Pastor’s Ponderings

I expect that the cow, the phone, and maybe even a couple of the books will become part of a children’s sermon before long; I am already getting compliments on my new tee shirts, and the lovely plate Suzie Raboy made will feature in our communion services as long as they are online. Thank you so much for the gifts and for all the warm fuzzy feelings as I round out my 60th trip around the sun, 35th year of ordination, the birth of my granddaughter, 10th anniversary of my mother’s death, and first-ever pandemic! I am blessed and grateful to be your pastor.

This year during Advent, we will be participating in the One Candle Initiative, lighting a candle each Sunday for hope, peace, love and joy, and placing signs on our yards to tie our community together. Watch for a member of Session or the Worship Team to bring one to you, and if you didn’t get one and live in the greater Binghamton area, let us know and we’ll see what we can sort out! We are also working on a Christmas gift of music to the community, so if there’s a piece of music you’d like to play, sing, or hear, let the music team know as soon as possible! And watch for more information as it all comes together.

There are several online Advent calendars available for devotional use, including a daily email devotional called AdventVideoBingo.com — you can sign up for the email and get a downloadable bingo card to play along! There is a lovely Womanist Advent devotional already published on the Justice Unbound website — both inspiring and challenging: https://justiceunbound.org/starryblacknight/. Choir director Aimee Backus shared a Celtic Musical Advent Calendar with us: https://tmblr.co/ZVz2IxZI6HyVSW00. Finally, the Presbyterian Misson Agency has an extended online devotional that will take you through Epiphany (January 6), focusing on the Matthew 25 challenge to the churches: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/today/advent2020/

We’ll be sending out a Doodle poll sometime soon to help us make some final decisions about our Christmas observances: watch for it and give us your input. In the meantime, we hope that you find the Advent at Home packet put together by Pastor Becky and the Spiritual Formation team inspiring and helpful in keeping us connected to each other and to our Christmas traditions. Please let us know how you are doing, and what else we can do to bring light to a world that seems so full of shadows. We’d love to have each one of you participate in some way in our Advent and Christmas observances — it means so much when we can see each other, even if only on the screen for a little while.

Blessings of the season,

Pastor Kimberly