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Order a Gathering Meal for the 876th Gathering on Sept. 14 at Knox PC
PCUSA Webinar, Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, PCUSA Stated Clerk
Stewardship Kaleidoscope Scholarships Still Available!
Disciple Formation Symposium
Self Development of People Call for Applications.
Commission on Reconciliation Partnership Dinner
Guatemala Partnership Winter Trip 2018
Havenwood PC Adoption Forum
Mount Hebron seeks a Christian Educator and a Youth Minister
First & Franklin PC seeks Part-Time Director of Christian Education
Frederick PC seeks Director of Youth Ministry
West Side Story Ministry Group hosts Book Discussion on The End of White Christian America
More Church Leaders/ Strong Church Leaders Conference
Connecting Mission Leaders Conference for Small Churches.
Insurance Board Webinars
Earn a Certificate in Community Organizing/ Congregational Leadership
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Committee and Commission meetings will be held at the Presbytery's office (unless noted otherwise.)
Commission on Spiritual Leader Development
will meet at 1pm on Wednesday, Sept. 6
Commission on Reconciliation will meet at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, Sept. 27
Committee on Ministry will meet at 2pm on Wednesday, Sept. 6
Trustees will meet at 9am on Tuesday, Sept. 12.
Our Cuban, Guatemalan and Dakota Partners will visit throughout the Presbytery Sept. 10-16
A Partnership Dinner will be held Friday, Sept. 15 at The Center
Committee on Preparation for Ministry
will be held at 3pm on Wednesday Sept. 20 at Catonsville PC
Administration & Personnel Committees will meet 1-3pm on Thursday, Sept. 21 in the Woodmont Room at Faith PC
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The Susquehanna Parish MG will meet at 7pm on Thursday, Sept. 21 at Good Shepherd PC in Joppa.
West Side Story MG will host a Steering Committee meeting on Sept. 13. Location: TBA.
In The Loop MG will host its Summit meeting from 9:30am - 2:30pm on Saturday, Sept. 23. Location: TBA.
Uptown Metro MG will host its Elder Training from 9am to 12noon on Saturday, Sept. 30.
Sharing Sacred Stories Discipleship Formation Symposium will be held on Saturday, Sept. 30 at 1st PC of Howard Co.
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The Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is in touch with presbyteries in the affected areas of Texas to offer assistance. You can help the PDA bring hope and healing to Texas families impacted by Hurricane Harvey by praying, taking action and offering financial support.
For those who wish to support PDA's emergency response and recovery efforts, gifts can be made to the Presbytery of Baltimore and designated DR000169-Harvey.
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Center volunteers harvest stringbeans.
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by TE Kate Foster Connors, Director of the Center
& McKenna Lewellen, Program Coordinator
"What exactly is the Center?"
We hear that question all the time.
The Center is a mission initiative of the Presbytery of Baltimore. We work with congregations in the presbytery to equip them to engage in ministry in their own neighborhoods. We also host church groups for mission experiences. Groups come for a day, overnight, for the weekend, or for a week at a time. This summer, The Center hosted 14 church groups with participants of all ages, from sixth graders to adults in their 70's. They visited from virginia, Pennsylvania, new York, North Carolina, Connecticut and New Jersey -- and,
even from right here in our Presbytery!
When a church group comes to The Center for a mission experience, we partner them with a local congregation that needs volunteers to help with something they're doing with their neighb
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A Center volunteer assists a youth at Mccabe Woodbourne summer camp.
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orhood. The visiting church group gets to take part in another church's local mission; and the local congregation gains extra volunteers to help with a special neighborhood initiative.
While a group is at The Center, we plan and lead a combination of hands-on mission experiences, morning devotions and times of afternoon
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Children and Center volunteers participate in STAIR learning program.
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reflection, and evening worship and learning programs. Our curriculum integrates local history, talking about the complex, contemporary challenges of entrenched poverty and racism, and a theology of mission. All of this gives participants opportunities to reflect deeply about what they're seeing and experiencing while they engage in hands-on mission opportunities with our local churches.
Beyond the nuts and bolts of our model, the best way to understand The Center is in the reflections of our participants. Here are some highlights of our summer weeks, in the words of two of the many visitors who came through our door this summer:
"When I think about what I did today I think more about what I saw. What did I see? I saw boarded up houses, overgrown lawns, and empty beer bottles. I saw frowns, tears, and weary eyes. I saw beautiful communities where the sun shines, but upon crossing the road, saw a figurative darkness that seemed to loom overhead. Yet, other things caught my eye. I saw the excitement and felt the energy of every kid who walked through the door. I saw our best reader become our biggest diva and another [reader] passionately volunteer for a part [in the camp's reader's theater]. I saw eyes that were transfixed on each presentation..."
-TJ Chin, 1s Presbyterian Church
of Yorktown in New York
Partner: First Presbyterian of Annapolis,
STAIR Literacy Camp
"Boundaries only exist as long as we shore them up. As we crossed the physical, cultural and historic boundaries, like a bad wound, York Road revealed at once its severity, and its potential to heal. With every handshake, I felt as if I was reaching across a gulf; with every fist-bump, it felt like I was punching through a wall."
