Who We Are
The Pietra Vivente Presbyterian Church Plant in Lecce is a congregation of believers and their children united by one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. We are passionate about the Gospel, we take the worship of God seriously and we try to live our lives Coram Deo (before God) and for the glory of God.
We are a historical Christian church that confesses the Catholic (universal) Christian faith according to ecumenical creeds: the Apostolic Creed, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the Creed of Calceldonia, and the Athanasian Creed. We are a Protestant church in that we believe that Scripture alone is the only rule of faith and conduct, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, by virtue of justification received in Christ alone for God’s glory alone. Furthermore, we are a Presbyterian church that adopts the Westminster Standards as its historical confessional documents, namely the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the Larger Catechism (1647), and the Shorter Catechism (1647).
We meet every Lord's Day to listen to the entire counsel of God, namely Christ proclaimed through all the Scriptures. We believe that the Holy Spirit, according to His will, meets with the Church of Christ through the biblical preaching of God’s Word, the correct administration of the Sacraments and prayers, announcing the promises of God, and renewing His covenant with His people. The divine service is a divine invitation to the spiritual banquet prepared by Christ for us, so that our hungry and weary souls can be fed and refreshed through His ordinary means of grace, by virtue of which, every week, we are built up in faith, renewed in our mind, refreshed in our spirit, as we continue to be sanctified as pilgrims of this world while we wait to enter our eternal rest. Thanks to the transforming work of the Gospel, we thus seek to love one another as a spiritual family and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
If you are tired and looking for rest, if you need answers about your existence, the purpose of your life or regarding what will happen to you after 'your eyes close,' then, the Pietra Vivente Presbyterian Church Plant in Lecce could be the 'family' and the place you are looking for. Come and visit us!
Our Staff
Rev. Vincenzo Coluccia |
Church Planter
Vincenzo was born and raised in a Roman Catholic family in Lecce, Southern Italy. He was 25 when Christ saved him. Over the years the ministerial call was visible upon his life. So in 2016, after working ten years as an engineer, he quit his job to enroll in the Master of Divinity program at Westminster Seminary California, where he studied under such scholars as Drs. W. Robert Godfrey, Michael S. Horton, Bryan D. Estelle, R. Scott Clark, Steve M. Baugh, David VanDrunen, Dennis E. Johnson, Julius J. Kim, and John V. Fesko. After completing his studies in June 2019, he continued to serve as a pastoral intern at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido (CA). Vincenzo has been called by MTW to plant a Presbyterian church in Lecce, and he is an ordained Teaching Elder of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) at South Coast Presbytery.
Vincenzo likes to cook (and eat!), hike, and enjoy life with his wife, Judit, and his kids, Abigail & Samuel.
Judit Coluccia |
Associate MTW Missionary
Judit was born and raised in Hungary in a reformed family. She was always interested in mission, and she was also involved in the children’s and youth ministry in her local church and in the Bible Union (Biblia Szövetség). Being interested in languages and literature, she became a high-school teacher thinking that it would be her main mission field. God had other plans for her: He opened and prepared her heart for the mission in Italy.
Judit likes to hike and admire God’s greatness climbing mountains, but she is also enthusiastic about quilting, doing puzzles, and playing board games with her family.