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Pastor Kimberly Chastain’s Report
Pastor Kimberly Chastain’s Report
Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all our years away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the break of day.
Last year at the annual meeting, we celebrated that God brought us safely through the season of the pandemic, and we started thinking and praying about what the “new normal” might be for our congregation. We spoke of hopes and we made a few plans, humbly and cautiously, knowing that things might change in a heartbeat. And change they did!
As part of the 2022 LUMA Festival, we hosted a special performance by Snow Raven (Haar Suor), an indigenous Siberian wisdom-keeper.
After a two-year hiatus, we were able to host a LUMA event in September, as a last-minute guest “Snow Raven” came — initially to do one performance, but then expanding so that she did several each night.
We heard from community members who traveled to Israel, to Ghana, and to Sasabe, Mexico, about the worlds they encountered, and heard specific challenges from Dave Ruston & Greg Patinka about how we might better work to support the refugees who come to the borders from south and Latin America. They hosted a conversation at their newly built cabin and hope to lead additional training on the issue in the coming year.
Victoria Barics traveled to Israel with a group of Binghamton University students to learn about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Elikem Nyamuame delivered supplies to students at the Whuti-Srogboe Evangelical Presbyterian school in the Volta region of Ghana
Gail Cocourek and Dave Ruston told us of the Tucson Samaritans’ mission at the Mexico–US border.
We planned and celebrated a beautiful Advent season telling the stories that have shaped our understanding of Christmas and of incarnation, and we have continued to work together to assure that our worship is inclusive, educational, and open to the spirit of God. We purchased projection screens for the sanctuary, and have been experimenting with the best ways to use them in our worship life, including streaming guest preachers from New York City and from Tucson.
We evaluated and reshaped our Community Meal and Pantry program, and continue to adapt to the changing needs of our community. We started dreaming about a day center that would provide a warm and safe place for our unhoused friends to make calls, charge phones, do laundry, and perhaps even take showers. Then…
We began a partnership with the Addiction Center of Broome County, providing an overnight comfort station five nights each week, and hope that the program will expand to seven nights by the time cold weather comes again. This new venture has raised new questions about how we can best be stewards of the space and the resources entrusted to us. This conversation will continue, as we consider the changes that continue to happen in our congregation, our families, our communities and our world.
In May, after the CDC reported that Broome County’s COVID risk and hospitalization rate has been low since March, the session voted to make mask-wearing in worship optional, recognizing that if the danger increases we will revisit the question. We continue to seek balance between our very human need for contact and community, and our desire to keep each other safe from harm.
And we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of our life together at United, as we gathered on the lawn for an outdoor worship service and picnic just as we did in June of 2013, when I first arrived.
The winds of the Holy Spirit nearly blew us away during our outdoor worship service on Sunday, June 4!
As we look to the coming year and to the future of our congregation, we are planning a new series of conversations as we consider the best use of our time and our talents. The changes in our families and our congregation mean that we will have to start making choices about the programs and activities we want to put our energy into, and how we will define our mission in the next season of our ministry together. What are we going to emphasize, and what are things we might want or need to let go of?
A representative from the Presbyterian Foundation will be guiding some of these reflections with us in the year ahead; she told us that she works with the leadership of each congregation to discern God’s calling and purpose. I immediately thought about who the leadership of our congregation is and concluded that each one, in your own way, leads some part of the work that defines our community. So I will be asking each and all of you to prayerfully consider these questions, and let’s keep asking “what excites us about United? How can we keep building and sharing these things so that God is glorified?”
O God, our help in ages past — our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while life shall last, and our eternal home!
Blessings,
Pastor Kimberly
Pastor Becky Kindig’s Report
Pastor Becky Kindig’s Report
Greetings friends!
It has been another wonderful year serving here at United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton. I am so happy to be part of this wonderful church community who serves God and others in so many ways. We have continued to show that we care for each other and our neighborhood, and have begun the process of praying about and discerning what ministry God is calling us to next in this unique time after a pandemic. During the pandemic, so many people were overwhelmed and exhausted at trying to live with this new normal. But now Kimberly and I can see energy and interest coming back in ways that we can be together again to build relationships, serve others, and learn about and worship God. And I am so thankful to be a part of a congregation that values everyone and finds ways to meet people where they are at.
One of those ways is our Sunday school packets. It continues to be a great joy as Associate Pastor for Spiritual Formation to spend time each week designing a lesson to send home to the 21 young people in our congregation that goes along with the scripture we are learning about in worship. Because we are striving to learn more parts of the Bible than just what the lectionary gives, it means that traditional curriculum often does not cover the stories that we are learning about. So it is a fun and satisfying challenge to create the material and crafts to send home each week that help to bring a piece of the lesson to each family for them to engage in. I often design a craft and make one in my office so I can take pictures of the steps to include in the instructions. As a result, I have quite the collection of example crafts in my office that remind me of all that we have learned this year (pictured below). Other weeks were activities or science experiments or pieces of a craft that I no longer have in my office. Many thanks goes out to Marilynn Guinane, who comes in most weeks to cut construction paper or yarn, count out pipe cleaners, label envelopes, fold letters, stuff the lessons into the packets, and get them to the post office! Because we mail them out each week, we can help all of the young people of our congregation have a chance to interact with the Bible lesson each week, not just the weeks that they’re at church in person.
The weekly “Sunday School at Home” lessons usually include a craft. These are 23 weeks of those lessons.
Another piece of “meeting people where they are” for me is my work at Binghamton University with the Interfaith Council. This year we have hosted a monthly “Common Ground Conversation,” being able to discuss a topic and the ways each of our faiths understand it. We have hosted two “Soul Care” events helping students, faculty, and staff to slow down and nourish themselves. Our very own Elikem Nyamuame helped with one Soul Care event by hosting a Drum Circle on the quad, and the other event was a hike and meditation in the BU Nature Preserve.
Last fall, Elikem Nyamuame led a “Soul Care” drum circle on the quad at the Binghamton University campus.
We have office hours for students to stop in and talk or ask questions, and we table at orientation and accepted student days. We are having a good response to our presence, and we hear a lot from students and parents that it is great to see faith leaders from different religions working together and having a good time together. We have also been invited to come to two different classes to teach about Interfaith Dialogue this past spring, and they were great opportunities to teach others about working together and about celebrating differences. Thank you for valuing this work at the University.
We continue to meet people where they are with worship, bible study, and meetings as well. Being able to have in-person, Zoom, or YouTube options has allowed people who have been away from our community for a while to take part. We feel that this is extremely important and will be committed to continuing it in the future. We also have heard over and over again how wonderful it is to see people in person or to have Zoom opportunities to get to know each other. We were able to catch up with so many of you at Christmas, Easter, and at the picnic. And our Friday night Happy Hour is still continuing on Zoom at 5:00 each week, when we share all kinds of things from our lives. Being a part of a community is not just worshiping together, it is sharing ourselves with one another. Sharing the little bits of conversation about a trip you took or a book you read or a struggle you are going through. So in the next few months, we would like to work on ways to have book studies or walks or other types of gatherings to strengthen the relationships that are very important for a community to have as well. Jesus gathered with disciples, he sent them out in groups, and God is in community all the time. If we are created in God’s image, we need to take seriously the building of our community together. If you have ways that you would like to foster building our community, we would love to hear it!
We welcomed the chance to gather together at the picnic on June 4.
There are so many other wonderful things that have happened this year. It has been a joy to look back on them with the other reports in here. I hope you all enjoy learning about them or remembering them. And I look forward to where God is calling us next!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Becky
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