About PCUM
The Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair (PCUM) is a growing, Christ-centered, and theologically diverse suburban congregation of 500 adults and 200 children just 3 miles from Newark, New Jersey and 15 miles from New York City. We seek to be faithful to the Gospel as we worship with expectation, grow in faith, and reach out with care to the world God loves.
PCUM's Core Values
We welcome everyone to a worship experience centered on an expectant engagement with Jesus Christ in scripture, music, and fellowship. In worship, children and adults come together to celebrate the good news of God’s grace and to be transformed by the powerful assurance God’s love brings to each one of us.
Our service is intellectually stimulating, Bible-based, and enlivened by an outstanding music ministry as moving as it is diverse. The Presbyterian values of independent thinking about God and deep caring about the world are emphasized and encouraged. Worship at PCUM invites and challenges us to listen with heart and mind to God’s call to live everyday life abundantly through Christ.
We celebrate our baptismal commitment to nurture and support each child in our midst with a vibrant ministry to youth and children. We want our youngest to experience God’s love in their church home and to know PCUM as a place where they are safe and valued just as they are.
Children and teens have a central role in worship on Sunday mornings and in special services, develop their faith through Sunday School and educational programming, and live their faith by serving others and engaging with the world beyond the church’s walls. Building on this foundation, confirmation is a public profession of the desire for a lifelong journey of faithful discipleship.
We nurture healthy and rewarding relationships, creating a supportive community that mirrors God’s love for us and provides identity and acceptance in a changing world. Our ministries offer opportunities to hear one another’s stories and foster friendships across ages, genders, interests, and perspectives.
In every part of church life, we seek to build connections while we worship, learn, and serve side by side. As we grow closer to God and to each other, we share in the excitement and vitality of growing in faith together.
We foster discipleship and identification with this church’s mission by encouraging everyone to experience and contribute to what God is doing in and through this active faith community. Worship each Sunday includes young people, friends and members of all ages.
Beyond worship, all are welcome to take part in committee work, youth and educational activities, small groups, service projects, behind-the-scenes preparations, and leadership. At PCUM, each person contributes unique gifts to a thriving faith community where we experience together the transforming power of God’s love in Jesus Christ.
We seek to follow Jesus Christ in serving and knowing those who are struggling, lost, or in need. Our hands-on ministries demonstrate God’s compassion to a hurting world, build stronger relationships, and offer opportunities for personal and community transformation.
By committing our time and resources to stretch beyond our walls and ourselves, we work toward God’s vision of justice and love for our neighbors and the greater world.
We equip all ages with the tools to connect their faith in Jesus to their everyday lives and to trust God in the midst of complexity and uncertainty. We encourage worshipers and participants in all areas of church life to be honest and authentic in their faith and their questions, trusting that the Holy Spirit invites our true selves into relationship with the Living God.
As Reformed Christians, we try to create and defend the space for every person to respond to God’s grace in their own way.
Staff
Greg Horn
Pastor & Head of Staff
Millie Tourtelot
Director of Christian Education
Anne Marie Juliano
Director of Music Ministries
Garrett Pahl
Co-Youth Director
Sierra Joy
Co-Youth Director/Sunday School Leader
Denise Silecchia
Church Administrator
Jordan Green
Tenor Soloist & Section Leader
Jimmy Abad
Sexton
Presbyterians are Christians who elect their leaders from among their fellow worshiping, serving members. In Presbyterian congregations, Elders (presbuterai in the Greek of the New Testament) are elected by fellow members to lead the congregation by serving on the Session (board). Together with the pastor(s), Together on the Session, the elected Elders discern God’s will for the church. At PCUM there are 18 elders serving on the Session.
Deacons (diakonia) at PCUM direct the community's attention and compassion to the needs of the vulnerable inside and outside the congregation. Deacons also provide hospitality by ushering on Sundays and at special services, hosting weekly fellowship gatherings, and preparing the Lord’s Supper.
Presbyterian Beliefs
As part of the Reformed branch of Protestant Christianity and as a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), PCUM trusts that the God who created everything always reaches out in love first to us and to a broken world. In responding to God’s sovereign grace, Presbyterians value education, each person’s perspective, a commitment to justice in the world, and an informed, lovingly-critical engagement with God's authoritative Word in the Bible.
History and Vision
The Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair (PCUM) began in 1906 as a neighborhood prayer meeting in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Sellew, at the corner of Inwood Avenue and Park Street. The church's beautiful neo-Gothic sanctuary, which was completed in 1913, seats 400 worshipers and features stunning stained glass windows.
Today, PCUM serves and draws its diverse membership and active friends from all parts of Montclair--as well as the surrounding communities of Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Verona, Clifton, Cedar Grove, West Orange--and from as far away as Denville, Hoboken, and New York City.
Life Events
From birth to death, the Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair is here to provide guidance, care, support and a framework for the important events of our lives.