Author: Rev. Katrina Hebb

Hello Everybody,

Happy Friday to you! This afternoon has clouded over some, but this morning was another glorious fall day! Did you spend any time soaking up the sun? Speaking of autumn weather, I’m curious to know something– how do you celebrate the coming of fall at your house? What are some of your traditions? Do you decorate? Rake leaves together? Go apple picking? I’d love to hear if you have any special rituals to mark this time. When things are tough, I often find that leaning into the comfort of certain traditions helps me to stay grounded, and the turning of the seasons is a great time for honoring ritual.

The News For This Week!

Coffee Hour— As long as the weather stays nice, we will plan to host one more outdoor coffee hour on the lawn this coming Sunday, 10/11. Come at noon with your mask, a jacket, and a lawn chair, and we’ll visit over coffee and cookies! The temperature is only supposed to reach 52, but it should be mostly sunny skies, so we should be ok if we dress appropriately. 

Survey— Quite a few people have filled out the survey about returning for in-person worship, but we’re waiting to hear from a few more folks. If you haven’t already done so, please click on this link and let us know what you’re thinking. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RZX7D3T

Organ News– Have you ever had something break, and you fix it, only to find out there’s more to the problem than what you first anticipated? About a month ago we learned that the controller for the organ wasn’t functioning properly. Thankfully, we were able to have it fixed quickly and the bill was nothing significant. This last week however, when the controller was re-installed, we learned that there’s something wrong with the motor as well. We’re having it looked into, but Ron tells me this motor has seen a lot of use over many decades, and it’s possible that we’re going to need to purchase a new one. At one time we had an organ fund that paid for things like this, but as the world turns, that well has dried up. We don’t yet know exactly what our situation is going to be, but if any of you have money tucked away in a rainy day fund just for the care and upkeep of beautiful organs, we may need to call on you. More on this developing situation soon…

David Bennett to preach on 10/18– This month our presbytery resource leader, David Bennett, has graciously offered to preach and lead worship on the 18th. David played an important role last year in helping our session and the pastor’s nominating committee figure out what the next chapter of the Potsdam Presbyterian Church might look like, and the end result of their work (with a little bit of the Holy Spirit thrown in there, too) was me coming to be your pastor! We haven’t seen David since then, so it will be nice to welcome him back! 

Friends, don’t forget to look up this week as you go about your regular routine. Not only is the beauty of God’s glorious creation in the midst of a grand symphony, but so is the world around us. Our teachers are teaching their hearts out right now, our young people are learning as best they can, medical workers and first responders are busy doing their work to keep us safe and as healthy as possible, our grocery store clerks are working doubly hard to keep the stores wiped down for all of us during the pandemic, and our postal workers keep delivering the mail. Take a moment this week and notice the good work that someone in your life is doing, and offer them the gift of gratitude, will you? This pandemic is rough stuff, so let’s be on the lookout for what goodness we see, and celebrate it.

The Apostle Paul once said to the believers in Phillipi:

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse…. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

-Phillipians 4:8 (The Message version)

Sounds about right to me!

Keep looking upward,
Pastor Katrina

A blustery, soaking wet day to You, dear Church! 

Fall is a time of both glory days and glum days, and today is definitely on the wet and soggy end of things. I hope you’re warm and cozy inside, or have mud boots to keep your feet dry if you venture outside today. 

This last Sunday I had the day off, and you worshiped with the Ogdensburg congregation for our Sunday service. How did it go? You had a bird’s eye view of what an in-person service can look like, and I wonder what it was like for you. Session met last night and we took up discussion about the possibility of our own return to the building for in-person worship services. We agreed that when we come back we, like the Ogdensburg church, will have to adapt our services. We talked about a number of things that we will need to change, and we put together a plan for what our services might look like. But we currently don’t have a timeline for when we might return because we want to hear from you first. This coming week I will send out a short survey to ask for your opinion about when coming back to the building makes the most sense for our people. 

To prepare you ahead of time, however, I will tell you about a few things that we already know will be different while we continue to live with Covid-19. When we come back, we will:

1. Worship in the Center, rather than in the sanctuary. 

We will do this for a number of reasons. It will be safer for us to meet in the center because we have a special filtration system installed there that filters our viral particles from the air. It will maintain a more sustainable schedule for our custodian Ron to keep, while he is required to disinfect everything to the Nth degree. It will keep both us and Head Start families safer because we will not be traipsing through their classrooms each week and using their bathroom. It will also protect our organ, which cannot be disinfected with strong cleaning agents. 

