The Presbytery of Baltimore is offering weeklong Mission Immersion experiences for all age groups

Looking for a Summer Mission Trip?

Consider The Center.

Center BAThe Center, located in mid-town Baltimore, MD, is a mission partnership of the Presbytery of Baltimore. We offer weekend and weeklong mission immersion experiences for groups of all ages. We take care of the logistics and the program, and we even do your grocery shopping for you! All you have to do is show up, ready to be stretched and challenged as you grow in faith.

Please click here for details regarding their Mission Trip Opportunities: The Center Baltimore Summer Mission Trip

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PC (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness joined with Interfaith Colleagues to Call for End to Shutdown

WASHINGTON Tuesday (Oct. 15), as the U.S. House of Representatives continued to wrangle today over the impasse that has closed the government for more than two weeks, scores of religious leaders descended on Capitol Hill to call the government back to work.

Simultaneously, people of faith delivered more than 32,000 petitions to Congressional offices around the country calling on House Members to end the government shutdown. The petition signers are members of Faithful America — a fast-growing online community dedicated to reclaiming Christianity from the religious right and putting faith into action for social justice.

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Click on the image for more information about the OPW

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Director for Public Witness the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, II joined with interfaith and ecumenical colleagues in calling on Congress to put the common good ahead of political games. In a Pilgrimage for Courage and the Common Good, Nelson and his colleagues gathered in the Rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building, began with prayer and hymns, and then began a processional through the halls of Congress, stopping to deliver this letter at the offices of key members whose influence and good faith is crucial to ending this political standoff.

Click here to read the full article: Faith Leaders March on Congress PCUSANews

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Update on Young Adult Webinar

Connect with yaThank you for your interest and participation in the webinar “Connecting with Young Adults and Equipping a Muligenerational Church” with Rob Fohr. As promised, I have attached copies of the presentation slides, and also a transcript of the Q&As that were omitted due to time constraints.
 
Just click on the links below for downloadable PDF’s that have been provided. In addition, the Presbytery now has a DVD of this webinar for churches to view at their convenience. Please contact me if you are interested in utilizing the DVD. Grace and peace,  Rev. Jim Poinsett, Acting Associate for Congregational Initiatives – jpoinsett@presbyphl.org  or (215) 242-1400 x323. 

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Announcing Nominee for Executive Presbyter

Dear Friends! 

It is with great joy I bring word that your Executive Presbyter Nominating Committee has identified its nominee! After a ten-month search that began with a potential pool of 98 candidates representing 31 presbyteries, we spent untold hours in reading, conversation, and prayer, conducted fifteen Skype interviews and three site visits, before we unanimously voted to invite the Reverend Ruth Santana-Grace to be our nominee for Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Philadelphia. She has accepted that invitation and the Leadership Collegium has called for a meeting of the Presbytery to occur on Thursday, October 24 at Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church to act upon that recommendation. 

A native of New York City, Ruth was ordained in 1994. She has served as the Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of San Gabriel for the past eight years, bringing energy and a pastor’s heart to her work. She possesses an abiding trust in Jesus Christ, and a clear track record of building bridges across diverse theologies and cultures. A cradle Presbyterian, she grew-up in one of the largest Hispanic Presbyterian congregations in NYC. Her father was a New Church Development Pastor and her husband served for 15 years as Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church, Hokendauqua, PA. This experience along with her work as EP has given her a clear appreciation for the blessings and challenges experienced by both small and larger churches. Prior to her time in San Gabriel, she served as Associate Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, PA, from 1993 until 2005.

The EPNC is finalizing a mailing now that will tell you more about Ruth and the reasons we believe she is the one God has prepared for this time and place. That packet will include an introductory brochure, her statement of faith, and the proposed terms of compensation. It should be mailed by the end of next week, but I wanted you to know of our news now so that you can make plans to join us.

On the 24th, we will begin with an informal time from 9:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. for you to meet and share in conversation with Ruth. The meeting itself will begin at 11:00 a.m. After a time of worship, I will walk the Presbytery through the process we took in leading us to this point and the reasons for our decision, formally move that Ruth be received as a member of our presbytery and elected to a five-year term as Executive Presbyter. Our moderator will open the floor for your questions of Ruth or me. We will then vote by paper ballot. Should the Presbytery concur in these motions, Ruth would begin her service as our Executive Presbyter on February 1, 2014.  

The committee gives thanks for the leading of the Holy Spirit throughout this process and the steadfast encouragement received from all of you. We are confident that Ruth has the faith, gifts, and enthusiasm to lead our Presbytery with creativity and strength in this time of opportunity and change. I look forward to sharing in the events of the 24th with you and discovering all that God has in mind for this special part of the body of Christ as we move into the future together.

Faithfully yours,
John M. Willingham, Chair, EPNC

 

DISCIPLESHIP PORTAL NOW AVAILABLE!

The offices of evangelism, educational ministries, and theology and worship, with the support of Congregational Ministries Publishing staff, created a discipleship web page to serve as a centralized-location to tools and ministries from a variety of locations throughout the Agency website. This “Discipleship is . . . “ portal offers a definition to start the conversation and identifies three components in the process:

DiscipleshipDiscipleship Please click on the image to visit the Presbyterian Mission page on discipleship.

