Topics in this eDIGEST:
- LEARN: Explore impact of COVID-19 during program by a transitional executive presbyter also trained as an immunocytochemist
- CONSIDER: PC(USA) Stated Clerk shares personal accounts about racism and hope
- ASSESS: How many people are watching your videos? A guide to Facebook metrics
- REFLECT: Holy rhythms – The role of Sabbath during the pandemic
- NEWS & NOTES: Details about life in the presbytery
LEARN: Explore impact of COVID-19 during program by a transitional executive presbyter also trained as an immunocytochemist
Posted August 3, 2020
By Tammy Warren | Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE — Commissioned Ruling Elder Lisa Allgood, a trained immunocytochemist and transitional executive presbyter for the Presbytery of Cincinnati, will present an update on Zoom about the most recent findings on COVID-19 and its impact on the human body.
The update, hosted by the Presbytery of Northern New England and the Presbytery of Boston, will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern Time Aug. 11 and from 7-8 p.m. Eastern Time Aug. 12. Allgood will provide a brief presentation on scientific discoveries related to COVID-19 and how to interpret this information for worshiping communities. Each presentation will include question-and-answer time. The presentations also will be accessible through the Presbytery of Boston’s Facebook page (live) and recorded and available on both presbytery websites, under Resources: COVID-19.
The full article explains how the science of immunocytochemistry helps researchers determine which antibodies will bind to specific components in the body (proteins or antigens) to trigger an immune response that helps fight infection and build immunity. Allgood also provides some scientific wisdom and practical advice for individuals and worshiping communities.
“The verse from Esther, ‘for such a time as this,’ has resonated around the presbytery for a while,” Allgood said. “It’s more than a bit weird to have worlds collide — an immunologist impersonating a presbyter during a pandemic unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and with the arsenal of science unleashed in understanding this thing.”
CONSIDER: PC(USA) Stated Clerk shares personal accounts about racism and hope
Posted July 31, 2020
By Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the PC(USA) General Assemble, shared his heart during a Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School talk. In the talk, Nelson shares what happened to him one evening as he drove his rental car back to the university campus where the 2017 Synod School was being held and police pulled him over. Read about his experience here.
“We have been seeing this too long,” Nelson said. “We have shed too many tears of pain. What can we do? We can get engaged. We can offer ourselves, as Paul says, as a living sacrifice. What can we do? We can, as Jesus said, love the Lord our God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. What can we do? We can make sure we have the power and the strength so that no one else will have to be marginalized, beaten or broken because they had no one to stand for them.”
But Herbert said he also found some hope that summer after observing a young teacher and her elderly students interacting during the same event, and then offered a challenge.
“The challenge of the church today,” Nelson said, “is not to be the country club, but the church. Not a place I go just to see my friends, but the church. Not a place to get along so I can go along, no. It’s a place to challenge the idea that the world we are in is OK because I am OK. No — it’s to challenge the world to be better, because I can’t be better until the world becomes better.”
ASSESS: How many people are watching your videos? A guide to Facebook metrics
Posted August 4, 2020
By Jeremy Steele | ResourceUMC
Scrolling Facebook’s news feed is a daily habit for millions of people. User-posted videos are one reason why.
With more than 8 billion video views per day, Facebook is a juggernaut platform for getting your video before a massive audience and for inviting engagement. Make sure that time invested in video posting is productive by learning more about Facebook metrics.
Learn about audience engagement and retention, net followers and loyalty in this article by Pastor Jeremy Steele.
Hint: Gauging a video’s success is more than checking the number of views under the video. Those numbers, at first glance, can be deceptively high.
REFLECT: Holy rhythms – The role of Sabbath during the pandemic
Posted July 29, 2020
https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/holy-rhythms/
By Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE — The COVID-19 era “is going to radically push what the church is in the future,” the Rev. Dr. Jason Brian Santos recently told the online Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod. School.
“We need to recognize that nothing is going to be the same,” said Santos, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Lake City, Colorado, and the former coordinator for Christian Formation with the Presbyterian Mission Agency. “Sabbath will play a more significant role.”
The article describes how Santos viewed speaking at the 2018 Synod School as a “pure Sabbath” for him after his father died, and the importance of being intentional about life rhythms, providing intergenerational interactions, supporting families with activities and considering what life was like in the Garden of Eden all connect to Sabbath.
“They were dwelling, playing, being,” Santos said. “When we play with one another, we are reminded of that sense of dwelling, that there is no goal beyond the game. That level of dwelling together “is not a temporary release. It’s the holy act of being together. Worship can fall under that same category.”
NEWS & NOTES: Details about life in the presbytery
Communications were distributed recently to congregational leaders about three different topics, including:
A pastoral letter from the presbytery’s transitional co-leaders continues recommending that congregations refrain from in-person worship until after Sunday, September 13. Read the full letter here.
Updates from the Board of Pensions about how congregational leaders should complete 2021 Employer Agreements online before October 9; what changes are included in the 2021 Benefits Plan; how those covered by the medical plan can earn Call to Health points through November 13 to qualify for lower deductibles in 2021, and how the Board supports racial justice. Find more details here.
Information from the presbytery’s Stated Clerk about options that may be used to hold congregational meetings during the pandemic. Read the memo here, and consider joining a Zoom conversation about the topic at 11 a.m. Wednesday, August 19.
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