Pastor's 2013 Annual Report

As we look forward to 2013, we express our thanks to God for a wonderful year of ministry in 2012. Our congregation represented Lehigh Presbytery in the completion of a visioning project, “Standing at the Crossroads,” sponsored by the Synod of the Trinity. Four of our elders and I met monthly, in person and on the Internet, with leaders of other PC (USA) congregations throughout the region. Discussions based on the Bible were led by Synod executives and consultants with expertise in congregational planning. For us, the grand finale was a skit, during which three historic leaders of our congregation were “interviewed” at a worship service, by an “Eyewitness News” reporter!

Two strengths of our church are its traditional worship and Christian education programs. We continued to provide closed-circuit filming of Sunday worship in the chapel, for people who find it difficult to climb the stairs to our sanctuary. There are now two adult Bible study groups: one group of men and women who have been meeting every Sunday morning to study the New Testament, and another group of women who have been getting together on Thursday evenings to discuss the PCUSA’s Horizons Bible studies. In summer, we shared the leadership of a nine-week series on Revelation with the United Presbyterian Church of Slatington. Our veteran Sunday School teachers offer an excellent program of Christian education for children, and we would love to increase our enrollment. Our “Sky” Vacation Bible School attracted thirty-four children. It kept ten adults and five teenage volunteers busy, sharing dinners, singing, dancing and teaching little ones. A hundred and thirty people attended our annual Christmas musical, performed by our Sunday School children.

In 2012, we said our sad good-byes to Violet Hagemes, Mary Lorah, Peg Hodes and Kathleen Burkert. We will miss these women, all of whom were long-term, active members of our congregation.

Our church building is 144 years old and requires a great deal of maintenance. We received a grant from Lehigh Presbytery and the Synod of the Trinity to make plastering and structural repairs. Member giving increased over that of 2011, so we were able to undertake needed building projects. We had an energy audit, had maintenance work done on furnaces and chimney, replaced both stoves, installed a wall oven in the kitchen, and (with the help of volunteers) demolished a section of the garage that had been in disrepair. Church leaders and staff discovered many ways to cut expenditures. Although we still face financial challenges, we ended 2012 “in the black.”

We are proud of our outreach projects for the year. In September we set up a tent and sold sausage sandwiches and baked goods at the Hokendauqua Fall Festival in the football field next door to the church. Another opportunity came on Election Day. Our church is the polling place for the Whitehall 8th District. We greeted more than five hundred voters and 8th District workers in the foyer during the presidential election. Church volunteers offered free coffee and home-baked goods as Hokendauqua residents waited in line to vote. The Judge of Elections thanked us for “a good and caring show of faith.” We provided help and canned goods for the Whitehall Food Pantry, purchased Christmas gifts for thirty-seven children, made monthly donations to Juvenile Diabetes, and collected mittens for families in need. In addition, we helped to host member Katie Dyer’s crèche display for the public, in her home in Allentown, during Advent.

God has called us to make disciples of all nations, in ways old and new! We now have a new Internet vendor and email address, hokeypres@rcn.com, and a pastoral presence on Facebook. May each of us make our contribution to the cause of Christ in 2013 to grow the “Hokey Church” in faith, in numbers, and in vitality.

Respectfully submitted,
Pastor Joyce

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