404-633-4505 | Join Us On Sundays at 11AM!
404-633-4505 | Join Us On Sundays at 11AM!
Read the latest news for our church.
Dear Siblings,
I believe most of you know that one of my favorite hymns is Awake, Awake to Love and Work! You may not know that another hymn of which I am fond of is You Are Salt for the Earth, O People. I’m not sure, but whenever I think about the church where I grew up, Church of the Savior UCC, it’s the song that most readily comes to mind. So, I’m glad that we’ll sing that hymn on Sunday, as we make-meaning out of Jesus’ lesson on salt and light.
A few weeks ago, I wrote that I’ve been thinking a lot about notions of citizenship and my hope is that our scripture readings and our music in worship might help us all think about our place in the City of God.
An important part of our Common Life is simply being together. So come for something on Sunday! Come for Sunday School, for the voices of choir, the sermon, Story for All Ages, Pizza on the Playground and/or our NEW sandwich ministry opportunity.
Come, not because you must, but because you may!
See you Sunday(in-person or online),
Thomas
This year, Central has received an increased grant to feed almost 300 people each month through the Outreach and Advocacy Center at Central Presbyterian Church.
Join us on the second and fourth Sunday of each month to help make sandwiches and pack brown bag lunches. If you can’t make this time but would like to help, please consider dropping off a dozen pre-made sandwiches:
Jan 30, 2026
We are excited to present to you “The Monthly” for February 2026.
Check out this month‘s newsletter for:
Click here to download “The Monthly”! There are also paper copies in The Commons, in The Sanctuary and in the Church office. Be sure to add events and gatherings that you‘re interested in to your calendar.
Enjoy “The Monthly” and all the events and gatherings you are going to attend!
Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,
“I have no words.”
This is what Rev. Thomas announced in our worship planning meeting to explain why he had proposed that on Sunday we have a hymn sing. He was also giving me permission to say out loud, “Neither do I.” At the end of a week in which another peaceful voice for justice had been silenced forever by our own government agents, I have no words. How can I preach? How can I pray when the world in on fire?
Well, with all due respect, it’s not the first time. Violence, injustice, hatred, tyranny—that long list of the hateful stuff we do to one another, the ways we refuse to see the dignity and beauty in one another, disrespect and dehumanize one another—that is not new. All of this has been around since forever. But we are feeling it now, in our own skin, in our own broken hearts, in the anger and confusion of this very day. And some of us are dumbstruck.
So, what to do? When my faith in God and in people and in elected leaders and the people of God takes this many hits right in front of my face, how do I find stable footing? How to ready for the next steps ahead?
You know my answer already: I sing. What else can I do? “My anchor holds and grips the solid rock/That rock is Jesus.” “Give me Jesus/You may have all this world/Give me Jesus.” ”Hold to God’s unchanging hand/Build your hopes on things eternal/Hold to God’s unchanging hand.”
In worship on Sunday, we will sing. A lot. Tune up before you come.
In the meantime, there are others who DO have words. Good words, in fact, thanks be to God. Here are two that came to my attention this week:
https://vimeo.com/1159835662?share=copy
After worship, I hope you are planning to join us for the long-awaited Congregational Asset Mapping Experience in the Fellowship Hall. We will have lunch for you, and we will make sure it’s good and warm inside for those of us who will take on the extreme cold outside. We’re still working on a way to include our Streamers, probably using the link you use for worship. Look for more by Sunday.
Hope to see you Sunday.
Love and hugs,
Rev. Liz
Jan 29, 2026
Fun fact: the enews note is often more difficult to write than a sermon. To be honest, I don’t really have words for this edition of the This Week @ Central.
There are some days when I wake up and think “I’m not built for this, maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up with a different call.” And there are other days when I wake up and think “the heavens are singing the glories of God and somehow I’ve ended up in the chorus of creation that’s shouting for joy… might as well enjoy it.”
In the past week, I’ve thought about baptism and the wilderness, the collapse and emergence of a new political order, continued threats from AI(I am very very bearish on this), concepts of citizenship, and the Jesus problem that is now very apparent to me in the American church.
Some of those thoughts will preach and some of them will not! For this Sunday, I think you’ll hear something tied to wilderness, citizenship, and the Jesus problem in the American church… all through the lens of our lectionary texts. The real goal is for us to consider memories and new understandings of hope. A lot of this is inspired by these words from Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders:
Feral hope is a hope that is driven into the wilderness by the Spirit, alongside Jesus emerging from the baptismal waters in the Synoptic Gospels. It is hope dashed and born again, like the disciples moving all along the way of Jesus—misunderstanding, halting, sometimes regressing, yet buoyed by surprise and wonder and the intrigue of companions moving along a winding pathway. Feral hope is a hope that travels to the grave—the place of death, the aftermath of violence—unsuspecting. Like the women coming to the tomb of their crucified beloved not to witness resurrection, but to anoint a corpse with spices and tears. It is a hope-against-hope, a hope acquainted with hopelessness, a hope born of the alchemy of grief and wonder. Feral hope is radical hope.
