Muskingum Valley Presbytery
Weekly Update

January 17, 2013

This week...
Save the Dates!
MVP News & Materials
Consider Detroit...
Debbie's Weekly Message
Holy Habits: Unbinding
You are invited...
Free 1933/1934 Presbyterian Hymnals
Presbyterian News Service Press Release
Thank you for your support
Prayer Requests/Updates
Join Our Mailing List 

Save the Dates!

 

Wednesday March 13th, 5P

until  

Thursday,  

March 14th, 5P

   

Registration  

begins at 4:30P

 

Lenten Retreat/

Inner Shalom

 

Christ 

Presbyterian Church

530 Tuscarawas Street West 

Canton, OH 44702

  

Click Here to Register for the Lenten Retreat

*Please call the McKinley Hotel, 1-877-454-5008 to book your reservations. To receive discount, state that you are attending the MVP Lenten Retreat.
You must call to ahead to reserve room(s).
 

  -------------  

 

Saturday,

April 20th

 

9:00A-4:00P

 

Registration  

begins at 8:30A 

 

Ministry Options in the 21st Century

with George Bullard

 

Unity Presbyterian Church

130 N. 7th Street

Cambridge, OH 43725

  

  -------------

 

Questions?
Comments?
Corrections?

  

800.693.1147
330.339.5515

 

 

MVP 
Office Hours:
Monday thru Thursday
8:00A - 4:30P

MVP News:

 

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2013, the standard mileage rates will be:

56.5 cents 

per mile for business miles driven.

 

2011-2013
Book of Order
$9.00 each

*NEW*
2013 Mission Yearbooks
are now on sale at the
Presbytery office.
$15.00 each


Per Capita 2013
GA
 6.87
Synod
 3.25
Presbytery
18.36
Total 28.48
 



Consider
Detroit as a

Location
for your next

Youth or Adult Mission Trip

Detroit Presbytery Service Initiative is a program run by the Hands-On Mission Work Group of the Presbytery of Detroit, 17575 Hubbell, and Detroit, MI 48235.

Nature of Work:
A variety of service opportunities in partnership with area congregations, community agencies and social service organizations.
Work projects include and are not limited to demolition, construction, human services, Vacation Bible Schools, Habitat builds, nature conservancy and many others.


Unbind him!

 

When told by Jesus to take away the stone from the tomb of Lazarus, his sister Martha replies (in the language of King James, of course): "But Lord, he stinketh!"   I imagine that he may well have smelled after three days enclosed in a tomb without a shower. But then, all of us have had moments when it could be said of us that we too "stinketh."

 

The deeper reality that Jesus was addressing was those places in our lives where we find ourselves bound up. Tied up in knots. Boxed in. Constrained. The raising of Lazarus is a living testimony of the power of Jesus to remove those constraints from our life. Earlier in John, Jesus testified to his call: "I have come that all may have life and have it in abundance" (10:10).

 

"Unbind him and let him go!" Jesus said of Lazarus, dead three days in the tomb. And they did, and Lazarus came forth... alive! From what do you need to be set free? Is there a place in your life where you are feeling boxed in by fear? Constrained by shame over a past failure? Entombed by your own expectations of how life should be? Tied up in knots over circumstances beyond your control? Do you fear that the stench will put others off and therefore remain shut up in the tomb of your life? Will you allow Jesus to speak healing into your life and living?

 

There is no stench that Jesus can't wash away. There are no circumstances that Jesus can't unbind. Yet still we resist.   Still, we continue to bind ourselves up. Imposing our expectations of right living upon ourselves (and others), thereby rejecting Jesus' invitation to abundant living.

 

To be sure, there are expectations that come with being unbound. When we find ourselves released from the tombs that have enclosed us, we can no longer box in others with our bounded expectations of right living. Rather, we are called to dwell in Christ that we with time and practice we might come to reflect the love, generosity, healing, hospitality, forgiveness, mercy and peace that are at the center of who he is.

 

"Take off the grave clothes and let him go!" Jesus commanded of Lazarus. Are there grave clothes that Jesus is inviting you to take off that you might live... unbounded and free!