2. We will not sing any hymns together until a time when it is safe to do so, but we will have music for our prelude, anthem, and postlude (and hopefully some other special music!). In like manner, we will also wait until a later time to pass the peace with one another. 

3. We will set up chairs in the center so that we are appropriately socially distanced from one another, and we will wear masks while we are in the building. 

4. We will not have coffee hour in the building after the service until a time when it is safe to do so.

These are important measures that Session felt we need to enact to keep our people safe, but we also know that we cannot make these important decisions entirely without you. Will you be thinking this week about the safety needs of your family? Hopefully I’ll have the survey out to you by this coming Tuesday, so that you can communicate what your particular needs and opinions are on the subject. 

Speaking of coffee hour– we will attempt to hold one last coffee hour in October out on the lawn, but we will write it in pencil on the calendar rather than in pen. If the weather is warm and dry for Sunday, Oct. 11, we will meet at noon. If not, we’ll try again for another Sunday.  

Later this month we will also continue on with learning more about racism and how it functions in our society. Our denomination is in the process of putting together a series of documentaries on the subject, and the first one has recently come out. Later in October (date still to be determined), we will gather together over Facebook to watch the first movie in the series, and then the following week we will host a discussion about the movie over zoom that you will be welcome to join. 

Friends, with the election bearing down on us, concern for the safety of our country’s minorities at an all-time high, so many of our citizens out west and down south struggling with disaster, and Covid still an ever-present danger, there is much to weigh us down. But let us not lose heart. God is still on the throne! And we know that nothing can separate us from the love God has for us– not death, nor hardship or distress, not persecution and peril, neither the present or the future, nor the powers that be. Nothing can part us from the love and care of God! 

So, in the words of the writer of Hebrews:

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” 

~Hebrews 10:24-25

Keep breathing in the Spirit!

Pastor Katrina

What a gorgeous day today was! Were you able to be outside at all? The leaves are beginning to turn, and it’s already a spectacular show of color. It’s a great time of year to remember to look up and around you as you go about your daily life. So often we get stuck in the world of our daily “schedule” and forget to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, which lives outside of our clock-structured life. 

While you’re out there enjoying the foliage, if anyone has pictures of the beauty they find this fall, please feel free to share! 🙂 

Just a couple of things to note for this week:

The Rev. Shaun Whitehead had been scheduled for preach and lead worship this Sunday, but she had an unexpected family need pop up, and she won’t be able to be with us. Because this all happened so last minute, I wasn’t able to find someone to fill in, but we have something else wonderful happening instead! Rev. Laurena Wickham Will and the Ogdensburg Presbyterian Church returned to their sanctuary this last Sunday, and they are streaming their service live from the sanctuary to Facebook. I spoke with Laurena about our need this Sunday, and she has graciously offered to welcome us in for their service. And it will be “easy, peasy, lemon squeezy” for you to attend. 

All you need to do is go to our church’s Facebook page and look for the service there like you do every Sunday. Just like ours does, the Ogdensburg service starts at 10am, and Dale Hobson will be hosting a “Watch Party” on our church’s Facebook page of the worship service. This means that for those of you who like to watch at 10am, the service will be there for you, and for those of you who like to watch at a later point, it will still be there to find whenever you’re ready for it. 

This will be a chance for you to get an idea of what an in-person service might look like for us when we return to the sanctuary. Laurena said that last week they played pre-recorded music at the beginning of the service, but that was the only music they had. There was also no passing of the peace or offertory. (There were offering plates by the doors, where you could drop your pledge on the way out the door.) And they kept the amount of congregational response in the liturgy to a minimum. 

I’m not sure yet how our services will be structured– session and I will need to discuss that when the time is right for us. But it will be good to attune our expectations ahead of time to the fact that an in-person service won’t look like what we’re accustomed to. When we return to the sanctuary, we will be coming home to a “new normal.” 

We have come so far on our pandemic journey– adjusting and readjusting our patterns and customs. This will be a change, for sure, and probably also painful in some ways. But even as we hold all of that in one hand, we will hold in the other hand the fact that we’ve gotten good at adapting ourselves to new landscapes. And we know that God will be with us! (Which is the most important part.) 

