Lent is now just a day less than 6 weeks away - still plenty of time to plan a study or choose a devotion to use during this season of the church year.

Below you will find several resources that can be of help to you and/or your congregation. They are all available from the Resource Center on a first come, first serve basis.

Final Words from the Cross

with Adam Hamilton

This is DVD with leader guide for small group adult study. It contains seven video segments providing insight into Jesus' final words at the cross through the perspective of those who witnessed the crucifixion. Then he moves beyond the cross to Jesus' words to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and to those who were witnesses

to the Resurrection.

24 Hours That

Changed the World

Adam Hamilton

guides us, step by step, through the last 24 hours of Jesus' life. The DVD includes a leader's guide as well as the book.

Jason Gant provides a youth study based on the above DVD/book 24 Hours That Changed the World. In this study teens will experience the anticipation surrounding the last Supper, the shock of Jesus' betrayal and arrest, the anxiety surrounding his trial, the anguish of his suffering and death, and the glory of the empty tomb. Seven sessions.

Marcia Stoner provides a study for older children (ages 9-12) also based on Hamilton's 24 Hours subtitled Jesus' Last Week on Earth. Children will create a three-dimensional road to Easter, actively participate in worship each lesson, delve into the meaning of the events of Holy Week, and participate in a service project related to foot washing. Includes

reproducible pages.

Daphna Flegal is the author of the younger children (ages 4-8) resource to accompany Hamilton's 24 Hours study. In this study children will create palm crosses for the congregation, actively participate in worship each lesson, delve into the events of Holy Week with age-appropriate sensitivity, and participate in a service project related to foot washing. Includes reproducible pages.

Sharing the Easter Faith with Children: Helping Children Observe lent and Celebrate Easter

Christian Ed. Carolyn C. Brown

contains materials: for children from birth to age 12, for congregations and families, and includes reproducible booklet for parents. Through this resource Brown helps congregations and families share the Easter message with their children and include the children meaningfully in Lent, Holy Week,

and Easter observances.

The Early Christian Meal: A Good Friday Experience

Kimberlee J. Dodson

This resource is designed to be a worship experience which recreates the hours following Christ's crucifixion. All participants are recognized as followers of Christ, people who have come in contact with Jesus who now find themselves gathering together for comfort and solace in the face of the crucifixion of this man who has touched their lives. The evening closes with communion. This is a good intergenerational resource for Maundy Thursday.

QUICK LINKS

If you have information to share in a newsletter, please submit it to the office no later than the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays of each month. The newsletter is published on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month. Please plan your article accordingly if the information is timely. We hope you will share this newsletter with your congregations.

Many blessings,

PWV Communications

FEBRUARY 18th PRESBYTERY MEETING REGISTRATION!

The next meeting of the Presbytery will be held on February 18th at First Presbyterian Church in Parkersburg.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER! The registration deadline is FEBRUARY 11th! No registrations will be accepted after that date and you will need yo make your own lunch arrangements. Childcare is available by advanced registration only (deadline to request childcare is February 6th). If you or your church will not be at the meeting you need to call or email the PWV Office to request to be excused.

The packet will be available on the presbytery website on February 6th. The worship bulletin will be handed out at the meeting. Elder orientation will take place at 9:15 the morning of the meeting.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

CARING FOR YOUR LOVED ONE

Temple Israel presents

"CARING FOR YOUR LOVED ONE"

Featuring Vickie Powell Director, Palliative Care Center

Sunday, February 9, 2014 at 1:00 pm

Temple Israel

2312 Kanawha Blvd. E

Charleston WV 25311

Topics will include:

Care-giving of loved ones and the toll it takes, Advance directives, and Community resources

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

SOUPER BOWL OF CARING

On Sunday, February 3rd youth across our Presbytery will participate in Souper Bowl of Caring Sunday by holding soup pots at church doors They will join young people in churches across the country to collect money for those who are hungry and hurting. In 2013, $7.47 million was collected by Souper Bowl of Caring participants for local charities. All of the money collected is donated to a charity selected by the participant - none of the money is sent to the Souper Bowl of Caring headquarters. The Presbytery of West Virginia Hunger Action Ministry Team is asking that each participating church report their collection to us so that a Presbytery total can be determined. Since the Souper Bowl of Caring began in 1990, more than $98 million has gone to help people in need.

Please send your reporting amount plus the name of the organization that your donation will be given to, to Claire Butler your Presbytery Hunger Action Enabler at [email protected].

A total for the Presbytery as well as individual giving by churches will appear in the February 27th Presbytery of West Virginia Newsletter.

