Important This Week
  • Read a recap from this weekend's annual conference Fall Meeting.
  • Register for the Women's Clergy Retreat and Cultivating Generous Congregations.
  • Get Christmas Fund materials.
From the Conference Minister: Recap from Fall Meeting
More than 225 delegates and visitors attended last Sunday’s Fall Conference Meeting at Ursinus College, which is celebrating its 150th Anniversary this year. We honored our historic ties with the college by opening the meeting with a welcome and invocation by College Chaplain Rev. Terri Ofori.  

Delegates passed the 2020 spending plan, committed to further exploring the idea of a mobile office platform and created working groups around the issues of climate change and addiction. More than a dozen people signed up to work on each of those initiatives (you can still sign-up too; just email my assistant at susan@psec.org . We could have used many more hours of conversation time but the energy in the room was enthusiastic and the discernment time we did have helped shape the future momentum of our Conference ministry. 

Those who gathered offered $2,167 for the National Youth Event to help send our Conference youth and their adult mentors to UCC NYE this July at Perdue University.  

We celebrated the the successful arrival at our $50,000 goal for the Generations of Service Campaign! Pledges and contributions to the campaign continue to arrive and we will welcome yours with deep gratitude if you have yet to make an offering. We also shared the good news that as of Sunday, we are $16,000 ahead of our OCWM budget (yeah!) and pray we will end the year much further ahead than that. Delegates also made an offering of their 2020 OCWM pledges (which as of this message were still being tallied). 

Great things are happening all around our Conference in congregations and communities filled with generous and faithful people like you who are determined to be a unified portion of the Body of Christ moving in a collaborative direction to effect for God and for good the lives of the people living in the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference… the finest of the 38 Conferences of the United Church of Christ!

Rev. William Worley
Conference Minister
Registration open for the 2020 Women's Clergy Retreat

Join us for the Women's Clergy Retreat on Jan. 14-16 where we will spend time engaged in different spiritual practices. You’ll hear the stories of other clergy women about what refuels them and fills their spirits outside of the church walls. Plus you’ll get a chance to try your hand at a few different spiritual practices. Enjoy this relaxed time of revival and renewal with the option for a free professional massage too! Our TBA retreat leader will guide our time in-between with discussion and scripture that reflects our efforts to be present pastors by cultivating our own spiritual practices. Click here for more information and to register.
Christmas Fund materials and podcast available online
Next month, many of our churches will take a special offering for The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund. Materials to help churches prepare for that offering are available now. O n the Pension Board website, you will find :
  • Christmas Fund offering guide
  • weekly PowerPoint slides for the lighting of the Advent candles
  • weekly bulletin inserts for each Sunday in Advent
  • a litany in celebration of the Christmas Fund
  • poster
  • printable coloring book
Also check out the latest episode of the Pension Board's Podcast "Faith & Finance in Action" on The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross. This short episode includes information on the 117 year history of the fund, gives examples of how the money is used throughout the year, and provides some suggestions for promoting the offering.
Save the date: Philly Faith & Spiritual Affairs conference

The Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disABILITY Services will hold its 14th Annual Faith and Spiritual Affairs Conference on April 17 from 8:00-3:00 at the PA Convention Center in Philadelphia. The theme will be "Community Response to Violence: Renewing Our Faith in Brotherly Love & Sisterly Affection." For updates email Samantha.Grannum@phila.gov .
New to the PSEC reading list:
"Advent in Narnia: Reflections for the Season"
Take C. S. Lewis's classic The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , mine the text for Advent gold, and the result is the excellent devotional Advent in Narnia: Reflections for the Season by Heidi Havercamp (John Knox Press, 2015). The author, an Episcopal priest, taps her faith's rich tradition of beauty and symbol to evoke the season's wonder and delight. Linking scripture with Lewis's text, she also sprinkles in quotes from a variety of authors, including Lewis himself. The short, thought-provoking devotions explore themes of theological depth, each ending with "Questions for Reflection."

For 2019, consider marking Advent's days on your own with this book. Then, next year, why not go bigger? Besides the 28 devotions, Havercamp includes four sessions for small group discussion, plus complete instructions on creating a "Narnia Night for Families."

Janeen Adil
St. Paul's UCC Birdsboro and Hungry Soul Ministries

Check out all of the recommended books at psec.org/booklist . Have a book to recommend for other clergy and lay leaders? Send an email to brea@psec.org with a 100-200 word description of the book and why you're recommending it and we'll add it to the PSEC reading list and share your recommendation in eNews.  
Sign up: Workshop will help your church make money

On Jan. 24-25, church teams are invited to a seminar experience that could change the way you and your congregation approach giving and generosity. "Cultivating Generous Congregations" is a two-day interactive seminar, demonstrating how pastors and ministry leaders can unearth and energize congregational generosity by exploring the significant and necessary steps to create lasting cultural change within a congregation. The deadline to register your church is Dec. 5 . For more info and to register, click here .
Maidencreek Church makes hygiene kits, clean-up buckets
Recently Maidencreek Church, Blandon, was able to complete 26 buckets CWS Clean-up buckets and at least 30 Hygiene Kits. On a Sunday morning they busily filled the buckets and put the kits together. They received financial help to do this from UCC Disaster Ministries and the Thrivent Financial Action Team, as well as from the faith community at Maidencreek Church.

Pictured are the buckets in their temporary home at Trinity UCC in Mount Penn.

We congratulate Maidencreek Church on this achievement. (If you have a story to tell about what your church is doing in disaster response, send pictures and the story to Karl Jones: kjones275@comcast.net .
Save the Date: Rev. Traci Blackmon in Philadelphia

On Friday, Feb. 7, Executive Minister of Justice and Witness Ministries Rev. Traci Blackmon will be the guest lecturer for the 38th Mitchell Lectureship through Palmer Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Save the date and click the flyer below to download a flyer to share.
Church Events
Nov. 23: AYCE Ham and Beef Dinner in Laureldale

Nov. 23: Annual Church Bazaar in Oley

Submit Church Events here
View a complete list of Church Events here
PSEC Events
Jan. 14: 2020 Women's Clergy Retreat in Reading

Jan. 24: Cultivating Generous Congregations in Boyertown

View more events on the PSEC Calendar
Classified Ads

Submit Classified Ads here
View a complete list of Classified Ads here
Church Openings
Many openings are on UCC's Ministerial Opportunities page. Especially note:
  • St. Mark's UCC, Reading (10 hrs/ week)
  • St. John's UCC, Orwigsburg (interim)
  • St. John's UCC, Pottstown (part-time interim)
  • St. Paul's UCC, Pottstown (part-time settled)
If you’re interested in a position, contact Rev.Sharon Morris: morris@psec.org or 484-949-8774 ext. 302.
Educational Opportunities
Nov. 19: Soul Cafe: Designer Religion in Wyomissing


View more events on the PSEC Calendar
Transitions
Week of Nov. 17
Rev. Linda Kozlowski's first day at Good Shepherd UCC (Tuckerton), Reading

Week of Nov. 24
Rev. Jason Stump's last Sunday at St. Peter's UCC, Pine Grove
Missed a week? Read past eNews here:
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!