At midnight or morning, Southern Tier Christians gather to celebrate

By William Moyer •wmoyer@gannett.com •

December 24, 2010, 3:25 pm



By simple subtraction after the diocese closed six churches since 2000, local Catholics had fewer options for Mass on Christmas Eve.

Despite the closings, mergers and other reconfigurations in a massive downsizing, however, Catholics still flocked to traditional midnight Masses on Friday in Broome County.

"We have nothing to show total attendance at midnight or others Masses on Christmas Eve has decreased since we closed churches," said Danielle Cummings, director of communications for the Syracuse diocese, which includes Broome County.

"What we've seen in recent years is Mass at different times on Christmas Eve to accommodate people's needs," added Cummings. "In some cases, the time has changed from the typical midnight Mass or parishes have added earlier Masses."

In recent years, the diocese closed St. Rita in Chenango Forks; St. Stanislaus in Dickinson; St. Joseph and St. Andrew, both in Binghamton; St. Christopher in Castle Creek; and Christ the King in Endwell.

Still, at least 11 remaining Catholic churches in Broome County held traditional midnight Masses: Sts. John & Andrew, St. Mary and St. Patrick, all in Binghamton; Our Lady of Good Counsel in West Endicott; St. Ambrose, St. Casimir and St. Joseph, all in Endicott; Holy Family in Endwell; St. James in Johnson City; Our Lady of Sorrows in Vestal; and Our Lady of Lourdes in Windsor. Mass, either at midnight or earlier, remains important to Catholics, said Cummings.

Christians in the Southern Tier and elsewhere awake today to celebrate Christmas, one of the holiest days in Catholic and Protestant churches.

Most churches observed Christ's birth with an assortment of Christmas Eve services on Friday night. Many included candle-lighting ceremonies to symbolize Christians' belief that Jesus is the "light" of the world who was born in a manger to overcome the "darkness" of sin.

Despite a overall decline in organized religion in the past two decades, Christmas remains a religiously significant observance, according to the Rev. Stephen Starzer, pastor of Conklin Presbyterian Church.

Attendance at the church's two Christmas Eve services has remained steady in recent years, said Starzer.

"You come to the end of the commercialized Christmas and ask, 'There's got to be more to it than this?'" said Starzer, who's been pastor at Conklin Presbyterian for 20 years. "Christmas Eve remains important. People come to give pause, sit, think and hear a different message about Christmas."


Not all Christians celebrate Christmas today, though. Hundreds of Orthodox Christians in the Southern Tier will observe the Feast of the Nativity on Jan. 7. Commonly known as Orthodox Christmas, the date for this celebration is set by the older Julian calendar.

Christmas came early Thursday for inmates at the Broome County Correctional Facility in Dickinson. They received gift boxes from the jail ministries program of the Broome County Council of Churches.

About 450 inmates received gift bags with cookies, chips, tissues, candy canes and other small items donated by local churches, schools and civic organizations, according to the Rev. Cris Mogenson, chaplain.

"This is reaching out to a part of our community that is forgotten a lot of the time, much more so this time of the year," added Elizabeth Hayes, jail ministry re-entry program coordinator.

A white Christmas is unlikely, according to the National Weather Service at Greater Binghamton Airport. The forecast for Christmas is cloudy with a high temperature near 30 degrees. The last significant snowfall on Christmas Day was 12.7 inches recorded on Dec. 25, 2002.

Although the actual day when Jesus was born is unknown, Christmas evolved into a Christian celebration of his birth in the centuries after his death to coincide with secular winter festivals. Christians eventually fixed Dec. 25 as the permanent date for their observance


According to the Association of Religion Data Archives at Pennsylvania State University, roughly 108,200 of Broome County's estimated population of 196,000 residents identify themselves as Christians, including mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and Catholics. In Tioga County, about 18,000 people among the estimated population of 51,000 are listed as Christians.


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Help needed to deliver toys

December 18, 2010, 10:25 pm

Binghamton The Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program needs volunteers to deliver small Christmas gifts for children of local inmates. Call (607) 724-9130 for more information or visit the Council of Churches, 3 Otseningo St., Binghamton. Packages are prepared and waiting, sorted by zip code.


Packages can be left at recipients' doors.

