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Important This Week
  • Women's Clergy Retreat cancelled
  • Jonathan Bangera to be installed this weekend at Grace-Trinity UCC
  • Save the date for John Folk's installation at St. Paul's UCC, Fleetwood later this month
From the Conference Minister:

“I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Luke 3:16

Having COVID over the holidays was no fun. When is being sick ever fun? My physical symptoms were mild. My emotional and spiritual symptoms, the byproduct of being sequestered from friends and family at the most intimate time of the year, were excruciating. With nowhere to go with my pain, I projected it out onto all of my perceived enemies — especially those not vaccinated whose resistance to being so defies reason and drags on our communal misery. Suffering in loneliness magnifies the whole experience of suffering in general. The pain of the pandemic is magnified by the perception that some have suffered less (or at all) than others and that we are not suffering (or working toward healing) together. But all people suffer and the awareness of that changes the way we perceive and live in the world. I love the way Richard Rohr frames this:

“When we carry our small suffering in solidarity with the one universal longing of all humanity, it helps keep us from self-pity or self-preoccupation. We know that we are all in this together, and it is just as hard for everybody else. Almost all people are carrying a great and secret hurt, even when they don’t know it. When we can make the shift to realize this, it softens the space around our overly defended hearts. It makes it hard to be cruel to anyone. Shared struggle somehow makes us one — in a way that easy comfort and entertainment never can. Some mystics even go so far as to say that individual suffering doesn’t exist at all — and that there is only one suffering, it is all the same, and it is all the suffering of God.”

If suffering, even unjust suffering (and all suffering is unjust on some level), is part of one Great Mystery, then I am willing — and even happy, sometimes — to carry my little portion. That is, in part, what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire — that as much as we share in the glory of God, eternal life, and the solidarity and support of a Christian community, we also share in the fiery suffering of all (regardless of political perspective or vaccination status). In so doing, we must trust that it is somehow helping someone or something, and that it matters in the great scheme of things. This is the life of faith. And what a glorious and challenging life it is!

May God bless us all in the living of it,
Pastor Bill

Rev. Bill Worley
Conference Minister
PSEC Women's Clergy Retreat cancelled for 2022

The planning committee for the PSEC Women’s Clergy Retreat, scheduled for later this month, has decided to cancel the retreat due to rising COVID-19 cases, the lack of available testing, and Omicron infections in vaccinated people. Refunds will be issued to those who registered.
Jonathan Bangera installation at Grace-Trinity UCC this week
 
Click the invitation below to download a PDF to share.
John Folk installation at St. Paul's UCC, Fleetwood
 
Click the invitation below to download a PDF to share.
UCC weekly webinar schedule released for first quarter

Worship. Grief. The Bible. Bias. Black History Month. Contemplation. The rural church. Youth and young adults.

Those are among the topics of weekly United Church of Christ webinars now set for the first quarter of 2022. To view the schedule for the "Thursdays for the Soul" webinars, click here.
Save the dates for 2022

As you're looking ahead at the coming year, planning church activities and personal schedules, please keep in mind these dates for Pennsylvania Southeast Conference events. These dates are tentative and may change due to COVID-19 or other unforeseen situations. Follow weekly eNews and "Next Week in PSEC" emails for more information. To download a copy of this schedule, click here.
From the Addiction & Recovery Taskforce:
Resolutions and Relapses

Many of us have made New Years resolutions that we have not kept. The idea is good but the follow-through is not there. In a few weeks we are back to the old habits again. We may be disappointed but go on. There is always next year.

For those suffering from the disease of drug addiction, it is not as easy as making a resolution to keep away from the addictive substance. Drug addiction is a chronic disease and like other chronic diseases like asthma or hypertension must be managed for life. The National Institute on Drug Abuse tells us that "Treatment enables people to counteract addiction’s disruptive effects on their brain and behavior and regain control of their lives.”

But because addiction is a chronic disease, some people will have relapses that will need to be treated. The relapse rate for substance abuse disorder is 40%-60% as compared with 50% to 70% for hypertension and asthma. Relapse can be very dangerous in drug addiction. Relapse does not mean failure; it means more treatment is needed.
Racial justice banners and yard signs available
The Zachariah Walker Racial Justice Initiative team, in promoting racial justice, is offering banners and yard signs free to churches and individuals.

For those who are able, we are suggesting a love offering of $70 per banner (4’x10’ Vinyl Banner with grommets) and $7 per yard sign (18’’x24’’). The love offerings will go to further our efforts in this sacred ministry of racial equity and justice. To order, please email Anne Cormier at annecormier@comcast.net. Include in the subject box “banner” or “yard sign”.
Disaster Relief Challenge starting soon in PSEC & PNEC

The Susquehanna Area Mission Council of the Penn Northeast Conference is inviting all churches in both PNEC and PSEC to share in its annual mission project. If your congregation is willing to participate in this offering supporting our common disaster relief ministry, please include this insert in your Sunday bulletin on Jan. 9 and/or 16, along with information about how gifts should be made in your congregation. Donations received should be forwarded to your Conference office at the conclusion of the campaign, marked "High 5 for Disaster Relief". Many thanks from the SAMC.
PSEC 2021 Giving Cut-Off
 
Books of the PSEC will close Jan. 17. All OCWM contributions for 2021 must be in our office by that date or they will be counted towards 2022 contributions. Please mail your contributions as soon as possible due to possible mail delays.
Church Openings
Many openings are on UCC's Ministerial Opportunities page. Especially note:
  • Barnesville-Delano Tri-Charge, Schuylkill County (full-time settled)
  • Bern Reformed UCC, Leesport (three-quarter time settled)
  • Christ Church UCC, Norristown (full-time designated)
  • Glenside UCC, Glenside (full-time settled)
  • Huff's Union Church, Alburtis (full-time settled)
  • New Goshenhoppen Reformed UCC, East Greenville (settled senior pastor)
  • St. James UCC, Limerick (3/4-time settled)
  • St. John's (Hain's) UCC, Wernersville (full-time settled)
  • St. Peter's UCC of Wilshire (full-time interim)
  • UCC East Goshen (full-time interim)
If you’re interested in a position, contact Rev. Dr. Susan Minasian: 484-949-8774 ext. 302 or minasian@psec.org .
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PSEC is the link that connects our church’s various and diverse ministries both locally and globally. Together, we provide our local churches, pastors and congregations with the training and inspiration they need to carry out our church’s wider mission. We are stronger together; therefore, we embrace diversity, and above all, we spread God’s love!