E-News from the Valley! April 27, 2021

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This is sent on Tuesday - Items you would like to see in the E-News should be submitted to the district office by the Friday before

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Click here to go to the Genesee Valley District website.

Please click on the following links:

UNY Notes - these include notices From the Desk of Bishop Webb; Alerts; Announcements; Prayer requests; Death Notices;

Camp & Retreat info

Weekly Digest - this will be sent every Wednesday. It will include a listing of all of the new information available.

This will help reduce the amount of e-news announcements coming to your computers.

District Office is open by appt only.

Call Betsy at 585-340-9525

Please click here for guidelines to come into the office

Two-day Workshop:

Developing and Maintaining

An Outward Heartset & Mindset

Our Objective:

To help the people in our churches and communities to see themselves and every human being as a beloved child of God in order to be better prepared to be part of making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

We invite teams, individuals, lay & clergy leadership to participate in a workshop that brings us to a renewed awareness of ways to use deeper insight to strengthen relationships and ministry.

Many have commented that this workshop has reawakened their God-given longing to genuinely appreciate, support, and learn from all, so that we are better able to be in ministry together.

Workshop Leaders: Rev. Bill Mudge and Rev. Debbie Earthrowl

The workshop runs from 6 PM to 9 PM on Friday, May 7

and from 9 AM to Noon and from 1 PM to 4 PM on Saturday, May 8.

The cost is $130 for materials; some scholarship assistance is available.

Please register with Carrie Boyer; albanydistrict@unyumc.org or

(518) 608-1246. She will send you the ZOOM links when you register.

For more information, contact Debbie Earthrowl @ (518) 391-3215 or debbieearthrowl@unyumc.org or

Bill Mudge @ pastorbillmudge@gmail.com

FOR CERTIFIED SAFE SANCTUARIES TRAINERS ONLY:

Zoom Review of Revised Trainers Manual and Final Curriculum

2 training opportunities:

(both sessions will be the same, please only sign up for one)

Tuesday, May 18th, 7pm-9pm

Wednesday, May 26th, 7pm-9pm

Please only choose one training date as they will provide the same information.

The UNY Safe Sanctuaries Team would like to thank all of you for your patience during the transition in this time of covid. As many of you know, we have now hosted three conference-wide online trainings. We feel we are ready to roll it out to you trainers to begin training this new curriculum in your local churches and districts.

The Trainers’ Manual has been reformatted to accommodate virtual training.
The curriculum has been finalized, taking into account many of your suggestions.
With the assistance of 20 trainers, the SS Team has presented this training in the last 3 months (3 times) to approximately 200 participants. It has received great feedback from participants.

Communities are beginning to open up. Our churches are opening up, but we still need to be safe. As the conference Safe Sanctuaries Chairs, we recommend this training to be done via an online platform such as Zoom. However, if you wish to do a small group gathering of vaccinated individuals in person, PLEASE use THE NEW training manual to avoid sharing and touching props as used in the past. And just like anything else we do, please practice social distancing and wear a mask.

We want to allow SS trainers to be together again and begin offering this training to your District and/or local church.

We look forward to seeing you all in May. Thank you for your time and passion for keeping the children, youth, and vulnerable adults safe in our churches and our communities.

If you have questions, send an email to Safesanctuaries@unyumc.org

Pastor Christine Mitchell and Arlene Schmidt, CLM.

Co-Chairs of the UNYAC Safe Sanctuaries Conference

Registration is OPEN!!!

District Youth Event

Spring Gathering - Fun in the Son

Saturday May 8, 2021

at Mendon Ponds Park

12:45 - 5:00pm

CLICK HERE for the flyer

For more information please contact

Pastor Christine Mitchell 585-704-5587

or Mary Anderson 716-753-6531

Pre-Conference Training Dates

If you are a clergy or lay delegate or EQ Member to the 2021 Annual Conference, it would be a good idea to pencil in one of the days below to attend a Pre-Conference training—the UNY Cabinet and the executive staff have secured different days and times for this training in hopes of accommodating as many people as possible to attend.

Choose one of the following dates and times:

May 8 - 9 - 11 am

May 13 - 6 - 8 pm

May 20 - 9 - 11 am

At these trainings, first, Dave Wood from GNTV (this year’s technology support) will offer a presentation and tutorial on how the platform will work for this year’s virtual conference.

GNTV has offered their services to many Conferences throughout the country and along with accolades and high recommendations, GNTV also received awards at the United Methodist Association of Communicators Awards gala.

This training will then move on to the Rev. Bill Gottschalk-Fielding, UNY Director of Connectional Ministries and Executive Assistant to the Bishop, and other Conference leaders previewing the agenda of the 2021 Annual Conference. There will also be a time for questions and answers.

Zoom links will be posted on the Conference website and sent via email as the training gets closer.

Genesee Valley District

of the Upper New York Conference

of the United Methodist Church

Peter Lagueras, District Lay Leader

Rev. Ted Anderson & Rev. David Underwood, District Associates

Betsy O'Flynn, District Adminstrative Assistant

Rev. Vonda J. Fossitt, District Superintendent

MAILING: 1050 East Ave, Rochester, NY 14607

PHYSICAL: 1040 East Ave, 2nd Floor, Rochester, NY 14607

(585) 340-9525 * GeneseeValleyDistrict@unyumc.org