Our Church Family
Join Us for Worship — in person, online, or over the phone
We have returned to the sanctuary for in-person worship on Sundays at 10:00am. The service is livestreamed on our public YouTube Channel, our Zoom room, and our website, and is also accessible on YouTube any time. Those who can’t access the worship videos online can call in on the phone to listen live on Sunday mornings, using the Zoom information listed below. So if you are not ready or able to come “in person”, you are welcome to participate as you are able.
If you’re joining us in person, here’s what you need to know:
We continue to wear masks, keep social distance, and make other accommodations to allow everyone to worship safely.
Pastor Kimberly removes her mask while preaching and leading prayers, to accommodate those who rely on lip-reading to assist their auditory processing.
Printed worship guides are placed by each door for you to pick up on the way in, and the hymns are printed in the worship guide, so you do not need to use a hymnal to follow along.
Offering plates are placed by the doors of the sanctuary, but we do not pass them during the offertory. You are still invited and welcome to use the online giving options.
Everyone is welcome to join us as we pray, hear God’s word read and proclaimed, share our joys and concerns, and experience worshipful music. Sometimes music is pre-recorded, and other times we have live musicians in the sanctuary. All of our musicians are fully vaccinated.
Our worship guide is available for download from our website each week, and it can also be mailed to you if downloading is not an option.
If you have been missing the time of shared prayer, join us at 9:30 before worship — either in the Chapel at church, or on Zoom — for a time of sharing and praying for the needs of our community. After the prayer time, you can stay on Zoom or switch over to the YouTube channel.
To join the Zoom room online, go to https://upcbgm.org/zoom
To call in: Dial 1-646-558-8656, then enter Meeting ID: 865 274 8433 #, then press # again, and then enter passcode: 42456 #
It would be good to have you with us.
Updating our Congregational Directory
We’re working on the 2021–22 edition of the UPC “Family & Friends Directory”. (You don’t need to be an “officially joined” church member to be included — if you’re part of our worshiping congregation & community, then you belong in our directory.)
We hope everyone will provide us with a new photo of yourself or your family. It doesn’t need to be a formal portrait — casual photos and selfies are fine, too. Photos can be emailed to directory@upcbgm.org or delivered to the church on a thumb drive, or you can provide a printed photo and we’ll scan it in.
We’re asking everybody to please provide your current contact information, even if it hasn’t changed since the last directory. If you attend worship in person, please fill out the contact information card that is at the doors with the worship guides. You can place it in the offering plate or turn it in to the office. You can also submit your information through our website at upcbgm.org/directory
One of the items we ask for is your birthday, because we enjoy celebrating them! You don’t have to include your birth year if you don’t want to, but that is helpful information for our Clerk of Session to have when we file our yearly statistics with the PC(USA).
All information and photos must be received by October 4. The new directory will be available in December.
Our YouTube Channel
Did you know that you can “subscribe” to the UPC YouTube channel? Did you know that it won’t cost anything, and that when we have 100 or more subscribers, we get access to some special “perks” as a content creator?
Here’s how it’s done:
Open YouTube to one of the United Presbyterian Church recordings, by following this link (https://youtu.be/nn8ZBeTU0kw) or searching on YouTube.
Scroll down under the video until you see:
There’s a button over here that says “SUBSCRIBE”. Click on the button.
That’s it!
Personnel Update
Thank you to everyone who has stepped up and helped out as we are making staffing changes. Tammie Cummings left our front desk position after four years to accept another opportunity, and we are still hard at work creating the position description that will allow us, not to replace her, but to continue to grow and change in our life and service. We hope that we will have a candidate selected by early October.
Jamel Allen resigned at the end of August after almost seven years on the building staff; we have closed that position and will not be hiring a new person at this time.
We are working with staff members to update all of our position descriptions, since we are aware of how tasks and responsibilities grow, change and migrate in a fast-paced and evolving context like the ministry at United Presbyterian Church.
Special thanks to Cindy C., Cindy B., Suzie, Julie, and Marilynn for taking regular shifts to cover the front desk and to keep our spiritual formation mailings consistent, and to everyone who pitches in as they are able.
