Saturday, September 10, 2016

Bazaar News!

The Holiday Bazaar is right around the corner and we hope all are thinking about this year’s "Street of Shops" bazaar. We are looking for people who would like to donate to the:

Confections Shop - homemade fudge, jellies, jams, breads, cookies, candies
Second Hand Shop - (please only unique gift items, any rummage sale style items will be discarded)
Christmas Shop - homemade Christmas ornaments, decorations, unique Christmas items
Crafters Corner - homemade items other than Christmas themed
Apothecary - homemade candles, healing ointments, lotions, and Raffle items are needed

We will also need help in the kitchen - serving a lite breakfast of coffee/pastry and then a lunch beginning at 11:00am.

This is such a wonderful time for fellowship, laughter and an opportunity to release our creative and crafty inner-selves. Come join in this special time of year.

Peacemaking Offering

On October 4th we will celebrate World Communion Sunday and receive the Peacemaking Offering.  The theme this year is from Ephesians 6:23 "Peace be to the whole community, and love with faith."  This offering supports a variety of peacemaking efforts.

On this day we join with Christians around the world to celebrate the unity that we find at the Table of the Lord.  We receive the Peacemaking Offering to support the efforts of our congregation, our presbytery, our synod, and the General Assembly to spread the peace and justice in places far and near.  25% of the offering will stay in our church, 25% is used by synods and presbyteries, and 50% is allocated to General Assembly ministries.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Where are We in the Journey?

On Sunday, August 21, 2016, immediately following worship, the congregation of Watkins Glen Presbyterian Church voted unanimously to elect 9 people to serve in the ministry of the Pastoral Nominating Committee.  The people who were elected are: Dannie Brown Anne Centurelli, Wendy Drake, Harriett Farrell, Rachel Houseknecht, John King, Marzi Lewis, Tom Weidemann, Ken Wilson. We give thanks to God that these people have said "yes" to serving God and the church in this way.

The Pastoral Nominating Committee (PNC) will begin their work together soon.  They will take the Mission Study Report (prepared earlier this summer, and approved by both our Session and the Committee on Ministry (COM) of the Presbytery), discern what characteristics, gifts and skills of a minister would best serve the ministry and mission of this church, and use that information to create what is essentially the church resume:  The Ministry Information Form.  After that form is completed and approved by COM, it will be placed on the Church Leadership Connection of the PCUSA.  Pastors and seminarians who are looking for pastoral calls also post their resumes, called Personal Information Forms (PIFs). Some PIFs will be sent automatically, through the matching feature of the system; others will be sent directly from people seeking calls.

In this technology savvy age, much of this will take place electronically:  the old days of getting stacks of paper resumes sent through the mail is over.  Potential candidates most often have sermons available for viewing on youtube or vimeo, and skype and conference calls are used for initial interviews.  All of this use of technology not only cuts down costs, but also allows the PNC to have a better idea of who is applying, and helps the search process enormously.

I hope that you will hold the PNC in prayer, will respect their decisions, will allow them the time and confidentiality to discern who God is calling to be your next pastor.  Please take some time to thank them for this ministry, as well as to thank the Nominating Committee for their work and discernment as well.

Blessings
- Pastor Nancy