What Time is It? Be sure you know the correct answer on Sunday morning! Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday in PA and most other states. It’s time to Fall Back! See why in Farmers’ Almanac
Prayers for Peace and Unity: As we approach the 2020 General Election, congregations are organizing opportunities to pray for a just and peaceful exercise of our civic responsibilities. WPAUMC’s Rev. Chad Bogdewicz will represent Protestants at a virtual Interfaith Vigil for Faith and Unity at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 1. It will include music, prayer and readings and will on the John McMillan Presbyterian Church Facebook page. See other services at casp.org/election.
Men’s Pre-Election Prayer Meeting: Men's ministry leaders in The United Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the AME Zion Church and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church will hold a one-hour virtual prayer meeting for peace and healing, in preparation for the Nov. 3 U.S. election. The meeting is set for noon Eastern Time on Oct. 31. Read press release
Seek Peace! Using the Prayer of St. Francis, United Theological Seminary leaders called on followers of Jesus to resolve to be peacemakers in their communities regardless of who is elected to office in the November 2020 elections. Read more
Advocacy Seminar: Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi and Connellsville District Superintendent Robert Zilhaver will be among the speakers during the Associates in Advocacy online seminar scheduled for Monday, Nov. 9. Associates in Advocacy, which started in the civil rights era when clergy were often accused of violations of church law in order to stop their civil rights work, includes clergy and laity working to assist those caught in unfamiliar disciplinary processes. Learn more
Re-examine Your Goals! “God has specific goals for your church and your ministry and you need a plan for how you will meet those goals,” writes Amanda Gilligan, coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. Her post on the Conference blog looks at why and how to do it. Read it
Responding to God’s Generosity: In the second part of our video series on Generosity in the Local Church, Rev. Tom Parkinson, talks about the ultimate motivation for generosity. Take a look.
How Do You Find Balance? Even if you didn't attend the first session of our Strength for the Journey series on Oct. 26, you can still participate in the discussion led by Conference staff on Monday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. Register
Seeking Jesus: The Advent of Justice and Peace is a 5-week Advent study package for 2020 from the General Commission on Religion and Race. It includes Sermon starters, Lectionary texts, Suggested hymns, Children’s messages & activities. Get details
#StillinMission: Katie Peterson, director of WPAUMC’s Eastbrook Mission Barn, will be one of four UMC missionaries serving around the world who will be featured in Episode 24 of Global Ministries’ Still in Mission virtual series. It’s scheduled for Thursday, November 12 at 11a.m. To join the virtual session, registration is required.
#StillinMission Bonus! As an added bonus, Global Ministries Missionary Lourdes (Lulu) Ramirez will also be featured in Episode 24. Lulu and her husband Rich Mroczka, a missionary from our Conference, are in Western PA until the end of November. Rich and Lulu serve in partnership with Encounter with Christ for Latin America and the Caribbean. To invite them to your church to talk about their ministries, email Rich at richmroczka@gmail.com.
Missio Dei, God’s mission, remains constant. You have an opportunity to support the many mission, disaster relief and disaster recovery efforts of the UMC through the GIVE: LOVE, JOY, HOPE, PEACE campaign. Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, local churches will move God’s mission forward through prayer, sharing impact stories and fundraising for the #GIVELOVEUMC campaign.
See how-to guide
Check out the Resources
Support UM Human Services: UM Human Services of Johnstown’s annual fundraiser to support efforts towards disrupting the cycle of poverty and transforming lives will be held online at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 6. You can participate through their website umhumanservice.org.
For details and to share the invitation, Download a flyer
Online Attendance Metric Myths: Churches often make worship attendance a primary measure of effectiveness, but counting is very different in a digital world, writes Rev. Ben Gosden. The counting process is much more complicated. Read more
Overinvest in Young People? “Working harder at what we have always done will not engage vast groups of unaffiliated millennials,” says Bishop Janice Huie. The Sunday School to youth group to campus ministry to principled Christian leader pipeline only works in larger healthy churches with a critical mass of younger people and resources for all aspects of ministry. For others, she calls for redirecting some church resources to reach unaffiliated young people in communities, a plan she admits may not be popular in many churches. Read more from Leading Ideas
Did Your Church Charter a Boy Scout Troup? Because of the Boy Scouts of America (“BSA”) bankruptcy litigation, if your church is or ever was a chartering organization, file a proof of claim request. You do that by following the links in the notice on the Finance Announcements page of the Conference website.
GC Tech Study Team Named: The Commission on the General Conference has named a Technology Study Team to explore possibilities of enabling full participation in General Conference for delegates who may not be able to attend in person. The Commission created the study team in response to a request from a group of young delegates concerned that the event would conflict with the start of the academic year in the U.S. See announcement
Read UMNews report
Read Should General Conference Go Virtual?
Council of Bishops Meets Next Week: The opening session of the Council of Bishops virtual meeting on Monday, Nov. 2, will be streamed live on the COB Facebook page. The Bishops’ will meet in executive session Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday. Get details.