Dear DUMC Friends,

"Epiphany Plus." Worship design scholar Marcia McFee uses this name for the "season" between Christmas and the beginning of Lent - a season that includes Epiphany and a little stretch of "ordinary time." 

Epiphany (January 6th) is the holiday in the Christian calendar that marks the arrival of the Magi (or wise men) to see the baby Jesus. One thing noteworthy about the Magi is that they were foreigners and non-Jews - men from distant lands and different cultures. For this reason, some churches use the Sundays between Epiphany and Lent to think broadly about our world and what our faith has to say about our world. Often this takes the form of reflecting on social issues. 

This year I will be offering a sermon series on the United Methodist Social Principles during this season, on the Sundays from January 19th through February 16th. The Social Principles are a part of the United Methodist Book of Discipline - the part that speaks about how we might view social, global, political, environmental, and economic issues through the lens of our faith. 

I am VERY excited that Jim Cramer will be facilitating a series of adult classes on the Social Principles in conjunction with my sermon series. These classes will be offered through the Adult Contemporary Issues Forum on Sunday mornings between services. I'd love to see the classes offered at another time to make them more widely available to more folks - if you are interested in participating in this class series at a time other than Sunday mornings, please let me know and we'll try to set up a second class time. 

Surely our faith gives us tools for making sense of the world around us. I will look forward to exploring that together - in worship and beyond!

See you in church!

In faith,

p.s. Did you see the pieces in last month's newsletter about the upcoming change in my work-week schedule? If not, please be sure to read below. Thanks!

From Your Finance Ministry -- December 2013

Note: if you haven't read Pastor Kelly's December 22 letter regarding the church's financial picture, please do. You can find it here. 

We come to the end of the Fiscal Year deeply grateful for the generosity of our congregation throughout the past year but especially this past month.  As a result of  December giving,  we will end the fiscal year in the black and be able to carry forward a surplus to help ease the challenges lying ahead in 2014.  Thank you to all who stepped up to help in these fiscally difficult times!!! 

We still face challenges for 2014 and in order to present a balanced budget to Church Council in January, the Finance Ministry has had to make significant cuts on the expense side of the 2014 budget. Pledges (estimates of giving) for 2014 are down in both number of pledges and dollars pledged and as a result we must adjust our spending accordingly to be responsible stewards.  As we deliberate over these difficult decisions in early January  we ask for your prayers and support. 

If you have any questions regarding the Church's finances, contact Don Kennedy, Co-Chair, Mary Anne Ingenthron, Co-Chair, John Knight, Sarah Williams, Lisa Papagni, Joe Archer or Bill Powell.

Save the Date for Celebration of Abraham

Sunday, January 26th

The 2014 Celebration of Abraham is scheduled for Sunday, January 26th. We will gather at Saint James Fellowship Hall on B Street at 2:30 pm and the program will begin at 3 pm, ending at 5 pm. The event is free and open to everyone. We encourage everyone to come and bring their friends.

This January's convocation of Celebration of Abraham will focus on Loving Kindness. Loving kindness is more than an action. It begins in the heart. In practicing loving kindness humans express their universal hopes through action. The ultimate expression of loving kindness can be seen when a mother cradles her new born in her arms for the first time. That deep caring is difficult to experience in today's world. At the Celebration we will grapple the ways we can show more loving kindness.

This year the planners of the Celebration of Abraham are hoping to begin the community discussion prior to the date of the Celebration. They have posted a blog and invite everyone to add their thoughts, examples of loving kindness, sacred texts and other quotes they believe relate to loving kindness. To read, follow or comment on the Celebration of Abraham blog, please go to http://celebrationofabraham.net/.For more information contact Helen Roland hroland2@gmail.com.

Upcoming Change in Pastor's Weekly Schedule

 (repeated from December Crossection)

Dear Davis United Methodist Church congregation: 

In a work world where work/life balance continues to be a critical part of success for many of us, the Staff-Parish Relations Committee and Church Council have approved a change in schedule for Pastor Kelly. Beginning February 1^st, Pastor Kelly will be trying out a schedule which will allow her to have shared days off each week with Katie. (Katie's job will go to a Wednesday through Saturday schedule in late January.) We understand that the well-being of a pastor's (and any person's) home life contributes to their ability to perform their job, and we want to consider the pastor's and spouse's weekly schedule in a way that supports that value. Attending to this work/life balance is also an investment in the long term sustainability of a pastor's and congregation's ministry.