-- Valerie Zehl

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Chaplain tends to members of the flock serving time

By Valerie Zehl •vzehl@gannett.com • November 6, 2010, 5:50 pm


On Sundays, Cris Mogenson can be found serving behind an altar or in a pew with his family.

On weekdays, look for him in jail.

For a decade now, Cris, 49, has served as coordinating chaplain in Broome County's correctional facility.

Only once did an inmate get in his face.

"It sounds like you're trying to threaten me," Cris snapped. "Listen, I'm the only friend you've got in here."

That lion became a lamb.

Now, Cris looks with a parent's pride at the former prisoners he calls "success stories."

He fights exasperation with the ones he sees behind bars again and again. It can be frustrating, this jailhouse ministry, but it's his calling and he wouldn't have it any other way.

He did try.

Answering an altar call in 1979 at the Maranatha Church of the Nazarene near his home in Bergen County, New Jersey, started him on a course he resisted with all his might.

"I had a real wrestling with God," he says. "For me, if I didn't enter into full-time ministry, to call myself a Christian would be a fraud."

His eye was on a career in medicine, but like Jonah dumped on an unexpected shore, he soon found himself a seminarian.

In 1992 he was ordained in the Church of the Nazarene. His first assignment: a Latino congregation.

"Here's a kid who flunked Spanish in high school, and my first church is a mile from the border of Mexico," Cris jokes.

He served as pastor elsewhere, including at the Free Methodist congregation near his current home in Windsor, but the "adminis-trivia" of heading a congregation took him from the hands-on work he loved most.

He had worked the front lines of the battle for men's souls before -- with prisoners during college and as a drug and alcohol counselor at the Salvation Army facility on Griswold Street in Binghamton -- and he felt drawn to jail ministry again.

One phone call alerted him to an opening with his present employer, the Broome County Council of Churches, where he's a listening ear to the prisoners and those who deal with them.

Part of his job has him intercepting little ones when they get off the school bus because Mommy can't be there. She was just put in jail.


His border collie ("We jokingly call her 'the borderline collie,' he says) came to him by way of a prisoner who suddenly found himself in no position to care for the canine.

"I can't do that too often, obviously," he says, hands splayed. If he could, though, he probably would. He's known to be that kind of guy.

He just about gushes when he talks about the Jail Ministry staff and volunteers, 100 or so individuals who make him shake his head in admiration when words fail him.

Elizabeth Hayes, part of the Jail Ministry team, points out that they could confine their efforts to working with prisoners while they're incarcerated. Instead the team chooses to reach out for the greater good. She designed and wrote grants for a reentry program, which supports prisoners when they get out of jail.

"He's interested in giving Christmas to the inmates and to their children," she says. "He includes the families and takes an interest in what happens after their time in jail is ended."

One of her and Cris' favorite programs is also that of their boss, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Sellepack, executive director of the BCCC.

"In their literacy program, they have inmates read books into a voice recorder to be converted into a CD, then they send the book and CD home to the inmates' children," "Dr. Joe" says.

Cris deals with a very tough population at the jail, including many with mental illness, Dr. Joe points out, yet Cris can see beyond external barriers to the hearts of those he serves.

County Sheriff David Harder is in charge of the jail.

Of Cris, he says: "Very hardworking and always ready to help other people, despite his own problems."


Those problems come in the form of an ongoing sorrow: Son Bradley has an incurable mitochondrial disease and autism that tightly circumscribe his life. Brother Wesley, 18, and sister Kristin, 16, attend the Oak Tree program at BOCES. Both have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.

"I like Daddy to read to me," says Bradley, 11. Cris is their youth leader at the Windsor United Methodist Church they and their mom, Cheryl, attend.


"It's nice to have another clergyperson in the congregation," says Pastor Douglas Clark.

Cris switched his ordination over to the Free Methodist Church in 1997, and now fills in at Presbyterian, Lutheran and other pulpits as needed. He tends to the flock of those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at Southern Tier AIDS Program (STAP) retreats. His extended family of faith also includes Baptists, Catholics and Muslims -- such as fellow chaplains Father Stan Gerlock and Imam Kasim Kapuz."We're very ecumenical," Cris says with a grin.

