Who? Educators, Youth Workers, Pastors, Elders, Volunteers…anyone serving in the area of faith formation from any denomination! Please forward this to your peers/committees etc…

August Gathering

August 16th at 9am  (note earlier time) followed by optional Holy Yoga at 1030 am
Shepherd of the Hills
11500 West 20th Av. Lakewood

TOPIC: Faith Formation of the Mind, Body and Soul

For more information, contact Stephanie Fritz.

CALL OF THE MEETING:

The Presbytery of Denver Assembly
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Elizabeth Presbyterian Church
325 S. Banner St
Elizabeth, CO 80107

 ~ Opening the Doors – Traveling Together ~

8:30 a.m.   Registration Opens – Pre-Register, click here. Please sign-in at the registration table upon arriving.

Childcare is ONLY available upon request, if a reservation is made before August 7, 2018. Please contact Beth Carlisle at beth@denpres.org or 303.777.2454

8:30 a.m.      Light Breakfast and Fellowship
9:20 a.m.      Announcements
9:30 a.m.      Presbytery Assembly Convenes

A sack lunch will be available for purchase to eat before you go or take with you.

On-line Pre-Registration is now closed.  Please come to the meeting and check in at the church. 

SEE YOU THERE!

New Webinar Series: Faith over Fear

Addressing Myths and Misperceptions about Muslims

Please join our partners, Shoulder to Shoulder, on August 9th at 1:00pm EST for a "Faith Over Fear" Webinar on Messaging: Addressing Myths and Misperceptions about Muslims in your congregations and communities. This webinar will be the first of a “Faith Over Fear” Webinar Series.

This first webinar, Messaging: Addressing Myths and Misperceptions about Muslims will be facilitated by Shoulder to Shoulder and partners, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons with ReThink Media, Aneelah Afzali with The American Muslim Empowerment Network at the Muslim Association of Puget Sound, Arsalan Bukhari with the Council of American Islamic Relations and Rev. Terry Kyllo from Neighbors in Faith on Thursday, August 9 at 1 pm ET/10 am PT.

The Presbytery of Denver Immigration Task Force
invites you to an:

Experiential Exploration of the Immigration Issues

ONLINE REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. PLEASE COME TO EVENT AND REGISTER - SEE YOU THERE!

Why Don't People just come into the country legally from Mexico? This is a day exploration that will invite a broader understanding of the complicated issues. Facilitated by BorderLinks*

WHEN: Saturday July 21 - 8:30 to 5:00 pm
WHERE: Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church (map)
COST: $20 (includes lunch) Pay with credit card online, to right or click on button at bottom of page to pay by check.

In today's climate people are asking the following questions:

• Why do people migrate?
• What happens during the migrant journey?
• How do policies impact people?
• Why don't people just become US citizens?

*A PCUSA supported non profit- organization that has been facilitating educational immersion trips for delegations in the Arizona-Sonora region and beyond the border to Chiapas. Their mission is Through dynamic educational experiences, BorderLinks connects divided communities, raises awareness about the impact of the border and immigration policies, and inspires action for social transformation.   www.borderlinks.org

We are honored to have the expertise and facilitation skills of these experiential explorations.  This is for the entire Denver Presbytery, members of churches, clergy, elders, anyone interested in exploring these issues in a engaging environment. 

Registration online is highly encouraged as the number of facilitators that are coming is dependent on planned attendance

Scholarships are available, please contact Dee Cooper.
 

Traveling Together in Exile

There has been an undeniable sea change in attitudes toward church in America.  Worship attendance has been on the decline for over a decade.  Those who once felt confident about how to plant a new church or to grow an existing congregation, now feel at a loss of how to minister in this climate of skepticism.  The tide has turned and we find ourselves to be strangers in a strange land.  The 'promised land' ministry of American Christianity has been lost.  But a new calling, that of 'being faithful disciples in exile,' is before us.  Locating ourselves in 'exile' will allow us to see how the kingdom of God is still dynamically unfolding around us today.

BRING: BAG LUNCH
WHEN: Wednesday, July 18th
TIME: 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
WHERE: Presbytery Center, 1710 S. Grant St., Denver

Our third lunchtime gathering will be Wednesday, July 18th, from 12:00-1:15 pm at the Presbytery Center.  In preparation for that gathering, please read Daniel 3.

In 2018, we are incorporating more theological reflection in our presbytery assemblies.  Our presbytery worship services will explore this paradigm shift from ministry in the 'promised land' to faithful ministry in 'exile.'  We will locate ourselves alongside Daniel, who figured out how to remain faithful to the LORD while serving in the courts of Babylon.

