MISSION STATEMENT
God's mission for the people of Cottonwood is to be a worship-centered, spiritually alive
congregation, bring all people to know God's grace in Jesus Christ, and empower all
people of God to lead and to serve.
WHO ARE WE
About Our Church
Pastor: Rev. Tom Abbott
Contact the Pastor
Home Phone: 801 255-2185
Office: 801 278-4619
Office Manager: Shari Bennett
Contact the Office Manager
Session Clerk: Jody Good
Contact the Clerk
MAILING ADDRESS FOR THE CHURCH
Cottonwood Presbyterian Church
1580 East Vine Street
Murray, UT 84121
Tuesday - Friday
OFFICE HOURS: 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
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Cottonwood Presbyterian
Church is located near the
center of the beautiful Salt Lake
City valley and is home to over 200 members. Our physical
address is: 1580 East Vine Street
and recently annexed into the
Murray city limits.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has approximately 2.4 million members, 11,100 congregations and 14,000 ordained and active ministers. Presbyterians trace their history to the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation. Our heritage, and much of what we believe, began with the French lawyer John Calvin (1509-1564), whose writings crystallized much of the Reformed thinking that came before him.
PRESBYTERIANS IN ZION: History of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Utah by Frederick G. Burton
This excellent history, authored by our own Fred Burton, is now available in Amazon.com and in bookstores. Publisher, Vantage Press, Inc., New York, states, “This well-researched and well-documented study, illustrated with nearly 100 photos, highlights the conflicts that Presbyterians faced when coming to an area already heavily populated by the Mormons. Naturally, the Mormons had their own ideas and principles, many of which ran counter to those of the Presbyterian faith.”
Presbyterian 101- Submitted by Karen Nielsen
Pastor Tom has told us he will “encourage each of us to take some risks and intentionally pursue growth in our relationship with God through God’s gifts of prayer and Scripture.”
To commemorate his Installation as Cottonwood Church’s pastor, our congregation gave Pastor Tom a copy of a poem written by Tom Troeger. This poem can also be sung to the tune of “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”
Pastor Lead Our Circle Dance
Pastor, lead our circle dance
which the Spirit has begun.
Help us hand in hand advance,
show how to move as one.
Some demand a driving beat,
others ask to slow the pace.
Teach us how to bend and meet
our conflicted needs with grace.
From the center lead and show
steps and leaps we’ve never tried,
then allow the dance to flow,
dancing with us side by side.
Let each dancer take a turn,
dancing in the center free
so that all can teach and learn
what our circle dance could be.
If the circle gets too tight
stop the dance and don’t begin
till our open hands invite
all whom Jesus welcomes in.
For the dance of faith belongs
to the strangers in the street,
and we need their steps and songs
for the dance to be complete.
Pastor, lead our circle dance
as the Spirit leads and calls
till the circle’s whole expanse
moves beyond our bounds and walls
and we dance with distant suns
dancing in the dark above,
dancing as creation runs
on the energies of love.
Ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1970 and in the Episcopal Church in 1999, Tom Troeger is a professor of Preaching and Communications at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado where he has taught courses in homiletics, worship and congregational song since 1991. Tom Troeger states,
"I am trying to map the landscape of the heart that still rejoices in God yet lives in a world that is often oblivious to the spirit. I believe to live gracefully with this tension is the mark of wisdom. Such an understanding may baffle the dogmatic mind, but it does not lie beyond the capacity of the poetic imagination. The imagination often holds together realities that are logically inconsistent yet dynamically coherent."
Let us ask God to help Pastor Tom “Help Us Lead Our Circle Dance”.
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