Presbytery of Genesee Valley

1190 Winton Rd South • Rochester, NY 14618-2244

Phone 585-242-0080 • Fax 585-242-0086

Representing 69 Presbyterian (USA) churches in Rochester, NY and the surrounding five-county area

Our Vision: Know Christ, Live Christ, Share Christ

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Presbyterian Women of Genesee Valley

2010 Pledges

The fall season is upon us and it is also time to consider your PW pledge.

• This is the pledge sheet for the 2010 year

The Pledge sheet is prayerfully considered by your group and then is sent, no later than November 15, 2009, to:

PWCT Moderator Gloria Hall
2931 Frost Rd
Mt. Morris, NY, 14510-9418

Programs and funding need to be decided at the PWP, SYNOD and Churchwide levels so the pledges are needed by November 15. Your payments for the pledge can be paid quarterly by (03/10, 06/10, 09/10 and 12/10/10), or paid in full with one payment.

Each level of pledge Churchwide, SYNOD, and Presbytery use the pledge money for missions, programs and training.

This year please have your Thank Offering marked with your PW name, Genesee Valley and sent, no later than December 10, 2009, to

Mary Miller
9596 Perry Rd
LeRoy, NY 14482-8939

Please don't hesitate to contact me or your cluster leader if you have questions or concerns. Please have your financial records audited on a yearly schedule.

There are PW manuals available for $6 if your PW does not have a recent manual.

The manual can be ordered online from Presbyterian Distribution Service or by calling 1-800-524-2612 . The manual has the guidelines for the Moderator, Sect., Treasurer, and Missions chairperson. It also has great ideas for the PW's at each level. I encourage each PW to have one as a resource. The information was revised in 2007 so is the most current information about PW and how we work together.

Yours in Christ,
Gloria Hall Moderator CTPW

GOD Will Do Wonders Among Us: 2009 Churchwide Gathering
by Gloria Hall

I attended the 2009 Churchwide Gathering in Louisville Kentucky July 12 -15 and had a grand time. We had great accommodations and except for the Rock Band less than a block from the Hotel it was a pleasant stay.

The Gathering was held at the Kentucky International Convention Center KICC and was well attended by over 2500 women from around the globe. The theme this year was GOD WILL DO WONDERS AMONG US and for those who attended we know that to be a fact as we were treated to many venues that showed us GOD’S WONDERS.

There was a Kaleidoscope of activities to see and do as you wandered the KICC. Some choices included workshops, forums, book signings, and shopping the resource mart. Some took advantage of the local attractions and others shopped in the global market place.

The global market place was filled with items from around the world. Many wares are made from women who PW had touched their lives and are now independent because their items are being sold all over the world. I was pleased to speak to the woman who supports the tea bag mission. Our church sends our used tea bags to them to make jewelry and cards

Mission posters were hung in the hallway to show the many mission ideas PW participate in. There were over 85 posters representing PW from across the nation. There were a lot of great ideas.

Each day began and ended in a plenary. We were brought together with singing. Over 2500 voices lifted in song and praise was so inspiring. The plenary had a wide variety of presenters. We were awed daily by the Wonders of God shared through message, canticles, liturgy, and drama. Speakers informed us about environmental issues, human trafficking, and immigration concerns. Charlotte Johnstone presented her last “Dispatch” as she is retiring.

During our 4 days at the gathering we had a chance to share in mission opportunities. Centsability was a collection taken from loose change and put in a cup at each meal. A total of $2974.64 was given to support the Presbyterian Hunger Fund.

We were asked to bring $ 20 gift cards from national wholesalers to support the Presbyterian Disaster Fund. Several from our Presbytery did so and I am thrilled to report that $69,250 dollars was collected! GOD DOES WONDERS AMONG US!! If you would like to contribute with a gift of cards or money you can contact the PDA thru the churchwide website.

The only offering taken at the gathering was given to establish a fund to support women, especially women of color, in Theological Studies in PC (USA) related seminaries. We were fortunate that the National Association of Presbyterian Clergywomen were meeting at the same time as we were. The amount collected in the offering was $35,073.07 plus a $20,000 gift was also donated, making the total given to the fund, 55,073.07!

We had a wonderful time at the SYNOD luncheon. Many of the SYNODS had an opportunity to meet together at the gathering. We had seven people there from Genesee Valley. CTPW paid for these people to attend the luncheon. There were over 200 people who attended the luncheon. We will have five people represented on the churchwide team for the next triennial. Jenny Lee went on the last global exchange trip to Eastern Europe and she will be speaking to us at the PPG Gathering in 2010.

This was the first time I have attended Churchwide. I was a voting delegate and found the business meeting very interesting. We approved the certificate of incorporation and we adopted new corporate bylaws. There was a feeling in the air that we were making history. A new 31 month budget was approved under incorporation. It will adopt a fiscal year budget rather than a calendar year.

