031419eletter

The Moscow United Methodist Church 126 Church Street In This Newsletter Moscow, PA 18444 Office: 570 842-7251 Email [email protected] Website www.moscowumc.com e-newsletter March 22, 2019 MUMC Finances & Church Audit Bishop Park’s Letter The Journey MUMC Book Club Easter Egg Hunt Children’s Good Friday Learning Tree Ad Council Minutes A Way Forward: This February, 23 – 26, our United Methodist Church General Conference, including bishops and global delegates, considered proposals for a Way Forward in Unity for our United Methodist Church around the issues of human sexuality. The results of the special session were that the Traditionalist Plan was adopted. This plan forbids same sex marriage and LBGTQAI clergy in the United Methodist Church. A judicial review of the plan will now be made to see if it follows our UMC Constitution. Please continue to keep in prayer for unity and justice in our church. Save the Date: a special post General Conference District session will be held on Sunday, May 5th, 3 – 5:30 pm, It will be live screened, location to be determined. A Covenant Prayer Group is forming at Moscow UMC for members and friends who wish our church to be inclusive of all people. Contact Pastor Jean if you wish to join it.

MUMC’s Financing of Ministries for Christ Checks and Balances To ensure that all donations to Moscow UMC are properly accounted for, our church follows a systems of checks and balances required by the United Methodist Church to ensure safety and accountability. • First, all money received each week is counted by our trusted counting committee (see a photo of them below). • Funds received are then placed in the church safe to await the financial secretary’s review, recording and deposit to the bank. • Quarterly statements are issued to contributors so they can check and make sure all donations have been recorded properly. • Our church treasurers receive weekly records of deposits, pay our church’s bills, and provide monthly budget summaries to the Administrative Council to review. • Yearly summaries of all income and expenses are provided to our Annual Conference for review. • Our church auditors perform a yearly review of all our church financial accounts to ensure they balance correctly. Thank you! to our Moscow UMC counting committee members: Carole Phillips, Sue Hunt (not shown), Dan Schilling, tTrustee representative, and Lois Linko.

A Message from the Moscow United Methodist Church Auditors: Did you know that our church audit tracks the financial health of 19 separate accounts? 19! WOW! That’s a lot of checkbook balancing, statement reconciling and receipt keeping. The audit is conducted annually and submitted to the pastor, the administrative board and conference. It doesn’t just happen…. many people in our congregation are charged with keeping the financial records for their particular programs in our church. They work diligently throughout the year to be able to provide accurate information for the audit. We thank them for their dedication. Accurate record keeping is the key to a smooth audit. Each year it is important to provide all the necessary account reports, bank records and receipts to provide a clear paper trail of our church income and expenses. Once again, a big THANK YOU to all of our church treasurers and volunteers who help to make each year’s audit a smooth ride! If you have any questions about the audit, feel free to contact Carol Verrone, [email protected]. Many Thanks to our MUMC auditors, Carol Verrone and David Hess, for this message and their fine work as our church auditors! After 20 + years, both are retiring from auditing our church accounts. We appreciate all you’ve done over the years to help us keep our accounts balanced. Thank you!





On the Journey with Jesus - Lent 2019 – Moscow UMC Worship Sunday, March 24 3rd Sunday of Lent – A New Way Sunday, March 31 4th Sunday of Lent – The Way Home One Great Hour of Sharing – UMCOR Sunday – Contemporary Worship Sunday, April 7 5th Sunday of Lent – The Free Way Communion Sunday – Hymn Sing before worship Sunday, April 14 Palm/Passion Sunday – The Other Way – Coffee Hour Sunday, April 21 Easter Sunday – The Day of Resurrection! - Easter Egg Hunt

Moscow UMC Book Club “Hotel at the corner of Bitter and sweet” by Jamie Ford. The book club will meet to discuss May 2, 2019 6 pm All Welcome For information call the office (570) 842-7251 You’re invited to a special time for children on Good Friday, April 19, 2019 at 10 am at Moscow United Methodist Church, 126 Church Street, Moscow, PA (upstairs). This will be a time of learning and getting ready for Easter. Light refreshments served. RSVP Sharon Kelly 570-877-8731. You’re invited to an Easter Egg Hunt after church on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019 Worship begins at 11 a.m. Moscow United Methodist Church 126 Church Street, Moscow, PA 18444

The Learning Tree ended our theme on Dental Health by visiting Dr. Sullivan’s office on February 27, 2019! Students learned the importance of good oral hygiene and got to take a ride in the dentist chair! Moscow UMC’s Learning Tree Preschool/Pre-K News We also started using the computer lab upstairs on Fridays to sharpen our computer skills! So much fun! Now Enrolling for Fall 2019 - March Open House Scholarships Available Call to schedule your personalized visit 570-249-0200

