The third installment of Come to the Table is scheduled for November 8-9, 2019 at the Stony Point Center in Stony Point, NY. The planning team is hard at work designing the experience focused on worship, joint learning – with a mission fair, and two 1½-hour-long workshop sessions on three tracks – and fellowship. The theme around which our Synod community will gather is For Such a Time as This: Change, Crisis, & Opportunity.
Read MoreWhen we entered the opening gathering for the May Mission & Ministries Commission meeting, we were told to bring our chairs into the inner part of the room. There we sat in a semi-circle. It created a discomfort around the room because it was not what we were used to doing. Everyone waited for the activity to begin…and you could feel the palpable tension as we waited for this activity to be over so we could return to our normal seats. Yet, it never happened. As I squelched my complaints about why this did not create a productive meeting space in which I could take notes for my reporting, I began to shift my perspective. I began to fully engage the process at hand. This was no longer an activity to be endured, but I could see the value in it.
Read MoreThe 2018 Synod Assembly was organized by a “worshipful work” approach to our business and conversations. As we moved through the different elements of the meeting, each corresponded with an aspect of the Reformed order of worship, which helped to ground us in our spiritual identity and to remind us of our ultimate purpose of honoring God.
One of the main highlights of the Assembly was a confessional statement that was written and presented by a group of young ministry leaders called “A Confession for Such a Time as This.”
Read MoreDear Friends,
As with many of you, I have become weary and sad at the constant flow of hateful speech and racist rhetoric from our president and his followers. The daily barrage of these words, and devastating actions that follow them, leaves me exhausted and wondering how to best use my public voice in ways that don’t simply add to the constant flood of exchanges around them.
This morning as I rise from morning prayer there is a fire in my bones that I cannot quench. It rises from the deepest part of my spirit and compels me to speak a word that makes it clear that there are regular episodes of our current president’s behavior that are undeniably immoral and contrary to the teachings of Jesus.
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