Charity Wainaina, moderator for Kenyan American women living in Georgia, spoke to us. It was the highlight of the meeting for me. She asked her women to join her up front and they did. There were nearly 30 women, dressed in their native dress and they lined the front of the room. They were so happy to be present at this meeting. The group was organized a year ago with the help of the New Immigrant Congregational Support Office of the PC (USA). Charity addressed the voting members saying “without you we’d never be here. We had been hiding because we had nowhere else to go but we found you. You are our mothers, and our sisters, and our aunties, and nieces, and daughters. The Love of God has made us one.” It was very moving to see their gratitude.

Marta Rodriquez SYNOD of Puerto Rico was elected moderator for the next triennial. Alice Wyatt (SC) and Chris Wolfe (Mich) will provide leadership also for the next term. There were over 400 cheers and some tears when Catrelia Hunter passed the gavel to Marta, the first Hispanic Latin American to be elected to the post.

I hope this has given you a little insight as to what churchwide is about. Let’s plan on more PW from Genesee Valley for the 2012 gathering to be held in Florida. There are scholarships available.

I will be speaking to Presbytery Sept. 22 to reintroduce CTPW and encourage each PW to stay in touch with their cluster leaders. We are available to assist your PW in any way we can. I know PW is alive in Genesee Valley and is doing remarkable missions. I would like us to share our successes and our concerns. Your CT is dedicated to improving and disseminating information from churchwide. Please feel free to contact me at hall44@yahoo.com or 585-658-2733. GOD WILL DO WONDERS AMOUN US IN GENESEE VALLEY PW!

Genesee Valley CTPW Annual Report for 2008–09

Our CT has been active this past year in providing communications and support to our local churches. My team is small but mighty and they keep in touch with their churches. My CT members deserve a lot of credit as they have been members for several years. We are trying to find new people to join us and I feel the new video we have from our last SYNOD meeting will help us promote PW to the “new generation” of young women. I feel it is important to remind women of our strong heritage as PW. Most of our pwc’s are active in some way or other but many chose not to participate in PW. I am working on this by being as visible and available as I can be. I have strengthened our email base and it works fairly well with sending out our Valley Star publication and the Lighthouse. I do find it frustrating when email addresses change frequently.

I have visited many PW groups and hope to include more as I can. I have seen so many great mission ideas in the last year. Some are old some are new. Here are a few:

• Coffee can project- fabric covered cans to help rehab hip and knee replacement patients by Batavia PC PW
• Teddy Bear Picnic dressing bears for boys and girl and giving them to first graders with a book Gates PW
• Knitting prayer shawls to give to shut-ins Medina PW
• providing full paid camper ships for Sunday school children Tuscarora PW
• Layettes (18-20) made by the Chili PW

Of course many projects are done thru the year to provide money to support mission too. Stone Church held a scrap drive and did really well. Mumford is creating a cookbook for this Holiday season and others have delicious dinners, clothing sales and flea markets. All these wonderful activities are done so more can be done for missions. Missions are both local and abroad. Many of our churches help with the blankets and tool, school and hygiene kits for church world service. Several women from our Presbytery have gone to Maryland to help pack the boxes to go oversees.

I am pleased that our CT has been able to give monies to the Water for Sudan project this past year. We also gave monies to Mission Challenge 2008... The Geneseo Parish outreach is a medical outreach program for medically under insured and we helped them with a gift of money along with the Rose Mount House which provides housing for family members in area hospitals.

Our Presbytery represents five counties and we were able to give money to three rural Domestic violence shelters. We feel this is an important way to express our support for justice and peace.

The CT has an important role in providing leadership training and guidance. Our cluster leaders are kept well informed and do a good job at disseminating the information to the pwc’s. We were happy to sponsor one team member to training at Stony Point and another to a retreat. Both shared information with the group when they returned. I am attending Church wide in Louisville for the first time as our voting delegate. The CT purchased PW manuals so we could give them to new moderators. This will continue as several groups still could use a manual.

The CT wanted to provide the pwc’s with a retreat. Many of our churches are smaller and many may not have an active PW so we provided the Martha, Mary or Me Retreat. Our speaker did a great job and everyone who attended felt rejuvenated when they left. In fact our speaker has been asked to do the program for another PW in the area.

The CT worked with our neighbor Geneva PW and Cayuga Syracuse PW to provide a Fall Gathering in October 08. It was a very successful event and working together was so much easier than doing it on our own as we are a small group. We had over 100 attendees and the reviews were very good. GVP provided Pastor Carin Farmer to speak and she was joined by Louise Davidson from Church wide Justice and Peace. The PPG took this opportunity to discuss Justice and Peace, diversity and inclusiveness issues. We had Lois Carter speak on missions and promote the Church wide gathering for 2009. The success of this event has lead us to plan for another in 2010.

