Welcome
to Montpelier Presbyterian Church

Join us for worship Sundays 11:00

PRAYER

Lord, touch us this day as we wait with anxious expectation for your coming in love. We know you are born in our hearts time and time again - when we hear the voice of a loved one whispering our name, when we watch in wonder at an unexpected snowfall covering the world in silent white, when we get a sudden hug from a child, when we hear the birds calling to each other on a clear winter’s morn, or snuggle with our fur babies. You are born time and time again with love and gentle power when we laugh and when we weep, when we know our deepest joy and our darkest despair. But there is something special about Christmas Eve night when all the world seems to pause in wonder at your grace and love as we worship you with candlelight and the song of Silent Night. In those moments of silence and awe we find the promise realized and know with a certainty we can carry on throughout the next year because your light has conquered the darkness and no darkness can ever put it out.

About Us

Mission Statement: Montpelier Presbyterian Church is a loving family of God who welcomes everyone to join us as we worship our Lord Jesus Christ and celebrate his grace given to us all. We are learning together how to live out our faith by working to meet the needs of our community and our world.

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

prayers,
both traditional and modern hymns,
scripture readings
a children’s sermon complete with coloring and puzzle pages
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.

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 fourth year as our part-time pastor and lives in Scotia Village in Laurinburg. She has been ordained for over 36 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.

Faith Development

Sunday Morning Bible Studies 9:30 You do not need to be a member of the church or attend worship to attend any of our classes. We welcome everyone to come and discover more about the faith The adult class meets in the church library and is a lively discussion mixed with a traditional Bible study, questions and answers. The teen/pre-teen class meets in the church meeting room across from the library for discussion and activities. The children's class meets in their room across from the kitchen by fellowship hall.

Women's Circle meets the second Wednesday at 2:00. We are studying Rachel Held Evan's book In Search of Sunday. It too is a lively discussion.

Sweet Talk meets the first Thursday of the month at 2:00 at the local ice cream parlor Kountry Cream. The entire community participates in this safe, non-judgmental conversation around life, love and faith.

Messy Un-Church is just that. It meets the second Sunday of the month at 2:00 and is designed for families of all types and sizes. We build a project to take home which can be anything from castles to barns to bracelets. Then we listen to a story and have snacks.

Just For Fun!

Men's Breakfast: Usually meets the first Saturday of the month at 8:00 in the church fellowship hall for a full breakfast and good conversation. While there is no charge a blessing basket is available to help cover the cost of food. Men from all over the community are invited to attend.

Golf MeetUp: Meets the second and fourth Monday's of the month depending on the weather at the Deercroft Pro Shop in Deercroft. The cost is $20 for nine holes and you do not need to be a member of the church or the golf course to attend. We normally tee off at 5:30 until daylight savings time when we move to 4:30. After the game we join together for the 19th hole for fellowship and fun.

Community Ministries

Blessing Pantry: Our blessing pantry box is located near the rear of the church building. It is open 24/7 and there are no forms to fill out, no questions asked. It operates on the principle of take what you need; leave what you can and is based on Jesus' teaching in MT 25.

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 through an annual collection of gloves, scarves, hats, and socks as well as providing backpacks stuffed with needed school supplies. We serve as classroom readers as well. We show our support for teachers and staff throughout the year in a variety of ways.

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

Monthly Events

Jan. 6 2:00 Epiphany White Elephant gift exchange

Jan. 8 1:00 Sweet Talk at Kountry Cream

Jan. 10 8:00am Community Men's Breakfast

Jan. 11 Baptism of the Lord

Jan. 12 6:00pm Golf 19th Hole

Jan. 14 2:00 Woman's Circle of Friends

Jan. 18 2:00 Messy Unchurch at Betsy Brown's

Jan. 21 4:30 - 6:00pm Soup Supper Fundraiser

Jan. 25 6:00pm Beat The Winter Blues Concert

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. 1 Vol. 56 January 2026

Pastor’s Pen This year, I thought I would explore with you some of the questions and answers that usually come up when people ask about the Presbyterian Church USA and what we believe. (These questions also come up when Presbyterians get together. ) One of the resources I’ll be using is a book by Donald K. McKim called Presbyterian Questions, Presbyterian Answers but I’ll be using a variety of resouces including what I have studied over the years.

