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.
|
|
We want to hear about the mission stories from our Presbytery's worshiping communities. What mission work are you involved in? How are your members working in the community? What story would you like to share with others in the Presbytery?
Send any mission stories from your congregation that you would like to share to: CaySyrNews@gmail.com.
Deadline is 12 p.m. on Wednesdays for the current week's edition of
Presbytery Matters.
We want to share your stories, missions, activities and more. Also, make sure to like our Facebook page by clicking the "Facebook" icon at the top of this newsletter.
|
|
Joys and Concerns around the Presbytery |
|
In our prayers together this week:
- Please pray for the Rev. Monica Styron and her family as her mother passed away last week. She was 99.
- Please pray for everyone who is struggling with their mental health and mental illnesses.
- Keep all those who battling cancer in your prayers. Please ask God to be by their side and to be with their doctors and families.
In the cycle of prayer our Presbytery, please pray for these congregations, faith communities, and individuals: our Presbytery (the Leadership Team, Work Groups, Committees, and Mission and Ministry Teams), the Synod of the Northeast, General Assembly staff.
If you'd like to share a particular joy or concern with the Presbytery, please contact: CaySyrNews@gmail.com. Please note, prayers will be featured for three weeks, unless a specific time frame is requested.
|
|
Guest Message: The Rev. Patrick Heery |
|
How Auburn has showed me God
When I arrived in Auburn seven years ago, I wrote my first article for The Citizen, saying, “This place is going to change me. It’s going to show me God.”
In that time, I have pastored my first congregation, Westminster Presbyterian Church. I have become a father to two beautiful children whom we adopted and to six others in heaven. I have learned the lakes, woods and waterfalls of this verdant country. I have enjoyed the hospitality of neighbors, movies in the park, and the fairs and festivals that so evoke Americana. I have walked in the footsteps of Harriet Tubman, William Seward and a history brimming with the ongoing fight for equal rights. I have witnessed the creation of LGBTQ Pride Week and the drop-in center for teens, Pride House. I have had the privilege of touching many hands — in sharing food at a soup kitchen, in praying over the dying, in officiating weddings and baptisms, in rehoming victims of domestic violence, in counseling the grieving, in kneeling for George Floyd and the insistence that Black Lives must matter.
Much has happened — more than I can name here. But, among it all, what remains with me the most is the love of the people. You. I’m talking about a people whose lives are busy and full of problems of their own, and yet who again and again show up for each other, to care for one another.
Oh I’ve seen plenty of the bad too. I am a Presbyterian minister (a Calvinist ... ooh) after all. I’m well aware of our sinful capacities for selfishness, hate and cynicism. I was there when they tried to ban the book "All Boys Aren’t Blue," when someone vandalized our Black Lives Matter banner, when we were collecting school supplies for children and people walked past us, refusing to donate, when more pews were empty than full on Sunday morning, and when more and more of our neighbors fell to poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges.
In each case, however, love refused to cease its song. For, I have also seen a school board meeting crowded with people defending free speech and the power of learning each other’s stories. I have seen, in the wake of one vandalized sign, hundreds more appear in the lawns and storefronts of Auburnians. I have seen the smiles of children as volunteers distribute more than 500 backpacks stuffed with school supplies. I have seen passionate worship and the curious, delightful wrestling with the questions of our faith. I have seen suffering people walk through the doors of our church, and volunteers greet them as if Jesus Christ himself had just entered.
|
|
The Interfaith Conference for Action and Healing (ICAH) is hosting a spring conference on the diverse religious, faith and spiritual traditions and beliefs that inform our thoughts and actions around Creation and our care of the Earth.
Please join us for Faith, Spirituality and Religion: How Do They Inform Our Care of Creation? on Saturday, April 15 from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm at Zabriskie Hall, Wells College, Aurora, NY 13026 (location is handicapped accessible).
The day will include presentations and a panel discussion on our theme from various religious and faith traditions and includes morning refreshments and lunch. We are asking participants for a donation of $25 to fund the lunch and additional expenses though all are welcome and encouraged to attend regardless of the ability to make a donation. Additional donations are also welcome to help fund our expenses.
|
|
Around the 5 Presbyteries |
|
Welcome to Palm Sunday: LaFayette Columbian Presbyterian Church on Palm Sunday.
|
|
Practical Resources for Churches Webinars |
|
New York State Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Webinars
You can take this training any time during the year
7 - 8:30 PM
3 - 4:30 PM
10 - 11:30 AM
|
|
In the absence of a Resource Presbyter, please contact the following individuals:
And, as always, questions regarding church polity, minutes, parlimentary procedure should be directed to our Stated Clerk, Rev. Ben Fitzgerald-Fye (statedclerk@cayugasyracuse.org)
|
|
Do you live-stream your service on Sundays?
droppable-1673496502490
We are compiling a list of live-stream links to feature in Presbytery Matters. This will allow others to join in on your services.
|
|
Join in on these services virtually on Sundays:
Faith United Oswego - Live on Zoom (Meeting ID: 207 196 571)
Isaiah's Table will send a link for people to join our hybrid worship at 10 a.m. on Saturdays. Send email to isaiahtable@gmail.com by Friday evening.
