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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).
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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
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Questions?
Comments?
Corrections?
800.693.1147
330.339.5515
MVP
Office Hours: Monday thru Thursday
8:00A - 4:30P
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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
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6.87
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Synod
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3.25
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Presbytery
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18.36
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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.
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One size does not fit all...
We know that! So why then do we keep trying to make one size fit all? Be it worship... or programs... or (to get more specific) how we gather as a presbytery.
As a presbytery, we are entering a new season of our shared life together. The context in which we find ourselves in this year of our Lord, 2013 is very different from the context in which the presbytery was first formed. Over the last seven years alone, close to half of our congregations have been in transition. We have said goodbye to over thirty pastors and welcomed others in their place. That is a lot of change to take in! Add to that, the significant changes are taking place across our denomination (not to mention our world) and we can begin to feel a bit overwhelmed.
Given this, Council felt that it would be important for us to take some intentional time apart: to worship together, to fellowship together, to pray together, to listen together... to one another and to God! We felt that the best context in which to take this time apart was that of a retreat. New to this presbytery, it is something many of our sister presbyteries do at least annually. It is the means by which community is shaped and nurtured.
Time will be given for us to be together as a whole, as well as in our geographic parishes. Our focus will be "Inner Shalom" that we might yield ourselves anewto the Triune God through intentional focus on the Inward Journey, even as we prepare for the Outward Journey into our communities. Specific attention will be given to ways in which we might more intentionally direct the mind and heart to God's purpose in and through us, remembering that "call is an invitation to wholeness," as well as "a spiritual prompting to complete the work of love that we are here to do."
As Teresa of Avila reminds us:
Christ has no body but ours, No hands, no feet on
earth but ours,
Ours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
Ours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Ours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Ours are the hands, Ours are the feet, Ours are the eyes, we are his body.
Christ has no body now but ours,
No hands, no feet on earth but ours,
Ours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but ours.
It is our hope that our time together in March will prepare us to more intentionally focus on the Outward Journey at our May meeting. While there is no one way to "be Christ" to our communities, each of us must discern God's particular call through the intersection of our passions and strengths with the needs of community.
We realize that cost is an issue for some. Word has gone out to the Canton congregations to see if local members might open their homes to provide a bed for the night. Others are exploring ways to share a room at the McKinley. We encourage pastors to use some of their professional expenses or continuing education allowances. We encourage sessions to cover the cost of their commissioners. Should you want to explore either staying in a home or sharing a room, please let Shauna know and we will do our best to help. But, do not let cost keep you from coming. Together, let's find a way!
In the meantime, we invite you to ponder God's call to us in Jeremiah 29:1-11. For now, simply allow the Word to permeate your consciousness. Don't so much seek answers, but rather dare the live the questions that arise from the text.
With love in Christ,
Debbie Rundlett,
General Presbyter
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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 acoetzee@wooster.edu. 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 |
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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 ellenthomas22@gmail.com if interested. Thank you.
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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/
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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
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Prayer Requests/Updates
Kathleen Adams, lay pastor of East Hills Presbyterian Church in Mansfield is asking for prayers as they return to Haiti to continue teacher training at the Village of Hope school and the Academy of Faith.Merlin Wentworth, lay pastor of Antrim and Old Washington churches had surgery on the afternoon of Thursday, January 24th at the Southeastern Ohio Regional Medical Center in Cambridge. Please keep him, his family and churches in your thoughts and prayers. As I get updates, I will pass them along.
Be in prayer for Bob Meyer, pastor of Wayne Presbyterian Church in Wooster. He had surgery on Thursday, January 1 7th and is now back home recovering from his surgery.
Please pray for Tom Armstrong, retired Stated Clerk of the Upper Ohio Valley. His lung cancer is getting worse.
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
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