Important This Week

• Summary of Keystone Working Group meeting
• Save the date for Rev. Dr. James Mills installation at Wentz's UCC
• New and existing Vanco customers can save money with reduced fees. Presentation scheduled.

Keystone Study Group -- Summary of 7/14 meeting

With the grace of God, we recognize that Together We Are Stronger, The Keystone Conference.

The seventh meeting of the Keystone Working Group* took place Friday, July 14, 2023. Guided by the Spirit, we realized that our work has moved from being a “study group” to a “working group” as we build a vision of what a Keystone Conference can be. We have now identified essential functions of a Keystone Conference to support mission, ministry and authorized ministers in diverse settings. These ministry functions are: 

• Faith Formation
• Mission
• Generosity and Stewardship
• Search and Call
• Digital Ministry/Technology
• Communication
• Congregational Futures

• Leadership Training for Pastors and Lay Leaders
• Disaster Ministries
• Ecumenism
• Spiritual Revival
• UCC Identity
• Administrative/Legal/ Fiscal Oversight

Together we created a vision for new and stronger ministry. We are now preparing how to engage leaders and congregations in our four conferences this Fall. We will share WHY we are proposing the new Conference and explore WHAT functions we believe will most enhance our churches’ mission and ministries. We want to know how “Together We are Stronger, the Keystone Conference” rests in our hearts. We also seek your thoughts about the proposed functions.

We invite everyone to visit the Keystone Conference Project website hosted by PSEC. You can read how this project came about, our study information and the summaries for each meeting.

We do not have answers for everything. Our work has focused on the WHY and WHAT. We have not yet detailed “HOW will this work?” And there are certainly “What about...” issues to consider. So we are counting on your questions and comments in our fall gatherings to strengthen the project. With the grace of God, we will discern next steps affirming, “Together We Are Stronger, The Keystone Conference.”

You are invited to connect with us by email: Keystone.Conference.Project@gmail.com. You may also use the postal service and direct mailing the Keystone Working Group through your own area Conference Office.

Conversations in Fall 2023 and Winter/Spring 2024 will guide us to a “Mini Synod” of our four conferences, June 6-9, 2024. Save the date for this magnificent opportunity to share, learn and experience what God is doing in and through us all. Outstanding national and regional speakers and leaders will be with us. We will also provide for video sharing of this “unity conference.” At this gathering we will determine if we stand in agreement to move forward toward being a unified conference in our boundaries and structure. Our goal is to work toward a resolution for becoming ONE Keystone Conference at the Fall 2024 Conferences. We will share more soon.

We recognize through each phase of our work that God is still speaking. We rely on the grace of God in the next steps of our journey in the assurance that “Together We Are Stronger! The Keystone Conference.”

Sharing our progress in grace and hope,

KSG Communications Team

Steve Davis, St. John’s UCC, Fullerton (PNEC)

Heather Kurtz, Zion UCC, Arendtsville (PCC)

To be selected (PSEC)

Deb Long, First Trinity UCC, Youngwood (PWC)

*A study and discernment group of the 4 PA area UCC Conferences – Penn West, Penn Central, Penn NE, and Pennsylvania SE

39 Years Later and the Seed of Service Still Bears Fruit

by Reverend Linda Noonan

Who could have predicted that three fourteen-year-old boys would, over the next nearly forty years, go on to commit decades of their lives to service making homes drier, safer, and warmer in Central Appalachia and involve countless others in this mission? In 1984, as a fresh-out-of-college youth minister, I introduced these teens from Lima United Methodist Church in Delaware County to the Appalachia Service Project (ASP) and their lives were changed. But I couldn’t have known that at the time.

Thirty-nine years later, I am now Designated Pastor of St. Paul’s UCC in Exton/Lionville and joined those three men for a week of service and mission with ASP in Dickenson County, Virginia in July. It was a delightful reunion and a profound experience. Organized by Bryan Ellis, one of the original teen participants on the 1984 trip to Grundy, Virginia and a lay leader at St. Matthew’s UCC in Chester Springs, I and three youth from St. Paul’s, along with members of St. Matthew’s and Lima United Methodist Church returned to Appalachia to build a handicap-accessible ramp, replace an unsafe deck, and provide underpinning for a mobile home.

The moral of the story – never underestimate the value of planting a seed, and never underestimate the power of our youth!

Meeting the families we served was an important part of the experience. “The best part of ASP for me was the kindness of the homeowners. The last day we were there, Ms. Pauline made us lunch. Her hospitality really made the whole trip worth it,” said Mayson Alexandro, one of the St. Paul’s youth. The three young women from St. Paul’s – Alexandro, Rachael Lash, and Kristen Iannacchione – were welcomed into the hearts and lives of the homeowners, learned about the history, struggles, and gifts of a coal-mining community, and became proficient in wielding power tools such as saws, drills, sanders, and grinders.

Since 1969, Appalachia Service Project has been providing critical home repairs for low-income families, helping volunteers establish meaningful relationships with homeowners and learn about cultural differences and gifts of the Appalachian region, and providing transformational service experiences for youth and adults. Each year, more than 15,000 volunteers serve with ASP, providing much-needed repairs for more than 350 families. It is a Christian program, open to all people, that inspires hope and service through volunteer home repair and replacement in Central Appalachia.

For more information about how youth entering 6th grade and above as well as adults can join next year’s team, contact Bryan Ellis at bryan@bryanellisins.com. For more about the Appalachia Service Project, see www.asphome.org.

