Delaware Hudson
The Rev. Mary Lou Baumgartner
We Are Resilient TOGETHER
We have met virtually once or twice a month and, once permitted, in-person once a month for spiritual nurture and mutual conversation and consolation.
Confirmation Class Service Project - Weeding & Mulching
In the Delaware-Hudson Conference, we give thanks for ordination and installation anniversaries (5-46 years!), the privileges of ministry to congregations and family members, and the resumption of public worship and relaxed COVID protocols. We are also grateful for congregations, spouses, and families who support us. All of us have resumed some form of worship in person; we are currently at various levels of caution as we gather. Most of us have ramped up our on-line presence with livestreaming and/or ZOOM over the past sixteen months.
CDS Chapel - Christmas Story
Conference-wide, we are celebrating the reopening of Koinonia and are cautiously hopeful about conversations among pastors and congregations involved in the “Lutheran Witness along the Delaware” (a joint effort of MNYS and an adjacent synod involving Koinonia and St. Peter’s—Port Jervis). We also look forward to gathering in-person for Synod Assembly as a Conference on August 21.
Baptism - Lyla Elizabeth Amendola
We Are Hopeful TOGETHER
In our individual congregations, we give thanks for: faithful preaching from retired pastors (Christ-Ellenville); podcasts of daily prayer (St. Thomas-Nyack); outdoor VBS, adult VBS on racism, fourth year of weekly summer Bag Lunches and weekly school-year Dinners with give-aways—craft items, socks, paper products (St. Paul-Liberty); one member’s commitment to deliver bulletins at the front door to those without internet access, efforts to support homeless neighbors, PPP loan (King of Kings-New Windsor); new ministries: regular livestream, quarterly blood drives, community garden, revitalization of relationship between church and preschool (Good Shepherd-Pearl River); incremental increases in sense of community via evening worship/Bible study, a dedicated church council, progress toward understanding mission; efforts toward Lutheran and ecumenical collaboration (St. Peter’s-Port Jervis); continued faithfulness in stewardship, kitchen renovation, and ministry through Shepherd's Kitchen meals and Baby Steps Baby Pantry (Christ-Newburgh); successfully navigating COVID with the congregation strong and united, new organist and special music, electronic yard sign (St. John’s-Middletown); Day School COVID pods, Eagle Scout project to update landscaping and yard sign including “Day School,” PPP loans for church and school (St. Paul’s, New City); beginning of Transition Team, resumption of food fundraisers (Grace-Greenwood Lake); and financially holding our own (St. Paul, Narrowsburg).
CDS Chapel - Noah's Ark
Outdoor Easter Service
We also lament challenges: a stall in ecumenical partnerships (St. Peter’s-Port Jervis); undoing COVID guidelines slowly and carefully (St. John’s-Middletown); stress on the pastor as the only person with ability and equipment to livestream (St. Paul, Narrowsburg); shrinking Sunday School attendance (Christ-Newburgh); staying connected to aging congregants; COVID+ students at Day School (St. Paul-New City); slowdowns in repairs and deliveries (St. Paul-Liberty); loss of income from renting groups (St. Thomas-Nyack); for parish pastors, exhaustion and grief, and, for those retired, the loss and lack of permanent congregational relationships.
God's Work. Our Hands, TOGETHER
The community can get involved in the work that our conference does by assisting with Baby Steps Baby Pantry and access ministry through Koinonia.
May God continue to bless our common and congregational outreach with God’s love into our communities.
Church Sign - Eagle Scout Project - Old with Martin Donohue
Church Sign - New with Martin Donohue