The per capita billed to our churches for 2026 is $39 (GA $11.26, Synod $3.81, PGR $23.93). This money goes to support the ministries of our Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly. Churches are assessed this apportionment for each active member of their congregation. The work of the PGR staff is supported by per capita giving. Each church’s per capita is based on the final membership reported on December 31, 2024. | The IRS has increased the mileage reimbursement rate for business travel to 72.5 cents per mile. | | Attention Clerks of Session | | It’s Annual Statistics time for Clerks of Session! Packets were sent in December via email to all Clerks, using the contact information we have on file. Please check your spam folder if you have not received your packet, or contact Brandy or Elissa. The final day to enter data into the portal system is February 20. | | | | | |
Meet Annette Simmons
Annette began as the Presbytery Treasurer on
January 1. We hope you will welcome her warmly
in the new year!
PGRTreasurer@greatriverspby.org
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Per Capita
Thank you to all of the churches that contributed towards Per Capita in 2025. We had 63 churches pay in full! See the complete list here.
Contributions received after January 1, 2026, can still be applied against 2025 balances; however, they will show posting in the 2026 fiscal year
Board of Pensions
Please be sure that you’ve updated your employees' salary information if it is changing for 2026. This ensures that you are paying accurate dues and employees are receiving the correct pension amounts. Log in to the portal at Benefits Connect. Contact the Board of Pensions if you have questions. 800‑PRESPLAN (800‑773‑7752) (TTY: 711), Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, or email us at memberservices@pensions.org.
Special Offerings
As of January 1, the Special Offerings Program will have three funds. These funds will pass through to Presbytery Mission.
World Communion Offering - The Peace & Global Witness offering will now be received in this fund.
One Great Hour of Sharing
Christmas Joy
The 2026 remittance form reflects these changes. You will receive a paper copy this month in the mail with the end of year statements. The form is also available on our website here.
Paid Leave for All Workers Act
Are you in compliance with this law that took effect on January 1, 2024? All workers, irrespective of their status as full-time or part-time, are entitled to earn and use up to 40 hours of paid leave time each year. The legislation provides that paid leave shall accrue at the rate of one hour for every 40 hours worked. This applies to everyone, regardless of whether part-time, full-time, hourly, or salaried. More information can be found here.
2026 Retirement Savings
State law now requires every Illinois employer with five or more employees to offer their own retirement program or facilitate Illinois Secure Choice. Illinois Secure Choice is a state-facilitated retirement program that makes it easy to save for retirement. This is a good time to confirm if your employees are participating and if their dollar amount withholding will change. Visit their site or contact us for more information.
Review of the Books
It is recommended that the “review of the books” be done internally annually for two years. An outside party (preferably a CPA) is recommended in the third year. These reviews are important to protect the church, as well as those who handle money and set policy. Note: this is not an audit. This step-by-step workbook, authored by Edd Breeden, can help with your reviews. You may also consider partnering with another congregation to share resources.
As always...
- Please submit a fully completed remittance form with check payments to the presbytery to ensure they are applied as intended.
-
Email complete remittance forms to Sabrina if sent from your bank online.
- Reach out to either of us anytime with questions or concerns.
Thanks,
Annette Simmons – Treasurer Sabrina McGrath – Bookkeeper
PGRTreasurer@greatriverspby.org smcgrath@greatriverspby.org
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Randy Seals, pastor of Sugar Tree Grove Presbyterian Church, died unexpectedly on Christmas Day.
Please pray for his wife, Linda; family; and the congregation of Sugar Tree Grove. A visitation has been
held. There will be no service.
Read Randy’s obituary here.
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The Presbytery Pulpit Supply list is updated routinely. You can find it on the PGR website. | | | | 2026 Preaching Retreat at the Sacre Coeur Retreat Center | | |
Looking for ways to breathe new life into preaching for Holy Week and Easter? Join us for this workshop with Anna Carter Florence and Jake Myers from Columbia Theological Seminary, as we explore the familiar lectionary stories from Year A together. This two-day event will be a lively and energizing deep dive into Scripture and your own preaching ministry.
Event Dates: Friday, March 6 & Saturday, March 7, 2026.
