Commission Moderator Thia Reggio led a fish bowl discussion with the Synod Mission Team – Synod Leader Harold Delhagen, Stated Clerk Nancy Talbot and Synod Networker Amaury Tanon-Santos in which she asked four questions: 1-What is the mission team and how does it work? 2-What three things have been your foci since the last commission meeting? 3-What do you see as the most pressing matter for the Synod between now and the next meeting? 4-What do you see as the challenges and the positives of the New Way Forward? As each mission team member answered, it wove together a tapestry of the individual and collective daily work that helps to move the Synod forward. As always, we broke for meals and enjoyed fellowship and worship. Everyone left knowing that we had done good work on behalf of the Synod.
Read MoreThe Mission Working Group of the Synod Mission and Ministries Commission reviews grant applications and then joyfully gathers to discern which innovative ministries to help fund across the Synod of the Northeast. Those that catch our attention reflect thoughtfulness in research, have support from their presbytery, create new energy for the gospel in relationships, and demonstrate promise for sustainability in ministry. As a result of the Commission decisions at its January 2017 meeting, we are pleased to commend to you the work of each of the following Innovation Grant Recipients:
Read MoreIt might not sound like such a revelation to offer a movie night, but Ogdensburg has no movie theater. The small city used to be a thriving port, but the economy tanked nearly a decade ago. Now there is poverty, isolation, and a constant flow of drugs over the Canadian border putting the town at risk of addiction and opening it to the destructive forces that loneliness and anger and a sense of abandonment can unleash.
Read MorePIM, one of the 1,001 Worshiping Communities and partially funded by the Synod’s Innovation Fund is a ministry of many love stories like this one. The stories of people who come and go, caught up in a system that ignores their humanity. PIM calls them into community with Christ, so that even as they move from detention centers to holding cells to prisons, they know that they are not alone.
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