The EPA Transition Workshop for New Pastoral Appointments, to help churches receive new pastors, will be offered twice, May 4, at 7:00 p.m., and May 6, at 9:00 a.m., both via Zoom. Each participating church should form a transition team to attend the …
Camps to host spiritual renewal retreats for clergy
All EPA clergy are invited to three upcoming, free spiritual renewal retreats. The first, titled Rhythms of Grace, will happen on Wednesday, April 19, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Pocono Plateau Camp & Retreat Center in Cresco. The Rev. …
Managing the fast pace of change
“Your word is firmly fixed in heaven.” —Psalm 119:89b “The only constant in life is change,” Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher of the sixth century BCE, taught us. But when is too much change just too much for a system to …
Holding on together
Cabinet epistle prescribes remedies to clergy stress, burnout
“In the midst of deeply felt challenges to our health, our churches and our society, it is normal for stress and anxiety to increase.” Thus begins a letter sent recently by the joint EPA&GNJ Cabinet to all clergy and chairs …
EPA clergy of color invited to renewal retreat in June
Just weeks after an Annual Conference focused on the theme “Possibility,” Eastern PA clergy of color will get to explore their own possibilities of learning self-renewal and restoration through a joyful, guided process of spiritual and emotional nurture. And they …
Local Pastors Licensing School to begin in August
The Eastern PA Conference’s next Local Pastor Licensing School will begin August 19 and run eight weekends total until Oct. 8. That includes six weekends total of in-class modules, again offered fully online via Zoom video-conferencing, with a weekend off …
Ordinands’ fruitfulness projects respond to individual, church, community needs
As the COVID pandemic in late 2020 took a heavy toll on many lives—including health, housing, businesses, jobs and family incomes—members of Wooddale UMC in East Stroudsburg and nearby rural Analomink UMC saw their communities increasingly in dire need of …
3 Annual Conference offerings, 3 ways to give
The 2022 Annual Conference, May 20-21, will again receive offerings to provide crucial support to conference youth and young adult ministries and scholarships for higher education—both undergraduate and seminary. While the Annual Conference will take place online for a third …
Women’s History Month Feature
UM advocacy agency reveals lagging equity for clergywomen
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (GCOSROW), created by General Conference in 1972, provides research, advocacy, training, monitoring and educational resources to churches and conference commissions like Eastern PA’s COSROW…
This Holy Mystery: A UM Study of Holy Communion
The EPAUMC Board of Ordained Ministry will again offer an exploration of Holy Communion on two Saturdays, March 19 and 26, at 9 to 11:30 AM via Zoom. The Revs. Candy LaBar and Gary Knerr will lead the study again…