First Presbyterian Church in Lufkin will be celebrating Reformation Sunday as it looks to its future while celebrating its past.
Each year, Presbyterian churches across the country mark the day, celebrated on the last Sunday in October.
Ashley Cook/The Lufkin Daily News |
The Rev. Steven Frazier, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lufkin, stands next to the communion table in the sanctuary at 607 Janeway Ave., where the congregation will observe Reformation Sunday on Oct. 25 with a service including bagpipes, Tartan decorations, and an Order of Worship and sermon evoking the Reformation era of the 16th Century. Services begin at 10:45 a.m.
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The observance commemorates the day on Oct. 31, 1517, that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, according to the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS), operated by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). His action to promote reform in the 16th Century Roman Catholic Church led to the formation of a myriad of denominations, known as Protestants.
The church in Lufkin will observe the day with a service highlighting the Scottish aspect of the Reformation, including bagpipe music from a Dallas-area musician, a Reformation-era Order of Worship, Tartan fabric hangings for decoration and a Reformation-style expository sermon by the church's pastor, the Rev. Steven Frazier.
"I'm going to take a page out of John Calvin's book," Frazier said last week. "... Remaining faithful to what we are, and who we were, with a foot in the present and a foot in the past."
Presbyterianism formed in the 16th Century around a church government represented by assemblies, called presbyteries, instead of a government by bishops, known as an episcopal system, or government by congregation, according to the PHS.
Presbyterianism follows the features of Protestantism emphasized by French lawyer John Calvin, following a presbytery government, Calvinistic theology and absence of prescribed forms of worship, the PHS states. This year is the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth.
There have been a number of splits and reunions in the church in the United States over the years, the PHS states. Currently the largest group is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), with its national offices in Louisville, Ky., and has about 2.3 million members, according to pcusa.org.
Frazier, a former history teacher, said as a minister his goal Sunday is to deliver a primarily didactic, teaching sermon, similar to what church members might have heard during Reformation times. But also he will be taking a look at what it meant to people then, and what it means now.
The focus is not at the typical understanding of Calvinism as an exclusive, predestined picture of the "haves" and "have-nots" of God's grace, but of realizing that grace is a mystery, according to Frazier.
"We continue to say that God's grace grips us before we recognize or respond to that. God's grace is amazing, and God is gracious beyond our understanding in calling people into God's family," Frazier said.
Their church's mission, according to Frazier, is to reflect a present-day picture of what God has always done, which is to reach out to people, and to love and care for them.
The Lufkin congregation lives out God's love to others in real ways, according to Frazier, such as a recent donation of clothes to needy school children at a local elementary school. And once a month at Communion the church collects donations of rice and peanut butter to give to the Christian Information Service Center. So far, the church has gathered nearly 1,700 pounds of food this year.
"That reflects God's 'doing,'" Frazier said.
The service is at 10:45 a.m. Sunday at the church, 607 Janeway Ave. More information on the church is available at fpclufkin.com.
