The Pastor’s Study – November 2022
by: Rev. Alex Molozaiy
On Sunday, November 6th, we will observe All Saints’ Day in worship. As a part of that service we recall especially those who have left us in the past year, but its meaning runs deeper than that. It’s a day when we celebrate Communion with Christ and with all of the faithful who have gone before us to meet their eternal reward and join them at a foretaste of that great banquet at the end of history.
We’ve lost some dear saints this year; some newer members of the CPC family and others who’ve spent their whole lives in our care. Having served CPC for 16 years and starting my 17th, it gets harder for me to drive around town without being reminded of who used to live where and how each was a unique blessing to our life together. While reflecting on grief and loss over my sabbatical, I realized that my deep and broad love for the saints of CPC that I’ve known personally just represents a small fraction of those who have loved and served the Lord through CPC. This church has endured through the ups and downs of the past 133 years because of the faith of CPC’s saints, expressed in ways large and small, well-known and clandestine. I think back about how our folks used to huddle around a wood burning stove to worship in Miss Holcomb’s schoolhouse, how they kept going through the challenges of the Great Depression, the baby boom, and the more modern challenge of declining participation in faith communities since the 1970s.
I know that as much as I loved those saints who have departed, God loves them more. I know that as much as I love this church, God loves it more. As long as we continue in that faith, I trust that God will send us the saints we need to continue seeking and saving the lost.