A Special Invitation to a Very Special Meeting
A Special Invitation to a Very Special Meeting
We are adding our invitation to the one forthcoming from our Moderator, the Rev. Ashley Rossi, for you to attend the July 17, 2021 Stated Meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia at Kirkwood Camp as either a commissioner or a visitor. While it is our hope that every time we gather is a blessing, this meeting in particular provides a unique opportunity to be memorable! Why?
The place: Our meeting will be held at the Kirkwood Camp and Retreat Center in Stroudsburg, PA. As the Presbytery’s camp for more than six decades, Kirkwood has been the place where generations from our community have forged deeper relationships with one another, God, and God’s creation. In recent years, our siblings in Christ from Lehigh Presbytery have joined us in their appreciation of Kirkwood as partners in ministry. Impacted by “the presence of COVID, the financial loss of two camping seasons and the loss of key contributions,” the Board of Kirkwood – after prayerful reflection, reached the decision to close the camp. The July meeting provides us an opportunity to gather in this spot that has been sacred to so many, giving thanks for all God has done in and through this place.
The time: This Saturday meeting in July marks the second year our summer meeting venue provides an opportunity to gather for family-friendly fun and fellowship once our business meeting is done. We even have FREE bus transportation from the Presbytery office to the camp to make it more convenient for you to come and bring a friend or two! Moreover, this will be our first in-person Presbytery meeting since the pandemic – an opportunity to reconnect with one another in our covenant community in a space amenable to every comfort level in this time of pandemic transition. Click here for an informational flyer with additional details for the day at Kirkwood.
The Business of our Ministry: We are a people of God whose very identity revolves around our understanding of the importance of discerning God’s will and deciding what we are called to do in community! The business before us – from the approval of the 2022 budget, to the consideration of our new policy on Ethics of Sexual Boundaries, to the commissioning of new lay pastors – is holy covenant community work to us. And the opportunity to offer thanks to God and celebrate the witness of the ministry that has taken place at Kirkwood deepens the ties that bind us in community. Due to the remoteness of our location, we will need to vote in-person at this meeting. Although we hope to be on Facebook Live, it is unlikely we will be able to provide a zoom platform.
The Worship and the Kirkwood Celebration: The Rev. Dr. Dave Davis, Senior Pastor, Nassau Presbyterian Church, Princeton NJ will be our preacher with worship music provided by Dan Myers of First Presbyterian Church of Ambler. Lunch (which will be available for $8.00 at the meeting) will be followed by time to celebrate and remember the stories of Kirkwood – stories that will continue with all whose lives have been touched by the sacredness of this space.
We look forward to marking this moment in our life as a Presbytery and pray you will consider joining us!
Application for Critical Financial Resources
The Presbytery of Philadelphia to provide vital resources for our congregations’ ongoing wellbeing, and we seek to be faithful to our call to be a people of Gospel hope in this world. Presbytery programs can be used to provide support (serving as a ‘financial’ bridge) to a church’s Operating Costs during this period of prolonged ‘shelter-at-home’ directives and uncertainty. Please apply below:
Contact CFM
Board of Pensions News FALL 2019
First Call, First Steps – Changed Date!
- for seminary students, candidates under care, anyone else seeking a call, and their spouses!
- Dinner provided, and child care with advance notice.
- Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA, November 5, 2019, 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Please RSVP by October 14.
- Participants do not need to be current or former Union students – all candidates and students are welcome!
Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations (HPHC), and the Minister Educational Debt Assistance (MEDA)
- providing finance and benefits education for clergy and congregations, and grants for clergy.
- Schedule seminars in your area with your Church Consultant, Martha Reisner.
Annual Enrollment
- Annual Enrollment for employees eligible for Board benefits: October 28 – November 15.
- Technical questions? Call Employer Services, 800-773-7752 (800-PRESPLAN), 8:30 am – 7:00 pm, M-F.
- Questions about options and details? Check out org or contact your Church Consultant, Martha Reisner
Call to Health deadline – November 15!
- Earn lower deductibles and gift cards; learn strategies for health and wholeness!
- communication aids for churches with their staff,
- for Annual Enrollment, Call to Health, Retirement Savings Plan, Employee Assistance Program and more
The Board of Pensions website, pensions.org, contains detailed program information and links to your Benefits Connect account, vendor sites, and forms and applications.
Martha Reisner is your Church Consultant for most of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic, plus presbyteries of Donegal and Philadelphia: call 215-587-7049 or email mreisner@pensions.org.
