Team Report Highlights

Card Committee

The Card Committee works to ensure that special events, milestones, joys, and concerns within our church family are acknowledged. This includes births, baptisms, birthdays, deaths, illness and injuries, surgeries, difficulties, travels, graduations, new jobs, retirements, thank yous, moves, anniversaries, and other occasions and situations. In the last 17 months, the Card Committee has sent 578 cards to church family and friends. In addition, the committee:

sent special holiday cards (Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) to our homebound members and those we were unable to see in person during the pandemic
sent remembrance cards on All Saints Day to those who had lost a loved one
arranged for gifts for those moving
distributed paintings donated by a local artist and friend of the church to homebound members and those with special circumstances
updated address and birthday lists
provided monthly updates of committee activity to the pastors, Session, and UPC Office

The committee welcomes anyone who would like to join the committee to contact the church office or one of the members listed below. Additionally, we encourage church family and friends to let the committee know of special occasions and milestone events.

Current Card Committee Members: Suzie Northrop Raboy, Lana Ogden, Jenni McKeage, Margaret Davis, Cindy Chadwick.

Property Team

The Property Team strives to have us be good stewards of the physical resources that we have so that we can continue to be a place for God’s mission in this community. That job entails:

Making sure the building is welcoming, clean, and safe — for worship, programs, and mission that takes place here.
Being consciously ecologically-minded in the ways in which we manage the building.
Working to keep what we have in good working order, making repairs as necessary, and upgrading what does not meet new standards.

Our Property team this last year and a half has thankfully had a bit a breathing room. We have only had a few big projects and of course keeping up with the regular and surprise maintenance of the building. Here are a few of the things that they have accomplished.

Purchased air purifiers in winter of 2021 so that it would be safer for staff to work and to meet in person and now have them in worship
Had a new ramp installed in the back entrance to the back parking lot that is now fully up to ADA compliance
Getting new railings for the back stairs, new ramp, and parking lot kitchen emergency stairs

Had the ceiling in the tower stairs to the radio room patched and re-plastered as well as re-plastering around the pipes in the fellowship hall now that the leak from the parking lot has been fixed
Had new electrical outlets placed in the sanctuary to run air purifiers and technology for streaming the service.
Continued to have brick re-pointed, this time around the roof of the education building to stop a leak in room 207
Repaired a vacuum relay of the dishwasher in the kitchen that was leaking
Repaired items that were not working such as drains in the kitchen and the heat pump in the chapel (which happily was under warranty!)

Future Plans

Remove and replace the waterproof membrane on the back deck that is failing
Remove the rest of the cherry tree that was damaged in the front of the office that was damaged in the heavy April snowstorm. Many thanks to Dave Ruston who took care of the big limbs that were down!
Replace the tile floor in the 1st floor bathroom (that used to be the women’s room) since the mastic underneath has come to the end of its life

Current Team Members: Bill Sands, chair; Chris Burger, Ken Mebert, Kathy Preston; Pastor Becky Kindig; Cindy Burger, secretary.

Worship and Music Team

The pandemic has continued through the 2021–2022 period, and our worship services have continued throughout, too! We have tried to embrace the many challenges of these times, and have had to switch gears with each change. We have gone from totally pre-recorded services, using a Facebook platform…to in-person/hybrid services, streamed on YouTube with the music pre-recorded and assembled by our audio and video technicians…to our current in-person services with live musicians, still live-streaming on YouTube. Through our technology, we have increased and maintained a sizable online viewership for our worship services.

We have tried to build connection with those worshipping online through the UPC Zoom Room, with our 9:30am Prayer Time and our after-service “virtual coffee hour”. We have also tried to stay connected with each other by including as many people as possible from our congregation in our worship services through musical offerings, as liturgists, and as participants in the services so that we can still see each other and feel like we are a congregation, united together in worship.