 

    

  

Debbie Rundlett,  

General Presbyter 

 

 

Holy Habit: Unbinding

 

One of the challenges of unbinding is slowing down enough to name what is going on inside of us. Over this next week, set aside 15 minutes each morning to do a "self scan": body, mind, heart, and spirit.

 

Begin by journaling for two minutes about what is on your mind. Dare to name that which "binds" you that you would prefer not to think about and offer it to God in prayer.

Next do a mental scan of your body, starting with your toes and working up to your head. As you do, notice areas of tension, relaxation, soreness or limberness. Is there a part of your body that is "bound up" in need of "unbinding"? What is your body trying to say to you? You may want to incorporate a few moments of stretching as a form of bodily prayer and release.

Now spend some time with your heart. Can you name your current feelings? Where do you notice those feelings in your body? What action might you take to either nurture the feeling (if it is healthy) or release it (if it is binding you)?

 

Now breathe deeply. As you inhale, receive God's breath of life for this day. As you exhale, release that which binds you. Surrender it to God in prayer. Allow the Holy Spirit to release you with joy into this day.

 

You are invited

  Westminster Presbyterian Church, Wooster, Ohio invites you to join us for an Interfaith Worship Service on January 27 at 10:45 with Naomi Tutu as our guest spe  aker.   Naomi is the third child of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nomalizo Leah Tutu. She was born in South Africa and had the opportunity to live in many communities and countries. She was educated in Swaziland, the US, and England, and has divided her adult life between South Africa and the US.  She currently is pursuing a Masters in Divinity and is the single mother of two daughters and a son.   Her passion in life is to bring different groups of people together, to help them learn from and celebrate their differences and acknowledge their shared humanity.

 

Please feel free to contact me for more information at (330) 263-2398 or [email protected]. Also, please feel free to forward this message and invite others to join us for this inspiring event. 

 

We hope to see you at Westminster on Sunday, January 27.


Andries Coetzee, Pastor

 

 

 

Westminster Presbyterian Church in New Concord is cleaning out closets! We have over 100 copies of the 1933/1949 Presbyterian Hymnal (dark green cover), free for the asking. Please email pastor Ellen Thomas at [email protected] if interested. Thank you.

 

 
January 4, 2013

Dear Presbytery Staff Members,

Grace and peace to you all.

We write with concern about proposed benefits and dues plan changes announced by the Board of Pensions after their October 2012 meeting, and to urge reconsideration. We ask that you share this letter with the pastoral leaders and clerks of session of your Presbytery, to encourage congregational conversations toward the hope that more faithful and constructive options might be explored as all of us consider how to respond to the funding crisis for the health care benefits of the Plan.

The reasons for our concern begin with our sense that the proposed changes are counter to the values of the Presbyterian Church (USA), including those of the Board of Pensions. Among our concerns are the following:

1. No suggestion was made in written reports by the Board of Pensions to the 220th General Assembly (2012) that a
significant change in the structure of medical benefits was contemplated, nor was any suggestion offered that perhaps
the plan was facing a deficit situation. A deficit of the level the Board has announced seems unlikely to have emerged
between July and October 2012. Although there was a small hint of a change in the financial outlook for the medical
plan in the report to the 2012 General Assembly, the concern was not clearly stated.

2. The proposed turn away from the historic communal nature and the call neutrality aspects of the plan are troubling. These two aspects have been central in the Board's reports and interpretive pieces, which does not surprise, as both are highly valued by Plan members and congregations. Indeed, the communal nature of the Plan was emphasized in the Board's Agency Summary to the 220th General Assembly. These aspects are understood and lived as spiritual values by Presbyterians across the church. Changing the essential nature of the Plan would damage the church and render faithful ministry more difficult in many places.

3. Further, the proposed changes may well exacerbate existing divisions in the church. Increasing costs for Plan
members with dependents puts Plan members on opposing sides. It places members with dependents, a group that
includes many of the younger members of the Plan, out of parity with members without dependents, a group that
includes the majority of older and/or retired members. It also could result in increasing division between Plan members
who serve smaller, less-resourced congregations and those who serve larger, wealthier congregations. In many cases,
members who are financially better off will get a break, while members who are already experiencing financial stress will be under increased burdens if the proposed changes are enacted.

