Peace with Justice Sunday
June 12, 2022
WHAT IS PEACE WITH JUSTICE SUNDAY?
United Methodists relate to this special Sunday by seeking peaceful solutions, creating and supporting peace-related ministries in their conference and learning about peaceful, just efforts around the world. Our Social Principles call us to love our enemies, seek justice, and serve as reconcilers of conflict. We insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to work together to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them.
The United Methodist Church, with its historic commitment to peace and justice, can and should provide leadership to this social transformation. The General Board of Church and Society Church holds a non-governmental, consultative status with the United Nations. This status allows us to participate in UN meetings, consultations and conferences. We recognize and renew our call for social transformation, for the quest to open the doors of opportunity for all, to distribute resources more equitably, and to provide better care for persons in need.
Donations for this special Sunday support programs and ministries to educate, equip and mobilize actions in support of identified Economic, Health, and Gender Justice Priorities. Each Annual Conference has a Peace with Justice Coordinator developing local social justice ministries. Fifty percent of the offering remains in your annual conference to support this ministry.
We achieve peace with justice efforts by working with the World Council of Churches, interfaith and ecumenical bodies, and secular organizations for social-justice policies and programs that seek the wholeness of shalom for all of God’s people. Your gift, joined with the gifts of others makes a significant impact in the lives of individuals and communities.
Did you know we have resources to celebrate Peace with Justice Sunday?
Click here for everything you need to inspire and empower your congregation to give generously.
Need more information about Peace with Justice Sunday?
Click here to find out about our rich and long history of generosity. Our hope is to inspire you to learn more about the work we accomplish together through the ministry we call connectional giving.
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Bishop Webb to Offer Virtual Conversation with Laity
June 21st
Upper New York (UNY) Area Resident Bishop, Mark J. Webb, had planned on in-person meetings with UNY laity this month, but these meetings had to be canceled due to expressed concerns, related to the COVID pandemic.
To create an opportunity for these conversations to be held, Bishop Webb will be hosting a live webinar on Vimeo on Tuesday June 21 at 6:30 p.m.
During this webinar, Bishop Webb will address recent denominational developments and discuss the importance of keeping focused on the mission of the Church. The webinar will include a time for questions and answers.
Individuals are invited to send questions in advance, along with their name and church, for Bishop Webb to address by emailing them to news@unyumc.org by June 17th. An opportunity to submit questions during the webinar will be available through a chat function.
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Rock Charitable Fund Accepting Proposals from Non-Profit Organizations for 2022 Grant Support
Second Lieutenant Marjorie J Rock, U.S. Army Nurse Corps retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1970 and made St. Lawrence County her home.
The Rock Charitable Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation is now accepting application for 2022 grant support from qualified charitable organizations, houses of worship, cemeteries, or governmental entities that serve St. Lawrence County residents.
Grant funding is available to organizations whose missions and efforts align with the fund's charitable purposes, which are:
- for the maintenance and preservation of places of legitimate historical significance in the county
- to benefit or assist veterans of the United State Military with their medical or recreational needs who live in St. Lawrence County.
All organizations applying for funding must do so through the Community Foundations online Grant Lifecycle Manager, which may be accessed at nnycf.org/grants. A grant information session is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. - Thursday June 9th via Zoom. Visit bit.ly/rockinfosession to register for the session today.
Requests for funding will not be considered for work that begins before December 21, 2022. Successful applicants will have up to three (3) years to complete their project or program. Applications and guidelines for the Rock Charitable Fund may be accessed through the Foundation's Grant Lifecycle Manager portal. However, applicants are strongly encourage to contact the Community Foundation to discuss requested amounts and project details before submitting grant proposals.
Complete grant proposals must be submitted online by 5:00 p.m. Friday September 5th 2022. Grant decisions will be made in December 2022. The Community Foundation will notify all applicants of the status of their proposal by Friday January 13th 2023. Contact Kraig Everard, Community Foundation director of stewardship and programs, with any application or grant questions at kraig@nnycf.org or 315-782-7110.
*Article taken from Watertown Daily Times May 20, 2022
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Webinars Available
Do you have someone new who is now a trustee or a member of your SPRC? Here are some resources to help them learn.
New materials and webinar recordings room April 26 and 28, 2022 were developed for churches in the Southern Tier Region, which consists of the Cornerstone, Mountain View, Binghamton, and Oneonta Districts. District Superintendents the Rev. Suzanne Block, the Rev. Dr. Jeff McDowell, and the Rev. Nancy Adams led the sessions.
One webinar was related to church trustees with included resources and the other webinar was related to staff-parish-relations committees with included resources.