We invite pastors and elders to join us for a lunchtime theological reflection on faithful discipleship in exile. In preparation for our March, May, and August presbytery assemblies, we will gather together for a lunchtime theological reflection in February, April and July.  Daniel's faithfulness in exile might show us how to serve God as strangers in a strange land. The worship service at the presbytery assembly following our lunchtime conversations will present the insights discerned over lunch.  

We are traveling together.  It's always safer that way.  We are traveling in unfamiliar settings. The old ways of being church are no longer accessible to us.  But the Spirit of God is ready to guide us into faithful ministry in exile. Come journey with us.

You might also consider watching a 45-minute video by Dr. Mark Labberton on finding ourselves in exile. Click here or watch below.
 

Advocacy for Faith Formation Gathering

June Gathering

Who? Educators, Youth Workers, Pastors, Elders, Volunteers…anyone serving in the area of faith formation from any denomination! Please forward this to your peers/committees etc…

June 21st at 930 am
People’s Presbyterian Church  
2780 York St. Denver

TOPIC: Adult Faith Formation

For more information, contact Stephanie Fritz.

The Presbytery of Denver invites EVERYONE to:

 A Service of Celebration

WHEN: Sunday, June 3rd at 3 pm
WHERE: The Presbytery Center at 1710 S. Grant St. Denver

We will have a service of worship with, sharing in the Lord's Supper, to celebrate our past and look to our future of Denver Presbytery. This building and location has served us well; providing years of community for many and a nesting site for growing congregations while serving as the office for Presbytery staff. We anticipate the Presbytery Center moving over the summer and would like to celebrate where we have been and look toward our future with you~ traveling together.

Pre-Registration now closed.  Please come early and sign in at the registration table at St. James, see you there!

Call of the Meeting:

The Presbytery of Denver Assembly
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
St. James Presbyterian Church (map)
3601 W Belleview Ave, Littleton, CO 80123

 ~ Opening the Doors – Traveling Together ~

 3:30 p.m.       Registration Opens – Please be sure to sign in at the registration table.

Childcare is ONLY available upon request, if a reservation is made before May 18, 2018. Please contact Beth Carlisle at beth@denpres.org or 303.777.2454         

4:00 – 4:45 p.m.   Pre-Presbytery Assembly Event:

From Divestment to Investment: Transformational Investments in Palestine
Sherry Hester Kenney, Presbyterian Foundation     

5:00 p.m.      Fellowship and dinner

St. James Presbyterian Church will host and serve the meal. Tickets will be available for purchase for $8 (cash or check) at registration/check-in for the meal.

Dinner will include: cheesy potato casserole, meatballs in gourmet sauce, salad, rolls and relish plate along with lemon & chocolate Bundt cakes and a variety of cookie bars & gluten-free choices.

5:50 p.m.       Announcements

6:00 p.m.      Presbytery Assembly Convenes

A regional gathering to discuss 1001 New Worshiping
Communities and church renewal

The church is continually struggling to engage the culture and community around us. In 2012, the PCUSA launched the 1001 New Worshiping Communities initiative to grow the church in innovative ways. To date we have birthed over 500 NWC’s with more to come with learnings for the entire church. We are excited to bring to you Dr. Scott Hagley, Rev.
Ron Urzua, Rev. Shayla Graham, and Rev. Sean Chow together to share how these elements can be used in any church context. These elements can focus a church’s outreach efforts, renew its outreach energy, and turn their focus to those that are outside our church walls. This event is free and includes lunch.

Click here for printable flyer.

The Presbyterian Outlook Presents:

Join us as we share information, resources and conversation with others concerned about gun violence prevention. In the wake of yet another school shooting, another headline of gun violence, another story of a life cut short by a bullet either by accident or intent, many people of faith are asking how they can participate in preventing such tragic events in the future.

A panel of thoughtful leaders who have been addressing this issue for years will share their knowledge and answer your questions.

This webinar will:

• Provide a theological framework for understanding our culture’s relationship to guns;
• Help participants understand current and proposed policies that relate to preventing gun violence;
• Give tangible examples of what a congregation can do to participate in preventing gun violence; and
• Equip participants with resources for ongoing action and education.

Special price: $9.99
Co-sponsored by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program

The Presbytery of Denver invites you to a Service of Installation for

Rev. David Wright

Westminster Presbyterian Church
3990 W 74th Ave, Westminster, CO 80030 (map)

Sunday, April 15, 2018 at 4:00 p.m.

Reception to follow.

Faith Fellowship Food Fun and Diversity

Been to too many monotonous church events? Let's have fun and celebrate! Come and join...

Come and join your fellow Presbyterians, as we fellowship and celebrate our faith and diversity with food and fun. We will watch a short video, share potluck meals, engage in conversations with each other, and most importantly, have fun in each other’s company. Bring a dish to share, that expresses who you are. 

