 |
|
Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse
5811 Heritage Landing Dr., 2nd Floor
East Syracuse, NY 13057
(315) 632-5698
|
|
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, 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 "Like us on Facebook" tab at the top of this letter.
|
|
Joys and Concerns around the Presbytery
|
 I
n our prayers together this week...
- Please keep Suzanne Hoeldtke Wood and her family in your prayers. Susie is the daughter of the Rev. David and Thelma Hoeldtke, formerly of Howlett Hill Presbyterian Church. She has been diagnosed with limbic encephalitis at Dartmouth Hospital in New Hampshire. She and her husband, Dr. Steven Wood, live in Vermont. Spinal fluid was taken and sent to the Mayo Clinic for testing. They are awaiting the results.
- Pray for all our soldiers, at home and overseas, and pray for their families during this turbulent time in the world.
- Pray for all those who are sick, battling cancer and fighting silent diseases.
- Pray for Jim Russell as he continues his fight with esophagus cancer.
In the cycle of prayer for our Presbytery, please pray for these congregations, faith communities,and individuals:
Amboy Belle Isle; First, Auburn; Westminster, Auburn; United Ministry of Aurora; First, Baldwinsville
If you'd like to share a particular joy or concern with the Presbytery, please contact:
CaySyrNews@gmail.com.
|
First Presbyterian Church of Chittenango celebrated Epiphany on Sunday with beautiful music by the Ladies Choir and Chime Choir. See more photos on the church's Facebook page.
To have your photo considered for
"Photo of the Week" post it to your church's Facebook page and tag the Presbytery of Cayuga Syracuse's
Facebook page.
|
|
From the Resource Presbyter
|
Hello, Cayuga-Syracuse!
You don't know this, but I can speak several languages.
According to Duolingo, I'm well on my way to fluency. This means I can ask "Does anyone know where we are?" in Italian, Dutch and German. I have no doubt at some point this knowledge will be helpful.
Of course, the time it actually takes to learn a language is much longer than what the various sellers of apps suggest. Fluency comes when we move beyond vocabulary into the difficult work of grammar. Some studies suggest that what happens as we become immersed in another language is that our brains are "rewired." Some of our brains take longer than others ... but you knew that.
That promise of quick and easy results finds resonance in other areas of our lives. The promise of speed is expressed in every drive-thru and EZpass booth, diet plans and get-rich-quick strategy. We want everything yesterday, and if that isn't deliverable, we want it now.
Congregations fall prey to this as well. We implement new programs, websites and music and expect immediate returns. Once we are convinced that there needs to be change (interestingly, the one thing folks complain is often done too quickly!) whatever change scheme we implement needs to create the desired effect immediately.
The problem is that often the only thing we've learned is to ask the question "Does anyone know where we are?" We've not actually learned a new language or a new way of being, but instead we've developed the skills to allow a reasonable facsimile of the required syllables to spill off our tongues. It's all surface and "eye-wash," and that required brain rewiring hasn't taken place.
Unless...
Unless the new language we are trying to speak is love.
What if the changes we implement in our churches is not to attract new members, but to help us love new members? What if the language we learn is one where we listen to the needs of those outside our walls and to pray for those needs and address them as we are able?
It's not our brains that need rewiring. It's our hearts. "If I speak in the tongues of humans or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
As a church, Presbytery and denomination, we need to practice this language together.
Blessings -
Karen
|
|
Resource Presbyter's Mobile Office Day
|
Our Resource Presbyter, the Rev. Karen Chamis, will be working remotely at the following locations:
Date: Thursday, January 16, 2020
Time: 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Place:
Port Byron Federated Church, 35 Tex Pultz Parkway, Port Byron
Date: Thursday, January 23, 2020
Time: 9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Place: Salt City Coffee, 509 W. Onondaga St., Syracuse
Feel free to drop in for a conversation -- or just to say hello
Karen can be reached at 315-632-5698 (option 1) or
kchamis@cayugasyracuse.org
|
GREETINGS PRESBYTERY!
It is almost time again for the wonderful exercise of democratic and spiritual community that is a presbytery meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 15, which means I will soon be working to prepare the docket. In order to do so in an effective and timely manner, I will need (note the word "need") all materials, requests for time on the docket, consent agenda items, and so forth no later than close of business on Monday, Feb. 3. Please submit your submissions via the stated clerk email at
statedclerk@cayugasyracuse.org.
If you have questions or concerns, you may also call my church office at 315-364-5110.
Being a human being and acknowledging that life, as a rule, tends to "happen" from time to time, I realize that some folks may be down to the wire or have a pressing item come up a bit later than Feb. 3. If life "happens" to you, please call me and we can make arrangements as needed.
My thanks to you all for promptness and efficiency as we work together to make church happen!
