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Welcome
to Montpelier Presbyterian Church
Join us for worship Sundays 11:00
Prayer
​​​Lord, let me sprinkle joy on all I meet today until we all sparkle with your love.
About Us
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Montpelier is a small church of caring people in the Presbyterian tradition who are seeking to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s children by:
worshipping God,
loving one another,
and welcoming others.
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We are a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA). We believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and God’s only begotten Son who died on the cross to save us by HIs grace and was raised from the dead to prove to us God’s power over sin and death. We believe the Bible to be the sacred Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Trinity of God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons. To find more about our beliefs please go to pcusa.org.
What you can expect on Sunday morning: You will be greeted at the front door and receive a warm welcome and a service bulletin. Coffee hour is before church at 10:30 in the church library right off the sanctuary.
Our worship service is traditional with
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prayers,
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both traditional and modern hymns,
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scripture readings
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a children’s sermon complete with coloring and puzzle pages
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a sermon based on that day’s readings with an emphasis on living out our faith in our every day lives.
We do not take up an offering although there are plates available on our communion table in the front of the sanctuary..
Dress is casual and there’s even a rocking chair in the back of the sanctuary if one is needed.
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You’ll find information on our Bible study and children’s Sunday School under Faith Development.
What our members say: “A great group of sweet folks who care and reach out whenever there’s a need…” Will M.
“I’ve been a member for 53 years. It’s home to me. Pastor Pat always finds ways to keep us engrossed in the Bible to strengthen our faith.” Debbie N.
“I’ve been a member for less than a year, but one of the things I like about it is the sense of intimacy.” Leigh-Ann M.
Our Pastor: The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden is known to us all as Pastor Pat. She is in her third year as our part-time pastor and lives in Scotia Village in Laurinburg. She has been ordained for over 34 years and has always served small churches rediscovering who God was calling them to be. Among all her other duties at the church she also teaches our adult Bible study on Sunday mornings. She is single and loves her garden and HGTV as well as storytelling and acting. Before entering the ministry she was an Associate Professor of English and Drama and an academic dean in the University of Kentucky Community College system. She is the author of two books: The Power Of Their Voices and For Such A One As I.
Community Ministries
Church Community Services: Each Sunday we collect food for our local food pantry in response to Christ’s command to feed the hungry and meet the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves.
Scholarship Fund: Founded in 2007, the estate of Johnsie Patterson McFadden from Wagram, NC set up a scholarship fund through Montpelier Presbyterian Church to be given to any Scotland County High School Graduate to further their education with preference given to those associated with the congregation. This year we gave 11 scholarships to deserving students. Contact the church for more information on this program and how to apply.
Partnership With Wagram Public Schools We reach out to students in need by donating through the media center to buy books for those who cannot afford them and we do an annual collection of gloves, scarves, hats, and socks as well as providing backpacks stuffed with needed school supplies.
Special Offerings Throughout the year we collect special denominational offerings such as the One Great Hour of Sharing, the Pentecost Offering and the Joy Gift Offering.
Spring Hill Cemetery Memorial Fund. “Blessed are thy who mourn for they shall be comforted. “. Mt 5:4 Our church, in partnership with the Spring Hill Baptist Church, owns and maintains the local cemetery. The Memorial Fund goes to support the upkeep. For more information on making a donation or buying a plot, please contact the church office.
Donations to the church may be mailed to P.O. Box 407 Wagram, NC 28396. If you’d like the donation to go to a particular cause, please note that on the memo line of your check.
News & Events
May 3 1::00-3:00 Fun Day
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May 11 Mother's Day (pick up free blessing bags of positive affirmations)
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May 12-14 Pastor Pat on continuing education leave
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May 18 recognition of scholarship recipients
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Montpelier Messenger
Montpelier Presbyterian Church P.O. Box 407, Wagram, NC 28396 910-369-2259
Pastor: Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden 269-362-1332
Editor: Barbara Holloway 910-318-3757
(email) hollowaybarbara064@gmail.com
No. 5 Vol. 55 May 2025
Mission Statement: We are a small church of caring people in the Presbyterian tradition who are seeking to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s children by: worshipping God, loving one another, and welcoming others.
Celebrating and Sharing God’s Love for 173 Years
Pastor’s Pen: Mother’s Day this year is celebrated on Sunday May 11 and I would like to offer this prayer for all women, for we all in some way play the role of mother.
We pray this Mother’s Day for expectant mothers as they prepare their homes and hearts for the coming birth. We pray for those who have, at times, become tired and harassed by too much to do and too little time to do it in, for those who wish their children didn’t cry in Walmart and those whose arms are always open.
We pray for those with difficult homes and difficult husbands, for those who lose their tempers and live to regret it. We pray for those who grieve this day with arms that are empty and hearts that ache for those children they have lost through death or life.
We pray for those who serve as mothers to those they may not have borne but whom they cherish as their very own and we pray for those who long for a motherhood that can never be.
