HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023

Next Issue January 26,2023

Notes From Our

District Superintendent

Rev. Dr. Sherri Rood

Happy New Year!

The journey of 2023 has begun. January is a great time to pause and reflect on who we are as children of God and followers of Jesus Christ. As I have travelled through the district, I’m grateful for the opportunities to meet with you and hear your stories. I’m also aware that we need to remember who we are as United Methodists. While this may seem obvious, remembering helps us recenter and guides us as we live into our calling. 

Paragraph 202 of The Book of Discipline says, “The church of Jesus Christ exists in and for the world. It is primarily at the level of the local church that the church encounters the world. The local church is a strategic base from which Christians move out to the structures of society. The function of the local church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is to help people to personally know Jesus Christ and to live their daily lives in light of their relationship with God. Therefore, the local church is to minister to persons in the community where the church is located, to provide appropriate training and nurture to all, to cooperate in ministry with other local churches, to defend God's creation and live as an ecologically responsible community, and to participate in the worldwide mission of the church, as minimal expectations of an authentic church.”

My question for you today is, how is your church living into this description? Where are you doing well? Where could you improve? Churches are organic and always changing. Hopefully, our churches are growing into deeper relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit as we live into our mission and ministry. Stopping to assess helps provide direction for our next faithful step. We need to stop doing what we’ve always done simply because we know how to do it. Instead, we need to ask, “How is God calling us to minister to persons in the church and community? How is our church helping persons grow in faith and discipleship?” These are important questions that will help guide us forward. Please let me know how the conversation goes. If you would like to have assistance with working through these questions, please let me know. I’m happy to provide facilitation.

Please pray for me. I’m praying for you!



Grace and peace,

Sherri

From the Desk of Reverend Michael J. Kelly, Mountain View District Associate

Blessings Friends and Families of the Mountain View District,

You know one of the most common things that we have been confronted with in the past few years is the concept of fake news. More than ever we a led by many different stories and supposed facts on the same subject unfortunately so often with many differences. It is so easy to find anything on the world wide web, with a spin in many directions, unfortunately many are not true. If you listen to some websites, you could be convinced that half or more, for that matter, of the United Methodist Churches have chosen to disaffiliate. Of course, you will also hear stories from people, who have read and perhaps simply, giving them the benefit of the doubt, are giving false information about what it takes to disaffiliate. Which brings me to the subject that I want to share today, make sure that you are using trusted websites for the information that you are receiving.

You can start out with our conference website at WWW.UNYUMC.Org, you will find much information about our own conference including weekly newsletters and our Conference Magazine the Advocate, and speaking of disaffiliation the procedure is laid out on this site. There are several other websites that I use. Try WWW.UMC.Org, the website of the denomination. On that site you will see such things as, “Who we Are, What we Believe, How We Serve, News of the Denomination, Devotions and Webinars and the denomination even gives you an opportunity to ask the UMC questions, along with many other things. One of my favorite sites is WWW.UMNews.Org. You can subscribe to this site and receive news a couple times a week via email, but if you go to the site, they truly face the issues that are affecting the denomination right now. One of the topics currently on the site is, “What You Should Know About Disaffiliation.” A very useful site that I found was WWW.ResourceUMC.Org. This is a website for church leaders, clergy and laity alike, meant to provide information and ideas that inspire leaders. Of course, one of my old standbys is WWW.GBOD.Org. This is the website of the General Board of Discipleship it is filled with information and resources to help with our worship. The last that I will give you today is WWW.GBHEM.Org. This is the General Board of Higher Education Ministry. This is a great website that can provide training for clergy and laity, some of it completely free, by highly qualified instructors. I personally have taken several courses through them and have been wonderfully enriched.

I hope this helps; I would be remiss in not mentioning that these websites are brought to you through your shared ministries. They are valuable and are truly a great resource for us. If you have any questions, please feel free reach out to me for assistance. If you are still confused or have heard different stories about disaffiliation, I urge you to reach out to our District Superintendent: Sherri Rood, for clarification.

May you all continue to be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Mike

Save the Date for March Special Session



The Upper New York Conference’s March 2023 Special Session of Annual Conference to consider disaffiliation requests will take place remotely on March 25 from 9 a.m.-12 p.m.

Registration will open on Feb. 1, 2023, and close on March 10, 2023.

1/5/23

Regional Meeting with Bishop Hector

Starting January 1, 2023, Bishop Hector Burgos, who prefers to be addressed as Bishop Hector, will be the new bishop of the Upper New York Conference (UNY) Conference. Bishop Hector is eager to meet laity and clergy throughout the Conference and has scheduled dates for regional meetings.

The meetings will be as follows:

Feb. 9, 2023-Lakes Region-Leroy UMC

Feb. 16, 2023-Northeast Region-New Hartford

Mar. 1, 2023-Lakes Region-Auburn UMC

Mar. 15, 2023-Southern Tier Region-Olean: Christ

Mar. 16, 2023-Southern Tier Region-Central Endicott

The clergy meetings will be from 1-3 pm.

The laity meetings (and clergy unable to attend the earlier time) will be from 7-8:30 pm

Media Resource Center

Upcoming Changes:

All orders will be processed one day a week ONLY so, preplan for this delay when placing your future orders.

All orders must be made via our website online catalog.

Click here for tips on ordering through our website

1/12/2023

Scholarships Available

for United Methodist Students!