Looking back on Pastor Kimberly’s sermon series, it feels like they have mapped our journey for this year and a half, from “Unraveled” to “Full to the Brim”:

Lent/Easter 2021: “Unraveled: seeking God when our plans fall apart” from A Sanctified Art. This series talked about the different ways we find ourselves falling apart, and the ways our community can be knit back together (i.e. social justice, meditation, contemplation).
Spring 2021: A series on “Chaos and Connection”

Summer 2021: A series on “Lies We Have Loved: things we think are in the Bible (but really aren’t)”, followed by a series on the Letter to the Ephesians
Fall 2021: “Why do we do what we do?”: A brief look at Christian worship throughout history. We got to read and understand lots of unfamiliar words, concepts, and history from the early church.
Advent/Epiphany 2021–22: “Close To Home” theme from A Sanctified Art
Winter 2022: A series called “Portable Faith”
Lent/Easter 2022: “Full to the Brim, an Expansive Lent” theme from A Sanctified Art. It was a great and inspiring theme to hear, that in the midst of trying times, God’s love is ever-present and abundant!
Spring 2022: A worship series on the Lord’s Prayer

Highlights of January 2021 – May 2022

Epiphany Sunday, January 3, 2021: The year began with our worship services in pre-recorded format, premiering live Sunday mornings at 10am on YouTube.
Annual Congregational Meeting, January 31: Voting by raised hands on Zoom
Ash Wednesday, February 17: We had a short service on Zoom. Ashes were packaged, prior to Ash Wednesday, and delivered to the homes of our congregation members.

Sundays in the Park for Prayer, each Sunday afternoon in Lent 2021: We spent time in God’s creation and spent time with each other masked and socially distant. We met at different parks in the area and had 10–25 people each week. Pastor Becky led us, reading a short passage from the book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Then we spent about an hour walking or hiking or sitting in nature and marveling at God’s creation. Then we came back together, sharing where we saw God during our time, and a prayer.
March 14: We welcomed guest preacher, Pat Raube, pastor of Union Presbyterian Church in Endicott, to our virtual pulpit.
Palm Sunday, March 28: In preparation for Palm Sunday, we delivered palms and took photos for our virtual Palm Parade during the week before, and celebrated our community and Christ’s coming, in our YouTube worship service.

Maundy Thursday, April 1: We celebrated communion, with a Tenebrae-like service (extinguishing candles for each station of the cross).
Easter, April 4: We had our regular Easter communion service, streamed on YouTube, which was beautiful. At 4pm later that day, we gathered at the church for an outdoor devotional time with a “Road to Emmaus” theme. We walked around the neighborhood, reflecting on what is in need of resurrection in our own lives and in our neighborhood.
Pentecost, May 23: We took the joyous step of coming back to church for in-person worship services (and continued to live-stream on YouTube), with portions of the service pre-recorded. We celebrated communion together, which was very meaningful after not seeing each other, except virtually. We were hopeful that we were making accommodations for everyone, whether they could come back to the sanctuary or not. To minimize Covid aerosols, music was pre-recorded. We continued to mask, kept the doors of the sanctuary open, and every other pew was blocked off for social distancing. For communion, we came to the front of the sanctuary, and picked up our communion of bread and blueberries (for our “fruit of the vine”).

Summer 2021: We were thankful for the pre-recorded videos (virtually, via “click-tape” and metronome) from the musicians during the pandemic, but really delighted to see live in-person musicians on several Sundays this summer!

June 27, July 18, and August 23: We joyously celebrated lots of baptisms! These beloveds were: Owen Westcott, Charlotte Livingston, Declan Jones, Elinor Hugenbruch, Khiro and Tyson Brunson, and Zander Rwabukwisi.
September 5: Pastor Becky preached, and did an interactive activity (a menti.com poll) with the congregation, asking “What does UPC praise God for today?”, and then generated a word graph, based on the answers, for the next Sunday’s worship guide.

