Special Delivery - We want to give a huge shout out and thanks to the youth group and chaperones from the Woodlands Community Presbyterian Church, to Mo-Ranch’s hardworking staffers, and the good people of First Presbyterian Church Bay City, TX! Because of the generosity of their time and this collaborative effort, as Mo’s Junior High Jubilee was dismissed, the Mo-Ranch trailer hauling Mission Presbytery’s emergency generator was delivered to Bay City, Texas where thousands of residents lost power because of the Hurricane. FPC Bay City was able to host a disaster relief team serving hurricane survivors.

Synod of the Sun Newsletter

2024 July

Rev. Kathy Lee-Cornell, LMSW

Director, Synod Partnership for Disaster Recovery

We made a recording of a Hurricane Preparedness Webinar and Table Top exercise that the Synod hosted on July 11, 2024, just four days after Hurricane Beryl made landfall on the coast of Texas. Earlier this year, many forecasters predicted that this years’ Atlantic hurricane season will be more active than usual, with as many as 25 named storms to form from now through November. And as we have just witnessed, Hurricane Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm on record. In addition to the heavy damage caused across the Caribbean islands, Venezuela, and Mexico; Hurricane Beryl impacted at least a dozen states in the U.S. with tornadoes, wind damage, flooding, and of course, the power outages affecting millions of residents during what is already an extremely hot summer.

I hope this webinar and the conversation shared between those who attended this event will give you the resources, courage, and support you need to make a disaster plan for yourself, your family, your congregation and your community today. Our hope for this hurricane season is for us to not be overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty, but rather that we might be grounded in the gifts of our faith and set free to serve in this shared ministry together, because the truth is: you are not alone. My prayer is for this conversation to help you find inspiration, community and connection in the Sun.

You can find the video recording on the Synod YouTube page (youtube.com/@synodofthesun/videos) and you can listen to the recording on Sunspots, the podcast of Synod of Sun. Find Sunspots wherever you get your podcast content or on our webpage (synodsun.org/sunspots)

Congregation members, staff, volunteers, and anyone interested in learning more about poverty and the issues surrounding it are invited to IMAGINE 2024! This event will take place November 6-8, 2024 in sites in and around New Orleans, Louisiana.

What will we be doing? Based on the PCUSA Matthew 25 “Five Spiritual Practices for Ending Poverty: Worship, Learn, Relate, Act, and Share”, we will both bring the community in and go out into the community to bear witness to those marginalized by poverty and the work being done to alleviate its effects through listening to stories, learning about programs that may work in our local contexts, and serving through hands-on activities.

(Although “Imagine” officially begins later on Wednesday, please feel free to join us at the Synod Assembly at Metairie Ridge Presbyterian Church for workshops presented by PCUSA staff on a variety of poverty-related topics at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.!)

How much does this cost? Cost is $75/person for this event. Follow the link below to find out more and how to inquire for finanical assistace

How do we get there? Travel arrangements are on your own to and from New Orleans, and to St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church (SCAPC)

Please plan to arrive by 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6th and depart after Noon on Friday, November 8th.

Partner Video: Berean Community Center

Another site we'll visit at IMAGINE 2024 is Berean Presbyterian Church. Located in Central City New Orleans, is the only historically black Presbyterian congregation still worshiping in New Orleans. Co-Director Linda Trueblood tells us about Berean's Community Center, who opens its doors regularly to the community to meet needs for food, clothing, and household supplies at no cost to the neighborhood residents.

Partner Video: Okra Abbey

One of the agencies we'll be visiting at IMAGINE 2024 is Okra Abby, a New Worshiping Community in New Orleans, LA. Filmed before her departure, Rev. Hannah Quick, Organizing Pastor and Executive Director tells the story of a community garden, a sacred space, and a sanctuary that grows faith, friends, & food in the Pigeon Town Neighborhood of New Orleans.

The event features Rev. Dr. Karl Travis speaking on cultivating the gift of generosity.

Gilmont Camp and Conference Center invites you to their Spiritual Practices Retreat on September 13-15. The event will feature Rev. Dr. Karl Travis speaking on his book "God's Gift of Generosity". Here's a short video about the presentation: https://vimeo.com/969064653

Find more information and register via the Gilmont website HERE: gilmont.org/retreats/spiritual-practices/

August 27-28, 2024

9:00am-Noon CT

November 18-19, 2024

5:00pm-8:00pm

It’s our experience that pastors, church staff, and other leaders who transgress boundaries by-and-large are not predators. In fact, not even close. Most people in ministry who violate boundaries are individuals who know and follow the rules most of the time but whose judgment may be impaired due to an unusually stressful time in their lives.

With that in mind, Not-Your-Average Boundaries Training, offered by Synod of the Sun and Leaderwise, is tailored to focus on strategies to foster mental health, emotional resiliency, and well-being. While this training still covers the requirements—“Don’t sleep with a parishioner unless you’re married to them” and the like —the best prevention is to encourage clergy to take steps to manage their stress in order to maintain balance and perspective when temptation arises. The program teaches a 3-step strategy to help stop the participant in their tracks before they commit a boundary violation; and participants leave with their own personal prevention plan.

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This training is lively and interactive, full of reflection and conversation—and even laughter. Attendees have given us feedback that our boundaries training was a great experience, AND caused them to re-evaluate some of their own practices.

Participants MUST take part in ALL six hours of training in order to receive the certificate of completion.