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 Douglas Russell's daughter Mary who suffers from RSD and is having a very difficult time with it right now.
• Pray for Ed and Brenda Peck. Ed is in the VA Hospital with dementia waiting to be transferred to a long-term care facility and his wife Brenda is suffering from RSD and multiple complications.
• 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.
• Please pray for unity and peace in America during an already tumultuous election season.
• All those in Ukraine.
• All those in Israel and Gaza.
• 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: United Church of Fayetteville; First United Church of Fulton; God’s Vision Christian Church, Hannibal; Jamesville Community Church; First, King Ferry

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. "

The Presbytery is putting together a bulk order for 2024-2025 Presbyterian Planning Calendars to get a reduced cost. Please use this link to let us know how many 2024-2025 Planning Calendars you would like. Calendars will be $9.75 + $0.60 S&H. Once your order is placed, Kristin Schierer, Presbytery Bookkeeper, will invoice you.  Orders are due by September 27^th, and calendars will be distributed at the Presbytery meeting in November.

Ordering Link: https://forms.gle/6tHmezwR5NHZ8X169

Be on guard for scammers who request access to membership directories so they can harvest the Personal Identifiable Information (PII) to spam or scam church members. These individuals claim to be church members and request access to the directory via email or an online website form. Once given directory access, they can then send spam messages to members via email or text. At Instant Church Directory, we want to provide insights and best practices on how to keep your church directory safe from scammers. Read More...

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.

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.

Sentinel led worship on Sunday at Northminster Presbyterian Church on Sunday Sentinel was formed in 1993 to perform occasional anthems in the members' churches. Today, the singers are from five different churches and the group sings at worship services, concerts and church social events over a wide region. Thank you, Sentinel members for sharing your ministry with us!

PRC's Summer & Fall 2024 Online events

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

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, August 14, 2024

2-3:30 pm

Join the Synod-Wide Indigenous Mission Day!

Get ready for an incredible day of service, connection, and cultural immersion! We are excited to announce the Synod-Wide Indigenous Mission Day on September 28, 2024, and we invite you to be a part of this transformative experience. The Synod-Wide Indigenous Mission Day is a dedicated day of action and solidarity, where we come together to support our Indigenous brothers and sisters. The event will feature hands-on building repair projects, opportunities to build meaningful relationships, and immersive cultural experiences.

Why Should You Get Involved?

1. Make a Tangible Impact: Participate in building repair projects that directly benefit Indigenous communities. Your skills and efforts will help improve living conditions and community spaces.
2. Build Lasting Relationships: Engage in activities that foster understanding and partnership with Indigenous community members. Learn from each other and build friendships that go beyond this one day.
3. Experience Indigenous Culture: Immerse yourself in the rich traditions & stories while celebrating their heritage and resilience within the community.

How Can You Help?



We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join us. Whether you're an expert or just willing to lend a hand, your help is valuable. Bring your skills in construction, carpentry, painting, or general handyman work to help with repair projects.

Spread the Word & let's make the Synod-Wide Indigenous Mission Day an unforgettable and impactful event, together!

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.

A look back at Freedom Summer

Dr. Edward McNulty pens the first of two installments on his experiences in Mississippi 60 years ago

By Dr. Edward McNulty

Special to Presbyterian News Service

A woman casts her ballot in Mississippi in 1964. (Photo by Unseen Histories via Unsplash)

Editor’s note: Dr. Edward McNulty, a retired Presbyterian pastor who normally submits features about films for Presbyterian News Service, turns his attention Monday and Tuesday to Freedom Summer, which occurred 60 years ago. Below is the first installment of his firsthand account.

This summer marks the 60th anniversary of what was dubbed by white Mississippians an “invasion” by “outside agitators.”

As of the night of Aug. 4, it was 60 years ago that I drove myself and Methodist colleague the Rev. Roger Smithe over Old Man River at Natchez, Mississippi, just as the news bulletin about finding the bodies of the three missing civil rights workers came over our car radio.



Although many memories remain vivid after the passage of six decades, I am thankful that I kept a daily journal so that I could check the memories recounted below. Roger and I pastored churches in Bottineau, North Dakota, in 1964, and when we discovered the other had answered a Council of Churches’ letter to join the Freedom Project, arranged to travel together.

Continue reading...

Preaching wisely and living justly in unsettling times

Dean of the Howard University School of Divinity builds on his July 9 presentation at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church

By Mike Ferguson

Presbyterian News Service

Building on what he told an online audience on July 9, Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, Dean of the Howard University School of Divinity and the McClenton Scholar in Residence for the summer at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., spoke Saturday at the church and online on “Preaching Wisely and Living Justly in Unsettling Times.” View Gilbert’s 83-minute presentation and a question-and-answer session here. Gilbert begins his talk at the 10:50 mark.

One thing’s for certain, Gilbert said: “Despite our very real concerns about human survival in the face of suffering and collective grief, we can trust personally that a covenant-keeping God will supply hope and love in exilic situations.”

Everyone present at the church Saturday received a copy of Gilbert’s book, “Just Living: Meditations for Engaging Our Life and Times,” a book he was inspired to write after having used Howard Thurman’s “Meditations of the Heart” for more than two decades of teaching. Gilbert called “Just Living” “an exploration of the Bible and the intersection of contemporary culture and religious faith.”

Continue reading...