Applications are now open for scholarships from the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation. Every year, UMHEF awards $2+ million to students planning to attend one of the 100+ UM-related colleges, universities, and seminaries across the country. Don’t let finances get in the way of achieving your dreams of a quality education! Apply by March 1 at https://umhef.org/apply

1/12/2023

Mountain View District

United Women in Faith

(UWF)Gatherings

 Look for details in upcoming UWF newsletter to be sent to your church or unit in late January

Enrichment Day-Saturday, February 11, 9:30 to 2 at Horseheads UMC

Day Apart-Saturday, March 11, 9:30 to 2 at Avoca UMC

Communion Brunch-Saturday, April 1, 10 AM at Hammondsport UMC. RSVP by March 27 to (607) 569-3594

1/12/23

Human Relations Day January 15

Global Ministries, the worldwide mission and development agency of The United Methodist Church, with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), invites churches and individuals to celebrate Human Relations Day on Sunday, January 15, 2023.



One of the Special Sunday Offerings of The United Methodist Church, this collection benefits neighborhood ministries through community developers, supports community advocacy through United Methodist Voluntary Services and works with at-risk teens through the Youth Offender Rehabilitation Program.

To read more, click here.

For pastor and leader kit, click here.

1/12/23

BSA Affiliation Agreement

Troops and local congregations seeking to continue or start a relationship will need to complete a new “BSA Affiliation Agreement” and “Facilities Use & Indemnity Agreement.” Click here to download the BSA Affiliation Agreement. Click here to download the Facilities Use & Indemnity Agreement.  

All UNY local congregations seeking to be in relationship with a local troop should use these and only these forms. 

In most areas, the affiliation agreements and facility use agreements are being implemented and the implementation is going well. There are BSA Councils that are not cooperating in a few Conferences and as the BSA learns of these, they reach out to those Councils to address issues.

If you are encountering such issues, please contact Jeffrey Hunt jeff.hunt@scouting.org of BSA, who oversees the BSA Councils across the United States.

Report Your Church Statistics on AC Stats: This Replaces the Ezra System

Annual Church Statistics (ACStats) is the one-stop location for United Methodist data that tracks membership, expenses, and income. It's designed to help churches submit year-end statistics to the Upper New York (UNY) Conference digitally in a way that's cost-effective.

This user-friendly platform replaces Ezra as the method of reporting your church statistics.

March 17, 2023, is the deadline to complete the 2022 statistical report for your church; however, you cannot enter any data to the 2022 statistics tables until Jan. 3, 2023.

In the meantime, you may familiarize yourselves with the new ACStats platform by reviewing the user's guide for local churches. Translated reports are available in Spanish and Korean.

PLEASE take the time to read the user's guide before entering your data. Please make sure you write down your login and password somewhere as the Administrative Assistants no longer have access to help you with that. So, if you have issues logging in you will need to contact Autumn Wells at the conference office. You may contact Autumn at 315-898-2004 or email her at autumnwells@unyumc.org

Click here to learn more.

Jan. 14 Gestalt Pastoral Care webinar and in-person event

Co-director of the Mountain View District Lay Servant Ministry and Gestalt Pastoral Care Minister, Deaconess Susan Sihan, RN, is offering a Zoom webinar on an Introduction to Gestalt Pastoral Care on Jan. 14 from 10 a.m.- 12 p.m. She is offering the same workshop in-person at Odessa UMC from 2- 4 p.m. on Jan. 14.

Gestalt Pastoral Care is a model of healing ministry that integrates our spiritual practices of prayer and meditation with awareness of our body to explore the root experiences causing physical and emotional dis-ease.

Click here to learn more about Gestalt Pastoral Care.

Call Susan at 607-703-0010 for registration and more information.

2023 Safe Sanctuary Training Schedule

The UNY Safe Sanctuaries Team has scheduled four, 3.5 hour Zoom basic trainings in 2023. There will also be Training of Trainers sessions.

The Basic trainings take place 9 AM to 12:30 PM, Saturdays: Feb. 4, May 6, Aug. 5 and Nov. 4. The Training of Trainers will be 9 AM to Noon, Saturdays, Mar. 4 and Oct. 7.

The Basic training is for all clergy and anyone working with children or vulnerable adults. The Training of Trainers is for anyone who would like to become a church or District Safe Sanctuaries trainer in the UNY Conference. You need to have taken the Basic Training first.

If you need training between these dates, or would like to host an in-person training, please contact the District Office or send an email to the Safe Sanctuaries team, safesanctuaries@unyumc.org.

Registration for the February training will open Jan. 4. Look for the link in upcoming announcements.

For more information regarding Safe Sanctuaries, visit the Conference website: Click here. To view the poster, click here.

Mountain View District Offering

Learning & Growing Opportunity

A Disciple's Heart:

Growing In Love & Grace

A Book Study & Discussion Group

Click here for information

Adirondack District Offering Lay Servant Courses Via Zoom

These classes are open to ALL

Click here for brochure

MOUNTAIN VIEW DISTRICT OFFICE

PO Box 706

Bath, NY 14810

607-962-8047

District Superintendent

Rev. Dr. Sherri Rood

sherrirood@unyumc.org

Administrative Assistant

Patti Gridley

mountainviewdistrict@unyumc.org

District Associate

Pastor Mike Kelly

mikekelly@unyumc.org