June 2020 Newsletter

Timeline

March 14th we closed down the building: the rentals, the nursery school & worship

March 15th & 22nd We live-streamed worship

Then Session met & suggested Drive-in Worship along with LiveStream and to make YouTube Videos.

We are lucky Roger has sound experience and Pastor Katy knows her way around some technology

Since that we have had 20+ people in the parking lot each week and 20+ views online each week. We have had 40+ people join us for worship each week

Our worship is often viewed in Western NY, Florida, Japan & Pakistan and even on the porches of Ormond and Daytona Ave

We have celebrated Palm Sunday, Easter, Pentecost and Bring Your Own Communion

We have sung along to beautiful hymns thanks to the leadership of Marilyn & Roger Held

Session decided to stay singing in the Parking Lot & continue a safe environment for everyone throughout the rest of summer

 

Ministry Continues

•We called on deacons & session to increase communication & connection

•One of the first things we did was Collect $397.60 for Focus Interfaith Food Pantry as well as a bin of food

•We collected $533 for our custodian Rose who has done essential cleaning throughout and whose husband has been without work for months

•AA was quickly determined to be essential, we became the only AA in the area to meet

•Nursery School continued with zoom & weekly craft packets & drive in closing ceremony June 12th

•We are thrilled that we are able to open the Farmer’s Market early—at the beginning of May—as an essential service for the community: it is growing in vendors and customers (laste week we had 425+) every week!

Stewardship Step Up 

•March we didn’t know how we would pay our employees & our bills with no in-person offering, no renters & no nursery school

•Estimate of Giving Cards and increased offerings started coming in, we saw a marked increase at our www.albanyncpc.com engagement & online giving. Thank you to every single person who has given so we can continue God’s work for the Kingdom

•9 Nursery School families donated tuition or extra out of their love for nursery school

Many renters continued to pay, by the grace of God

•We also pursued a myriad of grants & loans: and received a Payroll Protection grant, and a Presbytery Loan and an Emergency Disaster Loan, as well as a respite from Pensions Board for 3 months of Pastor Katy’s Healthcare bills. Thanks be to God.

•Here we are in June, and as of this moment we have enough money to make it through the end of July: pay essential bills and keep our 8 employees on full pay.

•As we reopen: If we all give what you can June & July then August won’t be a problem

If you have questions or want more information about where we are; You can talk to a session member or call Pastor Katy at 724-840-7841 or email her at katyandtheword@gmail.com 

Timeline

March 14th we closed down the building: the rentals, the nursery school & worship

March 15th & 22nd We live-streamed worship

Then Session met & suggested Drive-in Worship along with LiveStream

We are lucky Roger has sound experience and Pastor Katy knows her way around some technology

Since that we have had 20+ people in the parking lot each week and 20+ views online each week. We have had 40+ people join us for worship each week

Our worship is often viewed in Western NY, Florida, Japan & Pakistan and even on the porches of Ormond and Daytona Ave

We have celebrated Palm Sunday, Easter, Pentecost and Bring Your Own Communion

We have sung along to beautiful hymns thanks to the leadership of Marilyn & Roger Held

Session decided to stay singing in the Parking Lot & continue a safe environment for everyone throughout the rest of summer

Screen Shot 2020-06-14 at 11.53.08 AM

Ministry Continues

•We called on deacons & session to increase communication & connection

•One of the first things we did was Collect $397.60 for Focus Interfaith Food Pantry as well as a bin of food

•We collected $533 for our custodian Rose who has done essential cleaning throughout and whose husband has been without work for months

•AA was quickly determined to be essential, we became the only AA in the area to meet

•Nursery School continued with zoom & weekly craft packets & drive in closing ceremony June 12th (the link is sideways, but still cute)

•We are thrilled that we are able to open the Farmer’s Market early—at the beginning of May—as an essential service for the community: it is growing in vendors and customers (laste week we had 425+) every week!

Screen Shot 2020-06-14 at 11.53.30 AM

Stewardship Step Up 

•March we didn’t know how we would pay our employees & our bills with no in-person offering, no renters & no nursery school

•Estimate of Giving Cards and increased offerings started coming in, we saw a marked increase at our www.albanyncpc.com engagement & online giving. Thank you to every single person who has given so we can continue God’s work for the Kingdom

•9 Nursery School families donated tuition or extra out of their love for nursery school

Many renters continued to pay, by the grace of God

•We also pursued a myriad of grants & loans: and received a Payroll Protection grant, and a Presbytery Loan and an Emergency Disaster Loan, as well as a respite from Pensions Board for 3 months of Pastor Katy’s Healthcare bills. Thanks be to God.

•Here we are in June, and as of this moment we have enough money to make it through the end of July: pay essential bills and keep our 8 employees on full pay.

•As we reopen: If we all give what you can June & July then August won’t be a problem

If you have questions or want more information about where we are; You can talk to a session member or call Pastor Katy at 724-840-7841 or email her at katyandtheword@gmail.com 

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Published by katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.

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