We think this change will also benefit the congregation. 

Currently, Pastor Kelly's days off are Monday and Saturday. Beginning February 1, 2014, Pastor Kelly's days off will be Monday and Tuesday.

We believe this change will provide better service to the congregation, by providing more pastoral availability to working people in the evenings, on Saturdays, and later into the day on Sundays.

The change in Pastor Kelly's work schedule was widely discussed, supported, and approved by Staff Parish Relations and the Church Council.

This new schedule is an experiment, and will be evaluated after 10 months to determine if further changes need to be made or if the new schedule becomes permanent.

If you have questions, please contact Estell Jones, Sue Woods or Pastor Kelly.

Blessings,

Estell and Sue

co-chairs, Staff Parish Relations Committee 

 Change in Pastor's Schedule - from Pastor Kelly

(repeated from December Crossection)

Hopefully you have already read the article/letter from your Staff-Parish Relations Committee (SPRC) Co-Chairs, Estell Jones and Sue Woods (above). As SPRC and the Church Council discussed the proposed change in my schedule, I realized that there are many things the average churchgoer does not know about a pastor's work and schedule. Hopefully I can speak to some of these things here.

As the article from Sue and Estell says, my schedule at DUMC has been to work Tuesday through Friday, and Sunday, with Saturdays and Mondays as my days off. Beginning February 1st, my schedule will be Wednesday through Sunday, with Mondays and Tuesdays as my days off. I anticipate that it will be very helpful for the congregation and the needs of the ministry to have me working on Saturdays and for more hours on Sundays, when many working people are available. More personally, it will be very helpful for me to have shared time off with my wife, Katie, each week, as my work schedule has historically prevented that. So as we prepare for this schedule change, I want to thank you all for being a community that supports your pastor's marriage! Both SPRC and the Church Council have been enormously supportive - even enthusiastic - about this change.

As we prepare for this change, here are some good things to know about my work and my schedule:

• I am on call on my days off. I want you to call me any time there is an urgent or emergency pastoral care need (i.e. an unplanned hospitalization, significant worsening of life-threatening condition, or death). This includes calling on my days off! (When I go on vacation, I schedule other area clergy to be on call for pastoral care back-up, and our Stephen Leaders assist as well.)
• I work in the office, and also not in the office. For many of the tasks of my job, it works best for me to work in my office at the church. When I meet with people for pastoral care or for church business, it often works well to meet in my office. But I also visit hospitals and homes, meet in coffee shops, attend Circuit meetings, etc. I do most of my sermon writing at home. Occasionally I work at the Davis Public Library, which I find to be an excellent place to concentrate on a writing project.
• You can drop in to see me. But I won't always be available right then. People who drop in already know this. Sometimes I am in my office doing tasks that are interruptible, and my door will be open. At other times I am meeting with someone, or need to focus on writing, and am not interruptible. Having said that, I am going to offer some Saturday "Open House"/drop-in times in February, to usher in this new schedule. And, you can always call or email to schedule a time to meet with me, for any reason.
• You can call me at home on a work day. Really! I prefer people not call before 9am, nor after 9pm, unless it is a pastoral care emergency (see "on call" above). I am glad to be able to work at home when that is helpful - and those are work times, which means I expect and welcome work-related calls. My number is (530) 231-5484, and is published in the church directories. (Please reserve calls to my home on my days off for urgent/emergency situations as described above.)
• This schedule change goes into effect February 1. Until then, I continue to work Tuesday through Friday, and Sunday, with Saturday and Monday as days off. SPRC will evaluate this schedule after ten months to make sure it works for me and for the congregation. As we usher in this new schedule watch for invitations to Saturday Open Houses in my office and general reminders.
• If you have questions, ask. Do you have questions that have not been addressed in this article or the one from your SPRC Co-Chairs? Please don't hesitate to ask! We want to be sure to address anything we haven't yet thought of.