Welcome to this week's edition of our e-letter, Presbytery Matters. | |
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July 21-25, 2024
What you need to know to decide if Summer Servants 2024 is for you:
- We will running this year's trip as an overnight experience.
- Each group will participate in 4 days of service in Syracuse.
- Groups will be comprised of 10-20 students and 2 adult leaders.
- Groups will serve at a variety of service sites.
- Students, leaders, and staff will all stay at the DeWitt Community Church in Syracuse
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After serving at the local sites each day, groups will participate in community Faith dialogues led by Kevin Frank and his team as well as participate in interactive workshops reflecting on their day of service and work in Syracuse. (These are extremely powerful - life changing!)
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We want to hear about the mission stories from our Presbytery's worshiping communities. What mission work are you involved in? How are your members working in the community? What story would you like to share with others in the Presbytery?
Send any mission stories from your congregation that you would like to share to: CaySyrNews@gmail.com.
Deadline is 12 p.m. on Wednesdays for the current week's edition of
Presbytery Matters.
We want to share your stories, missions, activities and more. Also, make sure to like our Facebook page by clicking the "Facebook" icon at the top of this newsletter.
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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!
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Joys and Concerns around the Presbytery | |
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In our prayers together this week:
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Please keep the families and fellow law enforcement officers of Onondaga County Sheriff's Lt. Michael Hoosock and Syracuse Police Officer Michael Jensen in your prayers.
- Please continue to keep Karen Chamis in your healing prayers. Our former Resource Presbyter broke her leg in February and suffered complications.
- Pray for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
- Keep all those who battling cancer 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.
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Interim Resource Presbyter Announcements | |
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2024 Clergy Cards
The 2024 clergy cards are now available for minister members of Cayuga-Syracuse. Please contact interim resource presbyter, the Rev. Kathleen Dain, with your current address and your card will be mailed to you.
The Rev. Kathleen Dain can be reached via email at KDain@cayugasyracuse.org or phone at (315) 551-0413.
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The Ethiopia Mission Network of the PC(USA) invites you to attend the seventeenth annual Ethiopia Mission Network conference at the Oromo Fellowship Church of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on May 16 – May 17, 2024.
The Ethiopia Mission Network meets to:
- Share information, experience and wisdom and discuss common strategies and common interests
- Provide useful connections to anyone in a missional relationship with Ethiopians
- Make contact with all who share a common vision of relationship with the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY)
- Invite new participants into the network and encourage each other in the work of mission
Download Invitation
Download Registration Form
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Under the new guidelines from the Book of Order, boundary training is required every three years for: Ministers of Word and Sacrament, Certified Christian Educators (CCE), Certified Christian Ruling Elders (CRE) and Inquirers before moving to candidacy.
The presbytery has contracted with SafeGatherings https://safegatherings.com for the online boundary training course. To learn more, or to register for the course, please contact your committee chair or the interim resource presbyter.
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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.
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From the Nominating Committee | |
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Greetings from the Nominating Committee,
The Nominating Committee greatly appreciates the work and dedication of all who serve on committees and commissions of the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery. We recognize that we cannot hope to live into God’s mission for us as a collective body without those who feel called to serve.
The Nominating Committee needs to establish a broader pool of names for consideration as we seek to populate committees and commissions. We are asking that pastors/churches provide the committee with a list of elders, especially those who are willing to serve on a committee on the presbytery level.
Currently, we are seeking people to serve on the following: Commission on Ministry, Committee on Representation, Social Justice, Human Resources, Finance and Property, Nominating Committee. Suggestions can be emailed to the Nominating Committee at lynchshavonn@yahoo.com.
Shavonn Lynch
Nominating Committee Chair
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What: Chicken & Biscuit Dinner
When: Saturday, April 27
4:30 - 6:00 PM (or until sold out)
Where: Amboy Belle Isle United Church, 6190-92 Airport Road, Syracuse
Cost: $12 per dinner
TAKE-OUT ONLY
Dinner includes: Chicken & Biscuit, applesauce, and choice of brownie or cookie for dessert
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This retreat opportunity will be led by Presbyterian ministers the Rev. Mary Anderson from Cayuga-Syracuse and the Rev. Laurel Nelson from Genesee Valley. Download flyer HERE. | |
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Joy & Justice Education Series
Park Central in Syracuse received a ReKindle Grant from the Columbia Theological Seminary, which allowed the church to provide Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) training with their congregational leadership and members in 2023. The funding also gives the church the ability to offer this training for FREE in the spring to congregational leaders from other local Presbyterian churches.