WAYS TO EDUCATE CHURCHES ABOUT WATER ISSUES AROUND THE WORLD

Living Waters for the World is a ministry that provides sustainable clean water, fostering long-term, mutually beneficial, relationships between volunteers and communities in need. For more information, go to http://livingwatersfortheworld.org/.

Just Living: Sustaining Waters: This resource is aimed at assisting Christians to be good stewards of water. As such it highlights three areas: Clean Waters, Abundant Waters and Recovery Waters. Clean Waters covers water stewardship and environmental concerns through protecting and preserving water resources...

Water is Life is a worldwide campaign to preserve the Right of access to clean water for all of God's Creation. It promotes global education about the importance of clean water and the need to preserve it, anti-pollution measures to protect our lakes, rivers, and underground water from contamination by agricultural and mineral toxic bi-products... Go to: http://www.waterislife.com/ for more information.

The UNICEF Tap Project: Clean Water for Children around the World: No one can survive without water. Yet 768 million people do not have safe, clean water to drink, and more than 2.5 billion people live without a proper toilet. Go to http://www.unicefusa.org/campaigns/tap-project/ for more information

READ MANY MORE

EDUCATOR-CLERGY-CRE RETREAT

EDUCATOR CLERGY CRE RETREAT - Hawks Nest State Park, Monday, February 24- Tuesday, February 25.

Information on this event, along with a registration form, was sent to Christian Educators, Teaching Elders and Commissioned Ruling Elders late last year. The registration deadline for this event is Monday, February 10. For an additional copy of the registration form, please contact Susan Sharp Campbell.

THE CONGREGATION AS RESOURCE CENTER - Alban Weekly

A recent phone conversation with a pastor revealed a unique ministry. The pastor told me about their "teacher's group." "Do you mean your Sunday School teachers?" I asked. She explained "No, this is our group of elementary public school teachers. They get together once a month to share classroom ideas. It is not a support group. It is a working group. Our church has a group for sports coaches too. And a parenting group. You might say we're becoming a resource center."

Many congregations work on matching their members with volunteer opportunities. There is a constant need for congregations to fill volunteer positions, such as greeters, coffee hour hosts, nursery attendants and so forth. Such efforts often include completion of member talent forms and data entry of the information into the church membership database. Congregations will advertise this matching of individuals with tasks as "people living out their calling." After all, it doesn't matter if your congregation is large or small, there is a need to recruit, train, and encourage members to help with the never-ending list of responsibilities. This is one form of resourcing...

by Tim Shapiro, Alban Weekly

Click here to sign up to receive Ablan Weekly by email.

LAY ACADEMY SPRING SERIES BEGINS!

Put Sunday February 2, 4:00pm on your calendar and plan to join us in the Activities Bldg, Room 201, when we will continue to study "Religion and Science." We shall look again at the book PROOF OF HEAVEN and the Near Death Experience of Eben Alexander, MD, and learn from his discoveries how to make progress in our study of both Science and Religion, arguably the two most important and problematic dimensions of our human lives in our world today and tomorrow...

Many of you have already read PROOF OF HEAVEN. How about if you loan your copy to someone who wants to read this book? And then, invite your friends to join us for our Spring Series of studies of Religion and Science. Sundays, 4:00pm, Activities Bldg. Free and open to everyone. Please contact me if you have questions or suggestions.

Bob Newman, Director, The Lay Academy of Religion First Presbyterian Church, Charleston, WV

(304) 345-0225; [email protected]

FESTIVAL OF FAITH - APRIL 5TH

Neal Presa, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the PCUSA, will be our keynote presenter for Festival of Faith, April 5, at First Presbyterian Church, Charleston.

In addition to the keynote presentation, there will be opportunities for worship, workshops, fellowship and fun for all ages.

To highlight a couple of the workshops this week: Ernesto Badillo, Regional Representative of the Board of Pensions, will be here to talk about the changes that are coming to the 2015 dues model. Clerks of Session may find Maureen Wright's workshop helpful in their work. There's a workshop for Church Treasurers to help them understand the ministry to which they have been called as they share with other treasurers and our Presbytery Treasurer. (More workshops will be highlighted in coming weeks.)

Packets of information on this event should be in churches. Check with your Pastor, Clerk of Session, Church Educator for materials. Complete information can also be found at www.wvpresbytery.org under ministries and then nurture committee. If you would like a packet of information sent to you, please contact Leslie Curtis at [email protected].

STEWARDSHIP KALEIDOSCOPE

For Elders, Pastors, Presbytery Staff and Volunteers...

