The RCA's Board of Benefits Services Needs Your Help!

We recently received a request from the Board of Benefits Services. They'd like help in finding a new board member with particular gifts and experiences. Can you help? Read down for more information.

I'll also take this opportunity to remind you that there are many opportunities to serve on the RCA's many boards and commissions. If you believe you may be called to serve in this way, you are encouraged to fill out a profile on RCA.org, so the nominations commission can learn of your interest and seek compatible places for you to share your gifts and experiences. --Synod Ministries Coordinator, Abby Norton-Levering

The Board of Benefits Services (BOBS) is an agency of the General Synod. As such, the General Synod has delegated BOBS  to manage and administer the retirement and insurance programs required by the Reformed Church in America Book of Church Order (BCO). Led by Executive Director, Kelly Oliveira, BOBS serves active and retired RCA ordained Ministers of Word and Sacrament, Commissioned Pastors, and other lay employees serving in the Reformed Church in America as well as their dependents. BOBS has four primary areas of service: Retirement plan administration, Life and Long Term Disability insurances, Retiree Chaplains and financial assistance programs, and retirement education.

We currently have one vacancy and are seeking an individual who has professional experience as a financial advisor, an investment consultant, in retirement services or related work. Depending on the experience, the board may ask this individual to also serve on the Investment Advisory Committee which meets twice per year (recently moving from in person to zoom meetings). 

The board meets twice per year (March and October). Typically the fall meeting is in Grand Rapids, MI and the spring meeting is in Florida. The board gathers for a casual dinner the evening before the business meeting which is done by 3:30 p.m. the next afternoon. Board members can serve up to two - three year terms that begin July 1. 

If anyone is interested, they can contact Kelly Oliveira (koliveira@rca.org) for more information or complete a profile on the RCA website: https://www.rca.org/about/government/general-synod/nominations/

To learn more about the work of the Board of Benefits Services, review our webpage: https://www.rca.org/benefits/

A Reflection on Sanctuary and a Call to Organize

by Sherri Meyer-Veen, co-pastor of the Niskayuna Reformed Church and Albany Synod Minister for Renewal

This I will never forget:  the faces of two young men as they pleaded for help from the church I was serving. A few years earlier, this congregation had baptized them and received them as members.  They had lived nearly their entire lives in the United States, having been brought to this country as very young children by extended family who were seeking a better life for them. They were permitted to attend public school. Now they were nearing their high school graduation.

Once these two young men became “undocumented adults,” they experienced how limited their options were. Their family had already spent what extra money they had on seeking a legal pathway to citizenship, but these attempts were unsuccessful.  On their behalf, we reached out to immigration lawyers, but the lawyers offered little hope or help. The rules had changed, we were told. Currently, there was no legal pathway to citizenship for them.  

I was baffled. The advice the lawyers gave the church was to “wait” for a change in administration, and then try again.  This was disconcerting and disillusioning.  How could it be that we could do nothing for them? 

The young men sought to find work in our community. However, the local business owners responded that they were struggling to keep their small businesses afloat, so they could not take the risk of hiring undocumented workers. The young men ended up moving from our small town to the city, to expand their array of options for their futures.

Unfortunately, we lost touch.  Nevertheless, their story and their plea left a lasting impact. My learning about our complicated immigration system remains relevant.  Over the last several administrations, bi-partisan immigration reform efforts have failed. Policies and procedures have grown increasingly complicated for undocumented peoples.  More refugees are seeking asylum throughout the world than at any other time in recorded history.

At the same time, the United States has become increasingly hostile towards refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.  The dominant rhetoric speaks not out of a spirit of welcome, grace and curiosity, but instead seeks to criminalize being undocumented.      

Are you concerned about immigrants, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable peoples? Want to get more involved? Perhaps your church is already doing work on refugee resettlement and you're looking for partners. Let’s create a network of those interested and find ways we can assist. Fill out this quick form to let us know of your interest.

I have recently been in touch with the Saratoga Immigration Coalition, the Columbia Sanctuary Movement, a local church who has actively participated in the sanctuary movement, our own missionary for refugee coordination JJ Tenclay, and Rev. Liz Estes, author of Global Grace Café.   I have found a wealth of resources already available for education online about the many possibilities related to assisting, educating, and advocating, including resources for learning more about providing or assisting in “sanctuary.”      

Some congregations in our sister judicatory, Albany Presbytery, have been working with a national refugee resettlement organization called Welcome Corps. They are urgently looking for additional churches to partner with them, in sponsoring the rest of an extended Afghan family still living in refugee camps. Their prayer is that the family can be reunited in the Capital Region before the window of opportunity closes. If your church would like to help, contact me for more information.

JJ Tenclay, RCA Missionary & Refugee Ministries Coordinator is a wonderful resource for congregations in Albany Synod. She'd love to hear from you! She suggests five ways to care for people in need of refuge:  

1. Pray!  Much prayer is needed for vulnerable peoples and their situations, for our faith communities to see them and to wisely discern how to come alongside in God’s love, and for our world and this refugee crisis!  

2. Advocate and Educate!  There is always more to learn and now is the time to make our voices heard!  Share your concerns with your elected officials.  Learn how our laws and policies have changed.  Learn peoples’ stories.  Learn about all of the various options for how faith communities can help.  Encourage others in your congregation to learn more and step into advocacy too. 

3. Welcome.  Be a welcoming presence with all peoples, especially vulnerable peoples.  Be the person and the community with whom people can share their sensitive information and needs.  Help create a true place of hospitality and welcome.

4. Partner.  Partner with others who also care about these issues.  Create and join networks within your congregation, classis, regional synod, and beyond.  

5. Give.  Give of your time, talents and resources.  Many agencies are creating or seeking to add to emergency funds right now, anticipating what is coming.  JJ has a fund for church grants for churches in Italy helping with refugee resettlement, a fund to assist a Lebanese pastor who is assisting refugees, and other emergency funds, one of which recently helped get supplies into Gaza.  There are lots of opportunities! Find the one that is right for you.  

Do you want to learn more?  Here are some great places to look:

New York Immigration Coalition

Presbyterian Church USA Office of Immigration Issues:  Many resources, including for discerning involvement with providing sanctuary.

Interfaith Immigration Coalition

Church World Service:  Top 5 Ways to Take Action in Support of Refugees…

2025 Worship Festival