Speaking of discipleship…Opening Doors to Discipleship, the online website for teacher, member, and leader development can be found by clicking here.

For additional resources and workshops, please click here for a PDF of the latest edition of The Connection: The Connection Presbyterian Mission Agency.

We encourage you to share this information with your congregations!

 

West Kensington Ministry, Restoring Ideals

RESTORING IDEALS

WKM logo webThis spring, the West Kensington Ministry (WKM) was one of 30 organizations selected by Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, to participate in Restoring Ideals, a contest organized by WHYY. We were selected, along with other organizations, because of the work we do to represent Philadelphia’s historic ideals of EQUALITY, JUSTICE, and TOLERANCE. WHYY made a three minute video for each organization; we each highlighted an object that symbolizes our organizations’ ideals. WKM chose an amazing, weathered sturdy Bible from the 1860’s, because we believe it represents our faith and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The videos were then put online, and the top 10 organizations with the most votes would win the prize, to have a significant item professionally preserved/ restored by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. I’m happy to share that WKM gained enough votes to be in the top 10 and our Bible will be restored! It will then be exhibited at the Tyler School of Art in the fall.

WKM is working on creating a display case in order to permanently display the restored Bible upon its return to the church. Stop by for Sunday service at 3 PM and take a look for yourself.

To all who voted and support WKM, we THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts; we couldn’t have done it without you!

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Calling All Orchestra Musicians!

Calling All Orchestra Musicians!

Doylestown Presbyterian Church is looking for Orchestra Musicians.

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Doylestown Presbyterian Church is looking for musicians to join the church orchestra. Come join the fun, and be a part of this unique opportunity to play with this wonderful community of players. All you have to do is show up, and we will take care of the rest. No audition necessary! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, come and see what our church community and music program can offer you. Rehearsals are Sunday mornings from 8:30-9:15.

  • WHAT: Calling All Orchestra Musicians

  • WHO: Doylestown Presbyterian Church

  • WHEN: Sunday Mornings (and an occasional afternoon performance)

  • WHERE: Doylestown Presbyterian Church, 127 East Court Street, Doylestown, PA 18901

  • CONTACT: Lorri Camilleri, Director of Communications – 215-348-3531, ext. 233

Though all musicians are welcome, we are especially looking for string, trombone, bassoon, and horn players.

If you would like to know more about us or have questions please do not hesitate to contact David J. Fitzpatrick (davidf@dtownpc.org or 215-348-3531, ext. 230).

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Fall 2013 Regional Meetings: Conversation and Growth

FALL 2013 REGIONAL MEETINGS: CONVERSATIONS AND GROWTH.

The Regional Commissions are encouraged and excited as they are finishing up the Fall meetings within their commissions.  New conversations and new growth have been part of the experience during open forums and sharing times. There are many challenges and opportunities as each region seeks to bring the Good News to all people in the Delaware Valley. Please click on the images below to visit your region’s webpage. You’ll find blogs, meeting times and other items of interest.

NE Region MTGThe Northeast Regional  Commission met on September 17, 2013 at Deep Run.  During the meeting many churches shared  ways they do mission in the NE Region.

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The Southeast Regional Commission met on  September 24, 2013 at Llanerch and enjoyed fellowship and encouragement. They held an informative panel discussion on some creative ways to “do” and “be” church in the 21st Century.overbrook pc

The Southwest Regional Commission met on September 25, 2013 at Overbook. Conversation revolved around the shared mission and ministry of the SW Region as churches shared their celebrations, challenges and adventures in mission.

GoodNews webThe Northwest is scheduled to meet on October 1, 2013 at Valley Forge. Offering the keynote address; “Good News, The Church in a Changing World” will be Rev. Casey Thompson from Wayne.

 

 

 

 

 

Executive Presbyter Search Committee 24 September 2013

September 24, 2013

Dear Friends,

Your Executive Presbyter Nominating Committee has remained busy in recent weeks. I want to give you an update on where things stand as of this morning and ask once more for your prayers.

We have now completed site visits by three candidates. During their time with us, each candidate met with several Presbytery leaders, toured the area, and had extended conversations with the committee. We were asked probing questions by the finalists and sought additional insight from them. We broke bread and prayed together, we paid attention to the feel of those conversations and each spoke with candor about the hopes and challenges here. What became abundantly clear to your committee was that each candidate is a faithful servant of Jesus Christ who has great skill, experience and integrity. Each of them would bless our Presbytery in unique ways.

Now the EPNC enters the time in which we seek to discern together the one God has already prepared for this time and place. As we do so, I covet your prayers for that decision and for the candidate to whom we will offer the position. My hope is that we will be taking our step by the end of this week and then will await her/his decision.

As we near these last steps in this process, know of our deep gratitude for your encouragement along the way. Now we seek that final step of divine guidance, trusting that the One who has led us to this point soon will make clear what is to come next.

Faithfully yours,
John M. Willingham
Chair, EPNC