Pictures: Mayson Alexandro (St. Paul’s UCC), and the St. Matthew’s/St. Paul’s UCC ASP Team

Rev. Dr. James Mills Sr. installation at Wentz's UCC

Click the invitation below to download a PDF to share.

Check out the latest

Global H.O.P.E. email from UCC

The Global H.O.P.E. email (Humanitarian. Opportunities. Progress. Empowerment.) email from the UCC's Wider Church Ministries is now available. Read about:

• Period Packs Synod Service Project
• Position Opening: Minister for Refugee and Migration Services
• Flood clean-up begins in Vermont

Read the Global H.O.P.E. email here and use the button in the upper left corner to subscribe to receive future emails.

Christian Creyer installation as chaplain of Phoebe, Richland

Phoebe Ministries, Richland Invites you to the Installation of Rev. Christian B. Creyer, M.Div. as Chaplain on Monday, Aug. 28 at 2:00p. Because the event will be held outdoors, under the pavilion (in Meadow Glen multi-purpose room should the weather not cooperate), clergy are invited to wear what they are most comfortable in wearing (robes and stoles not required). Phoebe Richland is located at 108 S. Main St., Richlandtown. Click here for a flyer to share.

From the Addiction & Recovery Taskforce: An FYI

Half of teens say that it is easy to get drugs from the family medicine cabinet. And many who want to experiment do. Teens believe that since a doctor ordered the drug it cannot hurt them. They also believe that such drugs are much better than taking street drugs. And the drugs are right there.

Please remove any unused drugs from your home. Take them to a drug drop-off place, often your local police station. Put those you need to take in a safe place. This is one way we can all eliminate this temptation for teens.

Churches can save money with Vanco online giving

Exciting news for online giving! Whether your church already uses Vanco OR if you are using another vendor OR if you haven’t yet set up an online giving platform, we invite you to attend the webinar on August 22 and learn what Vanco offers. Through the Conference’s partnership with Vanco, all will benefit from reduced transaction fees when you come under the umbrella of the Conference! Register now and mark your calendar! 

Approximately 750 UCC congregations trust Vanco for online giving and driving engagement. And with good reason. Vanco provides UCC Churches with…

• Increased giving: Vanco clients see an average increase of 26% in giving.
• Easy donation reconciliation: We integrate with more than 60 of the most popular church management software systems.
• Complete virtual church: Vanco Live is the single tool congregations use to combine online worship, giving and discussion to a single website window.
• Service: Our U.S.-based client services team is always here to help. And we answer the phone with nearly zero wait time.
• Pricing: Discounted group rates available because of Pennsylvania Southeast Conference’s partnership with Vanco.

Learn all the benefits congregations get from Vanco here.

Join us for a presentation about how you can grow your giving through Vanco on Tuesday, August 22 at 12:00p. Register here.

Upcoming Training events

Registration is open for:

Basic Boundary Training on Sept. 14 in Schuylkill Haven. More info

Advanced Boundary Training (Managing Pastoral Transitions) on Sept. 27 on Zoom (or view the recording of the event and complete a one-page synopsis). More info

Advanced Boundary Training (From Gutenberg to ChatGPT: Tools, ethics, technology and best practices in the life of Church) on Oct. 18 on Zoom. More info

Diversity Training on Nov. 8 on Zoom (or view the recording of the event and complete a one-page synopsis). Click here

Shared pastor event for churches set for August

On Saturday, Aug. 12 a free workshop will be held on Zoom on "One Shepherd, Two Flocks: Advice and Guidance on Sharing a Pastor." Rev. Kevin McLemore and others will discuss why sharing a pastor with another congregation is a good option for many churches in this time of pastoral scarcity. They will share practical strategies on how to talk to your congregation about this possibility, how to find a pastor and congregation willing to do so, and how other churches are doing it successfully. Pastors who currently pastor two churches will join us to share both the blessings and challenges of this arrangement, and how to avoid some mistakes they’ve witnessed in their settings. Click here for more info.

60th anniversary of the March on Washington event

Join together in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington! Friends from across the region will join together Sunday, Aug. 27, to celebrate and remember through a modest neighborhood march (as you are able), eyewitness testimony, and worship in the historic House of Faith (the former Harold O Davis). Click here for more information.

Webinar: UCC Trailblazer, the EPA, and New Grant Programs

Charles Lee, the lead author of the UCC’s landmark report on toxic waste and race as well as lead organizer of the historic First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, will be one of two featured speakers on environmental justice at the EPA. Lee is Senior Policy Advisor for Environmental Justice at the EPA. He will be joined by Jacob Burney who directs the Environmental Justice Grants Division at the EPA. Even if you cannot make the webinar at its scheduled time on Aug. 9 at 2:00p, still sign-up, and we will send you a link to a recording of it. Register now!

CPE opening at Phoebe Wyncote beginning in Sept.

Phoebe has ONE opening (clinical site – Wyncote campus) for the semi-intensive CPE running Tuesday, Sept. 5 through Jan. 30. This unit will require 16 hours per week (4 for class; 12 for clinical site). Class will be on Zoom most weeks, with once class per month held in-person on the Phoebe Allentown campus. Clinical hours can be negotiated with staff chaplain. If interested, visit this site. Complete the application and submit to Rev. Dr. Scott Brooks-Cope (scope@phoebe.org) and Rev. Leah Knox (lknox@phoebe.org) before Aug. 11. For more info, reach out to Leah directly.