Salem Matters News of What Matters This Week
in Salem Presbytery
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March 1, 2023 | Volume IX, Number 9
United First Presbyterian - Boonville
Bethesda Presbyterian - Statesville
Sandra Greene - Chaplain, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Salem Pastors Create "The Space Between"

I nearly laughed out loud when I first learned that members of the early church were thought to practice cannibalism – they were overheard in secret spaces talking about eating bodies and drinking blood after all. And I chuckled to myself a bit more recently when I was told that church leadership has been accused of vampirism – due to our all too common practice of waylaying young adults when they visit our churches, and then depending on their presence to sustain our congregational life.

Read More HERE
Mission Trip Planning

Summer mission season is fast approaching, and planning is underway to restart mission trips to the Hebron Mission in Chiapas, Mexico. (Presbyterians have been going on mission to Chiapas for over 28 years.) Trips are being restarted following Covid 19 and the recent death of Hebron founder, Rev. Pablo Feliciano Cruz. Previously, there have been up to eight weeks of trips annually to the Hebron Mission. Listed below are the trips currently being planned for summer 2023 and their focus.   
 
Construction trip June 24-July 2. The trip is being coordinated by Lora Crowley of Clemmons Presbyterian Church. Lora can be reached at llmc999@yahoo.com or by phone (336) 671-6095.
 
Construction trip July 8-16.  Planning for the trip is being coordinated by Randy Duval of 1st Presbyterian Church of Virginia Beach. Contact information is missions@firstpresvb.org or he can be reached by phone at (757) 672-1797.
 
Medical/Dental trip July22-30.  Planning is being coordinated by Rev. Christian Johnson of Presbyterian Church of Toms River. Contact information is christian@pctr.org  For more information and to see flyer click HERE.
 
Please consider participating in one of these trips and encourage your congregational Mission Committee to promote these opportunities for mission service.
For additional information about these and future mission efforts, contact the Salem Presbytery Mission Committee chair, Ray Mims by email: raymims1@gmail.com or by phone at (336) 202-6093.
Pennies for Hunger Lenten Challenge

Grace and Peace to you! The Salem Hunger Committee is elated to report that the Committee was able to grant the following non-profits, food banks, and shelters the following amount in our Spring Grant cycle: 
Samaritan Ministries in Winston-Salem: $2,500.00
Alamance Country Meals on Wheels: $2,500.00 
A Storehouse for Jesus in Mocksville: $2,500.00
Ashe Food Pantry (Ashe County): $2,500.00
Second Harvest Food Bank: $5,000.00
Rowan Helping Ministries: $2,500.00
Fifth Street Ministries In Statesville: $2,500.00
Presbyterian Church of Cross: $3,000.00
Wilkes Ministry of Hope: $2,000.00
Alliance Serving Chatham County: $2,500.00
Allied Churches of Alamance County: $2,000.00
Cross Roads in Burlington: $1,000.00
Blowing Rock Cares Food Pantry: $1,500.00
For those of you not familiar with Pennies for Hunger, the program was started by our presbytery in 1989, when congregations and their members were asked to contribute a small amount per meal to help feed hungry folks. Small donations by many make a huge impact on food insecurity. Since the program began, we have awarded over $3 million in food assistance to agencies. Fifty percent goes to local hunger agencies in our Presbytery, such as Second Harvest Food Bank, Samaritan Ministries, Iredell Christian Ministries, and the Concord Presbyterian Food Pantry. The rest is awarded to international projects, such as food for orphans at a primary school in Kenya, and a series of chicken farms that supply nutrition centers for children and expectant moms in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This past year the committee also provided $2,500 in relief funds for the people of Ukraine and Yemen. 

This is one of the most visible presbytery programs to members, and this season of Lent, the Hunger Committee would like to ask Member churches of Salem Presbyterian to consider giving not just on the second Sunday of the month, but every Sunday in Lent. 

Because of your faithfulness in sending in Pennies for Hunger Funds, the presbytery will continue to feed 150 orphans annually in Kenya and 300 children through the nutrition center in the DRC in 2023 and 2024. Collecting Pennies for Hunger is an easy way for congregations to answer the call of the Matthew 25 initiative to eradicate systemic poverty! 

