Report from the Pastor on November 11, 2025
Report of the pastor for 2025 to Northeastern Hills Cooperative Parish
(Elizaville, Pine Plains, Red Hook, Rowe; Pleasant Valley UMCs)
It’s hard to know how to sum up this first few months of my being the sole pastor appointed to the NEHCP (?) following Steve and Nan Ernst’s retirements this summer. We’re in the process of finding out who we all are and how best to be in ministry cooperatively, while still remaining faithful presences in our distinct communities. Big thanks go to Jackie White, Cooperative Parish Council Coordinator, as she manages to keep both the Big Picture and myriad pesky details in focus for us all.
Since July, the Sunday worship arrangement has been:
1st and 3rd Sundays: I lead worship & preach at Rowe (9:30) and RH (10:30)
We have been celebrating communion the 1st Sunday
2nd and 4th Sundays: I lead worship & preach at Elizaville (9:30) & PP (11)
We have celebrated communion on the 2nd Sunday.
On the Sundays I am not with a congregation, I can provide a lay leader with the text of my sermon; we’ve done that most at Rowe, and lay leaders have risen to the challenge with grace and creativity in Elizaville, Pine Plains and Red Hook. Red Hook is the only congregation of the “core four” with Certified Lay Servants (and a retired Elder, the Rev. Barbara Melzer). Pine Plains congregants, meanwhile, have been invited to worship with the Episcopalians next door on their pastor-free Sundays; and the Episcopalians have been invited to come to PPUMC on their pastor-free Sundays.
I have served Pleasant Valley mostly as a “pastor on call”, with an occasional communion service on Sunday afternoons.
So, what about the occasional 5th Sunday? Since July, that’s happened only once—August 31, Labor Day weekend—and everyone was invited to join us at Wilcox Park for informal outdoor worship followed by a picnic. Elizaville had worship at their regular time but several Elizavillains did come afterwards for food and fellowship. The next 5th Sunday, November 30, is the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the first Sunday of Advent. Red Hook is inviting all the congregations to worship there at 10:30, and share in a lunch afterwards—followed by an organ concert for the community at 1 offered by our new Organist/choir director/minister of music Terry Earles. We have not yet decided how we will handle the first 5th Sunday of 2026, which is Palm Sunday. We plan to have Christmas Eve services at each church, probably 3 pm Rowe, 5 pm Elizaville, 7 pm Red Hook and 10 Pine Plains.
Each congregation is an important presence in its own community, and each has its niche. Elizaville and Rowe are the ONLY churches in their neighborhoods, while both Pine Plains and Red Hook are in areas with a number of churches. PP hosts the Community Food Locker, which distributes food and hygiene items on the second Saturday of each month; PV has an active food pantry serving their neighborhood; Elizaville has a pantry that serves people year-round on an “as needed” basis; and Red Hook’s client-choice Food Pantry serves our neighbors in need every Sunday from 12 to 2. RH is member agency of the Regional Food Bank of NENY, which increases its buying power tremendously; and has received ongoing donations of fresh local produce and bread from local growers and bakeries. As we look at the prospect of SNAP funding’s ending—today!—we recognize that we will be called on to meet ever-increasing need. HUGE thanks are due to Janice Williams and all who do the heavy lifting at the RHFP, week after week after week. Pine Plains’ “Brown Bag Boutique” (thrift shop) functions both as an important resource for clothing and household items for the community, and as a source of funds for the church.
Though our demographics are similar to regional and national trends—aging, shrinking congregations—there are hopeful spots here. This year we have had two baptisms—one at Elizaville, attended by 75 people, one at Pine Plains—and one wedding at Elizaville of a woman who grew up there. We began Adam Hamilton’s study of the gospel of Luke last month and have had about eight people attending between two Thursday sessions (am and pm)—“in person” at Red Hook and on zoom. Pine Plains held its first “soup and salad” supper since the pandemic this fall, and community members who attended were nourished by the personal fellowship as well as the food. PP will host a POST-Thanksgiving ecumenical community service for the first time to (we hope!) dovetail with Pine Plains’ “Festival of Lights” on Saturday the 29th.
This is by no means a complete account of what the churches have been up to. Major structural repairs continue to be in the works at several. Red Hook’s parsonage repairs are nearing completion; the west wall of sanctuary remains among the serious concerns. Thanks in large part to grants solicited by a congregation member (thank you Vince!), work on Elizaville’s basement stairway is underway; and Scott Cano will be starting work on Pine Plains’ steeple among other things as early as this week.
I am grateful to the faithful leaders and members of each of the congregations, who have been the ones sustaining a Methodist presence in our various communities for so many years. I am in awe of what you have already done; and I feel honored and blessed to be able to work together with you all as we discern and work in bearing witness to our Lord’s love for all, in 2026 and beyond.
Caroline W. Berninger