Finally, the Board's report to the 220th General Assembly on Amendments to the Plan notes that amendments "that are
in the nature of a benefit reduction...are only effective upon approval of the General Assembly". We suggest that a
benefit reduction is part of the proposed change, and thus, we believe that the Board must submit these proposed
changes to the 221st General Assembly (2014), which would allow the church time for a full conversation about the
potential benefits and costs of the proposed changed to the medical benefits of the Plan.

We urge the Board of Directors to reconsider these changes and offer the church the opportunity to consider all the
implications of the proposed changes at the 221st General Assembly.


John Fife, Moderator                Deborah Fortel, Moderator


204th General Assembly, PC(USA) (1992) GA Task Force on Theology of Compensation, 2008-2010

NOTE: The Presbyterian News Service press release on proposed changes is one place to find more information.
http://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/11/2/board-pensions-unveils-new-2014-healthcare-dues-st/
 

December 2012  

 

Dear partners in ministry, 

 

Thank you for your support of my ministry at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand through the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the past. I'm deeply grateful for all who have partnered with me in this work. 

    

Before Payap closed for the holidays we held a Christmas lunch for the staff of the dorms: the manager, chaplain, maintenance folks, and residential life staff. We also invited the housekeeping staff, who are mostly from Myanmar/Burma, where jobs are scarce and wages low. We sang some Christmas songs and played a simple hand-clapping game that was challenging for folks not used to such (photo). I moved from my obligatory seat in the front to sit with the housekeepers to try to help model the game and have fun with them doing this new thing. 

 

Then I shared the meaning of Christmas from Philippians 2:4-11: that God didn't cling to privilege and power, but was born a human being to reveal his love for us, to die and rise again so we can have new life, and that having humbled himself and given himself for us, he was given great glory-he rules and reigns over everything. I proposed that in a similar way, the more we seek power and privilege, the uglier we become, but the more we seek to love others in self-giving ways, the lovelier we become. I used Mother Theresa as a prime example, and I encouraged all of us to begin the new year with a goal to grow as self-giving "lov-ers" toward one another and on behalf of our students. 

 

Everyone received some gifts and enjoyed a delicious lunch together of sticky rice, barbecued chicken, spicy green papaya salad, and raw ground spicy beef with a few innards (I eat the cooked version). 

 

My place at Payap gives me opportunities like this to eat good food, play fun games, receive gifts at Christmas, and share about a loving God who became one of us. Gifts of finance and prayer make possible my enjoying this place at Payap. Thank you. 

 

Please pray that I will grow as a self-giving "lov-er." I am keenly aware of my self-protecting tendencies and selfishness. My deepest desire is that people will feel God's love as they interact with me day by day. 

 

My prayer for all of us is that we will personally experience God's love in growing depth and breadth throughout the Christmas season and new year. 

 

Esther Wakeman   

 

 
Prayer Requests/Updates

Be in prayer for Bob Meyer, pastor of Wayne Presbyterian Church in Wooster. He is having surgery at Fairview Hospital on Thursday, January 17th.  

Please pray for Tom Armstrong, retired Stated Clerk of the Upper Ohio Valley. His lung cancer is getting worse.

Update on Barb Amon: Please keep her in your prayers as she just got home from the hospital on Wednesday, January 16th .  She was admitted to Salem Community Hospital this last weekend because she was having difficulties with her ulcer and passing out because of this.    

Please cover Debbie in prayer and honor her need to take time apart as she prepares materials born out of our shared life together for publication. She asks for continued prayers for focus and inspiration.

 

   If you or someone you know has a prayer request

please send them to:
Shauna at [email protected]
   

  

      

  

Journeying with Jesus to touch the world...
Empowered by the Spirit to:
Make Disciples, Nurture Our Faith, and Serve the Needs of the Community! 
 

Shauna Engeldinger, Administrative Assistant

  

Muskingum Valley Presbytery

109 Stonecreek Road NW

New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663 

330.339.5515

1.800.693.1147

Fax: 330.339.6225

 

 Visit our website: www.MVPJourney.org

 

 

Regular Office hours

Monday - Thursday

8:00A to 4:30P