Sponsored by RED Work Group

Location
PEOPLES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (map)
2780 YORK ST, DENVER, CO 80205

Date  
FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2018

Time
DOORS OPENS AT 6:00 pm, Dinner and program begin at 6:30 pm.

Board of Pensions Benefits Consultation
For Plains and Peaks and Denver Presbyteries

Tuesday, April 10th
11:30 – 1:30
Central Presbyterian Church
402 Kimbark St
Longmont, CO  80501
303-776-7072

Join Clayton Cobb, your Regional Church Consultant for this gathering for Pastors, Church Administrators and Benefits Decision Makers, Presbytery Staff, COM, CPM, and Key Leaders.

Agenda will include:

• Review of the theological values that shape our Benefits Plan and our work
• Preview of coming changes for 2019, including a Dues Reduction Program for churches willing to call and ordain a new seminary graduate under age 40, also a new Education Debt Relief Program for Pastors
• Review of our current benefit offerings
• Share feedback and questions with our Board of Pensions staff
• Meet other benefit decision makers

Besides a better understanding of the benefits plan, all will take away suggestions and solutions for churches and employers of all sizes – small and large – to be the best employers they can be.

This event is open to all who wish to attend, please forward this notice to all who might be interested. 

To RSVP (For lunch) Contact Clayton Cobb at ccobb@pensions.org, 267-844-2411

Click here for printable flyer.

All women of the Presbytery & friends are invited to the
2018 Spring Gathering of Presbyterian Women in
The Presbytery of Denver

What: Actress Marty Jewell will present “Measuring Up” during morning worship. The program, “Junia, a Female Apostle,” will feature Junia’s work with Paul. 2018 Light of Christ Awards will be awarded. The deadline is March 30. Contact Alice for an application. Return applications by mail or email to PW Vice-Moderator:
Vicki Terry 5353 Tucson St., Denver, CO 80239 or call 720-273-6870
When: Saturday, April 7, 2018
Where: Arvada Presbyterian Church, 5592 Independence St., Arvada, 80002
Time: 9:30 to 10 a.m. Registration
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Worship, program, installation of new CT members, and lunch. Announcements at the end.
Cost: $10.00 at the door

RSVP by Wednesday, April 4 to Starr Hildebrand at (303) 420-4186

PW Denver Gatherings are open to all women in the Presbytery, regardless of
whether their church has a PW group. Come and bring a friend or neighbor!

Click here for printable flyer.

The Presbytery Assembly Meeting

Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Iglesia Presbiteriana de Valverde
430 S. Tejon St.
Denver, CO 80223 (map)

Childcare is available, upon request, prior to Friday, March 23rd.  Please contact Beth Carlisle, Communications & Administrative Manager.

Sandy Hook. Orlando. Las Vegas. Sutherland Springs. And Now Parkland. Mass shootings are quickly becoming a deadly pattern in American life, a pattern which we as Presbyterians must faithfully interrupt.  In the midst of this movement moment, we also recognize that students in communities of color have been organizing to stop every day gun violence for decades but often receive little media acclaim. We offer prayers of comfort to grieving families of all of these massacres and acts of everyday violence, and accompany those prayers with a renewed commitment to action.

It is heartening to see the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School share their broad platform to insist the movement to end gun violence must center Black and Brown students. “People of color in inner-cities and everywhere have been dealing with this for a despicably long time,” said Emma González, a survivor of the Parkland shooting. These young people are inviting the Church into the movement, and we have every reason to join them.

The 219th General Assembly (2010) adopted the resolution, “Gun Violence, Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God’s Call.” That document “Encourage[s] the church at every level… to become informed and active in preventing gun violence, to provide pastoral care for victims of gun violence, and to seek a spiritual response of grief and repentance, grace and courage to resist that violence and celebrate the Lord and Giver of Life.” Learn more about Social Witness Policy and available resources through the PC(USA) here.  

Given this charge, The Office of Public Witness invites you to participate in the March For our Lives in Washington DC or in your own community.

Local March: Join Members from Wellshire & Central Presbyterian Church at March For Our Lives - Denver!
Saturday, March 24th. March starts at 2 pm. We will gather at 1pm on the Central Presbyterian Church steps at 1660 Sherman.

Parking available in the Wells Fargo Garage at 1700 Sherman. Buy a validation ticket for $3 at Central Presbyterian Church.