The Rev. Ben Fitzgerald-Fye
Stated Clerk
|
|
From the Associate Stated Clerk
|
 Attention Clerks of Session, and/or Pastors...
First:
The season for annual statistical reports is upon us. Everything you need for completing the annual statistical report of 2019 data for your church is available online.
The link for "Statistical Reporting and Frequently Asked Questions is:
http://oga.pcusa.org/section/churchwide-ministries/stats/statistical-reporting-faq/.
On that page, click the link for "Go to the Online Statistics Entry System" to enter the Church Statistics System. The deadline to submit your statistical report is February 1, 2020.
Second:
For questions or assistance with either of these reports, contact Linda Russell, associate stated clerk, at lsruss@aol.com or 315-730-6930.
Elder Commissioners to Presbytery
 The next meeting of Presbytery will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2020 at First Presbyterian Church of Weedsport beginning with registration at 8:30 a.m.
The number of elder commissioners currently assigned to churches through the May 2020 meeting is as follows:
a.
Churches sending two (2) elder commissioners include: Amboy, Auburn-First, Aurora, Chittenango, Collamer, First United East Syracuse, Weedsport, Whitelaw
b.
Churches sending three (3) elder commissioners include: Auburn-Westminster, Baldwinsville, Cazenovia, DeWitt-Pebble Hill, Fayetteville, Skaneateles, Syracuse-Park Central
c.
All other churches and Isaiah's Table are eligible to send one (1) elder commissioner.
Mission Highlights for February Presbytery Meeting
 Churches and presbyteries have been challenged by our General Assembly to embrace Jesus' call in Matthew 25:31-46 to take our living faith into our communities and the world. As a Matthew 25 church, we are called to live out true discipleship by acting boldly, compassionately and fearlessly serving people who are hungry, oppressed, imprisoned or poor. The three areas of focus for being a Matthew 25 church are: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty.
To some degree, many churches are already doing the work of Matthew 25. To celebrate mission initiatives currently supported by local congregations which specifically focus on systemic poverty, the Leadership Development Work Group is planning a Mission Fair display for the Presbytery meeting on February 15. The hope is that we may be inspired by what another church is doing, find a partner church for a shared or collaborative mission, and give thanks to God for the good works being offered within our bounds.
Your help is needed! Please send a photo and/or a brief paragraph describing
your ministry and its impact on your community if your church is involved in one of the following ministries:
- a feeding program or food pantry
- a health ministry
- a housing ministry (Habitat, beds for children, homelessness, other)
- any other ministry which addresses local poverty issues.
Photos and descriptions should be sent to elder Neil Rotach, chair of the Leadership Development Work Group, at neil.rotach@yahoo.com.
|
|
What's happening in your church? Events coming up? Fundraisers?
Special announcements? Celebrations? Milestones?
Send them to CaySyrNews@gmail.com.
|
February 15 Presbytery Stated Meeting at First Presbyterian Church of Weedsport
February 24 Leadership Team meeting
March 23 Leadership Team meeting
April 27 Leadership Team meeting
May 12 Presbytery Stated Meeting
July 23-24 Thrive Seminar (for clergy aged 50+) by the Board of Pensions
|
|
Around the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
|
PC(USA) Washington office calls for diplomacy with Iran
Office of Public Witness urges Presbyterians to contact Congress
By Rich Copley
Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Office of Public Witness in Washington D.C. is urging members to contact their congressional representatives and ask them to oppose further military action against Iran without congressional approval.
"The most important thing right now is for people to make their voices heard through Congress," said Catherine Gordon, Associate for International Issues in the Office of Public Witness (OPW). "There is still time for a de-escalation and a diplomatic solution, but people need to take action and they need to be vocal and visible."
There are bills in the
House of Representatives and the
Senate that would prohibit further military action against Iran without congressional approval. The OPW appeal asks members to urge their representatives and senators to support these bills.
_______________________________________________________
Colliding with Jesus
New worshiping community helps women find healing
By Paul Seebeck
Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE - Willow Weston, the founder and director of a 1001 new worshiping community in Bellingham, Washington, remembers the day
Collide began.
Someone who had wounded her when she was a young girl was knocking on her door. Immediately, she ran upstairs with her baby - and hid in the closet.
"I felt like the Lord was opening the door of that closet, and sitting in there with me and saying, 'You have more healing that needs to be done in your life,'" she said.
When Weston stepped out of the closet, she made an appointment with a counselor and began to deal with years and years of pain - pain that she had yet to deal with.
Eventually that turned into a Bible study with some 20 college-aged women.
As they began to look at the life of Jesus in the New Testament colliding with wounded people, Weston said, their lives were being radically transformed - because Jesus was colliding with them and their brokenness, too.
|
5811 Heritage Landing Dr., 2nd Floor
East Syracuse, NY 13057
(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
|
|
|
|
|
|
