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Thank you! 

In our prayers together this week:

• Please keep the Rev. Debra Thomas in your prayers. She had surgery last month after suffering a painful shoulder dislocation and a severe broken arm from a fall. Deb thanks everyone for the continued prayers and support.
• Pray for those who are struggling with the holiday season.
• Pray for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
• All those in Sudan.
• All those in Ukraine.
• All those in Lebanon.
• All those in Israel and Gaza.
• All displaced people.
• All those who are homebound.
• All those who battling addiction.
• Keep all those who battling cancer and other chronic illnesses 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: Port Byron Federated; First, Scipioville; Sennett Federated Church; First, Skaneateles

A prayer for walking into a new year

God is not bound by our past. Karen Rohrer invites us to look beyond fear, embrace the unknown, and trust in God's promise of renewal.

By Karen Rohrer

The Presbyterian Outlook

Holy God,

As we look out on the horizons of a new year, it is hard to see your promise with fresh eyes. The memories we carry in our bodies, the patterns we know from the lives we have lived, and the stories we have told cloud our vision. We are weighed down by the fears of all the years, the old fables, the generational wounds, the trusty and cautious hopes that got us through this far.

But God, you are not the slowly bending arc of history. You are not the past warmed up to meet us yet again in infinite and gently looping cycles. You are not likelihood and probability, plausible outcomes and logical conclusions. You do not come to us in the slow march of progress or the incremental degradation of structures and institutions.

Your story is the deeper magic from before the drums of history, before our forming stories and earthen bodies set us here to walk this particular, human road — and yet you walk with us even here in this in-between space.

As we look to a new year, we ask that you dispel the ghosts we conjure and fear. Meet us again with genuine newness. We are so tired of what has been, so afraid of what may come again. Stay with us as we wait for what will be.

Spirit of new life, give us eyes to see what feels implausible. Grant us the hope and the diligence to follow the seeds of revolution and revelation already planted. Point us again to the surprise and delight of nature and neighbor. Reintroduce us to the people you have made and the communities to which you have called us. Grant us the presence and good sense to look up and out, to seek eyes that might meet our own and sun to touch our skin. Remind us that the past we drag with us does not govern your future, that the future you bring is broader and wider and newer than all we have ever known.

As we look out on the horizon of a new year, give us the courage and trust to see you even there. Join us as we walk into your new morning.

Amen.

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. "

Attention Churches: Do you need event graphics created for social media and online use? Communications Coordinator Sarah Buckshot can help create graphics for you to share online. Do you need a Word Document or PDF converted to an image file for better sharing online? Sarah can help. Please don't hesitate to reach out and request a graphic at anytime! Sarah can be reached at caysyrnews@gmail.com

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.

FAREWELL: The Rev. Robert (Bob) Langston delivered his final sermon before retirement at Onondaga Hill Presbyterian Church on Sunday, December 29, 2024. Watch sermon Watch thank you video here.

From the Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium: The rush of Advent and Christmas Day has passed, but do not be so quick to put away your tree. Christmastide continues, ending on Epiphany! The following is a wonderful activity to do with your youth for Epiphany. Includes opening icebreakers, star words, a worksheet, group sharing suggestions and a closing prayer. https://bit.ly/3D9SaAj

Our Address: PO Box 438, Syracuse, NY 13214

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Click Here for a list of Past Editions of Presbytery Matters

Appreciative Inquiry: Finding your church’s positive core

Tuesday, January 14, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EST

Leader – Paul Breda

Explore your church’s best self through Appreciative Inquiry - a strengths-based philosophy and framework for creating positive organizational change. AI builds from our positive core of spiritual faith: it believes that when you seek evidence of positive, life-affirming human activity, you will find it; humanity has the opportunity to create the reality we seek through meaningful interaction with others.

After this webinar, you will have a starting point for exploring your church’s positive core as a pathway to a reinvigorated future.

Reaching New People in New Ways in a Traditional Established Church

Thursday, January 23, 2025

2:00 – 3:00 pm

Leader – Brett DeHart

New offerings such as Messy Church, Dinner Church, Single Parents, and Recovery offer traditional established churches the opportunity to reach new people in new ways without blowing up what we already love. At first though, these can be perceived as a threat to the way we've always done things. Thus, starting and sustaining new offerings requires a grace-filled approach. In this webinar, Rev. Brett DeHart reveals a transformative seven-action process proven to galvanize set-in-their-ways congregations forward into a new adventure.

You'll learn how to:

·        Maximize the gift of desperation.