“And the king will answer them, “Truly I will tell you, just as you did it to one of the lest of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” -Matthew 25: 40. 
Environmental Justice Concerns

Poisoned Land, Poisoned Water: A Legacy of Environmental Injustice and Racism in a North Carolina Company Town. The Reimagining America Project invites you to two forums on March 9 and March 20 at 7pm ET:

Join us virtually for a pair of forums on the poisoning of land and water around Badin, North Carolina by the giant aluminum company, Alcoa.  Alcoa purchased the town of Badin shortly after the town was founded. They built a large aluminum production facility at the site using electricity generated from a dam on the Yadkin River.  There are hazardous wastes associated with the production of aluminum.  Over the years these wastes have been mishandled producing risk to the town, to Badin Lake, and in particular to the African American residents of what is known as West Badin.  Although Alcoa closed the plant in 2007, they are still responsible for managing the waste and the related contamination. Please join us as people from various groups working on this problem discuss the situation and the path forward.  Organizations include the Yadkin Riverkeeper’s office, the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, the Southern Environmental Law Center, local citizens, and others.

The links to register for these virtual forums are:

https://bit.ly/3Yiou9p for March 9 at 7pm and https://bit.ly/3JtQHWw for March 20 at 7pm ET.

Blessings,

Jim Beard
Lending Library Drop-In Hours

The Rev. Christy Clore, our Interim Faith Formation Coordinator, is now available for drop in hours and consultation on both Lending Library materials and other Christian Education and Faith Formation resources. 

On-site congregational consults can also be requested and scheduled at times outside of these dedicated drop-in office hours. The upcoming hours are: 

March 8th, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
March 13th, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
March 22nd, 10:00 a.m. - 12 p.m.
March 27th, 10:00 a.m. - 12 p.m.

The Lending Library is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. - 4 .pm. (or by appointment) for you to browse our collection of books at historic Cedarhyrst in Old Salem. We have a vast array of books on faith formation, spiritual growth, music, theology, history, issues, memoirs, leadership, and plenty of children's materials! All accessible to you for FREE!
 
For one-on-one consultation with Christy Clore, please attend Drop In & Learn or contact us at 336.722.8126 or CCD@MCSP.org.
Lending Library Resource Highlights

Plays of the Passion
by Linn Creighton

While this resource has been around a very long time, it has stood the passage of time well. This collection of 8 plays chooses a variety of the characters that interacted with Jesus from John the Baptist to the Woman at the Well, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene, and others. Each play can be used as written or any of them can become wonderful dramatic readings for worship or midweek gatherings during Lent and throughout the Easter season.

I've personally used this collection in recent years with our staff team and lay leaders in the Kernersville Moravian congregation. It offered us some great content which was developed into some dramatic readings that lay folks recorded and were shared as midweek video devotionals and for Sunday morning services. The storytelling helped folks imagine the action taking place at the core of several scriptures and think about what might have been going through the minds of the people who encountered Jesus in the journey toward the cross. 
- Christy Clore
FEMA Offers Non-profit Security Grants

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Grant Programs Directorate (GPD) invites nonprofit organizations to participate in upcoming webinars regarding the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). The NSGP provides funding support through a competitive process for facility hardening and other security enhancements to nonprofit organizations at high risk of a terrorist or other extremist attack and promotes emergency preparedness coordination and collaboration between public and private community representatives, as well as state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.

FEMA is committed to providing quality customer service to all nonprofit organization stakeholders, including socially vulnerable, underserved, and under-represented communities. With this goal in mind, GPD is offering the following informational NSGP webinars for all nonprofit organizations interested in learning more about the FY 2023 NSGP priorities, eligibility, and application process.

For all attendees, it is strongly recommended that you review the existing NSGP resources available at https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/nonprofit-security prior to the webinar, particularly the “How to Apply” section of the NSGP Subapplicant Quick Start Guide. These resources are intended to assist readers in understanding the program and requirements in plain language. Familiarity with this material will improve attendees’ experience in the upcoming webinars.
Upcoming Ordination Anniversaries!

Please Pass along congratulations to the following who are celebrating anniversaries of their ordinations:
Parish Matters
Prayer Matters
March Prayers for:
 Committee on Representation
CPM - Committee on Preparation for Ministry
Please Hold the Following in Your Prayers
  • The congregation at Dellabrook Presbyterian as they recover from the recent vandalism.
  • Family of Elder Madilu Wright, Pleasant Grove Presbyterian, who passed away recently.
  • Family of Rev. Ernest Trice Thompson, Jr., who passed away recently.
  • Family of Rev. Ed Lewis, HR, whose wife Martha passed away on Saturday, March 4th. Obituary can be found HERE.
  • Family of the Rev. Charles Davenport on his February 22 death in Gastonia. A member of Western NC Presbytery, Davenport served as a transitional pastor at Prospect PC.

We will list these prayer requests for two weeks unless we are notified that they are to be continued. You may submit prayer requests through the link below.
PCUSA Matters
PCUSA Job Opportunities
The latest in Job Opportunities with the PCUSA, as of February 22, 2023
Board of Pensions Call to Health
Click the link below to join the Board of Pensions Call to Health.
PCUSA News and Announcements
Click below for the latest news and announcements from the PCUSA.


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