Event Location: Sacre Coeur Retreat Center | 8508 Country Road 100N, Magnolia, IL 61336 | (309)409-5519
Cost Includes:
- Friday lunch, dinner, evening social time, overnight accommodations, breakfast, and Saturday lunch.
- $25 Commissioned Ruling Elders
- $50 Ministers of Word and Sacrament and other preachers
Click here to learn more and to register by February 1. Maximum 30 preachers.
| | Church Safety and Security Workshop | | Healthy Practices for Healthy Communities | | |
This in-person workshop fulfills the denominational requirement for boundary training!
While most of the boundary trainings that we experience focus on the important boundaries related to sexual misconduct, a healthy ministry encompasses and goes beyond this aspect of pastoral relationships. In fact,
healthy ministry is a practice within communities of dynamic, often messy human relationships.
In this workshop, we’ll explore pastoral ministry and boundaries within communities of practice, discovering essential approaches to healthy ministry rooted in clearer self-knowledge, enhanced capacities for self-differentiation, contextual understanding for effective everyday boundary setting, and greater facility to act
from a healthy center—essential tools for meaningful, life-giving relationships.
-
Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2025
- Time: 10 am to 2:00 pm (eastern)
- Place: Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, 46260
- (317) 253-6461
-
www.secondchurch.org
- Lunch Provided; registrants will be contacted immediately before February 4 to provide their menu choices.
Take the immediate right driveway after entering and park in the lower, back lot.
Enter through the double set of wooden doors.
Register now at: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/94yzu7b
This training has been developed by and will be led by Presbytery leaders from the Synod of Lincoln Trails.
Additional training dates and locations for 2026 will be announced before the end of January.
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CRE Zoom Check-in
Monday, Jan 26, 10:00 am
CREs join here.
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Pastor Zoom Check-in
Wednesday, Jan 28, 12:00 noon
A time to share your Ash Wednesday
and Lent plans, discuss how you are preaching about tough subjects, and check-in with colleagues and friends.
Pastors join here.
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To help you plan your preaching, worship, group study, seasonal study, mission building, and more, we've collected resources into convenient digital resource guides. These guides help you easily compare products
and access excerpts so you can choose the perfect resources for you and your church.
We regularly update these guides with new resources, so you can always access the latest guide at www.pcusastore.com/resource-guides. Don't forget to share with others in your church community!
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As we prepare to enter Lent, many of us are carrying uncertainty, exhaustion, or concern for a world that feels increasingly fractured. This year, the Presbyterian Outlook is offering a new Lenten devotional — Discipleship in a Divided Age.
Written by Outlook Publisher/Editor Teri McDowell Ott, this daily devotional helps to anchor us in Scripture and guide our spiritual practices during this sacred season. Discipleship in a Divided Age follows the Gospel of Matthew and speaks directly into our moment. Through daily reflections, thoughtful questions and weekly visio divina practices, this resource invites us to live faithfully amid division and uncertainty. Intrigued? View a sample of week one.
This devotional offers:
- Six daily readings each week grounded in Scripture
- Reflection questions to help integrate faith into everyday life
- Closing prayers shaped for personal or communal use
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Weekly visio divina
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A pastoral voice that meets readers with honesty, clarity and hope
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Join us Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23 at 7:30-8:45pm (EST) for a churchwide (PCUSA) film study on “Evicting the American Dream," an excellent documentary about homelessness, the U.S. housing crisis, and its impacts on children produced by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Counter Stories Productions.
We will gather weekly online after having watched each week’s segment of the film. We will hear from featured speakers and discuss issues of redlining, housing commodification, eviction, the impact of housing insecurity on children, and ways to take action in our own communities.
Advanced registration is required to receive the meeting links and instructions to view the film segments each week. Stay tuned to PC(USA) social media, PC(USA) news, and https://hubs.ly/Q03WWCnz0 for registration details.
| | Presbyterian Peace Fellowship | | |
New Action Circles for Protecting Children from Gun Violence:
Imagining a New World
Wednesdays on Zoom; Noon ET, 11 CT, 10 MT, 9 PT
Bring a bag lunch or brunch!
Winter: Feb. 4 - March 4
Register HERE. (limited to 12 participants)
Spring: April 15- May 13
Register HERE.