Speaking of adjusting ourselves to new “normals”– the other day I read something on Facebook that I wanted to share with you. I wish I could say that I was paying close enough attention to copy the link, or even remember the name of the doctor to be able to credit her properly, but I wasn’t. So I will simply do my best to present to you the heart of what she shared. (Also, since I don’t remember her name, I will simply call her Dr. Patel.) 

Dr. Patel has spent blocks of time over the last few decades working in refugee camps around the world, providing health care to people who live in a constant state of crisis, worry, trauma, and grief. One of the important things she has learned from these experiences is that when she’s living in a place of true groundlessness, somewhere around the 6 month mark, she hits the wall. “It happens every time,” she said, “like clockwork. After the initial shock wears off of being somewhat powerless in the world you find yourself in, you somehow manage to find a rhythm to this new way of being in the world. Even though you might not enjoy this current life you’re living, there’s comfort to be found in having routine– of knowing what to expect. Out of nowhere, however, around the 6-month mark, the wall comes and hits you dead on. In this period of time (which can last for weeks or sometimes even months), you begin to lose hope. You begin to lose focus. A type of apathy sets in that makes it difficult to do anything besides put one foot in front of the other.” 

“When this happens,” she said, “don’t expect too much from yourself. It’s enough simply to get through it.” 

“Eventually, at some point, the wall will dissipate and you will find that you have the energy and the grace to absorb more than the bare minimum. But until that day comes, give yourself permission to acknowledge that the wall is real, and that it is hard like concrete– unforgiving and nearly impenetrable. While you’re in the middle of it (however hard it is), keep in mind that it is a season. It is not permanent. At some point, it will soften, and you will begin to feel more human again.”

Dear hearts, this year may very well be one of the hardest years we ever experience in our lifetime. The weight of this world feels crushing. But we are not alone in this experience. Throughout the ages, millions of others have traversed waters like these, and always, God has been beside them wading right along. When you find yourself “hitting the wall,” know that you are not alone. When you feel fear and uncertainty for the future, remember that in other places and other times, people all around the globe have lived in groundless before you, and the arch of God’s faithful and abiding love has endured. 

The writer of the book of Hebrews helps put all of this into perspective:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible…. 

Friends, what we face is difficult, indeed. And yet, the great cloud of witnesses shrouds us, even as God leads us. We may be living in an unknown world, but we are not alone. Never have we been, and never will we be– for we belong to the God of the Ages. 

Hold firm in our faith as we take on the weeks still before us,

Pastor Katrina

Hello Everybody,

There’s a little nip in the wind today, even while the sun is shining brightly, as autumn announces her presence among us. 

Last night some of us gathered together– mostly over Facebook’s livestream– to listen more about the history of our county, as it pertains to racism and slavery. Bryan Thompson told us stories of the slaves who were first brought here in the early 19th century– of the buildings they constructed, and the men who owned them. Did you know that Ford Street in Ogdensburg is named after a wealthy slave owner? Or that Judson Street in Canton is similarly named? 

He also told us about the brave Black men who preached freely in our county in the 19th century (mostly in Free Baptist churches); and that of all the larger towns in the area, Potsdam was one of the few that wouldn’t run you out of town for being an abolitionist. We learned that in the 1820s the minister in our congregation preached from the pulpit about the sin of slavery, and in 1837 our church forged ahead (against popular sentiment) to establish the Anti-Slavery Society in Potsdam. 

I am glad to know that fighting against racial inequality is part of our church’s history. It means we’re continuing to carry the torch that our ancestors once held. 

We also learned about the courage of those Black freedom seekers, who defied the laws of men and their own fears of violence and brutality, to seek their God-given right to being human– how they snuck under heavy loads of hay in hay wagons, hid out in people’s homes, and walked long stretches of wilderness as they headed towards the St. Lawrence river, and eventually to freedom in Canada.

We also heard a few words from Dr. John Youngblood, and a final word from Jen Baxtron, the leader of the Black Lives Matter movement in the North Country. Both conveyed to listeners that the violence and brutality that Black people lived with in the days of slavery are not something that existed exclusively in the past. Each spoke of the intimidation, fear, and threats of violence that hover over the Black community in America today, and particularly in the North Country. And Dr. Youngblood encouraged us, as a primarily white audience, to consider that our work of helping to establish a safe and peaceful existence for Black folk is not yet over.

I don’t know about you, but by the end I left with a renewed sense of dedication to continuing on with our church’s tradition of seeking racial justice in the world. 