In my last sermon, I briefly noted that the promise of the world to come is not guaranteed to be made known in our time, regardless of how much work we put towards that world coming into being. I want to be in conversation with those words offered by Rev. Sanders, because he talked about this before me, and I happen to think that we are pointing at the concept for our faith and its practice in the 21st century. His full article, called Feral Hope for Futurist Leaders, (just 10 pages) can be read here.
Aside from the above, we have a few updates on Sunday plans, which you can read about below:
– How the Bible Actually Works will not meet.
– Asset Mapping is postponed and will take place on February 1.
– our plan for worship will be announced by midday tomorrow(Saturday), which is what most churches around us are planning to do too.
If worship is cancelled, we will share my sermon via email, but unfortunately are not able to share the wonderful music that our choir would have offered. We will also not gather online. Please stay tuned to your email or our Facebook page for that announcement tomorrow!
I started this note saying I had no words, and yet here we are.
Be good to yourselves and one another, and I will see you Sunday (or a Sunday soon),
Thomas
Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,
This is the weekend we celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday and for many of us, the holiday tomorrow will be a “Day of Service” to our communities in one way or another–service to others and a greater good to honor and memorialize the model Dr. King’s life gives us.
It is also the Second Sunday after Epiphany in the Calendar of the Christian Year, the Sunday just after we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, and where we begin to understand what difference that baptism made. We may also wonder what difference those waters make for the baptized—for us.
When I was teaching ninth and tenth graders an introduction to the Bible as literature, a course called Judeo-Christian Tradition, we prepared for the term’s final exam by putting butcher paper around the classroom and drawing the narrative. Other teachers thought this was elementary (as in not rigorous enough) for this top-tier New England boarding school. However, I invariably learned something I hadn’t learned in seminary. Case in point:
As we stood back to look over our work and notice things together, one girl spoke up to say, “It looks like, every time they go through water, things change.” Oh? Can you say more?
“Well, it gets hard before it gets better.”
It was right there. The Exodus. The Wilderness. The Babylonian Exile. The Flight into Egypt. Jesus at the River Jordan. But before we followed the story and the journey in images around the walls, I had not noticed that or drawn the significance of the movement of the People of God through the water.
So, what happened at the River? So what?
On the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, we turn to wondering what difference that event made, has made, could make. Our Lectionary readings for Sunday are from Isaiah 49:1-7 in the Hebrew Bible and 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 in the New Testament.
Does what happened at the River explain who the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was, what he did, and why? Does what happened at the River help us to know what we are called to be and do and why? What do you think think?
Come worship with us on Sunday—Streamers and Gatherers, Everybody. Come join us for a moment away from everything else we do to pray and sing and ponder and praise God who called and brought us through the waters of baptism. And who walks with us still. It will be good to be there with you in that conversation among friends, going along together, making God-sense of life as it happens, between meals. (Communion Sunday is February 1. Come then, too.) Hope to see you soon.
Love and hugs,
Rev. Liz
P.S. About this time of year, I often read King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. It is a stunning piece; to say “brilliant” is too little. Something new comes from it every time. Have a look: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/letter-birmingham-jail
Merry Christmas!
I trust that your holiday is going well. We are finally within the 12 days of Christmas and I want all of it. Today is St. Stephens Day, a day which honors the life of one of the first deacons in the early church. St. Stephen was put to death for his beliefs. I share that not to dampen the Christmas spirit, but to instead invite you to consider what this season really means for you.
God came to us in the most vulnerable of human forms. I think it’s a reminder for us to pay attention to the most vulnerable in our midst, not just in this season but all of the time.
If you plan to join us on Sunday, we’ll sing a few more Christmas hymns and I’ll offer a short reflection on some of what I think this season is all about.
Rev. Liz and Josh are away on Sunday! But they still want you to join us in person or online.
Merry Christmas to you, and your families.
See you soon!
Thomas
We are partnering with The Candler Foundry to host this five-week course facilitated by Jaeun “Kooja” Koo, Hebrew Bible Scholar Doctoral Student at Emory University. This course explores how the Bible works – its history, genres, and truth claims – to help you read Scripture with greater confidence, nuance, and curiosity. No prior training needed – just a willingness to explore.
To support our instructor preparation, registration for this class is required. Register online by January 7th: Sign up for How the Bible Actually Works
Sign up to receive our newsletter!