This five session series on Zoom will guide you and your congregation in finding your action for protecting children from gun violence. Created by educational and pastoral leaders in the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, this faith-based program covers in one hour a key topic each week:
- Children in the Crossfire: Why is gun violence the top killer of our children?
- Saving Child Lives with Secure Gun Storage
- Seeing Our Children: The mental and spiritual health of children in the crossfire
- Direct Action Options for Real Safety for Children
- Advocacy, Voting and Finding Next Steps for Your Congregation
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Volunteer to help with General Assembly
The 227th General Assembly, hosted by the Presbytery of Milwaukee at
the Baird Center, needs your time and talents. If you are available between Sunday, June 21, 2026, and Thursday, July 2, 2026, please sign up using this link. You will be contacted with more information about where you can help. We will have spots for all capabilities.
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We give thanks to God for these faithful congregations
- Center Presbyterian Church in Seaton
- First Presbyterian Church of Divernon
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January Ordination Anniversaries
January 9, 2005 – The Rev. Jennifer Sakata, Member at Large
January 29, 2012 – The Rev. Christopher “Chip” Roland, Chaplain, OSF Peoria
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Jan 18 | 4:00 pm | Installation Service for Rev. Bryan Burris | Danvers, First PC
Jan 20 | 1:00 pm | Operations Commission | Zoom
Jan 21 | 7:00 pm | Mission Commission | Zoom
Jan 22 | 10:00 am | Commission on Congregational Life | Peoria, United PC
Jan 26 | 10:00 am | CRE Check-in | Zoom
Jan 27 | 3:30 pm | Leadership Council | Zoom
Jan 28 | 12:00 pm | Pastor Zoom Check-in
Jan 29 | 10:00 am | PGR On the Road to Jacksonville, IL
Feb 3 | 12:30 pm | Commission on Transitions | Zoom
Feb 10 | 6:00 pm | Presbytery Assembly | Zoom
Feb 12 | 1:00 pm | Commission on Pastoral Leadership | Zoom
Feb 17 | 3:30 pm | CARE | Zoom
Feb 18 | Ash Wednesday
Feb 28 | 9:00 am | Church Safety & Security Workshop | Springfield Hope PC
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Beware of Spam and Scam Emails
Privacy Alert: The Presbytery Directory, as well as
your church directory is for members only.
Please DO NOT share this information to protect everyone's privacy.
- It's always a good idea to check the email address before responding to requests.
- Grammatical errors and awkward phrasing often signal potential scams.
- Do not respond to emails that ask for money or favors.
- If something feels off, it probably is!
- No one on the Presbytery staff will ever send you a request asking for money or gift cards.
| | Open Searches for Pastoral Leadership in Great Rivers | | Presbytery of Great Rivers Directory | | Presbytery of Great Rivers Staff | | |
Lead Presbyter
Ann Schwartz | 309-683-6983 | Email: aschwartz@greatriverspby.org
Office hours: Sunday through Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm; some evenings. Friday is her sabbath.
Stated Clerk
Elissa Bailey | 309-371-2511 | Email: pastorebailey@gmail.com
Office hours: Monday through Thursday, 7:30am - 3:00pm. If you have an emergency, please call or
text me at 309-371-2511.
Communications and Administrative Assistant
Brandy Walters | 309-683-6980 | Email: bwalters@greatriverspby.org
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday, 9:00am - 3:00pm. Please leave her a message, and she will
return your call.
Bookkeeper
Sabrina McGrath | 309-683-6981 | Email: smcgrath@greatriverspby.org
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00am - 3:00pm
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Get Connected!
Encourage your congregations, sessions, and even your church newsletter editorial staff and volunteers to sign up for our presbytery newsletter and follow our Facebook page so you don't miss out on
what is going on in our community of churches!
Be sure to Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to PGR’s YouTube channel here to get notifications of our new videos. Share your congregation’s videos with us so we can let others know about your mission and ministry. If you have questions, need help, or want to share a video, contact Cheyanna Losey, cheyannalosey@gmail.com or 309- 299-4790.
| | https://www.greatriverspby.org/ |   | |   | | | |