In like manner, I left with a renewed awareness of how hard the pandemic is on all of us. It saddened me greatly that I could not see your faces out in the audience last night, and it frustrated me with how hard it is to figure out the technological bugs that always jump up when you’re trying something for the first time. I know that on your end of the screen, the problems we were having with sound must have been irritating. I’m thankful for your patience though– all of us are doing the best we can in the moment we have before us, aren’t we? 

Speaking of which– how are you doing in these moments before us? Was this week any easier than the one before? How is your stamina holding up? I am struggling with exhaustion right now. It takes more energy to get through a normal day, doesn’t it? And that extra spent energy is then not available for dealing with the challenges and problems that always arise. Do you get grumpy when you are frustrated and tired? I’ve been a bit snarly lately, I’m afraid. 

When I get this way, I know I need to pull out Psalm 46, and breathe in the words:

God is our refuge and strength,
 a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
 though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam,
 though the mountains tremble with its tumult….

10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
 I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.”

11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
 the God of Jacob is our refuge.

May the refuge of God find you this week. May the strength of God go before you. And may the rest of God comfort you. 

Keep breathin’ (even on your snarly days),
Pastor Katrina

p.s. I hope to see you this Sunday at noon for coffee hour out on the lawn. Bring a jacket, your mask, a lawn chair, and perhaps a knit cap for if your ears get cold– it will be sunny, but the high for the day is only 58.

Good Day to you, Church family!

Fall has landed, hasn’t it? Were you as chilly as I was this morning? What a rude awakening these cooler temperatures have been the last couple of days. I’m sure we will see some warmer days again in September, but I pulled out all of my winter wear and swapped it out for my summer things yesterday. It’s back to long sleeves and sweaters for this lady!

If you haven’t spent much time in town recently, you might like to know that the renovation project to Snell Hall (across the street from the church) is coming along nicely. I’m sitting in my office as I write this, typing to the rhythmic pounding of jack hammers. It will be exciting to see what they turn that space into, won’t it? 

Before I jump into all of the going’s on, I wanted to give a big shout out to those of you who have come to work on the church grounds all summer long. Thank you Gail Schaberg, Brian and Robin Wilkinson, Neil Johnson, Charlene Speiler, Beth Grace, Dave Wells, and Bob and Sharon PIckard! (Did I miss anybody? If so, please let me know!) It’s such a wonderful gift to come to the church each week and see what new things are blooming. Right now the pink flox are out, with their intoxicating fragrance. 

Now for the news! If you hadn’t heard, our History of the Anti-Slavery Society and the Underground Railroad in St. Lawrence County event did not end up taking place yesterday. The weather was not good enough to be outside, and we had a communication problem that resulted in needing to postpone. Thankfully, we will have a chance to make it happen this coming Thursday, the 17th, at 7pm. If it’s good weather, plan to come with your mask, your lawn chair, and a jacket. If it’s too cold or it’s rainy, we will broadcast the event from the fellowship hall and ask everyone to stay home and watch from the comfort of your own home. 

Anytime we try new things (as COVID is prompting us to do hither and yon’), sometimes it can take a couple of tries to get all of the kinks worked out. I appreciate you having patience and riding loose in the saddle while we practice at having outdoor events. 

Speaking of which, Sunday the 20th, at noon, we will again host in-person coffee hour on the lawn–or, at least we will attempt to host coffee hour on the lawn! If the weather does not permit, we will just wait and try again next month. It is my hope and prayer that our COVID numbers continue to stay low enough that we can attempt to return to the building before Christmas, to be able to see each other again on a more regular basis. We will have to wait and see how the next 4-6 weeks play out, however, now that all the schools are back up and running. 

Dear Hearts, if you have students in your life, or if you are a teacher, you will know what an exhausting week this has been. Are you feeling as spent as I am? There are so many changes to deal with! And new protocols to follow! And new schedules to acclimate to! And I’m only saying this as a parent trying to wade these waters… My mother sometimes comments that she feels like a wilted box of vegetables. Is that how you feel, too? If so, what will you do to care for yourself this week? And if you still have some spring in your step, what can you do to support those around you who have wilted some?

Even if you haven’t been deflated from the return to school, all you have to do is turn on the TV to feel like the end of the world is upon us. Between remembering 9/11, the pandemic, fires out west, our nation’s racial pain and the call for social justice out in the streets, and the upcoming election…. do you just want to stay under the covers and hide in bed all day? If so, please know that you are not alone. 

