On Sunday, Oct. 30, The First Presbyterian Church in Cazenovia will celebrate Reformation Sunday. Jack Heins will play the bagpipes and plaid tartan ribbons will be handed out in honor of the church’s Scottish heritage. Morning worship begins at 10 a.m.
The Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Oak will deliver a special message. Director of Music, Vince Guarnieri, will have an inspiring prelude and postlude on the Fisk organ. The Senior Choir will sing. A fully-equipped and staffed nursery is available for infants and toddlers. School-aged children are dismissed to a special Sunday School mid-way through the service.
Following the morning worship service there will be a pancake brunch with all the trimmings: sausage, scrambled eggs, special breakfast cakes, fruit salad and assorted beverages. The breakfast is free and open to the public.
The Presbyterian Church celebrates Reformation Sunday on the last Sunday of October, commemorating a significant event in the history of the Reformed tradition. It was on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Martin Luther was protesting against the corruption of the Church in Rome and the great abuses attending the sale of indulgences. Luther, a German priest and professor, is credited with starting the movement known as the Protestant Reformation.
Some 20 years later, a French/Swiss theologian, John Calvin further refined the reformers’ new way of thinking about the nature of God and God’s relationship with humanity in what came to be known as Reformed Theology. This theology proved to be the driving force of the Reformation, particularly in Germany, France, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland.
John Knox, a Scotsman who studied with Calvin in Geneva, took Calvin’s teachings back to Scotland. The Presbyterian Church traces its ancestry back primarily to Knox in Scotland and to England. The First Presbyterian Church is Cazenovia was started in 1799.
For more information contact the church at 655-3191 or www.cazpres.org.
