Do you have a phone tree in your church, where the congregation is divied up in to groups and  they are phoned to give information etc.?

Who does the phoning?

What kind of information?

Where does the information go?

I  think this is along same lines. A minister, I know, sends e-mails out to the congregation with news. An offended parishioner( retired minister's wife) did not want everyone to know that she was ill. So what do you think?

The Ministry and Employment unit is working with Stephen Fetter, program coordinator with United in Learning, to develop continuing education web seminars about your pension plan.

We anticipate that these seminars will highlight the plan’s structure and the challenges faced by our plan (and other plans), as well as how the changes will build sustainability into the plan for the long term. The planned broadcast dates are in November, at various times:

The (new) United Church Benefits Centre is set to open July 4th!  The transition is almost complete, and now the postal stoppage is almost over the information packages for all members (ministry and lay personnel of the United Church, and affiliated organizations) and treasurers should be arriving by next week.

http://www.united-church.ca/local/congfin/news

This is the Congregational Finance News page: it's updated periodically with important information for treasurers and office/payroll administrators working in ministry units and pastoral charges.

Check it out! This has just been updated for the 2011 new year!

Please note that the General Council Office is closed from December 24 until January 3.  Work will continue first thing Tuesday, January 4!

We wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and New Year celebrations.  May peace and joy fill your hearts at this glorious time of year.

~The Staff of the Human Resources Unit, General Council Office~

http://www.united-church.ca/minstaff/pastoral/leaves/sabbatical/interim

The funding process has been finalized and as of Dec. 1, 2010, it's on!  Interim ministry personnel may apply for Sabbatical funding: there's a process, and long lead times, but if you're interested, start developing a plan, and some goals and researching Conference committee meeting dates.

We live in a world in which extremist think tanks have enormous influence ever governments and the news media. There "studies" invariable recommend less for us and more for the corporations and wealthy individuals. Their profits will then be used to benefit everyong. (Right. Tell that to Haiti, Iraq, and Guatemala.  Tell that to unemployed Americans who live in a country without with one of the largest gaps between right an poor in the world.  Their moral basis, often enough stated publicy enough, is greed is good.

Is anyone familiar with the Environics Congregational Report? 

Have you used it?

Did you find the information provided worthwhile?

Our congregation is thinking of using this to gather information to be used for the upcoming Stewardship campaign and just generally as a means to understand the demographics of our community.

Any and all thoughts appreciated.....

LB

I have just started a new blog. The URL is unfortunate. I wrote in when I was angry, then found I could not change it. Anyway, it deals with how and why newspapers mislead us - at least, that's the starting point.

it's      http://themonctongrimes-dripdrain.blogspot.com

Also a reminder for Moncton and area readers. I have a current events group that meets the first week of each month at Moncton Library at 2:pm. The next meeting, then, is May 6.

There have been some cases in Canada. Each news cast shows how quickly this is spreading across the world.

When would the church act if this virus escalates in Canada?

Shaking hands at door ; serving and taking communion ; babycare? Would the church wait for a directive from the Govenmemt and the Department of Health? Or would each congregation make their own decision?

The final thing that I hear that churches would do is close churches for worship if there was a directive not to have public assemblies.