Join us this year in St Louis for the 2014 Stewardship Kaleidoscope. Come and engage with others who are also committed to enhancing the stewardship and generosity program within their congregations. Learn and share best practices in a wide range of strategies and initiatives to create a culture of generosity.

March 17-19, 2014 in St. Louis, Missouri

Plenary Speakers:

Karl Travis is Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas. He is a well-known speaker, preacher and writer particularly in the areas of Christian generosity and generations theory.

Carol Howard Merritt has been a pastor for 14 years and is the award-winning author of Tribal Church and Reframing Hope. Her blog, TribalChurch.org, is hosted by the Christian Century.

Visit www.StewardshipKaleidoscope.org for conference information, updates, and online registration.

2014 DIRECTORY UPDATES

REMINDER...

Don't forget to send your updated information for the 2014 PWV Directory to Leslie by January 30th!

Letters were mailed to churches and clerks of session the beginning of December requesting updates. Those letters contained copies of the current directory entry for each church. If you or your church need another copy to update please let Leslie know.

We are trying to get the 2014 PWV Directory out as early in 2014 as possible.

AIMING FOR JESUS - YOUNGER YOUTH RETREAT

The Younger Youth Retreat for those in grades 6-8, and their adult advisors, will be held March 7-9, 2014, at Cedar Lakes Conference Center.

Youth Council members will lead participants in exploring how we, Christ's disciples, can aim to follow the example of Jesus as we live with and serve others, through a variety of activities. Much of the weekend will be based on themes from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. As part of the theme exploration, we will be using a few clips from The Hunger Games movie, being sensitive to the fact that it is rated PG-13 and this is a middle school retreat.

Complete retreat information and registration forms have been sent to Church Leaders and Youth Workers. For more information, or if you have questions, contact Susan Sharp Campbell.

PRESBY PREP - REFORMED THEOLOGY

Reformed Theology will be the topic of discussion at the February Presby Prep courses. These will be offered on Saturday, February 15, at Clifton Presbyterian Church in Maxwelton (just north of Lewisburg) and on Saturday, February 22, at Teays Valley Presbyterian Church in Scott Depot. The same course will be offered at each site.

Interested persons may register using the registration form found by clicking here. To facilitate participants receiving reading assignments in a timely fashion, registration should occur for the February course no later than February 3.

Presby Prep offers courses to learn more about being Presbyterian and is open to all interested persons. For more information, contact Susan Sharp Campbell, [email protected] or 304-645-4568.

SEASON OF REPORTING

Clerks of Session and Teaching

Elders serving congregations should have received a detailed letter from Maureen Wright, Stated Clerk, which outlined the requirement for all churches to complete the annual Statistical Report; the deadline for completing the report is February 20, 2014.

In addition, the letter asked churches to complete the Clerk's Annual Questionnaire, the Pastor's Compensation Report, and Necrology Report. The deadlines for the Pastor's Compensation Report and Necrology Report are January 31, 2014. The Necrology will be used in worship at the February meeting of Presbytery! The letter also contained the dates of the Session Record Reviews. Record Reviews will be held in each cluster this spring; these dates can be found on the left. Clerks of Session or Teaching Elders are encouraged to contact Maureen Wright with questions or concerns: [email protected] or (304) 720-2065.

SUMMER YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES - A REMINDER

Middle School Youth - those currently in grades 6-8 - Massanetta Springs Middle School Conference, Tuesday, June 24- Friday, June 27. The registration deadline is Monday, March 3.

High School - those currently in grades 9-12 - Mission Trip - Raleigh Youth Mission, Sunday, July 12-Friday, July 18. The registration deadline for this event is Thursday, April 3.

Information on both of these events can be found on the presbytery website: wvpresbytery.org, click on "ministries" and then "Nurture Committee." If you have questions, please contact Susan Sharp Campbell at 304-645-4568 or [email protected]

Forrest Palmer, Interim Executive Presbyter - We are a baptized covenant people -
Craig Butler, Trans. Assoc. for Congregational Dev. Presbytery of West Virginia

Maureen Wright, Stated Clerk 520 Second Ave.

Lois Coffey, Treasurer & Financial Administrator South Charleston, WV 25303

Claire Butler, Interim Older Adult Min. & Hunger Action Enabler Phone (304) 744-7634

Karen Robinson, Resource Center Director Fax (304) 744-7649

Susan Sharp Campbell, Associate for Educational Ministry www.wvpresbytery.org

Leslie Curtis, Office Administrator Office Hours: M-Th. 8:30-5:30

Mark Miller, Bluestone Camp & Retreat Director [email protected]