His calendar bulges with board and other group meetings, and he's regional manager of the American Correctional Chaplains Association, overseeing the Northeast from Virginia to Maine. His hours at home are precious, and precious few.

"I know he looks forward to the opportunities when he can take the boys fishing," Cheryl says.

He talks to his kids about God's love, about seeing themselves and others as God sees them -- the same message he brings into the hearts of prisoners.

"I tell them we're a mirror reflecting God's image, but sometimes that mirror is cracked or tarnished," Cris says. "But it can be repaired."

Volunteer information

If you're interested in donating time to the Jail Ministry or other projects of the Broome County Council of Churches, call (607) 724-9130 or visit broomecouncil.net.

At a glance


Name: Cris Mogenson.

Age: 49.

Hometown: River Edge, N.J.; now lives in Windsor.

Family: Wife Cheryl; sons Bradley, 11, and Wesley, 18; daughter Kristin, 16.

Most unexpected hobbies: Civil War reenactor; actor in dinner theater at church; musician and music collector -- everything from the Bulgarian Women's Choir to Pygmy Water Drums to Kansas -- but Celtic is his all-time favorite.

Self-assessment from 1979: "Jesus freak, driving a VW van."

Previous jobs: Volunteer firefighter; emergency medical services technician; residential director of inner-city rescue mission, then its executive director; chaplain at Herr's Snack Foods factory (quote from fellow Jail Ministry teammate Father Stan Gerlock: "So you were the chip monk.")

Personal experiences he doesn't talk much about: Having heard an "almost-audible" voice counseling him to stop what he was doing and go to the school -- where circumstances converged at that instant to put him into his first pastoring position.

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Facebook: Reentry Concert

Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program We are assembling a benefit concert in Nov. for the Reentry Program. 2 groups are willing to perform and we would like a couple more. Any bands or individuals interested? Send us the dates you have available.

Facebook: Jail Ministry - Congrats Dorothy!

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry ProgramCongratulations to our Advisory Chairperson, Dorothy Pierce, who is the attending Deacon tonight for the Presiding U.S. Episcopal Bishop at a service at Christ Church in Binghamton at 7:00 P.M. Dorothy also co–officiated a number of the 11 communion services in the jail with Chaplain Cris this week

Facebook: Reentry Data for the Jail Ministry

Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program Data has been crunched by one of our volunteers and our MSW intern for our new Reentry Project. The numbers look promising; just over 200 people have sought our services to date, which is just over 3 new intakes a week.

Facebook: Jail Ministry

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program Due to facility scheduling problems on Tuesday our Protestant chaplain and Roman Catholic chaplain combined efforts for a joint service in the therapeutic Housing Unit. It was a wonderful service and certainly worth repeating!

Facebook: Jail Ministry Program

Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program Here is a good resource on Jails, community corrections, theraputic housing, faith based partnerships and reentry. Broome County and our services are featured on page 76

http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411660_life_after_lockup.pdf

Facebook: Jail Ministry Volunteer

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program Here is a very nice article about Rev. Kit White, one of our long time Jail Ministry Volunteers.

Sunday is 'Gospel Time' in Binghamton | pressconnects.com | Press & Sun-Bulletin

www.pressconnects.com

'Gospel Time!' did not have an auspicious beginning when it went on the air in 1970, Kit White remembers, with a laugh.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20100305/NEWS01/3050422/Sunday-is-Gospel-Time-in-Binghamton

Facebook: Jail Ministry and the Literacy Program

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program We host a Family Literacy Program where inmates read books to their children and a CD and book are mailed to the child to keep and to listen to over and over! The program teaches more than reading skills, it helps in parenting, ESL, communications and in reconnecting families We are looking for more volunteers. No experience needed! Here is a link to a story on NPR about a program like ours.

Prison Literacy Program : NPR

www.npr.org

According to the Department of Justice, there are more than 700,000 state and federal prisoners that are parents. A majority of those parents say they've never had a personal visit with their children since they were imprisoned. ...

Facebook: Jail Ministry and the Dream Center

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program The Dream Center, a partner agency with the program, is announcing the start of the J.U.M.P. support group, beginning March 7th for youth with an incarcerated parent.

