Greetings from the Staten Island conference. We, the seven mission outposts on Staten Island, are church together! As colleagues, we strive to meet regularly and gather every week for text study, conversation, and fellowship. Each Lent we join and worship in each other’s faith communities for midweek services. We gather annually on Ascension Day. We demonstrate, as congregations, that we are not mission outposts by ourselves.
On the Southshore, Christ Lutheran & Messiah Lutheran continue to partner as parishes together. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we shared a combined Confirmation program. We still join in Bible study together. We exchange pulpits on occasion. We dream and vision together. Our members, in both churches, prior to the coronavirus, attended each other’s events routinely for events, such as our annual Men’s Breakfast gathering, WELCA gatherings, worship, and learning opportunities. We know each other, support our common endeavors, share each other’s burdens, collaborate, and partner together for the sake of mission and ministry. Messiah Lutheran celebrates 100 years of ministry this April.
On the Northshore, we are always in conversation about our individual and collective futures. In so many ways, the Northshore churches have modeled what it means to be church together, as we try to be proactive instead of reactive, imagining what God might be up to and calling us to be. We continue to celebrate the success of encouraging collaboration among the churches and shared worship experiences. St. Paul’s-St. Luke’s continues to worship together with the folks at Zion. Immanuel gathers with Zion once a month.
As a conference, we continue to share both gifts and burdens with each other. It is a hopeful sign that while we hear about change and transition across this church, accompaniment is the watchword for Staten Island. Congregations are creatively working with one another, listening to the Spirit together, and working with our communities, our ecumenical partners such as the Staten Island Council of Churches, and social agencies such as Project Hospitality. We continue to give thanks for the partnership and ongoing work with Wagner College & Eger Nursing Home, even as we acknowledge Eger’s moves to partner with ArchCare, under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
Finally, we celebrate the merger between Trinity and Our Saviour. We are thrilled to announce that the good folks at Trinity recently called a new pastor! And we are so grateful for Trinity’s Feeding Ministry, which deals with food insecurity on the island. Our motto – We are Church Together! The Holy Spirit continues to work with and among us all in this our little beloved “forgotten borough.” Soli Deo Gloria!
We Are Hopeful TOGETHER