After Words
Being the highly personal account of the February 2008 Pittsburgh Presbytery meeting by the Rev. Dr. Mary Lee Talbot.
Since I missed the call to order and opening prayer of the meeting, I will skip right to the good news shared at the meeting:
And as if that was not enough to keep us going, Judi Slater preached on Jesus encounter with the Samaritan Woman. “We can find many reasons for our divisions and many reasons for disagreements. There could have been a lot of animosity between Jesus and the Samarian woman but Jesus did not dismiss her. He actually sees her and allows her to see the glory of God in him. ‘Can this be the Christ?’ the woman asked.” Judi told two stories about how we must really look at each other in the eye and see the glory of God in each other. And at 4:00 p.m. we had an order of the day and Tony Campolo inspired us with an outline from his new book The Church Enslaved, co-written with David Battle (no relation to the Rev. Karen Battle.) If you missed Tony then you missed an inspiring hour.
Getting back to our agenda, Moderator Kears Pollock nominated Elder Harriette McCray and the Rev. Ann Morris as vice moderators. They and senior vice moderator Don Ewing were installed by former moderator David Green. Stated Clerk Jay Lewis proposed a resolution of thanks to Elder Green for his leadership in his year as moderator and it was passed unanimously.
We noted that the commander of the present Space Shuttle mission is a Presbyterian who grew up in the Bakerstown Church. His name is Stephen Frick. Moderator Pollock offered prayer for the mission.
We seated the Rev. Dr. Andrew Scheule from Union Seminary in Virginia as a corresponding member and greeted the founders of Angel Treats.
The Rev. Dr. Jonnie Monroe brought greetings from historic Grace Presbyterian Church. Grace is celebrating its 140th anniversary and Presbytery first met there 65 years ago. He announced a meeting on February 15 at St. James AME church on Lincoln Avenue for “men and women of faith to declare portions of Pittsburgh holy ground, where lives are not taken foolishly, guns are taken out and there are no open drug markets.”
Elder Carol Hunley, chair of Presbytery council, moved the adoption of the docket and consent motion. There was no new business.
The Presbytery then moved into marathon meeting gear with the presentation and debate on overtures to the General Assembly. On the overture to find a better translation of the Heidelberg Catechism, the Rev. Dr. Andrew Schuele shared part of a paper he had prepared for Presbytery on what the problems are with the present translation. The Rev. Dr. John Wilson and the Rev. Dr. Ulrich Mauser both provided responses. After debate the Presbytery voted 128-94 to concur with the overture and send it to General Assembly.
On the overture to either fund both pro choice and pro life groups or neither at the General Assembly level the presbytery voted by voice to send the overture on to General Assembly.
For the overture requiring the Board of Pensions to provide a report on how the funds used by those requesting relief of conscience to funding abortions and to provide easily obtainable information for those churches and pastors who would like to have relief of conscience, the Presbytery voted by voice to send it to General Assembly.
For the overture that the Board of Pensions cease paying routinely for abortions the presbytery rejected the overture 112 to 93.
On the overture to delay the implementation of the new Form of Government, the Presbytery voted 144 to 33 to send it on to General Assembly.
After the presentation on Angel Treats and listening to Tony Campolo, we returned to overtures. The overture on Racial Justice was deferred until April but Dr. Jonnie Monroe proposed that a letter be sent to the Mayor of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Executive and the Chief of Police asking them to do all they can to stop the flow of guns and drugs into the city and make it truly “the most livable city for all people.” Dr. Monroe and the Stated Clerk will draft the letter.
The final overture that Presbytery took up was on Freedom of Conscience within Bounds. We voted 89 to 53 to send it to General Assembly.
Elder Carol Hunley highlighted the council report noting that the position description for the Interim Pastor to Presbytery is available and they hope to bring a candidate to the April Meeting.
The Rev. Cynthia Jackson was nominated chair of the Committee on Representation and Elder Nancy Clifton was nominated head of nominations. We approved the routine schedule for the Administrative Commission on Transformation.
The Overture from Lebanon Church on per capita was defeated 60 to 38.
Senior Vice Moderator Don Ewing took the chair for the rest of the meeting.
We received an overture on Single Payer Health Care for a first reading.
Most of the Pastor to Presbytery report is in the good news at the beginning of this report but the Rev. Dr. Doug Portz added that an agreement with Memorial Park Church is in process and that an administrative commission is working with the church. “This is an agreement in principle and a lot of work still needs to be done.” Dr. Portz recommended two DVDS: “Together in Ministry and Mission” and “Theology and Worship.” He also recommended a paper on World Mission that was on the table at registration.
Sean Hall was received as a candidate. His father is also a candidate.
The Committee on Ministry report was all in the consent agenda.
The Rev. Eric Dennis, Associate Stated Clerk gave the enrollment report. There were 136 ministers and 122 elders for a total attendance of 258 commissioners. There were 74 churches represented and 25 visitors.
After thanks to Grace Church for its hospitality and voting to adjourn, Vice Moderator Don Ewing closed the meeting in prayer and for those who were left it was about 6:50 p.m. when we finished.
See you in April!
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