Border Trip Blog by Rev. Randy Barge
Rev. Randy Barge, Moderator of the Presbytery, Olney Presbyterian Church
One of the things that touched me was the memorial wall of placards and flowers left in response to the tragic shooting in early August that took that lives of at least 22 people. It drove home for me the belief that much of our current immigration rhetoric is steeped in fear and hatred of people who are different from us. But seeing all the expressions of sympathy and love at the memorial wall, helped to affirm my belief that the forces and powers of hatred and fear do not have the last word. Throughout our stay, we met people, most of them young people, who are committed to bringing the love and justice of the Kingdom of God to bear in their care and concern for asylum seekers and others. We met people like the young college student giving a year of her life as a volunteer at the Oscar Romero shelter in El Paso. We met people like the Presbyterian pastor and his son, both Mexican nationals, whose church, despite its meager resources, sponsors a shelter for asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico due to a recent change in U.S. Policy. And of course, we were hosted by a wonderful group of young people from Abara, who helped us to make sense of much of what we experienced at the border. I was deeply touched and inspired by all of them.
Border Trip Blog by Rev. Adan Mairena
Rev. Adan Mairena, Moderator of the Comission on Resources and Communications, Yeadon Presbyterian Church and West Kensington Ministry
They looked fit and light skinned, as if they were in their early to mid 20’s. They also had two little girls; one looked about three and the other was at school. “We are from Progreso, Honduras and have been here [in Pasos de Fe, a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico] since April,” they shared with me. “Our next court date is in February of 2020. We left Honduras to escape the gang threats. I was not in a gang at all. My wife got into a fight with a woman from a gang and a man jumped in and I had to jump in to protect mi mujer (my woman). The gang started putting death threats on our door, that they were going to rape and kill my wife. We warned not to go to the police. We did. And, immediately as we left the police station the gang found out- our house was burnt. The police and the gangs work together, I got our two little girls and my wife and we left with just clothes. We spent 12 nights under a bridge in Tapachula and eight nights under a bridge in Mexico DF. We made it up here and were at another church but they had a time limit as to how long we could stay. We came here and it is good. We can stay as long as we want and there is no pressure. Everyone cooks their own meals because we all have our own foods. The Cubans eat how they eat and the Mexicans also make their own food. Their cheese here isn’t as strong as ours but I have found some. We go to the centro and buy it. We found a school and registered my daughter. Our final destination is Tampa, Florida. I have family there and we talk often. They are waiting.”
As I left them I was reminded of a young couple about 2000 years ago fleeing to Egypt in hopes of saving their newborn’s life.
Border Trip Blog by Rev. Samantha Hudson
Rev. Samantha Hudson, Moderator of the Commission on Ministry, Pastor of Glading Memorial
The land border wall is overwhelming. To stand in its shadow made me feel small. It is massive, sturdy, and goes on forever. It is a clearly identifiable construction that runs down the middle of this one metropolitan area of Juarez, MX and El Paso, TX. But here is the thing: it is built on U.S. soil. The Rio Grande is the internationally recognized boundary, and then there are ten feet of U.S. land, and then a canal, and then ten feet of more U.S. land, and then the wall. So, it is not functional. Migrants technically can come to the wall and shout “asylum” through it, and Border Patrol would have to go, bring them over, and process them. And, as Border Patrol agents admitted, it will not indefinitely prevent “illegal” crossers either. There is always a way through; it is simply a deterrent, designed to slow them down and give Border Patrol time to catch them. The wall is not functional. It is symbolic: of a desire to create barriers and define who is in and who is out. And it is overwhelming to see such hatred so plainly manifest. The work that we need to do is about the walls in our hearts and in our own communities. That is where we start.
Border Trip Blog by Megan Acedo
“God heals the wounds of every shattered heart.”
-Psalm 147:3
Elder Megan D. Acedo, Moderator of the Committee on Representation, Beacon Church
I have come back from the borderlands with a shattered heart. It is broken in pieces over the systems that perpetuate separation and pain, over the stories of people I talked with, over the ways in which we as human beings talk past each other in order to justify the presence of a massive barrier between two countries. I have struggled to find the Good News in this story, to see how God is reconciling the world to God’s self and us to each other. The one piece of Good News I can see right now is in God’s people, committing themselves over and over again to hard conversations, to caring for beautiful immigrant babies, to seeking out justice and peace even in a time and place where those ideals seem far away. People like Sami, Liza, Bethany, Claudia, Blanca, Gustavo, Keisha, and so many more. I cling to this verse from Psalm 147, because I need to be reminded, even in the midst of brokenness, God is at work binding up our broken hearts and calling us to bind up broken systems of oppression, to love fiercely, and to pursue justice, wholeness, and peace.
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