able to help lead the funeral service. I found myself later in the service thanking the lady who passed away. I thanked her for her life and her death, both of which allowed me to grow in ministry. When a person passes on we feel great sorrow, and may ask ourselves why? Why did she have to leave now? Why not just a few more months? I discovered a portion of the answer for this person’s passing, at least from my perspective. In passing away at the time she did, I was granted the ability to grow in ministry through helping out with her funeral, so that in my future, when the time comes, I might be prepared to help another family. In speaking with her family we found out how she loved seeing women in ministry and they told us how she would be delighted to know two women were doing her funeral. I know this isn’t the complete bigger picture of God’s work and reasoning in the world, but it has shed light on a glimpse of that picture. It is a privilege and honor to be given that gift. Sincerely, If you would like to help Cassie with her
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We, your pastors, are gravely concerned -- as we suspect all of you also must be -- about the oil spill in the Gulf. It raises all kinds of questions for us. Not the least of which is, what responsibility do we have for the situation we find ourselves in as a world community? Our Christian faith and ethic is committed to justice and honoring the Earth. We were given dominion over this earth, its creatures and its plants, all of it. Could our habits be part of the problem? We drive here and there for work and pleasure, seldom thinking about what this may be doing to the atmosphere. We buy food from all over the world, seldom looking at the signs that tell us it may have come from Costa Rica (this food comes on airplanes, trains, trucks with horrific impact on resources). We buy clothes that may have been made by laborers in another country under less than humane working conditions. It is so very difficult to know, how our everyday routines affect the world, the earth that we live in. And for us, and maybe for you, it is so very, very difficult to change our habits, our daily way of living, the conveniences that we take so for granted, the access to everything we might ever desire or want. The word simplify brings questions of "why?" or "why me? or " why now?” 
by Cassie Todd