The first question is how the Presbyterian Church came to be. In the beginning there was the Roman Catholic Church and then the Eastern Orthodox Church. But in 1517 a monk named Martin Luther began a movement that questioned the theology and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. This led to the formation of Protestant churches, so named because they were created out of this protest movement. When it became obvious that they would found a different denomination, Luther’s followers were named Lutherans.

But some theologians began to disagree with some of Luther’s theology and biblical interpretation. They were also called reformed churches because they were reforming Luther’s biblical interpretation. As Presbyterians we believe the church is reformed and always being reformed through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that our human understanding of “church” is not static.

See you in “church” then! Pastor Pat

Update on our coat collection: We collected about 40 coats for the children of Wagram Elementary School along with two white trash bags full to the brim with hats and gloves. The school was overwhelmed and very grateful for our demonstration of God’s love for these children and our desire to keep them warm this winter as they stood waiting in the cold at bus stops. Thank you so much!

Your Session: At its annual congregational meeting, you elected John Lewis and LeighAnn McKay as your new class of elders and they will serve a three year term. Your other elders are: Ben Ammons, Roger Ammons, Betsy Brown, and Debbie Neverve. The organizational meeting of session will be Jan. 8 at 9:30 am in the meeting room.

In the coming months, session will be moving ahead with rearranging pews in the sanctuary to make it more handicap accessible. This necessitates replacing the carpeting. We will also be replacing the cracked cuboard doors in the kitchen. We will be using money from various church fundraisers and the interest on money we have invested for the good of the church without touching the principle. We will also be replacing the flooring by the two outside side doors that lead into the sanctuary.

Undecorating: We will undecorate the church on Monday Jan. 5 at 10:00. Many hands make light work so come join us.

Jan. 6 is Epiphany the day we celebrate the arrival of the wisemen with their gifts for the Christ child. That is also the day of our White elephant exchange at 2:00 in fellowship hall. It’s a fun time when everyone brings a wrapped gift from home that they do not want. Everyone then draws a number and in the order of the number chooses a gift to unwrap. They can then decide to keep the gift they chose or “steal” someone else’s gift. It’s full of laughter and as an added bonus there will be snacks!

Epiphany is the celebration of the arrival of the wise men from the East and the revelation of Jesus to the entire world and not just to Israel. It also stands for a sudden, profound moment of insight, realization, or understanding—an "Aha!" moment where you suddenly see something old in a completely new way, often changing your perspective forever. It's like a lightbulb turning on, revealing a deep truth or a new direction in life. This is the epiphany that frequently happens when was meets Jesus in an entirely new way through the celebration of his birth.

Jan. 8 at 1:00 Sweet Talk will meet at Kountry Cream ice cream shop. This is not a BIble study. It’s a cionversation around faith, life, and love. This month Nate will lead us in a discussion on Quakerism. Come join us! Ice cream is on your own.

Jan. 10 at 8:00 will be the first community men’s breakfast of the new year at 8:00am.

Jan. 11 we will celebrate the Baptism of the Lord with Holy Communion.

The golf meet up is on winter hiatus but that doesn’t keep us from enjoying the 19th Hole. We will be enjoying ourselves Monday Jan. 12 at 6:00 at LeighAnn and Jeff McKay’s house! Everyone is invited. By the way, the golf meetup will start again in April!

Jan. 14 the Women’s Circle of Friends will meet at 2:00 to continue our study of Searching for Sunday. We are on Section 2. If you haven’t gotten a book yet, pick one up from Pastor Pat and come join us!

Jan. 17 will be the presbytery’s new officer training. from 9:30-1:30 at Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Aberdeen.

Jan. 18 at 2:00 is Messy Unchurch at Betsy Brown’s house. This fun event for all kids includes making a craft to take home, a Bible story and snacks. Invite a friend and come join us!

Jan. 21 from 4:00 -6:30pm we will have a soup supper fundraiser for building projects that will make our sanctuary more handicap accessible. A soup dinner will consist of a bowl of soup, a pimento cheese sandwich, a dessert and a drink. It will be $10. Soup will also be on sale for $5 a pint or $10 a quart. If you can provide soup or pimento cheese sandwiches or cupcakes for the dinner, please contact Betsy Brown or LeighAnn McKay. Also, please recycle any quart or pint size jars you may have from previous soup lunches by bringing them back to the church kitchen.