We pray for those whose children are sources of joy and those who still worry for them and their adult problems.
Finally, most merciful God, we pray for those closest to us. May we love and care for them as we ourselves have been loved and cared for by all the women in our lives who have played the role of “mother” for us.
See you in church! Pastor Pat
Blessing Bags: We have blessing bags available for the women in your life! Each bag contains positive affirmations that can be used and reused. We will have the bags available at the church from April 27 through Mother’s Day, May 11. If you’d like a bag (or more than one) to give to a special woman in your life, please let Pastor Pat or Betsy Brown know. You can pick them up at the church or email Pastor Pat at pastormp269@gmail.com and we will make arrangements for you to pick them up at a different time.
Food Blessing Box: Beginning in May, the session has decided to use our monthly food donations to fill a Food Blessing Box located outside of our church. Our donations will be placed in the box on Thursday and Sunday of each week by the elder of the month. The food will then be available for anyone in need to take. Session made this decision because while we support Church Community Services based in Laurinburg, we felt that transportation to it might be a problem for some of those in need here in Wagram. This program is a response to our Lord’s command to “Love our neighbors as ourselves” and the directive in MT 25 to feed the hungry, seeing in them Christ HImself. Please be generous in your donations to our food drives! We need to keep the box filled! While we will begin using food collected this month for the Food Blessing Box, the actual box will not be set up until the beginning of June.
The Johnsie Patterson McFadden/Montpelier Presbyterian Church Scholarship Presentations will be Sunday May 4 during worship. There will be a recption for the recipients following worship when you can personally congratulate them on their achievements. This year the church will be giving $52,000 in scholarships. Each year we distribute the interest earned for that year from the endowment without drawing on the principle.
Pastor Pat will be on continuing education leave from May 12 -18.
Session will meet Thursday May 8 at 10:00.
Fun Day will be Saturday May 3 from 1:00 - 3:00. We have games for all ages. Come join in the fun and bring a friend! Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Welcome Bags: The church has given out several welcome bags to newcomers in our community and they have been enthisastically received. Because of a special donation to our welcome bag program, the church has purchased printed shopping bags to use that say Montpelier Presbyterian Church welcomes you! Wagram, NC. If you would like one of our shopping bags to use, please see Pastor Pat, Betsy Brown, or Roger Ammons.
A Blessing of the Bikes: In late May we will be working with the Wagram Police Department to do a bike safety check and program at the church as well as a blessing of the bikes with prayers that their riders will remain safe as they ride. The actual date will be announced closer to time as we will be coordinating this with our local police department. Stay tune!
Look and See!! Great News! We have had to move the adult Bible Study class because it has grown too big for the room so it is now meeting in the library where we also have coffee hour between Sunday School and church at 10:30. Now we have extra seats for visitors. Come join us! Come see what the library looks like now! The large table used for session and other meetings has been moved into what was the old adult class and it looks wonderful in there too. Take a peek!
Thank you bags for teachers & staff at Wagram Elementary: We will be making sweet thanks cookie bags for the teachers and staff of Wagram Elementary School Wednesday May 14 in lieu of our regular Women’s Bible Study. We need treats for the 80 teachers and staff at the school. Bring your cookies to the church either Sunday May 11 or on the 14th at 2:00. Thanks for your help!!
Beth Ammons will be teaching the children’s Sunday School class in May.
Offering for March $7,351 Expenses $5,603
Year To Date Balance (-$390.51)
Thanks to everyone who made Homecoming a success!
Memorial Day: Memorial Day started as an event to honor Union soldiers who had died during the American Civil War. It was inspired by the way people in the Southern states honored their dead. After World War I, it was extended to include all men and women who died in any war or military action.
Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day. The current name for this day did not come into use until after World War II. Decoration Day and then Memorial Day used to be held on May 30, regardless of the day of the week, on which it fell. Now it is celebrated on the last Monday of May which is May 26 this year.
You who created us,
who sustain us,
who call us to live in peace,
hear our prayer this day.
Hear our prayer for all who have died,
whose hearts and hopes are known to you alone ...
Hear our prayer for those who put the welfare of others
ahead of their own
and give us hearts as generous as theirs ...
Hear our prayer for those who gave their lives
in the service of others,
and accept the gift of their sacrifice ...
Help us to shape and make a world
where we will lay down the arms of war
and turn our swords into ploughshares
for a harvest of justice and peace ...
Comfort those who grieve the loss of their loved ones
and let your healing be the hope in our hearts...
Hear our prayer this day
and in your mercy answer us
in the name of all that is holy.
The peace of God be with you.
- Austin Fleming
Happy Birthday! Happy Anniversary
May 3 Wayland Hicks May 19 Rich & Lucy Gottlieb
May 9 Andrew Hicks May 23 Ben & Betty Ammons
May 21 Trey Miller May 29 Clint & Liza Edwards
May 30 McKenzie Bailey
Coming In June
Don’t forget our Fun Day for all ages Saturday June 7 from 1 - 3. There are games and fun for all ages and interests!