The George F. Johnson Dream Center for Community Empowerment - Home

gfjdreamcenter.cfsites.org

Home|About|Resources 6-8|Resources 9-12|Career Center|Center Links|Programs|Contact|Shift|Get Involved

Facebook: Cris Mogenson's speaking engagement

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program Chaplain Cris Mogenson is speaking at the Prisoner Support Network Meeting at the Cyber Cafe in Binghamton on Sunday 2/7/10 at 5:30 P.M.

Facebook : New Volunteer for Celebrate Recovery

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program A new volunteer has joined the ranks this week who is working at starting a new partner Celebrate Recovery group in the Tri-Cities which ex-offenders would be encouraged to attend. If you are interested in this participating with this much needed ministry please call Chaplain Cris at 607-778-6518

Facebook: Jail Ministry Reentry Program

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program The Windor Bible Baptist Church has opened their doors to our reenty program in welcoming our released folks to a new Celebrate Recovery group which meets weekly every Thursday at 7:00 PM

Jail Ministry Facebook Post

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Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program Our Family Literacy Program teaches more than reading skills, it teaches parenting, ESL, communications and reconnects families as inmates read books to their children and a CD and book are mailed to the child to keep and to listen to over and over! We need more volunteers. Here is a link to a story on NPR about a program like ours.

Prison Literacy Program : NPR

www.npr.org

According to the Department of Justice, there are more than 700,000 state and federal prisoners that are parents. A majority of those parents say they've never had a personal visit with their children since they were imprisoned. ...

Article mentioning the Jail Ministry Program

December 24, 2009

Tier churches hail holiday message of peace

Faith invoked to counter grief, loneliness in time of war
By William Moyer


wmoyer@gannett.com

Christmas, and its refrains of peace and goodwill, dawns today on a worldly stage where American troops carry rifles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"No matter what happens around us, we can have a peace in our heart that sustains and strengthens us," said the Rev. Daniel Walton, pastor of the Little White Church in Conklin. "That is what Christmas is all about -- the giving of peace."

Not necessarily a literal peace -- although peace is a prayer of all Christians -- but an inner peace to traverse even a "blue" Christmas, an increasingly acknowledged downside to the glad tidings of the holiday.

The time from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day can accentuate grief, loss or loneliness, according to a local Lutheran pastor.

"It's OK to feel conflicted at the holidays; it's OK to feel sad; it's OK to remember what you've had and lost," said the Rev. Nadine Ridley, co-pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Vestal. "In the midst of that pain, there is hope; there is good."

Ridley said one way to find peace is to express the inner angst of a "blue" Christmas.

She suggested finding a "faith container" -- a trusted friend, professional counselor, pastor or relative -- to talk about the loss rather than pretend everything is all right. In doing so, a grieved person lessens the burden of carrying unexpressed grief, Ridley said.

After worship services on Christmas Eve, which included carols, communion and candlelight, Christians in the Southern Tier awake today to celebrate Christmas, one of the holiest days in Catholic and Protestant churches.

Not all Christians celebrate Christmas today, though.

Hundreds of Orthodox Christians in the Southern Tier will observe the Feast of the Nativity on Jan. 7. Commonly known as Orthodox Christmas, the date for this celebration is set by the older Julian calendar.

Christmas came a day early Thursday for inmates at the Broome County Correctional Facility in Dickinson. They received gift boxes from the jail ministries program of the Broome County Council of Churches.


About 400 inmates, regardless of religious affiliation, received gift bags with playing cards, note cards, stamps, candy and other small items donated by local churches, said the Rev. Joseph Sellepack, executive director of the Broome County Council of Churches. The bags were decorated with Christmas symbols by children in local churches.


"It's just something to let the inmates know we're thinking about them," Sellepack said.

Christmas, in both Eastern and Western churches, emphasizes Christianity's tenets of life, light, peace and goodwill, despite unsettled events making headlines today.

"This message is proclaimed each and every time someone carries on the work of love, grace, mercy and compassion ... such serving does not often make the headlines, but it happens in acts of faithful living every day," according the regional bishops of several denominations with churches in the Southern Tier.

The message was issued by Gladstone B. Adams, of the Episcopal Diocese; Marie Jerge, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Marcus Matthews, of the United Methodist Church; and Robert J. Cunningham, of the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.

