May 21, 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 Jackie Murphy, and her family, as grieve and mourn the death of her daughter, Laurie.
• Please pray for the Rev. Ed Kang (Honorably Retired) and his wife Mae who have both been diagnosed with cancer.
• Please pray for our presbytery's partners in Pyongyang Presbytery who wrote this week to say they are "deeply concerned" about Cayuga-Syracuse and hope that Covid-19 "did not harm [Cayuga-Syracuse] severely," and that "everyone is doing well." Our Korean brothers and sisters pray for us and "for this pandemic to pass" and ask that we pray also for them.
• 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.

 

Members of Robinson Elmwood United Church gathered on Tuesday for a parade of cars to celebrate the 90th birthday of Barb Wachob. After the parade members gathered on the lawn for the singing of "Happy Birthday". Barb told Pastor Stephanie, "this was worth waiting 90 years for."  

 

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.

Dear Friends,

 

What do you do "bestest"?

 

I'm a beast at knitting, and love to sing and enjoy a bit of writing as well. I'm second-best at all sorts of other things, and the list of things I cannot do (hello, mathematics!) is long. But knitting? I'm confident in my ability to knit.

 

Churches have a list of things they excel at as well. This season of isolation has challenged many of our congregations, because often what they do best is what they do together. From Sunday morning worship to fellowship; to bringing food to those who grieve and that authoritative thwack of the serving spoon at potlucks -- all these things we do "bestest", and we do them together.

 

So when the governor says we can't gather together again until late June at the earliest ... we grieve because this is what we do, and we do it well.

 

Who are we, if not the gathered body of Christ?

How long can we maintain social isolation from each other, and still be the body of Christ?

 

Who are we, if we cannot do what we do well?

 

I wonder what would happen if we allowed ourselves to discover what we do "second-bestest"? Fodder for this might be found in remembering the Great Ends of the Church.

 

The great ends of the Church are:

What's interesting to me is that this list is not ranked in order of priority (there is no "bestest" as it were) ... and yet I believe many of our congregations have placed a high priority on the top three or four. It makes me wonder what our congregations might look like if we began to focus on strengthening the other areas that identify to the church. What might the world look like if we emerged from this time of social isolation being able to claim that what we do best is the promotion of social righteousness ... or we excelled at being an exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world?

 

Please note, this doesn't mean abandoning what we do well. We need to continue to do that as this season continues as best as we are able ... but we might discover our faith deepens as individuals and as congregations as we embrace more fully the other Great Ends.

 

In Christ,

 

Karen

 

SUPER IMPORTANT STATED CLERK UPDATE

FOR JUNE 9th PRESBYTERY MEETING

Greetings Presbyterians! I don't need to tell you that we are living in unusual and anxious times. We continue to pray for those who are affected by the Covid-19 virus and we mourn for each life taken in this pandemic. We are offering love to our neighbors by staying home and staying safe and we are exploring new ways to do both our individual work and our communal work. In so many ways, life moves forward and still needs our attention. The leadership of the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracus e rightly determined that having an in-person presbytery meeting would be a dangerous and unnecessary risk to our well-being. So, we will be having an online presbytery meeting instead on June 9, 2020. Soon, the precise information and registration links will be coming your way.

As your stated clerk, it is my job to make sure this meeting is as efficient and as effective as possible. In order to do this, the following pre-meeting items will go in to effect:

If you discover the need to make a motion after May 25 and before June 9, please consider sending it in writing ahead of time.

Motions can also be emailed to statedclerk@cayugasyracuse.org

There are also a few guidelines that we can look to as we work to make an online meeting successful:

If you have questions, do not hesitate to email me at statedclerk@cayugasyracuse.org

Blessings,

Pastor Ben Fitzgerald-Fye

June 9               Presbytery meeting (Zoom)

June 20-27       General Assembly 

August 11         Presbytery Stated Meeting, TBD  

November 14    Presbytery Stated Meeting, Westminster-Auburn

'We're the worst babysitters on the planet'

Environmentalist Bill McKibben says we have the answers to limit climate change

By Tammy Warren

Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE - Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben is passionate about pursuing energy that comes from above - sun and wind, rather than from below - coal, oil and gas, fossil fuels that he says are literally "decreating" planet Earth.

In his lecture, "Running Genesis in Reverse: Moral Witness on a Decreating Planet," livestreamed Monday as part of the 2020 Festival of Homiletics, McKibben, founder of the grassroots climate change movement 350.org, said, "I'm not much of a theologian, but it seems like power from above, instead of from the other place."

Scotland, he said, produces twice the electricity it uses every year from wind turbines.

We've failed so far in our job as stewards, he said. "The planet's temperature is changing. Its ocean chemistry is changing. There are half as many wild animals on this planet as there were 40 years ago. All those creeping things and swimming things and flying things that God looked at and pronounced 'good' - we're wiping out."

We're doing at least as bad a job with the gospel command to "love one's neighbor," he said. "We're drowning one's neighbor. We're making it impossible for them to grow food. We're spreading illness and disease." Fossil fuel pollution and climate change are projected to take 100 million lives, he said, almost all of them in the poorest parts of the world or the poorest sections of the U.S.

Continue reading...

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Practicing self-care during COVID-19

Social distancing doesn't mean putting ministry on hold

By Rick Jones & Randy Hobson

Office of the General Assembly

 

As churches and pastors have discovered in the past two months, social distancing doesn't mean putting ministry on hold. The work continues in new, innovative ways.

The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), urges pastors to be sure they take care of themselves while caring for others.

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