For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

-Matthew 6:21

Making a financial commitment and fulfilling it is a spiritual discipline as much as prayer, service to others, and showing up in times of trouble.
God asks us to make good use of our resources, so we invite you to invest in this church’s mission as a personal spiritual discipline, as well as an investment in this community of faith.

Your pledge is an investment in:

• Maintaining our beautiful church property and sanctuary.
•Supporting the church’s outstanding educational programs, for both the children of the church and all of us adults.
•Funding community outreach to many organizations in the New Orleans area. This outreach enriches our community outside of our church family and places us alongside community partners doing amazing work in the city.
•Allowing us to foster impactful global ministries in Cuba, Ukraine, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, the Dominican Republic, and our southern border, continuing an important tradition of this church.
•Underwriting our beautiful, one-of-a-kind music program.
•Allowing us to have our dedicated church staff - from our pastors to our sextons.

How we are achieving our nine 2023 goals:

Embracing our identity as an intergenerational community of faith.

Worship at SCAPC is designed for all ages to come together as one congregational family. We also have individual ministry programs to serve the faith needs of every age group. This year in particular, we rejuvenated the “40/50s Fellowship on the Go” group which recently hosted a “bread baking as spiritual practice” workshop and an Iris/Tucks Watch Party. Also this year, we established a partnership with NOLA Wesley campus ministry that has opened new pathways of ministry for college students. And in May we held an intergenerational Sunday School class to study Jesus’ parables from different family perspectives. Visit our homepage (click here) for links to all of our ministry groups.

Providing spiritual formation at every stage of life

In addition to Sunday School (click here) and continuing weekday classes for members of all ages and interests, we have added a Theology Reading Group led weekly on Thursdays by senior pastor Chris Currie, as well as an Interfaith Dialogue class organized by pastoral resident Ashley Brown.

Restoring the Aden Program for memory care and loved ones.

On March 21, 2023, the Aden Program reopened its doors. Director Kasey Bealer, along with adult and youth volunteers, has embraced participants with memory impairment, offering social engagement and activities while providing respite and peace of mind for the loved ones caring for them daily. To learn more, click here.

Comforting and celebrating with the families, youth, and adults of our congregation

In addition to their regular ministries, the Congregational Care Committee began a Flower Outreach Ministry this year in which the Sanctuary flowers from Sunday services are broken down into smaller arrangements and delivered to church members during times of need such as family births, deaths, and illnesses.
We recently added a new phone line dedicated phone (504-897-0101 x4) to prayer requests for those times when pastors are away from the office. As always, prayers can also be received through on our prayer webpage (click here) and via email. Prayer requests are received throughout the day by Miriam Hollar, Parish Associate for Pastoral Care, enabling the pastoral staff to most readily minister to our flock. The weekly prayer list can always be found on our prayer page.

Increasing support for our community and global partners.

This summer we welcomed a larger number of Camp RHINO participants and hosted Carrollton Camp onsite. The Aden Program also reopened its doors this year, offering support to elders and caregivers. 19 of our 6th-12th graders and chaperones attended a new week-long mission trip to Memphis this summer. On the global front, we have resumed volunteer trips to our sister congregations in Cuba and we are exploring opportunities to support refugees and Presbyterians working towards positive solutions at the Texas-Mexico border. For information on all of our community and global ministry, click here.

Supporting a full and dynamic church staff.

SCAPC is now fully staffed with Senior and Associate Pastors supported in pastoral care by a Parish Associate and Pastoral Resident. Program staff include Directors of Christian Education, Music, Administration, Youth and Young Adults, and the Aden Program. Support staff coordinate accounting, communications, worship assistance, membership, fundraising, and clerical responsibilities. And no church programs would be possible without the tireless efforts of our three sextons. The SCAPC Personnel Committee reviews the work of each staff member annually. A full staff list can be found on our staff page (click here).
The dynamic nature of your church staff is most evidenced in the new shape of our ministry since the pandemic, especially the addition of live-streamed worship services which average 115 views each week, a new youth service trip which took place in Memphis, a new Interfaith Dialogue class, a Theology Reading Group, and a revived 40/50’s fellowship group to name a few.

Exploring new musical programs.

In addition to our Advent and Palm Sunday choir and orchestra programs, on November 5, 2023 the Chancel Choir will be joined by orchestra members to perform Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms during 10:30 worship. The text, sung in Hebrew, is taken from the Book of Psalms. We will also be joined in worship by Rabbi Daniel Sherman of Temple Sinai.
Our three children and youth choirs have expanded to include all ages from 3 through 12th grade, and more than 25 singers (and bell ringers) have joined. For our music page, click here.

Maintaining our historic buildings.

So far this year, the Property Committee has formed a committee who are in the process of developing a forward-looking equipment lifecycle and coinciding expense estimates for upcoming budgets.
The red clay tile roof's underlayment has been replaced.
Back flows have been added to the boiler and fire suppression systems to meet current city codes.
Work will begin in late summer to water-proof the Sanctuary and Education buildings.
To learn about the history of our buildings, click here.

Partnering with NOLA Wesley to provide campus ministry for local colleges.

SCAPC has entered into a covenant agreement with NOLA Wesley, Tulane and Loyola’s open and affirming campus ministry led by Zoe Garry, an ordained PC(USA) minister. We have enjoyed supporting NOLA Wesley’s Sunday night dinner ministry, while they in turn have provided fellowship, religious programming, and spiritual counseling for college-age SCAPC members and visitors. Learn more at this link. In April, we had a campus ministry worship service where Zoë preached and students from NOLA Wesley helped lead worship. SCAPC member Michelle Baker now represents our church on the NOLA Wesley board. In their first joint endeavor, SCAPC and NOLA Wesley students attended a college ministry conference in Montreat.