We are asking our churches to share this newsletter with your members each week. Click the button below to forward the email or to obtain the newsletter link.

Thank you! 

In our prayers together this week:

• Please pray for Bob Green, husband of Rev. Karen Green of the Mexico church, who was admitted to the hospital this week. Please keep Bob and Karen both in your prayers.
• Pray or all the graduates who are embarking on the next chapter in their lives.
• Pray for 14-year-old Jerry Armstrong who has been diagnosed with bone cancer. He attends Whitelaw Presbyterian Church with his family.
• Pray for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
• 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:  Isaiah’s Table, Syracuse; Korean Church of Syracuse; Park Central, Syracuse; Robinson Elmwood United Church, Syracuse; First, Weedsport; Whitelaw

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. "

Scam Alert!

Be aware that scammers are targeting churches! 

One recent scam involves the offer of a FREE grand piano provided the church pays a freight company $2500 for shipping. Educate your session, church secretary and volunteers of the following warning signs:

• An introductory tale of upheaval (My spouse died; I'm going through a divorce; I'm moving and can't take it with me)
• Refusal by the scammer to speak on the phone, insisting that all information be shared and transactions conducted by email
• Fee to the freight company must be paid with a bank draft
• Fee is paid prior to shipping

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck SCAM.

Under the new guidelines from the Book of Order, boundary training is required every three years for: Ministers of Word and Sacrament, Certified Christian Educators (CCE), Certified Christian Ruling Elders (CRE) and Inquirers before moving to candidacy. 

The presbytery has contracted with SafeGatherings https://safegatherings.com for the online boundary training course. To learn more, or to register for the course, please contact your committee chair or the interim resource presbyter.

Background checks for incoming Ministers of the Word & Sacrament are now conducted through Praesidium.

https://www.praesidiuminc.com

To request a background check, please contact your COM liaison.

Next Up for Isaiah’s Table:

"The Bible Through a Love-Centered Lens"

Isaiah's Table finished up its Book Club and resumed on Wednesday, July 10th with a Video Study on Zoom. The Video Study is from "The Bible for Normal People" called The Bible Through a Love-Centered Lens.

Isaiah’s Table Zoom info: ID: 817 7537 2317

Passcode: 574101

The Presbytery Women of Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery continues their study on discrimination. While this group started as a Presbyterian Women study during COVID, men have come and are welcome. And you don’t even have to be from Cayuga-Syracuse or New York. 

The group is taking a slight break from the deeper books and are reading "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs. A little humor never hurt! The group meet Tuesdays at 7 pm.



https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83940141935?pwd=FWEgF8PZlHKqbzxkch6KjzQ7l9muVy.1

Meeting ID: 839 4014 1935

Passcode: 163672

SPREAD THE WORD: FREE CLOTHING!

The First Presbyterian Church of Weedsport is operating a free clothing giveaway at the church. It is open Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Thursday from 4 to 6:30 p.m. All clothing is free and people are encouraged to take anything they can use. No questions asked.

PRC's Summer & Fall 2024 Online events

All webinars are recorded. Click the title to register or read the description.

 Responding Effectively to Christian Nationalism

Thursday, July 18, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

Leaders -Brian Kaylor, Beau Underwood

The dangers that Christian Nationalism poses to both church and state are increasingly understood, but it is hard to know what you and your congregation can do about a problem so big. This webinar will explain what Christian Nationalism is (and isn't), how many mainline and progressive Christians inadvertently advance its cause, and how individuals and communities can practically respond. 

Workshop – Moving Spirit

Thursday, July 25, 2024 – Deadline to Register July 11

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

Leader – Marth Gallagher

Moving Spirit offers clergy and lay leaders the opportunity to nurture themselves; to set aside their leadership responsibilities and simply connect with the Beloved; body, mind and spirit, through music, spoken word and authentic dance.

The Gifts They Bring: How Children and the Gospels Can Shape Inclusive Ministry

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

Leader – Amy Linderman Allen

Join us to explore familiar Gospel stories together envisioning afresh the experience of childhood in Jesus’ world and what those experiences might mean for children and families in ministry today. We will reconsider the age and relationship of well-known and lesser-known Bible characters, and read each of these stories in conversation with experiences of real children in the church today, bringing into focus the varied gifts that children bring in a practice of inclusive ministry. These gifts include participation, proclamation, advocacy, listening, sharing, and partnership. Participants will grow more attuned to recognize the gifts that we each bring—children and adults—as essential members working together as one community in the body of Christ and so to share in the gift of Christ together.