• Find out about sibling marches in your own community
• Join us in DC:

1) Interfaith Prayer Vigil March 23rd at 7-9pm, Washington National Cathedral RSVPs requested on Eventbrite

Facebook event here

2) March 24th Join us as we gather at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church at 11 a.m., 1313 New York Ave NW, and then march together to the noon rally on Pennsylvania Avenue. For more information, contact Karen at kchamis@thepresbytery.org. Register at www.marchforourlives.com

There are a limited number of housing options available for people traveling to DC. Please contact Nora Leccese, nora.leccese@pcusa.orgto inquire

The Presbytery of Denver invites you to celebrate with

Rev. Jordan Warntjes

as he is installed as Associate Pastor of

New Hope Presbyterian Church on Sunday, February 18th at 2pm.

New Hope is located at 3737 New Hope Way Castle Rock CO, 80109

~ Traveling Together ~ 

In 2017 The Presbytery of Denver encouraged us to step out and grow in our life and faith with Opening Doors and Crossing the Threshold. In 2018 we continue moving forward to Opening Doors and Traveling Together. The Leadership Workgroup will be offering opportunities for us to explore how we can Travel Together as pastors and congregations and out into the larger community around us.

Our first exploration into Traveling Together will be February 10, 2018 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. We are excited to present our first Traveling Workshop.  So hop aboard the bus and travel with us and find out how some of our pastors, congregations, mission partnerships, and worship leaders are already traveling together.
Itinerary:

• 9:00 am    St. Paul Presbyterian ~ Board the bus
• 9:45 am    1st Presbyterian of Littleton ~ Pastors and congregations traveling together during sabbaticals.
• 10:45 am    1st Presbyterian of Littleton ~ Board the bus
• 11:30 am    1st Presbyterian of Aurora ~ Lunch

Elders, Deacons, & Congregational Leaders ~ Mission Partnership & How Churches Travel Together
Pastors – Partnerships Between/Among Pastors table discussions

• 12:30 pm    1st Presbyterian of Aurora ~ Board the bus
• 1:00 pm    St. Paul Presbyterian ~ Worship 

There will be a $10 registration fee due at the time of the event.

South Sudan churches call for February 10 day of prayer to support peace talks.

Groups hope effort will result in a permanent ceasefire and lasting peace

by Kathy Melvin | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — Critical peace talks began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Feb. 6 aimed at ending the ongoing civil war in South Sudan. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partner the Rt. Rev. Peter Gai and his ecumenical colleagues, Archbishop John Baptist Odama and Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro, opened the talks with prayer. Gai is moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan (PCOSS) and chair of the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC).

The talks in Addis Ababa were convened by the East African bloc IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development) to push the warring sides back to the negotiating table. A ceasefire that took effect on Dec. 24 was violated within hours.

Church partners in South Sudan are asking Presbyterian brothers and sisters in the U.S. to join them in a day of prayer and fasting on Saturday, Feb. 10. The South Sudan group will gather from 10 a.m.–1 p.m. Saturday at the All Saints’ Cathedral Church in Juba.

Fr. James Oyet Latansio, general secretary of SSCC, said the theme of the day of prayer is based on 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins, and will heal their land.”

Since the birth of South Sudan as a nation, over 50,000 people have been killed, more than 1.9 million people have been internally displaced and 1.8 million people have fled the country. The fighting began in December 2013 when South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, who is a Dinka, claimed a coup attempt by his former vice president, Riek Machar. Machar, a Nuer, claims Kiir is planning genocide of the Nuer. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the two largest majority populations in the country.

“We rejoiced with our Christian friends, especially our Presbyterian partners, in the creation of the new nation of South Sudan. That joy has turned to agony in the last few years, as we have watched the bloodshed, displacement and daily violence that has marked the internal struggle for power since the day of liberation. As the warring parties gather in Addis Ababa, I urge all of us in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to engage in a special season of prayer for the people of South Sudan and call upon God’s Holy Spirit to claim those whose decisions will determine whether there will be a future of peace, or more conflict and death,” said the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, PC(USA) Stated Clerk.

The peace talks are being attended by representatives of the warring factions with the goal of restoring a permanent ceasefire and the implementation of a lasting peace agreement.

“The current situation in South Sudan is tragic beyond words,” said the Rev. Debbie Braaksma, World Mission’s Africa area office coordinator. “We have five mission co-workers bravely serving in Juba alongside our partner churches working with the South Sudan Education and Peacebuilding Project, and in theological education and community development. Our church partners have told us that such on the ground presence means the world to them, but it is essential that this accompaniment be coupled with international advocacy and prayer for the current peace talks to be successful and the war to end.”

The Presbytery of Denver invites you to:

A Service of Installation for:

Rev. gretchen Sausville

Minister of Word and Sacrament at Arvada Presbyterian Church 

Saturday, January 27, 2018 at 10:30 a.m., reception to follow.
Arvada Presbyterian Church
5592 Independence St, Arvada, CO 80002 (map)