The trainings are in-person at Park Central for five weeks, ending with an all day in-person retreat at Christ the King Retreat Center in Syracuse and is limited to 16 participants with two leaders from each church. There is required reading of two books, “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo and “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. Additionally, participants are required to take the online Intercultural Developmental Inventory Assessment that identifies their individual level of cultural awareness. You can read more about this assessment at https://www.idiinventory.com.
The sessions, which will be held on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. with dinner provided at 6:30 p.m., will start on April 15th and end on May 13th. The retreat will take place on May 18th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Light refreshments and lunch will be included.
There are spaces still available but they are limited. To register please send an email to niaministriesworldwide@gmail.com. Please indicate if you will need the books.
Many have expressed that they know this is something their church needs to do but have said ‘not right now’. Please do not think that you have to ‘be ready’ to do this work. If you accepted the call to become a Matthew 25 Church then the time is NOW. You will not be alone in this as other believers and followers of Christ will be with you. It is time for us all to take the risk in doing more than saying or thinking we are doing the right thing and actually learning whether or not that is true. My question to you is, if I were to come to your church right now…would I feel welcome and how would you know if I did?
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The First Presbyterian Church of Weedsport is operating a free clothing giveaway at the church. It is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 6:30 p.m. All clothing is free and people are encouraged to take anything they can use. No questions asked. | |
Practical Resources for Churches Webinars | |
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Managing Investments and Endowments for Churches
Thursday, April 18, 2024
2:00 - 3:00 PM EDT
Leader - Charlie Kuchenbrod
Pew to Pulpit: How to Select Music
Thursday, April 25, 2024
2:00 - 3:00 PM EST
Leaders - Phillip Morgan, Karrie Rushing
Faith on Pointe: Ballet as Spiritual Language and Practice
Thursday, May 2, 2024
2:00 – 3:00 PM EST
Leader - Julie Hoplamazian
Raising Kids Beyond the Binary in Church
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
2:00 - 3:00 PM EST
Leader - Jamie Bruesehoff
How to Create Transformative Ministries Through Theological Innovation Workshop
Thursday, May 9, 2024
2:00 - 3:15 PM EDT
Leader - Meghan Hatcher
Practical Practices for Faith in Families NEW DATE
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
2:00 - 3:00 PM EST
Leaders - Elizabeth Christie, Johannah Myers
Pew to Pulpit: Children's Sermons
Thursday May 16 2024
2:00 - 3:00 PM EST
Leaders -Debbie & Don Kolacki
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New York State Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Webinars
You can take this training any time during the year
charlaine@prcli.org
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
2:00 -- 3:30 PM
Thursday, May 9, 2024
3:30 -- 5 pm
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
7 – 8:30 pm
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
10:30am -- 12 pm
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
2 -- 3:30 pm
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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
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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.
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Around the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | |
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PC(USA) podcast offers up a how-to on how to hold conversations when not everyone is on the same faith journey
‘Around the Table’ podcast hosts invite one friend each to sort out what can be a prickly topic
By Mike Ferguson
Presbyterian News Service
For the fifth of six installments of their “Around the Table” podcast, which can be heard here, hosts the Rev. Michelle Thomas-Bush and the Rev. Cliff Haddox each invited a friend to talk about conversations around the table where not everyone is a person of faith.
“There’s a lot of circumstances we don’t know,” Haddox said, explaining the format for the 30-minute conversation. He introduced his friend, the Rev. Brenda Lovick, an ordained Lutheran pastor and marriage and family therapist who has school-age children and is married to an agnostic “who’s very science-minded and analytical,” as Lovick put it.
Thomas-Bush introduced her friend Sarah Good, a youth advisor at the church Thomas-Bush serves, Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Of her husband, Good says, “I say he’s a humanist because I want to. He would tell you he’s an atheist.”
Continue reading...
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Regarding Ruling Elders: A Monthly Series for Serving Faithfully
For All the People of God to be Seen and Loved
Just a couple of years out of college and not yet 26 years old, Paul Slaikeu made two very important decisions — he bought a modest house and he joined a nearby church, First Presbyterian Church in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
Less than two years later a nominating committee member approached him and said, “We’re looking for new ruling elders for the next three years, would you consider that?” Paul asked the all-important first question, “Don’t I need to be older to be an elder?”
He wasn’t being glib; his experiences as a child growing up at a Wisconsin Presbyterian church were of ruling elders who were older men. No young elders, no women elders. How can you imagine the possibility of serving as a leader when there are no examples of leaders who look like you?
Continue reading...
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P.O. Box 438, Syracuse 13214
(315) 632-5698
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"I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them
bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5
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