·        Create an environment where tradition and innovation together ignite vitality.

·        Move your dream from passionate fire to fruition.

Funding Fresh Ministry Initiatives

Thursday, February 6, 2025

2:00 – 3:00 pm

Leader – Brett DeHart

God has put a big dream on your heart to reach new people in new ways. Sadly, that fire is quickly doused when you think about paying for it. This workshop will equip you with the tools and confidence to pursue your God-given vision without limitations. Rev. DeHart will guide you through proven methods to go beyond your operating budget to tap into alternative sources of funding. Never let money dictate the scope of your reach ever again!

Help Wanted: Church Organist for Rural Country Church



Position: Church Organist/Pianist

Location: Whitelaw Presbyterian Church, Canastota NY

Job Type: Part time - 5 hours weekly

"Whitelaw Presbyterian Church is seeking a skilled and dedicated organist to enrich our worship services with music. This role involves accompanying weekly services, special ceremonies (such as weddings and funerals), and family choir rehearsals 6:30 pm on Thursday. We are looking for someone who is musically proficient, dependable, and passionate about enhancing the worship experience through music."

Key Responsibilities:

• Play organ for weekly services and special church events
• Select and arrange hymns and music pieces in coordination with church leadership
• Support choir rehearsals 6:30 pm on Thursday
• Perform basic maintenance of the organ and report any issues

Qualifications:

• Proficiency in organ performance, sight-reading, and music selection
• Previous experience in a church setting is preferred
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Commitment to regular attendance and participation in church services and events

Compensation: Depends on Experience

How to Apply: Interested candidates are asked to call Donna Chapman, CLP at (315) 447-9196. Auditions will be part of the selection process.

Northville United Presbyterian Church seeks pastor

Northville United Presbyterian Church (NUPC), nestled in the bucolic village of Northville, New York is searching for a vibrant, compassionate part-time to full-time Pastor to lead and accompany us on our quest to becoming better Disciples of Christ. Located on the Great Sacandaga lake in the beautiful Adirondack Park of Upstate New York, we are a small but active congregation serving the Lord and community in various outreach and inhouse programs who desire a forward-thinking pastor to preach the teachings of Christ and relate them to our daily lives. Our pastor will also shepherd our efforts in our music program, develop programs to attract youth and minister to the needs of the elderly in our midst. Read More...

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.

God’s family on the move

There’s never a good time to move

Mary knew it. And Joseph did, too. And yet, despite Mary’s being great with child, they left their home in Nazareth of Galilee to travel to Bethlehem of Judea when God and civic duty called.

Like the Holy Family, I didn’t want to move. We were comfortable in our community, moored in our ministries. And yet, because God’s call once again proved irresistible, off we went in September from the relative warmth of Louisville, Kentucky, to the lake effect snow and bitter cold temperatures of Rochester, New York.

There’s never a good time to move.

But this last move was easy compared with the one we made nearly 30 years ago. Great with child myself at that time, I remember sitting on the floor of my church office, staring up at the crowded bookshelves and down at the empty packing boxes, immobilized and in tears. I couldn’t move. And yet somehow, I did.

Somehow, with our soon-to-be-born daughter Elizabeth — named for Mary’s visit to her similarly expectant cousin in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel — leaping for joy in my womb, and my husband John’s steady hand coaxing me onward, we packed up and drove off.

And not surprisingly, all these many years and several moves later, some of those same boxes remain unopened. Such are the realities of moving.

And this first Christmas in our new home has proved especially challenging. At the bottom of which unpacked box, we wondered, would we find our family’s Christmas stockings? No matter, really, since there’s no fireplace or mantel here on which to hang them. But, even more importantly, where was John’s Nativity collection? That discovery was far more critical, because Elizabeth’s annual tradition has always been to arrange — and rearrange — each beloved grouping of figures, a practice she planned to teach our one-year-old grandson Elijah this year.

Just as we were about to despair of ever finding them, the angel’s words never rang truer: “Fear not!”

For amidst all the boxes, open or not, stacked high in our basement, the Nativity set we bought for Elijah last year in anticipation of this very moment rose to the top.

It was a sign. In a miraculous season filled with signs and wonders.

There’s never a good time to move. But at Christmas, whatever journey — whether arduous or easy — has led us to this day, let us rejoice in the miracle of resilience that brought us wherever we are; and that sent Mary and Joseph to the city of David to deliver to us a Savior, who never ceases to surprise and delight us with the good news of great joy for all people.

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on Earth peace, goodwill among people. Amen.