October 3, World Communion Sunday, Rally Day, Congregational Meeting, and Church Picnic: We had a hybrid Zoom/in-person format for the meeting. We elected the Session class of 2024 and voted on changes to the Bylaws of the United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton regarding the size of Session and the length of Session terms. Afterwards, we gathered by the garden in the front yard for a congregational picnic. It was a “bring your own meal” style picnic (with some “grab-and-go” meals for visitors), in order to reduce the risk of Covid.
November 7, Feast of All Saints/Bouquet of Remembrance Sunday: We continued our tradition of remembering those who had died this year, and in the past, with flowers that we brought for a big bouquet in the front of the sanctuary.

Christmas Eve, December 24: We had a hybrid Christmas service at 4 pm. It was a lovely service of readings from members of the congregation, carols, and candlelight!
Christmas Sunday, December 26: This was an online, pre-recorded service only. It was a service of many musical offerings from our congregation, with reflections from Pastor Kimberly.
Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 5:30 pm: Like last year, we had a short, meaningful service on Zoom, using packaged ashes sent to each of our homes.

Palm Sunday, April 10: We celebrated the beginning of Holy Week in quite a different way. The scripture reading came from the Gospel of Luke’s account. In this account, Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem was greeted by people spreading their coats and garments along the road, rather than palms. So, the congregation was invited to bring gently worn coats and household linens, which were laid on the communion table, and later given to those in need. There was a huge congregational response, and quite an accumulation of offerings!

Maundy Thursday, April 14: We gathered in the sanctuary for a service of communion and candles.
Easter, April 17: We had a communion service in the sanctuary, which was also streamed on YouTube. The service was beautiful, and it felt like resurrection to see so many more people in attendance, after such a long haul through the pandemic! And, we loved hearing the festive notes on trumpet from Sara Lieberman!

Thank you from the Worship Team! We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our pastors, musical directors, musicians, choir, and UPC’s wonderful “tech deacons” team, which has expanded in membership: Scott Kindig, Phil Westcott (2021), David Williams (2021), Andy Chadwick, Ken Mebert, Sara Lieberman, Andrew Beaty, Shawn Landon, Juliann Wanjama, Chris Burger, and Emily Hugenbruch. Worship services would not have been the quality they were without their skills and their ability to change with UPC’s needs!

Musicians for worship services: Becky Mebert has secured many talented people from our congregation and community over the course of 2021–2022. Among them have been: Our wonderful choir, and choir section leaders — Starletta Noll-Long, Victoria Barics, Austin Shadduck, and Ernest Backus; UPC’s United Ringers Handbell Choir; musical offerings by children in our congregation (Aeden Hickey, The Hickey and Nyamuame children, and the spontaneous addition of percussion by Aoife Backus); Andy Chadwick (organ, piano); Jean Henssler (organ & piano); David Berti & Katie Micalizzi; Lana Ogden (soprano, alto, & tenor recorders); Margaret Davis (violin); Claude Cornwall (piano); Emma Schenemann (cello); Rebecca Grabarchuk (soprano vocal); Peggy Sniezek (alto & bass recorders); Sara Lieberman (trumpet); Elikem Nyamuame (drums & piano); Cara Miller (oboe); Aimée Backus (soprano vocal, flute, & Choir Director), Austin Shadduck (saxophone, shakuhachi flute, vocals, & Bell Choir Director), and Becky Mebert (piano, organ, Music Coordinator); with pre-recorded offerings by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program Virtual Choir, the Choir and Orchestra of Saint Lillian, Lianne Aharony, Cole Tornberg, Lene Weiss, Ryan Holleran, Julia Naldjian, Steve Quay, Jason Mesches, Phil Westcott & Eleanor Hough, David Williams, Nathan Raboy, Andrew Beaty, and Becky, Emma, & Scott Kindig.

Current Worship & Music Team Members: Suzie Northrop Raboy, chair; Andy Chadwick, Margaret Davis; Music Coordinator Becky Mebert, Office & Technology Coordinator Scott Kindig, Pastor Kimberly Chastain, Pastor Becky Kindig.

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