Worship
Sunday Worship- 11:15am
Worship at Community House is intimate and meaningful. One of the first things you may notice is that where there were once stained glass windows, our eyes are drawn to the world around us. That's not an accident. What happens in our neighborhood, what happens at Allegheny General Hospital, these are sacred moments; they're part of the story of God's grace and love for the world. We follow Christ who came into the world to be God-with-us. And because of that, we don't withdraw from the world to worship. We gather in community to worship God who is in the world.
Worship at Community House is relaxed, casual, and incredibly welcoming. Come as you are. God loves you as you are. We pray together, sharing each others' joys and concerns. We embrace the arts through music, story, poetry, and the visual arts. We engage with scripture with questions, hope, curiosity, and critical imagination. And we come together, joining hands, to be sent out into the world to share the love and the grace that we've encountered.
There's room at the table for you here.
Baptism
Baptism is the outward sign of the inward grace that we've received by the love of God. It marks our entry into the community of the Church, and our promise to serve something greater than ourselves in the world. Jesus tells us to, "Go and make disciples of every nation, and to baptize them in the name of the Triune God." It's an ancient practice that marks our birth into a living hope by the gift of God's grace.
At Community House we believe baptism should be done in community. We baptize infants, children, youth, and adults. We believe one baptism is enough, and we recognize the baptisms of all other Christian traditions.
Storytelling
When we encounter scripture, we encounter the story of God's people through the ages, and we encounter God within the story of our own lives. But the story of God's people isn't done being told. We practice telling our own stories as part of telling the story of what God is doing in the world. More than a strict set of doctrines, we embrace how God in Christ is still meeting us with love, grace, hope, and peace, and calling us- through the stories of our lives- to share in the work of reconciliation in the world.
Communion
Communion, the celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is a fundamental part of who we are. It's the tangible encounter with God's grace that feeds us body and soul. We believe that everyone has a place at the table, and so we practice an Open Table. There are no qualifications to receive Communion other than the desire to receive it. We believe the bread should be good, and the bread should be homemade.
Communion at Community House is gluten free, and it's the best gluten free bread in the city.
Music
Music at Community House is about celebration. Our choir rehearses on Monday evenings, and is superb. Our pianist and Music Director is incredibly gifted at creating space for us to encounter and be moved by spiritual experience through musical expression, as well as empowering our community to share their own musical gifts as an expression of their own faith and spirituality.
Creative Arts
As Presbyterians, we believe we're called to embrace the world, to the best of our abilities, with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. Embracing our creativity means embracing our intelligence and our imagination. We believe in creating opportunities to celebrate creativity; whether through poetry, drama, music, or visual arts.