Click here to watch these helpful recordings and access the useful resources.
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In Person Conference Postponed
to October 6-8 to be held Remotely
The Sessions Committee of the Upper New York Conference gathered by Zoom on the morning of Thursday, April 21 to discuss growing concerns about the uptick in COVID-19 cases in Upstate New York and throughout the United States.
Members of the Committee shared both their own perspectives and what they have been hearing from others regarding the comfort level of gathering more than a thousand United Methodist from across Upper New York at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena. In the end, while there was a great sense of loss about not being able to gather in-person for the third year in a row, the Committee overwhelmingly agreed that the top priority had to be the health and safety of the individuals that would be asked to attend. The decision was made to institute a backup plan that has been in place since the Committee started planning for an in-person Annual Conference gathering.
Annual Conference will be postponed to Oct. 6-8, and it will be a virtual gathering. The plan is to use the same technology that was used at the 2021 virtual Annual Conference gathering, which was relatively well received.
Postponing Annual Conference creates a new set of logistical concerns to address and the decisions about those concerns will be shared once they are made. In the meantime, anyone who has already registered for the planned in-person Annual Conference gathering will receive full refunds. The processing of refunds will start immediately but could take a couple of weeks to complete. If you made a hotel reservation, you should contact the hotel directly to cancel.
“We know that there will be many different reactions to the news of Annual Conference being postponed and moved to a virtual event,” said the Rev. Joellyn Tuttle, Chair of the Sessions Committee. “Many will be disappointed; many will be relieved; and many more will be some combination of the two. Ultimately, this decision puts the health of the members of the Annual Conference first and that felt right to the Committee. Our first desire was to do no harm, and we are confident that we can pull together an excellent virtual event in October.”
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Phishing Emails Again!!
D.S. Rev. Weeden has been notified that people are receiving phishing emails again that appear to come from him.
Please note that any email Rev. Weeden sends out will only be from his work email that is mikeweeden@unyumc.org and he would never send anything from a gmail account to you. Also note that he would never solicit any gift cards or anything else from anyone.
If you receive this kind of email please DELETE it and do not respond or open it.
Thank you
Northern Flow District
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Grants Available for Projects
It is the desire of the UNY Conference United Women in Faith (formerly UMW) to offer grants to non-profit community and faith-based organizations that follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and address the needs of women, children and youth within the boundaries of our conference.
** Submission deadline is June 15th, 2022 **
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Trip to Holy Land 2023
The clergy team of Syracuse United Methodist Ministries (Revs. Andy Anderson, B.J. Norrix, Jee Hae Song, and Alicia Wood) invite you to join them on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Feb. 14 – Feb. 24, 2023.
You will explore, learn, and fellowship as you visit Caesarea, the Sea of Galilee, Cana, Nazareth, Samaria, Jacob's Well, the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and much more. The cost of the trip starts at $3,448, leaving from JFK, New York. There is also an option to extend your trip through Jordan for an additional cost.
You are encouraged to register immediately with only $100. Register by June 14 ($75 off), July 14 ($50 off), August 14 ($25 off). Brochures with more details and registration forms are available. Please contact:
Jee Hae: jeehaesong611@gmail.com, 404-825-8025 (cell), for a brochure, online registration link, if you have any questions, or need more information.
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Job Opportunities for Upper New York Conference
The Upper New York Conference has job openings, please click here for more information.
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Connect with Us 2022
Attached is the Connect with Us Academy 2022 announcement with the continuing education course schedule and descriptions --along with the registration form. These are high-quality courses. The full cost per course is just $75. The courses include videos and printed resources as well as 1-2 short zoom sessions. These courses are available to all clergy and CLMs. The pastor may invite one lay leader to attend the course with them without cost. A team of pastors from the same district may wish to register for these courses. The only written assignment is a short implementation plan at the end of the course for one CEU credit. Textbooks are not required. Videos and resources are provided for each course.
Your continuing theological education is important. Please consider registering for these courses.
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Tending the Soul Training
Tending the Soul, a training program in Missional Spiritual Direction and Congregational Formation, will be starting a new cohort in November 2022. The program is designed for lay and clergy. Perhaps more than any other time in our recent past, the ability to listen deeply for God, to remain centered and non-anxious, and to hold sacred space for others is an essential tool in ministry (both within your local congregation and the greater community).
Click here for more information and a brochure with all details on the program and how to apply.
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Conference Office Looking for your Stories!!
