Friends in Faith,
It's official! As of July 1, 2021, the Presbytery of Sacramento will be officially merged with the Presbytery of Stockton. Our borders will stretch from Stockton all the way to the Oregon border, and our new name will be the Presbytery of North Central California.
It's no secret that our denomination has been shrinking for many years, and so we are adapting to this new reality. Many Presbyterians are working together to discern news ways of being the church in this new chapter in the life of Christ's church. As some of our resources decrease, this endeavor can be challenging, but God continues to present us with all sorts of special new opportunities.
Mergers in our presbyteries and churches not only help us to become more efficient, but the connections we are making with other churches are invaluable. We are seeking to become more collaborative, to better share our resources, and to adapt to the needs and directions of our shifting society.
One of the blessings of being a Presbyterian is that we are a "connectional denomination." We are united in theology, polity, and mission with over 9,000 other PCUSA congregations, and that means we don't have to "go it alone." We support one another, we discern God's will together, and by sharing our resources, we offer a host of ministries in our nation and around the world. We also come together for big events, conferences, retreats, lectures, etc. in beautiful areas like Zephyr Point, Ghost Ranch, Mo Ranch, and Montreat. We love being together as Presbyterians, connecting on our journeys of faithfulness and striving to build the Kingdom of God here on Earth!
Our next presbytery meeting will be on Saturday, February 20th at 9 a.m. Please let me or a Session member know if you'd like to attend — we'd love for your to join us. Also, it is my understanding that it is the tradition of Bethany that many members often pay their own "per capita" portion per year. The per capita for 2021 is $30.13 per member. This money is distributed to our presbytery, our synod, and the General Assembly, and used for a variety of purposes at each of these levels of our denomination. If you would like to pay your per capita, you can send a check to our office, or click here to pay via our website. And if you'd like to know more about all the good stuff happening in our denomination, click here.
Speaking of special Presbyterian events, please save the date for this year's spiritual retreat at Zephyr Point! It is scheduled for August 13 - 15, 2021. Save the date and more details will follow as we make our way towards summer.
We hope you'll join us for our Facebook Live service this Sunday at 10:20 a.m. Our Zoom worship service then begins shortly thereafter - usually around 11:10 a.m. The links for these worship services (as well as for our Tuesday Zoom Bible studies [at 11 a.m.] and our Wednesday Zoom Check-ins [also at 11 a.m.]) can all be found here. Normally, our Zoom service is more informal — we like to discuss a faith question or two, and then spend time in prayer. This Sunday's theme for worship concerns the joy of music. The question we'll be discussing in Zoom is, "what are some of your favorite pop songs that have a faith/spiritual/love theme?"
This coming Wednesday, February 10, at 7 p.m., our book discussion group will be resuming our Zoom conversations about Ibrahim Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist." You can click here to learn more about this book. We have found this time to be very meaningful and we'd like to encourage everyone to attend. Our facilitators strive to create a safe environment for discussion, and we seek to cultivate a passion for examining complicated ideas and experiences related to race so that we might better treat our sisters and brothers of all ethnicities. If you would like to join us, we'll be discussing chapters 8 & 9, and please e-mail Donna Tabaie for more information.
Finally, many members of our book study group are excited about a PBS documentary airing soon about the Black Church. It's sure to be an excellent show - click here for more info and showtimes.
God's peace to you all,
Yours in faith,
Jesse