The 2010 PPG event will be hosted by Genesee Valley and will be held on Silver Lake, one of the small Finger Lakes. The theme is taken from the suggestion given at SYNOD "Gather by the River "(lake). Our PPG is in the center of the Great lakes watershed and we will be talking about some conservation issues to protect this great resource. We have also invited Sandy Grillo and Jenny Lee to participate. PPG’s are the way to go. It is much easier sharing ideas and responsibilities when there are many hands and minds.

As you can see we have been active. I think what I enjoy most is seeing how our churches interact with one another in the faith community. Wyoming has a fellowship day when they invite women of faith to a luncheon and they provide a program. Batavia First has a Prayer breakfast with their neighboring church women. Mumford and many others share One Day of Prayer with other groups of women. East Bethany invited three of the rural county’s to share in their One Day of Prayer events. Just like the CT is sharing ideas and talents in the PPG events I can see this working for our pwc’s too. Think out side the box. Joining others in our plans helps us get to know our strengths and forms friendships. This helps us grow and remain active churches in our Presbytery.

As I look forward to another year my goal is to train and engage my moderator elect, in the learning of PW. It has taken me a while to become familiar with the ins and outs and I have been a Presbyterian all my life! My wish for my CT is that we can interest others in joining our team so we can continue to build an inclusive, caring community of women that strengthens the Presbyterian Church and witnesses to the promise of God’s Kingdom.

Faithfully submitted,
Gloria Hall Moderator

Lighthouse Feb '09 Issue

The Presbyterian Women of the Synod of the Northeast publish The Lighthouse twice yearly. The February issue is now online.

Report from October Gathering

The Fall Gathering of Presbyterian Women was held at the United Church in Canandaigua, NY.

The Pastor of the church welcomed us and told us a little bit about the history of the church. About 60 years ago they merged with the Baptists. The church is very nice and we had plenty of room to conduct our gathering.

Mae Arnett from Church World Service spoke about Different kinds of kits that are needed. The kits that are needed are cleanup kits for the disaster areas of our country. They consist of cleaning supplies so survivors of the hurricane areas have things to work with while they are putting their lives back together. Also needed are school kits. These are for the less fortunate and for the kids in the disaster areas. A folder is enclosed with more information.

The Gathering was put on by three Presbyteries in our area. Introductions were made of their coordinating teams. They were from Geneva Presbytery, Syracuse –Cayuga Presbytery and Genesee Valley Presbytery

Lois Carter, Mission Opportunist from Geneva Presbytery was talked about as she started Sayre Presbyterian Church.

Another mission project was brought to the podium. Original tea bags need to be saved and dried. They are then sent to other countries for the women to make jewelry to help support their families. Have any tea bags that have been used? Save them and help your sisters in other countries support their families.

Louisville Gathering for July 2009 was announced. There will be 80-100 international guests from Eastern Europe attending. The cost is $380. Registration forms are available online. We would like all churches to send in a picture of your mission project. They will then be put on a poster to take to the gathering. We will need these by June 1st.

The Serv Workshop was open for your shopping pleasures. They had many nice articles that were made from all over the world. What a way to start your Christmas shopping.

Louise Davidson, who writes for the Horizon, was our guest speaker. She spoke on the “Power of One”. This helps Presbyterian Women to become advocates. She told us to put on the whole armor of God and go forward. American women have not escaped the disasters of women around the world. There are many programs out there to help with justice and peace around the world. Make it your mission to find and support them.

Louise broke our gathering up in little groups and asked us to discuss some of the problems we see here in our communities. Immigration, affordable daycare, obesity in children, after school programs, unnecessary violence (guns), domestic violence, summer programs, and preteen supervision were some of the ones mentioned.

We broke up into our own Presbytery meetings. 13 representatives were present from the Genesee Valley Presbytery. We spoke about the Valley Star and the Lighthouse. We also talked about e-mails and staying in touch with our churches.

Gloria reminded us about the Pledge sheets. She also spoke about the Spring Gathering on March 28th. Health kits for our migrant workers was mentioned as one of our possible mission projects.

Jane Gerling put on a program on Diversity and Culture. It sure opened our eyes as to what can be done no matter how diverse we may be.

We then broke for lunch. We had to sit according to our birthday month. It was a good way to meet our sisters from other Presbyteries and make new friends.

Respectfully submitted,
Jan Lewis

Updated PW manuals

Please contact us to purchase your new updated PW manual. The manuals are $6.00 and can be ordered by calling 1-800-524-2612 [Presbyterian Distribution Service]. The manuals have the guidelines for the moderator, secretary, treasurer and missions chairpersons. the information was revised in 2007 and so is the most current information about PW and how we all work together.

