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. Karen Green (Mexico) in your prayers. Karen's husband, Robert "Bob" Green, passed away on Saturday. Please keep Karen in your prayers during this difficult time. Funeral services will take place on Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 5 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Mexico, 4361 Church Street in Mexico. Friends are invited to call from 3 - 5 p.m. prior to the service at the church. Read Bob's obituary here.
• Please continue to pray for everyone impacted by the Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene. See below to help.
• 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: Columbian, LaFayette; First, Liverpool; First, Marcellus; First, Mexico; Morrisville Community Church

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. "

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is working with FLAPDAN (Florida Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Network) and Presbytery leadership to respond to the needs after Milton and Helene. Your gifts will enable the denomination to support all the congregations and communities impacted by the storms. Support PDA’s response here: bit.ly/DR000169

World Mental Health Day was earlier this month and the day is an opportunity for people and communities to unite to improve knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal human right. Everyone, whoever and wherever they are, has a right to the highest attainable standard of mental health. Read more about the PC(USA)'s Mental Health Ministry.

The Moderator and Vice-Moderator of the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery call a special presbytery meeting for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. The meeting will take place on Zoom. 

The agenda for this meeting is a debate and vote on the proposal to explore a merger with the Presbytery of Susquehanna Valley.

More information and registration link will be available soon via a separate email.

Applications are now being accepted for the Benevolent Care Grant Funds.

“The purpose of this fund shall be to provide benevolent grants to assist in the care of elderly persons within the bounds of Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery.”

Criteria:         

1. Applications must be submitted by churches/sessions/boards or institutions. If an institution, a worshiping community within the Presbytery must indicate concurrence with the request.
2. A financial need must be clearly stated. i.e., sample budget
3. Grants will be awarded for benevolent care of the elderly residing within the bounds of Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery.

Download Application HERE

Applications must be received by November 10, 2024

Please email the completed Application Form to:

Lynn Jacques at lmjacques@verizon.net

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 created 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.

TODDLER TIME: Onondaga Hill Presbyterian Church has offered Sunday School classes starting at preschool age for decades. This is the first time a structured class has been offered for the youngest members of its church families. Toddler Time launched for 0 to 4 years old students and their caregivers. Students heard two bible stories about how Jesus loves them, learned sign language for "God is love," prayed, did a coloring activity and had snack together all in safe space for toddlers to act like toddlers!

PRC's Fall 2024 Online events

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

Truly Welcoming Environments for Today's Unchurched

Thursday, October 24, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

Leader - Brett DeHart

Healing Fractured Communities

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

Leaders - Jessica L. Anschutz, Douglas Powe

Maximizing Year End Giving

Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EST

Leader – Brett DeHart

Christian Nationalism and the 2024 Election

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

2:00 – 3:00 pm EST

Leaders -Brian Kaylor, Beau Underwood 

This is a follow-up webinar to

Responding Effectively to Christian Nationalism RECORDED

Leaders -Brian Kaylor, Beau Underwood

The Art of Hospitality

Thursday, November 21, 2024

2:00 – 3:00pm EST

Leader – Yvonne Gentile

New York State Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Webinars

You can take this training any time during the year

charlaine@prcli.org

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT

Thursday, November 14, 2024

3:00 – 4:30 pm EST

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

7:00 – 8:30 pm EST

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

Scipioville Presbyterian Church seeks Organist/Choir Director

Scipioville Presbyterian Church is a small, vibrant and welcoming congregation in search of an Organist/Choir Director.

Scipioville Presbyterian Church is located at 3428 State Route 34B in Scipio Center/

Interested candidates are asked to call or text Barbara Adams at 315-246-7955 or email resume or questions to baamoravia@aol.com.

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.

Prayer service extends solidarity, hope to hurricane survivors in multiple states

Online service features hymns, prayers and updates on damage

By Darla Carter

Presbyterian News Service

A spirit of solidarity and hope was evident throughout a prayer service hosted by the Synod of South Atlantic last weekend to comfort those trying to rebound from recent storms — particularly Hurricane Helene and its more recent cousin, Milton — and to lift up those assisting survivors.

The online service, which was done in cooperation with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and various Presbyterian leaders throughout the region, juxtaposed hymns and prayers with reports on the impact of one or both hurricanes to presbyteries in Florida and other parts of the Southeast, such as South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina.

Helene “has been a sobering storm for South Carolina,” said Mark McCain, director of the South Carolina Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team, who reported on nearly 50 deaths statewide, thousands of damaged homes, and at least 24 churches with storm impacts.

Acknowledging the work of first responders and others involved in rescues or recovery, Presbytery of New Harmony’s the Rev. Dr. Ella Busby expressed gratitude through prayer, saying, “We thank you, O Lord, for their sacrifice and service. … We ask that you go before them and prepare the way by making rough roads smooth and crooked roads straight. O Lord, keep our responders on every avenue, every assignment and every situation safe from all harm.”

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Regarding Ruling Elders: A monthly series for serving faithfully

Where is the place God is leading you?

A few years ago, ruling elder Clara Harper, then a member at Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, was eager to get more involved. She felt she had exhausted earlier options for service — engagement in youth group, the Montreat Youth Conference Planning Team, and Presbyterian Youth Triennium. She was open to serve as a ruling elder as an opportunity to respond to a call she had been experiencing to take the next step into leadership within the church without needing to go to seminary.

The daughter of a minister and a church professional in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Clara experienced the journey that her mother and father traveled through their training and ministry. She respected their processes and their calls, but Clara knew that while she wanted to be involved in a deeper way, she was called to something else — something different than her parents.

As a young child she toyed with the possibility that she should be a youth minister like her dad. She knew she liked being around other people, liked sharing and being part of the hands and feet of Christ. But still it was clear to her that a seminary degree was not for her. She was clear that there was more than one way to be in servant leadership. After a period of prayer and discernment, she was able to say “yes” to the invitation to serve the congregation as a ruling elder.



“I had graduated high school and I was kind of excited to take on a role with a more adult perspective, even though I was only 19! It's funny to look back now — to think I was so adult,” Clara said. “But it was really something I felt called to do, and I really enjoyed serving communion; that was one of the things I enjoyed most.”

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