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 keep the Rev. Debra Thomas in your prayers. She had surgery earlier this 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: Northminster, North Syracuse; Onondaga Hill; Faith United Church of Oswego; Presbyterian Church of Otisco; New Hope, Parish

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. "

Thank You & Happy Retirement

The Rev. Robert Langston (Pastor Bob) is retiring after 28 years of service to Onondaga Hill Presbyterian Church. His final message from the pulpit will be this Sunday - December 29th.

The OHPC Church Family will honor Pastor Bob at a celebratory breakfast after the morning service.

Karen Langston, his wife, served the church in numerous ways, included blessing the congregation with her beautiful gift of music and leading worship with the church's youngest children.

We wish Pastor Bob and his wife, Karen, a happy and well-deserved retirement.

Onondaga Hill Presbyterian Church is located at 4797 Makyes Road in Syracuse. Service starts at 9 a.m.

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.

BE THE LIGHT: LaFayette Columbian Presbyterian Church lit up on Christmas Eve - Tuesday, December 24, 2024.

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

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.

Wishing you God’s peace this Christmas season

Over the next two weeks, Presbyterian News Service will suspend normal publication to celebrate the birth of Christ and then welcome the new year



Many, many thanks for reading the stories and viewing the videos and other assets that have come your way at pcusa.org throughout 2024. Presbyterian News Service is glad you keep coming back for more! We’re already laying plans for a robust 2025, and we invite you to keep following the work done by faithful Presbyterians in congregations and worshiping communities, mid councils and national boards and commissions, just to name a few arenas of God’s kin-dom work happening all around us. 

To celebrate God’s great gift at Christmas and then ring in the new year, Presbyterian News Service will go on hiatus beginning Monday. We’ll resume regular publication on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, with a small number of stories posted in the interim. To subscribe to a daily or weekly list of links to stories as well as other newsletters of interest, go here.

Communicators, podcasters, editors and multimedia producers thank you for continuing to read, view and tune in. We can hardly wait to see what God has in store next year. 

As always, join us as we pray for peace throughout all God’s good Creation.

Christmas Beatitudes

Christian Iosso writes: "Blessed are those who have no 'home for the holidays,' without jobs or funds to buy gifts, who have outlived their friends..."

Inspired by Matthew 5:1-12 and other Scripture.

Blessed are those who have no “home for the holidays,”

For they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Blessed are those in solitary without visitors,

For Jesus will come into their cells and sup with them.

Blessed are those who try to drink their way through Christmas,

For their thirst for the eternal will be quenched.

Blessed are those without jobs or funds to buy gifts

For they will find the hidden treasure of the parables.

Blessed are those being bombed without mercy or escape,

For they will find the peace that passes understanding.

Blessed are the children whose parents have died,

For God will wipe the tears from their eyes and hold them close.

Blessed are those stuck in refugee camps,

For they will find a promised land of welcome.

Blessed are those who have outlived all their friends,

For they will sense around them the great cloud of witnesses.

Blessed are the prophets who cannot forget the suffering,

For they will see the Lamb who was slain lifted up in the power of love.

Blessed are those who avoid thinking of children,

For they may see God’s face in the smile of a baby cradled in a manger.