This is hard… what we are doing right now is hard. And it is scary. And it is OK to acknowledge that. If you need to let yourself have a good cry, or sneak a cigar out in the garage– or whatever it is that opens your emotional release valve, give yourself permission to let it out. 

And then listen to Jesus as he speaks these words to us–

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

(Matthew 11:28-29) 

You have permission to turn your burdens and your heavy loads over. You don’t have to carry the weight of them around with you, if you don’t want to. Jesus offers us rest for our weary souls. 

And so, let us pray together–

God, you promise your care and your comfort to us on the hard days. Please take this load, and help us to carry it. We cannot do this alone. We cannot walk this road without you. Be near to us now, as we draw near to you. Give us strength, courage, and wisdom, we pray. Amen. 

May God bless you even today,
Pastor Katrina

We’ve definitely shifted into early fall mode, haven’t we? The sun is warm, but it’s softer than it was even a week ago– just in time for Labor Day! Do you have special plans for the weekend? I think I may try to take a nap out on my back porch on Monday. That sounds luxurious! 

This has been an exceptionally busy week at church! The Head Start teachers are back in the building gearing up for the start of the school year, and for the first time in 6 months the tai chi classes offered through Trillium resumed meeting. In order to meet the new safety standards for such gatherings, the building has been buzzing with folks updating the ventilation system, cleaning and disinfecting, and marking the floors with tape (to mark spots 6 feet apart for standing in the fellowship hall and to show class participants the newly-designed directional flow of traffic patterns). If you see our custodian Ron this coming week, let him know that you appreciate the extra effort he’s been putting in these last couple of weeks. He’s gone above and beyond to make sure that our building is as safe as we can possibly make it during the pandemic.

This week the grant writing team also finished writing the 41-page grant application we’ve been working on for a month now, and sent it off to the Northern New York Community Foundation! We won’t hear back until December if we were chosen for some of the $100,000 being offered, but we made a strong case for ourselves. I want to offer a big shout out to Dave Wells, who put serious time into this project, and also to Dale Hobson, Terry de la Vega, and Cynthia Coleman, all of whom added their parts.

Aside from this huge accomplishment, we also had a very successful event out on the south lawn Thursday night. Nearly 100 people showed up with lawn chairs and their masks, and spread out across the yard to listen to Bryan Thompson share his detailed knowledge of the history of the KKK in St. Lawrence County. Right before we started, I walked around to say hello to folks. I saw a number of familiar faces but there were plenty of people who attended whom I did not know– including a number of college students. Everyone seemed to be paying close attention to Bryan’s great storytelling. I for one had no idea there was such a strong Klan presence this far north, or that you had to pay $10 to join (a very large sum of money in those days)!

For those who stayed home and watched the live streaming of the event, over 1,000 people have joined you so far. And for those who weren’t able to tune in but are still interested in listening, the event is archived on our church’s Facebook page. Just scroll down through this week’s posts until you find it.

This coming Thursday, Bryan Thompson and Dr. John Youngblood will return to take up the topic of the Anti-Slavery Society and the Underground Railroad and how those movements also play into our current place in history. Bryan mentioned to me that our congregation helped organize the Anti-Slavery Soceity’s meeting in 1837, and I am eager to hear more about it. If you’d like to join us, we will be gathering at 7:00pm. (This is an earlier start time, changed by the timing of the sunset.) Make sure you bring warm clothes with you, as the temperatures will also be cooling off faster. And again, if you’d rather watch from home, we will be live streaming the event.

And one last note–the nearly-dead (but still grand) maple tree in the front yard of the church will be coming down at some point in the next few weeks. If it has been meaningful to you in some way, now is your chance to give it one final salute, or hug, or bow–however it is you might choose to honor it’s presence with us these past 148 years. And if anyone has any memories related to the maple tree, I’d love for you to share them! 

Dear Hearts, I know that the world is topsy turvy right now. If you are like me, you have moments of extra worry, fear, and anxiety mixed in with all of the other things there are to be dealing with. Just getting up in the morning can feel overwhelming some days. Please be gentle with yourself right now. If you need to take a break from the media, or from your life in general, give yourself permission to do so. If you can, get outside and take a walk in the sunshine. Or give someone a call on the telephone that you haven’t heard from in a while. Tell the people who are meaningful to you that you love and appreciate them. And spend some time thinking about and affirming for yourself what your special purpose in life is right now, in this particular time.

And above all, remember that you are loved–loved by the One who created you, and redeems you, and sustains you each and every day.

Pastor Katrina