Online Giving
We are able to receive tax-deductible contributions online through our website (upcbgm.org/giving/donate). Contributions can be made by check or credit card, and can also be set up as a recurring gift. We encourage you to lift up in prayer how God will use you to bless UPC in fulfilling our mission to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
Get Involved!
Our church teams are always welcoming new team members. If you’d like to help with or learn more about the workings of the church, talk to one of the pastors or the elders on Session: Card Committee: Suzie Raboy; Communications, Sally Hunt; Deacons, Allison Nyamuame or Aaron Whitney; Finance, Lou McKeage or Andy Chadwick; Personnel, Lou McKeage; Property, Bill Sands; Spiritual Formation, Lou McKeage or Andy Chadwick; Worship & Music, Suzie Raboy or Andy Chadwick.
Tech Deacons
The Presbytery of Susquehanna Valley would like to form a Deacon group to assist member churches in their technology needs.
The Tech Deacons will be a group of volunteers who will be available to our churches in developing and/or strengthening a church’s “virtual” presence. They would advise, help install, and train church members on equipment and software necessary in establishing and/or strengthening a virtual presence in their community to better serve both their members and their community. Coupled with this service would be financial resources in the form of interest-free loans and/or grants from both the Synod and the Presbytery for the purchase of any necessary equipment and software. Training will also be available for those who have tech abilities but feel they could use additional training.
Interested? Please fill out this form: https://www.susvalpresby.org/tech-deacons or contact Co–Stated Clerk Chris Burger at 607-323-4477.
Call for a Congregational Meeting on October 3, 2021, immediately following worship
A Congregational meeting is called for October 3, 2021, immediately following worship (approximately 11am). The meeting will be hybrid in person/via Zoom. The purpose of the meeting is to elect the Session class of 2024 and to vote on proposed changes to the By-Laws of the United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton regarding the size of Session and the length of Session terms.
Because our membership is decreasing, and therefore our pool of available candidates, Session has proposed changes to our Session structure. There is concern that Session size should not be reduced to a point where there isn’t sufficient diversity. Our current by-laws allow for a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 18 Session members. It was agreed that the minimum Session size should be reduced to 6 members with the length of each term reduced from three to two years.
Session recommends the following changes be made to our by-laws:
ARTICLE IV
THE SESSION
4.1 Composition. The Session shall consist of Ruling Elders who are Active Members in the Corporation, duly elected to a term of active service on the Session, and a moderator who shall be the installed Pastor or Co-Pastor, or, in the case the office of Pastor is vacant, a minister appointed by the Presbytery of Susquehanna Valley. There shall be no fewer than nine (9) six (6) and no more than eighteen (18) Ruling Elders, divided into three (3) classes of approximately equal numbers. One class shall be elected each year at a meeting of the Congregation for a term of three (3) two (2) years. The term of office of Ruling Elders shall expire when their successors have been ordained and installed. The Ruling Elders shall be deemed the trustees of the Corporation and the Session shall be deemed as the Board of Trustees pursuant to Article 4 of the Religious Corporation Law.
4.2 Term Limits. No Ruling Elder may serve consecutive terms, either full or partial, aggregating more than six (6) four (4) years. A Ruling Elder having served a total of six (6) four (4) years shall be ineligible for re-election for a period of at least one (1) year.
Although the proposed by-law revision would allow for as few as six Session members, Session proposes at this time that the number of members be reduced from 9 (currently) to 7. Following congregational approval, the change must be approved by Presbytery.
A Note from Pastor Kimberly: Andy has done a good job explaining why these changes are being proposed, but there’s another one that is equally important: burnout. It has been a pattern in church life since time began that people accepted leadership roles and were never given a chance to step back. These changes mean that people will always have a breathing space built in and will never feel like they have no way to stop. It also means that we have to keep each other in the loop, whether we are serving in an elected position or not, so that when we ask people to step up, they know what they are getting into and what they are getting out of it. We hope that this change will encourage people to take a turn and explore new possibilities!