We’re looking for stories of a church vitality! Stories that inspire! Stories that motivate! Stories that can encourage churches throughout the Upper New York (UNY) Conference to try something new to live out the mission of the United Methodist Church, to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
- June: Supporting marginalized or oppressed individuals and communities
- July: Church membership growth
Throughout the first half of 2022, we are asking for narratives of church success stories. Click here to read more about this initiative.
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Stewardship with
Rev. Susan Ranous
June 2, 2022
RELATIONSHIP OF STEWARDSHIP TO DISCIPLESHIP
I’ve spoken about stewardship and discipleship together before. Have you? How many of you have participated in the “See All the People” resources from UMC Discipleship? This is an excellent resource, so if you have not seen that resource or used it, I encourage you to do so. One of the excellent links and resources from that program contains examples of intentional discipleship plans. They all seem to have a part that talks about “giving” or “generosity”. Too many discipleship plans don’t seem to include this in their foci.
See All the People talks about determining what your church’s mission is. I know many of us have mission statements. A good mission statement should include a statement of what, but also a form of action, a “so that…” moment.
In a recent article by Ken Sloane of Discipleship Ministries[1], he shared a quote from the book, Generosity, Stewardship and Abundance” by Ann Michel and Lovett Weems, which said:
“Principle 1: Never talk about people’s money apart from their discipleship
Principle 2: Never talk about the church’s money apart from its mission.”
Reading that quote, my first gut reaction was “obviously!” But, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it is obviously. Ken had this to same about what a good mission statement is. “It comes from within your church, built on things like scripture and what your church really values, as well as the context in which you do ministry.
I encourage you to consider Ken’s thoughts and look at your own church’s mission statement. Has it outlived its life? Does it come from your church, include your church’s values, and work in the context in which you’re doing ministry?
Your mission statement is the way you communicate what your church is called to do to everyone and anyone. You won’t be able to talk about money, or stewardship, or even discipleship, until that.
June 8, 2022
RELATIONSHIP OF STEWARDSHIP TO DISCIPLESHIP #2
Last week, in talking about the relationship of stewardship to discipleship, I talked a little about the mission statements of churches. Even once you have a mission statement you’re happy with, you need to review it regularly to make sure it still “fits”. Things change: people, membership, community, world…when these changes happen, the mission statement may need to change too.
When I spoke about mission statements answering the question of “so that… what?”, I encourage you to consider if your mission statement takes you outside the church walls.
When I’ve talked about discipleship, I sometimes focus on our church windows. Some of us have stained glass windows, and they are gorgeous; great bits of history from the past. But…you can’t see through a stained glass window, can you? Sometimes I think discipleship is like that. We are focused so much on ourselves and our churches, that we don’t see around us.
We need to throw the windows open, the doors open! But… not just stand in the doorway and say “come on in.” We have to go outside too, once the doors are open and encounter others, see others, listen to others. In fact, others need to become us. There has to stop being an “us” and “them.” And this type of discipleship is intricately woven into the fabric of stewardship. You cannot have one without the other.
So…does your church’s mission statement take you outside? Just as you must look outside, so must your mission statement. Where is your church’s mission field?
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Safe Sanctuaries Training Schedule for 2022
Attached is a flyer for all upcoming Upper New York Safe Sanctuaries Zoom training session for the year, along with registration links and dates.
We will continue to send reminders prior to registration by an individual bases but we wanted to make sure all dates were available to the conference, districts and churches.
You will notice that the dates are strategic as we want to make it available prior to summer VBS programs, Fall Sunday school start up and a couple others in between. We have also set two Training of Trainer dates which we will ask those who wish to become a trainer in their local church and/or their districts to join.
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2022 Holiday Schedule
The District Office Will Be closed on the Following Dates
July 4th Independence Day
September 5th Labor Day
November 24th and 25th Thanksgiving
December 23rd Christmas Eve (Observed)
December 26th Christmas (Observed)
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Northern Flow District
District Superintendent
Rev. Michael Weeden
Administrative Assistant
Tammy McAdam
Regional Associate
Rev. Rich Weihing
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Northern Flow District Office Hours |
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Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
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Northern Flow District
93 East Main Street, Second Floor
PO Box 208
Gouverneur, NY 13642
Phone: (315) 535-5149 FAX: (315) 535-5151
Upper New York Annual Conference
7481 Henry Clay Blvd,
Liverpool, NY 13088
Phone: (315) 898-2000 Fax: (315) 898-2027
Bishop's Office
7481 Henry Clay Blvd,
Liverpool, NY 13088
Phone: (315) 898-2020 Fax: (315) 898-2150
The Media Resource Center of UNYAC
Visit the website at
Our mission is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."
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