Scipioville Presbyterian Church - Live on Zoom (Meeting ID: 836 3163 8403
Passcode: SPC13147)
More to come...
|
|
Please Note: Our new address change -- PO Box 438, Syracuse, NY 13214 -- also applies to mail sent to the Bookkeeper.
|
|
Church Keyboard Musician at Park Central Presbyterian Church in Syracuse
Park Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Syracuse is seeking an experienced keyboard musician for its small, but growing, congregation.
The Church Keyboard Musician will play for all scheduled services of worship, providing hymn accompaniment, service music (prelude, postlude, music during communion, etc.), accompany instrumental and vocal soloists, and accompany choral singing.
The Church Keyboard Musician reports to the Director of Arts and Technology, and to the
Minister as head of staff. The position is part-time, requiring approximately eight hours per
week.
|
|
Solo Pastor at Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church in DeWitt
Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church is currently seeking a solo pastor who is spiritually grounded, intellectually curious, compassionate, and forward-thinking. PHPC has a history of community engagement and a commitment to social justice. Our congregation thrives on preaching that enriches and propels us to expand our thinking and motivates action. We are nourished through inspiring music and the loving nature of our faith community. We seek someone who is flexible, has a sense of humor, and flourishes in contexts where collaboration in leadership is the norm.
Position tasks include worship leadership & preaching, pastoral care, oversight of Christian education, moderating the Session, representing the congregation to outside groups that use our facility, assisting committees with guidance and insights as needed, participating and motivating members to become more active in social justice and mission projects.
PHPC was formed in 1956 in a suburb of Syracuse, NY. The church is located less than five miles from Syracuse University and Upstate Medical University, along with other institutions of higher education, multiple hospitals, and successful manufacturing facilities. The church is also situated within a very strong K-12 school system. We enjoy the benefits of a city with close proximity to the Finger Lakes, a pleasant drive to the Adirondacks, and a multitude of hiking and biking options in the immediate area, including those associated with the Erie Canal corridor. Onondaga County is on the cusp of major growth due to its selection as the site for an investment of $100 billion over ten years by Micron computer chip company. Finally, Syracuse was recently identified by FEMA as the safest city in the U.S. from natural disasters.
|
|
Are you hiring?
If your church is hiring in 2022 or still looking to fill a position from 2021, please send a new or updated announcement and job description to Communication Coordinator Sarah Buckshot at caysyrnews@gmail.com
|
|
Annual Meeting - Saturday, May 6, 2023. Time and Location TBA
Stated Meeting - Tuesday, July 11, 2023 at 7 p.m. Time and Location TBA
Stated Meeting - Saturday, September 16, 2023. Time and Location TBA
Stated Meeting -Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 7 p.m. on Zoom.
|
|
Around the Synod of the Northeast |
|
The Synod of the Northeast is spotlighting the Presbyterian Women this month. Similar to PC(USA), Presbyterian Women (PW) is organized at the local, presbytery, synod, and church-wide levels. PWSNE publishes a newsletter two to three times a year. Click this link to read the newsletter from February of this year. https://pwsne.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/feb-2023-lighthouse.pdf It is full of information that will give you a good sense as to what various groups are doing.
|
|
Around the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) |
|
The PC(USA)’s One Great Hour of Sharing changes lives
Thanks to faithful and generous giving, new beginnings are possible
By Emily Enders Odom
Presbyterians Today
Lupe Gonzalo understands all too well the hardscrabble life of a farmworker. Having worked for 12 years in Florida’s tomato industry — in addition to traveling to other states to pick sweet potatoes, apples and blueberries — Gonzalo often had to wake up at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning to travel to a local farm, where she was handed a bucket and told to fill that bucket as many times as humanly possible during the day.
And, to make matters worse, farmworkers are generally paid sub-poverty wages, if they even get paid at all. Gonzalo said that being shorted or stiffed on their wages is a rampant violation among farmworkers, along with other injustices they regularly endure.
|
|
Timeline of African American Presbyterian history
PHS launches online feature as part of AALC initiative
By McKenna Britton
Presbyterian Historical Society
The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) has created an online tool providing chronological information about the Black Presbyterian experience reaching back to the 1800s.
The new interactive timeline currently includes over 70 entries ranging from biographies of African American Presbyterian leaders to information on the founding of historically Black institutions in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor denominations. PHS staff worked for months to add new entries to the timeline, combing through materials and histories in the archives to share with the public.
|
|
P.O. Box 438, Syracuse 13214
(315) 632-5698
|
|
"I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them
bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