Jan. 25 at 6:00 will be our Beat the Blues Winter Concert! By the end of Jan. we all grow tired of the cold, dark nights of winter and can suffer the “blues” so what could be better than a joy filled concert of some of your favorite gospel tunes played by the upbeat group Kat’s Cool Cats! You may remember them from last year’s Beat The Blues concert. They are back by popular demand! Come hear them and bring a friend!

In January Pastor Pat will begin a four part sermon series on the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed was the first creed of the early church and is still the creed used most commonly by the vast majority of Christians throughout the world. It was written to resolve questions around the Holy Trinity and the understanding of Jesus Christ as both fully human and fully divine. Pastor Pat will explore what the creed teaches us today and how it helps us understand our faith.

Thank you so much for your generous Christmas gift! Pastor Pat

Don’t forget to share our Facebook entries! We hear from former members and members who have moved away as well as new friends ti the church all because you have shared a post!

Our blessing box of food is in need of help. We can tell that people are using it consistently but they are not abusing it. They obviously are taking only what they need or will use because the box is never totally emptied. But we have noticed they do not take things that require a great deal of cooking or preparation. If something is left in the box for around two months (for instance stuffing was not taken) we do donate it to Church Community Services which serves a wider audience, so nothing goes to waste. You’ll notice that a lot of the items that are most popular are quick and easy protein.

Our own supplies are running low. We need:

snack crackers like cheese and crackers

little debbie cakes as an occasional treat

sanitary napkins

Pop tops on cans make it much easier for them to use.

Some Interesting statistics:

80-84% of unchurched individuals say they would attend if invited by a friend.
70-85% of current churchgoers were first brought to church by a friend or relative.
Only about 2% of Christians regularly invite people to church

Sermons

Christmas Eve The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden

There they are, all jostled together under the Christmas tree. Mary, Joseph, shepherds and angels. Do we dare to join them there – this cast of Christmas characters with their own stories to tell about how they found love on a wintry night so long ago?

Do we dare to tell the story that begins in a manger stall with cattle lowing and donkeys hee hawing as a babe was put to rest in a feeding trough? There He was, born in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn – and we wonder if there is room enough for him here, in our world, in our lives.

But I get ahead of the story.

First there was Mary, a young peasant girl, living a quiet life in her small hometown --- that is until her world was turned upside down. For on one ordinary night her life was split in two by an angel – or a dream – in those first moments she didn’t know which. But when it came time for her to answer she simply whispered” yes”.

Perhaps you have had a moment like that – when all the world was turned topsy-turvey by God’s eternal gift of love, perhaps it came in the birth of your own child – a miracle of God’s own making. And in that moment you knew nothing would ever be the same again. Or perhaps for you it was a different moment - a different commitment - to God’s question of “will you - will you love this much? And from that moment on, all of life has been touched and changed by your own “yes.”

Or perhaps you’re more like Joseph, whose heart was broken by Mary’s news of a child on the way, for he knew it was not his child, would never truly be his child, no matter how great his love for this small babe. Perhaps that’s why he is always in the background of our manger scenes, looking on at the action on the main stage – loving but somehow distant.

Perhaps your challenge has also been to a hard love born of a personal pain - and yet a love worth it all.

Then there are the shepherds, going about their daily chores, watching flocks by night, expecting little from a life that was full of hard knocks.

There they were, outcasts from their warm comfortable beds. In their loneliness, they faced the darkness of yet another long winter’s night, until angels appeared to tell them good news and off they ran to see if --- just perhaps ---the angels’ words were true.

Perhaps you know - like those shepherds - their hope in impossible dreams come true after years of waiting and longing.

So there they are: the poor peasant girl touched by an angel, the earthly father waiting in the wings, and the tired shepherds who scarcely dared to dream dreams. Can you, dare you, find your place there, here, in this moment, on this night, face to face with the Son of God?

For beyond the music and the candlelight is an angel’s song, come to touch your heart so you too will will say your own yes and bow down before the very gift of God --- the gift of His Son.

And when you do you too will find yourself singing Joy to the world, my Savior’s come.

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 as we celebrate
God's love together
Sundays 11:00

San Pedro

Never forget how much God loves you!

Welcome to Montpelier Presbyterian Church