April 23, 2020

Dear Friends of Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery,

Welcome to this week's edition of our e-letter, Presbytery Matters. Our goal is to highlight things going on throughout the Church: within our Presbytery, in our congregations, as well as in the Synod of the Northeast and across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). We hope that these are things that will be helpful, informative, challenging, encouraging and supportive. In other words, we hope that these things will matter. Your input is valued, and your comments are always welcomed.

• Please pray for Melanie Toole, her husband Brien, and their son Declan of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Auburn. Melanie is the office administrator at the church. Brien is in the hospital with a severe (non-COVID-19) health condition. Melanie's uncle died unexpectedly of a heart attack a few weeks ago (again, unrelated to COVID-19), and Brien, like so many others, has been laid off from work during this time of isolation. Please keep this family in your prayers during this difficult time.
• Pray for all the doctors, nurses and medical staff on the front lines fighting to save COVID-19 patients.
• Please pray for all those who are sick with COVID-19 and all those who have lost loved ones.
• Pray for all those who feel lonely and disconnected during this time of social distancing.
• Pray for everyone in self-isolation or quarantine.

 

A bird's eye view of Onondaga Hill Presbyterian Church in Syracuse. (Photo by Jon Yousey)

Hello Cayuga-Syracuse!

 

During this season of exile from the ordinary activities that define us 'church,' we've scrambled to become adept at camera angles and green screens. For many, much has remained the same, it's just the trappings that have changed. We're finding new patterns and traditions. We find ourselves adapting, even as we long to get back to normal.

 

Is that what we should be longing for?

Is that God's desire ... that we go back to what was?

 

Decades ago I took the advice of preaching professor Fred Craddock and crafted a small sign for my desk out of an index card. I've never made a permanent sign ... it's always been my generally unreadable scrawl on a scrap of paper or a post it note. Every so often it will fall and get lost in the shuffle of my desk, but I've never been tempted to make it permanent. There is something about realizing it has gone missing and then recreating it ... somehow ritually rededicating myself to its exhortation in doing so.

 

In two words it provides me a much-needed focus for my own sermon work. It simply reads: So what? Useful for the preacher, but it's also become a bit of a mantra for the rest of my life as well.

 

This global pandemic is a grand "so what?" moment for the church (the effects will last far longer than a moment) especially if we ask this question not of ourselves, but of God.

 

Things will never be the same, nor should they.

 

What happens next in our churches, communities and in our own lives should be based not on what was normal for us, but rather on discerning where God is calling us now as those who bear witness to the transformative love of Jesus Christ.

 

Blessings -

 

Karen

 

94 years of memories and a lifetime of service 

 

Esther Brinkerhoff Rounds will be 94 years old on April 26. Esther had been on my mind for the past several weeks and on Saturday morning, April 18, I was thrilled to enjoy a delightful one-hour phone visit with her.

 

During this visit we chatted about the current pandemic restrictions, the challenges and advantages to learning to worship and share sacraments online, news of family members, and life in general. We also swapped stories about our respective ministries in Christian Education and in this presbytery. As we did, I was reminded of Esther's remarkable life of service and have attempted to capture some, but definitely not all, of her story for the record.

 

Esther has been a Presbyterian since infancy, and she has served God and her church her whole life. She graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in Christian Education and immediately went to work for the National Board of Missions of the United Presbyterian Church of North America as a Presbyterial Worker called to resource small congregations.

 

In the six years she worked for the National Board of Missions it often seemed as if she was "living out of a suitcase" as she served 18 churches in three different presbyteries in two different synods in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. In the 1950's she left the National Board to serve as the first Director of Christian Education for a church in Dayton, Ohio, an assignment of which she was particularly fond.

 

In 1957 she married Earle Brinkerhoff and moved to Jamesville, NY where she and her husband lived for seven years. At this time Esther went to work for the Syracuse Area Council of Churches which focused mainly on churches in Onondaga County and which she described as the forerunner of the organization we know as InterFaith Works of Central New York. The Brinkerhoffs had connections with Jamesville and Howlett Hill before joining the church in Marcellus where Esther was a member for 20 years.

 

After Earle died, Esther remained single for seven years before marrying Ralph Rounds. In 1982 Esther moved to Baldwinsville where she served as Director of Christian Education for nine years and where she has remained an active member.

 

Esther's faith in God is exemplary. After Ralph died and being widowed twice, she has often been heard to declare that she was truly blessed to have two such wonderful marriages. When I was a new widow, Esther called me to express her love and support. During this call she gave me one of the most helpful, healing pieces of advice I received during those early months of grieving. Esther asked me, "Did your husband have a favorite chair that he always sat in?" When I said he did indeed, the blue recliner, Esther counselled me: "Be sure you sit in it. You don't want to sit in the room and look at his empty chair." So I sit in the chair and embrace the memories.

 

Esther is a faithful disciple and a very wise and compassionate woman. I am one of many who have been blessed to know her and share some of life's journey with her.

 

Thanks be to God!

Linda Russell

I'm the chair of the presbytery's Committee on Representation (COR).   One of the Book of Order guidelines for a COR is to encourage "full expression to the rich diversity of the church's membership."   I think most of you would agree with me in saying our presbytery's diversity in ethnicity probably wouldn't be described as "rich!"(The same might be said for age.)

However, there is a variety of other categories: female-male, clergy-laity, marital status, LGBT representation, and diversity in theological perspective.  Others, no doubt, could be mentioned.

 

We wonder if you or any of your friends, keeping the above distinctions in mind, would be willing to serve in some capacity at the presbytery level.  There are plenty of opportunities.  As we've heard so often during this new era of the coronavirus pandemic, "We're all in this together."  Well, that's always been true of the church!

 

Please contact me at jmooresnow@isaiah5811.com if you have any suggestions.

Be healthy and be at peace!

Rev. James Mooe

April 27             Leadership Team Meeting

May 12              Presbytery Gathering (Watch this space)

June 20-27       General Assembly 

August 11         Presbytery Stated Meeting, TBD  

November 14    Presbytery Stated Meeting, Westminster-Auburn

The Synod of the Northeast has two webinars coming up that may be of value to you:

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Old school, new school

Christian educators and other leaders are using every tool to reach children and their families during pandemic  

 

By Paul Seebeck

Presbyterian News Service  

 

LOUISVILLE - When members of the Christian Education Committee at Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Versailles, Kentucky, met to discuss options for their children during the pandemic, they decided to try something radical.

 

Knowing most church families have at least one parent (sometimes both) working from home while trying to home school their children - and that if kids spied one more thing to study, they might run - the committee went old school.

 

Pisgah is sending letters in a packet sent to each child. Inside is a biblical story featuring a character who must overcome a great struggle. Included are optional family discussion topics, such as how the story relates to what family members are experiencing now.

 

Pisgah's director of Children & Family Ministries, Callie Northern, said they want each family member to know that "God is always with us." To help them believe and trust this, the letter also includes optional activities for families to build the story together - with playdough, drawings and ways to act it out.

 

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