Pentecost is June 8 and we will. Celebrate with Holy Communion.
The food blessing box will be up and serving the hungry in our community. Your donations to our food wagon will fill the box twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays.
Fathers Day is June 15!
A special family night potluck supper is planned June 18 at 6:00 with a speaker telling us more about Family Promise, how it works, and the families they serve.
Watch for news on a golf meet up group from Montpelier hosted by Roger Ammons.
The children’s Sunday School class is on summer break but the adults are still meeting in the library.
Montpelier Presbyterian Church
P.O. Box 407
Wagram, NC 28396
Sermons
Do You Want To Be Healed? Patricia Ramsden
There once was a man. Desperate. Alone. Hopeless. Paralyzed by a fate he didn’t deserve. Lying by a pool of water that he saw as his only salvation.
It was called Bethzeda, the pool of mercy, the pool of grace, but for him it might just as well have been called the pool of despair. For 38 years he had layed there, paralyzed and unable to move, surrounded by the blind, the deaf, the lame, the desperate whose only hope lay in the waters of that pool.
They said that periodically an angel would come and disturb the waters and when that happened the first to enter in would be healed. But there was no one there to carry him into the pool and time after time he missed his chance until at last it seemed that he had no chance left.
Then, one day, a stranger came and asked him a question, the only question that mattered. Do you want to be healed?
It seems to us a question with an immediate obvious answer. Of course, he must want to be healed, but the man hesitates - and in the end, he doesn’t answer the question at all.
Instead he says, “I have no one to help me. When the water is stirred and I am trying to get in, someone else goes in ahead of me. Someone else gets the miracle, and I am left alone once more in my hopelessness and despair, unable to move.”
Now, there are many ways to read this passage, and I am going to look at just one of them. First, let’s start with Jesus’ question, because I think it’s a question he still asks us today when we are paralyzed by fear and uncertainty, when we are paralyzed by the future. And what he asks can’t be more direct - more to the point.
“Do you want to get well?”
Do you want to be made whole?
Do you want to become the man - the woman - God is calling you to be?
We know the obvious answer. The obvious answer is, yes. Of course I want to get well. I want to change my situation. I don’t want to stay where I am. But, if we are being honest with Jesus and ouselves, like the man at the pool of Bethzeda, we often hesitate.
Do we really want to move into an unknown future? Do we want the drastic changes that that may take? That that might make? Do we want to take the risk that that future will be any better than what we know, than what we have known all our lives? Do we want to take the risk of being made whole and well? What if this new reality turns out to be harder than the misery I am in now?
Do I want to risk starting a new career at my age?
Do I want to try to get involved in a relationship after all these years?
Do I want to do the hard work of therapy to free myself of the grey of depression that keeps me from being who I truly am meant to be?
Do I want to believe one more time that healing is even possible or do I want to stay here, paralyzed in my past?
And too often, we answer, as our paralyzed friend does, out of our own paralyzation: “I have no one to help me.”
I would do it. I want to do it, but I can’t. I can’t do this alone. It’s just too hard, too risky, and there’s no one else to show me the way.
Or do we sometimes use, like our paralyzed friend does, our stand by excuse, “When I’m trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” It’s not my fault. Someone else always gets there first. Someone else claims the prize. Someone else stands in my way.
But Jesus is having none of it. Instead he says to this man, paralyzed for years, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
There’s really no sympathy for the man’s excuses in Jesus’ response. No “I understand. Of course this is hard. Maybe it’s too hard. Maybe it’s too much for you. Maybe you just can’t do it right now. I’ll just sit with you here in your misery. It’s ok. Just stay where you are, how you are. ”
Instead Jesus gives us - not sympathy - but an imperative command. Get up! This is your time. This is your moment of freedom. Grab it. Don’t let it go by. You can do this. Trust me. Get up. Take up your mat and walk out of here.
And that’s just what the paralyzed man did. Against all odds, against all his expectations, against all his hopelessnes, in that moment he found the courage to hope again, to have faith again, to take the risk, to accept the challenge. He got up and he walked.
Of all the things that I’ve ever learned about this passage, this week I saw in these verses something that I had missed before - a different level of truth. It may at times seem hard, even harsh, but there are times in our lives of faith when Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms to get up off our butts and do something instead of staying where we are in what seems a hopeless situation.
Sometimes God’s love comes to us like that. Sometimes we need for it to come like that. Sometimes we need to make the decision to break our chains, to gain our freedom, to seize a new day, a new opportunity to become the persons God created us to be. Sometimes we need to just pick up our mat and walk. In that moment, when we meet the challenge, we find grace and strength and the power of God to heal us and make us whole.
So I believe that is God’s challenge for each of us today.
Hear it loud. Hear it clear. Hear it in no uncertain terms.
Pick up your mat and walk.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but so the world would be saved through Him. John 3: 16-17
See You In Worship Sundays 11:00
San Pedro