-Josh Witten, Rock Spring
Congregational
Partner: Uptown Metro Ministry Group -
Woodburne-McCabe Community VBS
For more about what God is doing in Baltimore, follow The Center on social media for stories, photos and reflections:
Facebook: The Center Baltimore
Instagram: @thecenterbaltimore
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Presbytery and Church-wide
Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, The Stated Clerk of the General Assembly will hold a
webinar to Update and offer Insights on the PC(USA). All Mid-Council Leadership is invited to attend. There will be a Question & Answer period after his presentation. You will be able to submit your questions thru the chat room and have them answered online during the webinar on
Tuesday, Sept. 12 from
3:30 - 4:30pm. Click here to register for the webinar.
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STEWARDSHIP KALEIDOSCOPE SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE!
The
Stewardship Kaleidoscope Conference will be held at the Tradewinds Island Grand Resort, St. Pete Beach, FL. from Sept. 25-27.
The Commission on
Thriving Congregations - Stewardship Ministry still has scholarship funds
available to reimburse registration costs on a first come first serve basis. Maintain documentation for reimbursement upon your return.
Contact
CRE Ledonia Kimball
, 410.448.9164
ledoniak@yahoo.com
with your request. Within 75 days upon your return, submit a brief written description of how the scholarship helps the recipient support the Presbytery.
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 Looking for ideas and inspiration to season and stimulate your church's
Disciple Formation ministries? Take advantage of the opportunity we're providing congregational
leaders and
youth at a symposium called S
haring Sacred Stories - Forming Christ's Disciples.
The symposium will be held 8:30am to 3pm on
Saturday Sept. 30 at First PC Howard County
in Columbia. The event offers a rich day of worship, presentations, conversations and a nutritious meal. Registration is just $12. Click here to register.
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 In 2016 the Presbytery of Baltimore's Self-Development of People was honored to be able to support four projects. The Youth Empowerment Summer Camp was a 3 week youth camp in the Woodbourne-McCabe neighborhood, Youth in Business is a youth-led entrepreneurship program at Jubilee Arts, Glenwood Life Recovery Center designed a recovery garden and the Baltimore Youth Organizing Project are a collective of youth gathering to organize the voices of young people in Baltimore.
The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People is prepared to establish partnerships in 2017 with groups within the boundaries of the Presbytery of Baltimore who:
- are oppressed by poverty or social systems,
- want to take charge of their own lives,
- have organized or are organizing to do something about their own conditions,
- have decided that they are going to produce long term changes for their lives or communities,
- will control the programs they own and will directly benefit from them.
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The
Commission on Reconciliation invites all to a
Partnership Dinner from 6-8pm on friday Sept. 15 at the Center 210 W. Madison St. This is an
opportunity for fellowship with all of our mission partners: Guatemala, Cuba and the Dakota Presbytery. To RSVP, email
Deb Milcarek.
Learn more about it here.
The
Guatemala Partnership (along with CEDEPCA) is
hosting a trip to Central America Sept. 29 to Feb. 3, 2018. For details, click
Guatemala.
Havenwood Presbyterian Church
is hosting a
six week forum
for all
adoptive parents
. The forum, sponsored by Adoption Connection, will be held 7-8:30pm on Tuesdays, Sept. 19 through Oct. 24 at he church.
"As adoptive parents we know that what looks like normal behavior may have deeper issues attached . . ."
-TE David Willerup. Click
Adoption Forum
to learn more.
First & Franklin Presbyterian Church seeks a part-time Director of Christian Education and Arts for a period of 9 months, 4-6 hours per week/$400 per month to instruct its multi-age children's ministry program. Candidates should possess a mature Christian faith, exhibit a love of learning and the arts, and be a team player. The start date for this position is Sept. 10. For a detailed job description, call 410.728.5545 or email
information@firstandfranklin.org.
Frederick Presbyterian Church, Frederick, MD Seeks Candidates for Director of Youth Ministry
This part-time position (12-15 hours weekly) entails planning, coordinating, and implementing youth ministry activities to create a program integrating fellowship, fun, service, and faith exploration. To apply, click
Frederick Presbyterian Church.
As part of an
ongoing discussion on Race, Class & Poverty -- the
West Side Story Ministry Group will host a presentation by Robert P. Jones, author of
The End of White Christian America
. Jones -- a
leading scholar and commentator on religion and politics -- will explore the relationship between religion, demographics and politics of our nation. The event will be held from 7-9 pm on Wednesday, Sept. 20 at Catonsville Presbyterian Church. The event is open to all.Read more about it here . . .
Other
Saturday, November 4, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Eastern
The
Outreach Foundation Small Church Initiative is offering a
limited number of scholarships to attend the
Connecting Mission Leaders Conference in Oct. 26-28 in San Antonio, TX. Click
Small Church Initiative.
The
Insurance Board
is offering
free webinars
to help churches practice safe ministry. The webinar topics include:
"Abuse Prevention Self Assessment"
,
"Keeping Ministries Safe: 5 Things Churches Can Do"
and
"How to Avoid Background Screening Litigation"
. For details click
Insurance Board
or contact the representative
Linda Senez
at 443.345.1055 / 410.409.5154.
Next Church: Earn a certificate in Community Organizing and Congregational Leadership. Click Next Church to learn more.
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Jacqueline E. Taylor
General Presbyter
jtaylor@baltimorepresbytery.org
Deb Milcarek
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William Nickels III
Debbie Ingram Schmidt
Assoc. for Spiritual Leader Development
Deborah Greene
Dir. of Communications
dgreene@baltimorepresbytery.org
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Catherine Blacka
Judy Johnson
Ministry Group Staff
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Wanda Morgan
Presbytery of Baltimore |
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