Secretary Job Description

1. A Secretary is a crucial part of the coordinating team
2. She is accountable to the coordinating team and to the Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery.
3. Her purpose is to maintain the working records of the coordinating team and of the Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery.
4. She keeps and preserves all the minutes of meetings and gatherings. She sends the minutes to each member of the coordinating team within thirty days of the meeting.
5. She secures and sends all current names and addresses of all coordinating team leaders to the Coordinating Team Of Presbyterian Women in the Synod and PW national offices.
6. She also secures and sends all current names and addresses of all moderators of the Presbyterian Women in the congregation to the PW national offices.
7. She assists the moderator with correspondence and she helps coordinate the prepartion of our directory and the annual report.

Immigration Concerns

Behind all the news headlines about immigration problems and the “illegals” are real people. Most come from Mexico or Central America. They travel north because the economies of their own towns and villages make it nearly impossible to provide food and shelter for their families.

Faced with limited opportunities, they do what men and women have done for centuries - they leave their homes and families in search of work. They undertake the long journey to the U.S. not looking for a hand-out or a break. They simply seek an opportunity to earn a decent wage for a decent day’s work, and the satisfaction of knowing that they are providing the basic necessities for the ones they love.

This is not a decision made lightly. In this pursuit they risk hunger, thirst, arrest, and even death (approximately 400 men, women and children die every year crossing the desert to enter the U.S.). They enter a complex situation in which American law says that they are “illegal”, yet American employers and consumers say they are welcome, even needed.

In the face of the demands of the American economy for immigrant labor, and the demands of our faith to have compassion for those in need, we must look for a humane and reasonable way to address this problem. All the major Christian denominations have called for a new national immigration policy, one that does not rely solely on fences and border patrol officers.

The Presbyterian Church (USA), for example, has issued a call for “a commitment from both Presbyterians and the government to work toward welcoming immigrants into our communities and providing just laws that affect those who live and work in the United States.” (206th PC(USA) General Assembly (1994) - “Call to Presbyterians to Recommit to Work and Pray for a Just and Compassionate U.S. Immigration Policy”)

Why this support for undocumented workers? Didn’t they break the law? Can’t they enter the country legally, like my grandparents did?

Here are a few reasons for our concern…

1. Immigration laws currently on the books are out of sync with the needs of American businesses. The number of immigrant workers needed by farmers and corporations is far greater than the number of legal “slots” that are available. That’s why even conservative groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are calling for comprehensive reform of our nation’s immigration laws, not just closing our borders.
2. Immigrant workers are willing to do difficult jobs that are hard to fill, and they generally are good neighbors and citizens. Employers consistently report that they are hard-working, law-abiding employees. The truth is that immigrant laborers contribute far more to their communities than they use in public services.
3. God asks us to share his special care for migrants and strangers – “You must not oppress the stranger; you know how a stranger feels, for you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9) and “I was a stranger and you made me welcome” (Matthew 25:35)

Despite their different languages and cultures, undocumented immigrants are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They deserve the opportunity to build a life of dignity and hope for themselves and their families.

CCT Update

The meeting summary is now posted on the pwsne website. Of interest I read:

Presbyterian Women are encouraged to participate in the Facebook phenomenon. Social network websites can be used by women of all ages to share resources and information. This is an especially helpful tool for building global networks or communicating with young adults and college women.

There is a PW page on Facebook—visit www.facebook.com to join. Sisters, please DO join facebook today, search on my name Abbie Slaman and click "Add as Friend." Then type Presbyterian Women in the search box and when you see the "fan page" with the PW logo click on "Become a fan." I have posted a link there to our pwsne website as well ... what a wonderful world we now live in to share information so easily!

Grace and peace, Abbie Slaman

Message Board

Historians: please send your present or updated history to Ruth Stewart, 845 Bovee Road, Bergen, NY 14416

Medina Presbyterian Women

After listening and reading about groups who have knitted prayer shawls to be given to shut-ins, hospital patients, etc. this past winter we decided this might be a project our church women might enjoy doing. The enthusiasm was great. The shawls have been given to our church shut-ins as well as friends who are ill and need uplifting. On May 18th, twelve shawls were dedicated in church. Those who have knitted one shawl have continued making others. The "fever" is spreading. Here is a little poem that one of our ladies wrote and brought to the first night we had a knitting get together.

The Knitting Lesson
By Lil Hagood

I do not like. No I don't.
I will not do it. No. I won't.
Although I tried, and gave my all,
Alas my brain is just too small.
My fingers tangle with those sticks
And darn! That yarn! A tangled mix.
Yes Joan, you gave it all you had.
You tried and tried, Oh ain't it sad!
But Joan, tis true, you must admit.
You can't do much with a real knitwit!

Yours in Christ,
Gloria Hall Moderator CTPW

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