"These are difficult, challenging times for so many people, and can be quite frightening ... ," added Bishop Matthew H. Clark, of the Rochester diocese, which includes four Catholic parishes in Tioga County. "It can be so very overwhelming ... We can forget that there is so much more good in the world than bad."

Although the actual day when Jesus was born is unknown, Christmas evolved into a Christian celebration of his birth in the centuries after his death to coincide with secular winter festivals. Christians eventually fixed Dec. 25 as the permanent date for their observance

According to the Association of Religion Data Archives at Pennsylvania State University, roughly 108,200 of Broome County's estimated population of 196,000 residents identify themselves as Christians, including mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and Catholics. In Tioga County, about 18,000 people among the estimated population of 51,000 are listed as Christians.

Operation Safeguard

Operation Safeguard in Binghamton
By WBNG News

Click Here for Video

Many violent situations could have been prevented, had those who noticed warning signs come forward earlier, which is why New York State's Office of Homeland Security created Operation Safeguard.

Multimedia Watch The Video Action News reporter Gabe Osterhout explains how local police and churches are learning how to utilize the program to prevent future violence.

Several groups met at the Broome County Council of Churches office in Binghamton to discuss ways to keep people safe in large groups.

Specifically in church.

But it could also be used for large gathering places like the American Civic Association or Binghamton University.

"If you see warning signs of suspicious activity in regards to problems in and around, particularly today was discussion about houses of worship or your congregations, don't be afraid to pass that information on," says Major Mark Smolinsky of the Broome County Sheriff's Office.

The New York State office of Homeland security's Operation Safeguard supplies a toll free number.

It urges you to call them with any concerns of suspicious activity.

You can give your name confidentially and local law enforcement agencies will check out the situation.

"It's always a case where people Monday morning quarterback issues after the fact and we see warning signs of this or that comes out. This is a proactive approach for preventing things of that nature," Smolinsky says.

There are several warning signs people can look for.

"Strange language, interesting behavior, the way someone's casing a building, some of the questions they are asking," says Rev. Cris Mogenson of the Broome County Council of Churches.

Bottom line, if you see something that looks out of the ordinary to you, call the hotline.

It could prevent the next public tragedy.

In Binghamton, Gabe Osterhout, WBNG-TV Action News.

If you see or hear something suspicious and would like to report it, you can call the New York State Terrorism Hotline at 1-866-SAFE-NY.

That's 1-866-723-3697.

Jail Ministry Facebook Post

Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program This Thursday 11/19 at 7PM we will be conducting a training at the Council for our volunteers entitled "Barriers To Reentry" it is open to all regardless of being a volunteer!

Jail Ministry on Facebook asking for bags to be decorated

Broome County Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program 

We need people to decorate small bags for Christmas. These bags will hold small and simple gifts for inmates at Christmas. Plain white bags can be picked up at the front desk of the Council of Churches at 3 Otseningo St. Binghamton, NY (607-724-9130). Just drop them off when they are decorated. (Please avoid glueing hard objects to the bags as this could be a security risk). This is a great project for a youth group or Sunday School! Thanks! Chaplain Cris Mogenson.

Press Release for Operation Safeguard

OPERATION SAFEGUARD SEMINAR AT BC COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
Binghamton, N.Y., Nov. 12, 2009 . . . . . In an effort to assist the local faith-based community be more prepared against violent episodes in both public facilities and during religious services, three government agencies and a non-profit organization are conducting a Homeland Security program entitled “Operation Safeguard” at 10 a.m., Monday, Dec. 7, at the Broome County Council of Churches.

Spearheading the program are the Council of Churches Jail Ministry Program, the Broome County Office of the Sheriff, the New York State Office of Homeland Security and the New York State Police. The program is designed to assist local congregational leaders and clergy recognize and thwart potential violence in light of an increased number of recent violent episodes at public gatherings, and in particular during religious services.

The Council of Churches office is located at 3 Otseningo St., Binghamton. For directions, additional information, or to RSVP for the meeting on Dec. 7, please call the Council at 724-9130, or email Rev. Cris Mogenson, the Council’s Jail Ministry chaplain, at bcjchaplain@juno.com.

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