Moscow United Methodist Church Administrative Council Meeting Minutes Monday, February 18, 2019 Attendees: Pastor Jean Blackie, Jack Carling, Paulette Fotta, Howard McIntosh, Kim Havenstrite, Steve Phillips, Debbie Kenosky Pastor Jean opened the meeting with a scripture reading and devotion. The minutes from the January 27th Ad Council meeting were reviewed. Steve motioned to accept the minutes. Paulette seconded the motion. All were in favor. Budget Report The actual numbers for the month of January were reviewed. Paulette motioned to accept the January budget reports. Debbie seconded the motion. All were in favor. The proposed budget for 2019 was reviewed. After some clarifications regarding staff salaries and the music program, Paulette made a motion to accept the 2019 Budget. Kim seconded the motion. All were in favor. Pastor Report Stewardship Report: 1st Quarter – February and March – Codicil of wills (announcements in church February 24th and March 10th) led by Glenn Czulada 2nd Quarter – First week in April send out a Lent/Easter letter and envelope from church office A weekend in May or June – Memorial and Endowment funds education and outreach led by the Endowment fund and any interested church members 3rd Quarter – End of August Capital Improvement appeal letter led by the Trustees 4th Quarter – end of October/early November New Consecration Sunday year 2 led by the administrative committees December – Advent/Christmas letter and envelope from church office Pastor Jean suggested that the capital improvement may be switched with the Endowment and memorial depending on the trustees. She also suggested calling the congregation and inviting them to church services. We have volunteers that will be at the church to take photos for the church directory. We currently have around 20 individuals/families but still need a great deal more before the directory can be finalized. Mission: The collection of medicine bottles has been a huge success in the community. However, Carol Verrone reported that it costs an average of $850 per year to ship all the bottles that have been collected. She did not think that the cost would be worth it to continue. The committee agreed to make this Labor Day the final collection date. 2019 Lent Theme: March and ½ of April: On a Journey with Jesus – Growing in discipleship. March 3rd is the lead-in to Lent Sunday. Sundays in Lent: March 10th, 17th (also St Marys Villa at 2:00) 24th, 31st (Contemporary) April 7th and 14th (Palm/Passion Sunday) March 6 – Ash Wednesday at Maple Lake UMC March 14, 21, 28, April 4, 11 – Thursday NP Ministerium Worship Series April 18 – Holy Thursday at Moscow UMC and April 19 – Good Friday April 21 – Easter (Sunrise service at the Fairview Cemetery) Lent Bible Study: The Gospel of John – Tuesdays at 6:00PM Adult Sunday School: Racism in the church and 40 days of Love Pastor Jean asked Paulette whether Erin would be interested in helping out with the Way of the Cross again this year for Good Friday. If not, maybe the program can be passed along to someone else. No changes in Lay Leadership. SPRC Paulette reported certain members of the SPRC committee have been assigned to each salaried employee. These members will act as a liaison and reach out to them at least once a month to ensure that everything is running smoothly.

The district superintendent recently made a visit to MUMC. In order to improve finances, she suggested yoking our church with another. This would involve the pastor being responsible for two churches. We will have more details about this process from the district superintendent after the general meeting. Preschool The Learning Tree will have 9 students graduating in the spring and a possibility of 8 students returning next year (the intent to register letter will be distributed next month.) The preschool is still running on a deficit. The cookies and cocoa fundraiser earned $120 and private donations added up to $150. There are a couple fundraisers scheduled for the spring and Jeff Rarick will be attending the March meeting to offer more ideas. The Learning Tree will have an open house event and will be advertising in the slideshow at the high school play. Howard suggested posting flyers around the community (Library, Shoprite, etc.) Pastor Jean informed everyone that the Preschool is still on the approved list for EITC. We need to reach out to People’s Bank to find out how to get the funds. Sunday School: The attendance for Sunday school has stayed consistent with the senior/junior high class typically being the lowest in numbers. There was a discussion about changing the church worship start time to 10:00AM. Some people felt that if church service was the same time as Sunday school, it may increase the attendance. Pastor Jean suggested reaching out to Sharon Kelly and Susan McLain to have their input as well. Paulette made a motion to draw up a questionnaire to the congregation whether they would prefer this change. Howard McIntosh seconded the motion. All were in favor. Trustee Steve Phillips reported that all the furnace repairs are completed and paid. There was recently a pipe broken in the front doorway causing a leak that has been capped and fixed. The state-mandated backflow test was performed but it did not pass. The problem was fixed and another test will be performed soon. Steve stated that the next big projects will be the roofs on the parsonage porch and garage, and the education part of the building. He will begin seeking quotes for these. Debbie distributed the 2019 Trustees budget. It was reviewed and some line items were discussed. Paulette made a motion to accept the budget and Steve seconded the motion. All were in favor. Pastor Jean questioned whether we needed to accept the Learning Tree budget as well. Howard recommended putting together one spreadsheet that would have the totals of all three budgets. Debbie will speak to Linda to see what they can do to make that possible. Permanent Endowment Jack reviewed the report dated February 18, 2019. The Frontier MUMC Endowment Fund balance is $23,027.62. $20,000.00 of that is loaned to the Learning Tree project. The Ivy Trust Fund is $10,000.00 and loaned to the Learning Tree project. The Fleckenstein Education Endowment total balance is $49,463.26. The date for the Spring Fair will be Saturday, May 4th. The next meeting will be Monday, March 18, 2019 at 7:00PM. There was a motion to adjourn the meeting by Debbie with a second by Paulette. All were in favor.