Managing Stress Before it Manages You

Thursday, September 12, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

Leader – Charles Stone

In this webinar you’ll learn an evidence-based tool to better combat stress and develop your resilience.

Healing Fractured Communities

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

Leaders - Jessica L. Anschutz, Douglas Powe

Are you experiencing fractures in your community? Fractures like racism, education inequality and poverty, to name a few, plague those inside and outside of the church. Given our fractured landscape and the diversity of contexts where congregations exist, "How can congregational leaders be both healers and agitators at the same time?" The danger of simply being a healer ignores the underlying causes of the fracture(s) in a community. The danger of simply being an agitator is others ignore you because your voice is monotone. Being a leader who lives in this tension inside a faith community and the public square requires nimbleness. A nimbleness that allows for being an ointment and an irritant when needed. This webinar will equip you to do ministry in a manner that not only impacts the church, but can transform the community.

New York State Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Webinars

You can take this training any time during the year

charlaine@prcli.org

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm 

(New Date & Time)

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

2-3:30 pm

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

2 -- 3:30 pm

Our Address: PO Box 438, Syracuse, NY 13214

Click Here for Staff Contact Information

Click Here for a list of Live Streams from our churches

Click Here for a list of Past Editions of Presbytery Matters

Are you hiring?

If your church is hiring, please send an announcement and job description to Communication Coordinator Sarah Buckshot at caysyrnews@gmail.com

Please Note: Hiring announcements will run in Presbytery Matters for 3 weeks and then moved to our website. If you have a hiring announcement from 2023 and are still looking to fill it in 2024, please send a new announcement.

Thank you, Sarah Buckshot, Communications Coordinator.

‘Dream big because God is big’

Through power of story and witness, PMA Breakfast inspires attendees to re-envision property as a tool for mission and ministry

By Emily Enders Odom

General Assembly News

The Property with a Purpose Breakfast, hosted by the Presbyterian Mission Agency, on July 3, included a panel discussion with (left to right) the Rev. Mark Elsdon, the Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena, the Rev. Sharon Core, Commissioned Pastor Kevin Riley, and the Rev. Dr. Winterbourne Harrison-Jones. Photo by Kristen Gaydos

If anything can succeed in generating a solid crowd at 6:45 a.m. during the already rigorous demands of a General Assembly, it’s the promise that God is doing a new thing.

And, just maybe, a speaker like the Rev. Mark Elsdon.

Elsdon, a Presbyterian pastor and author, energized the early morning gathering not only through his remarks but also as moderator of a panel whose powerful stories of using church property to advance their mission was punctuated with frequent applause.

Continue reading...

Rallying behind new worshiping communities

Event celebrates innovation, partnership

By Beth Waltemath

General Assembly News

The Rev. Gad Mpoyo tells General Assembly participants about the resources available to support immigrant communities. Photo by Kristen Gaydos.

Fifty people attended the 1001 New Worshiping Communities (1001 NWC) lunch at the Marriott’s Skylight Ballroom on Tuesday afternoon to gather and encourage church and mid council leaders to support new worshiping communities and their partnerships with existing churches and mid councils.

The Rev. Nikki Collins, coordinator of 1001 NWC, welcomed the group and introduced her colleagues at the Presbyterian Mission Agency, who are fostering and resourcing ministries that are innovating and growing. Collins gave shoutouts to the work of the Center for Innovation and the 2024 Evangelism Conference, which will be held Oct. 3–5 in Louisville, as well as to those present from 1001 NWC: the Revs. Gad Mpoyo, Jeya So and Shawn Kang (who was present virtually).

“I am so proud of the impact that this movement is having for our church,” said Collins, who highlighted some facts about participants in new worshiping communities:

• 600 of the 800 new worshiping communities that have launched in the past eight years are still worshiping — a 75% success rate.
• 75% are under the age of 55.
• 40% were not previously part of a Christian church.
• 
  

“New worshiping communities conduct more adult baptisms on average than our existing PC(USA) congregations,” said Collins, who also noted that due to their younger demographic, infant and child baptisms are high in these communities, too.

Continue reading...