After Words
Being a highly personal account of meeting of Pittsburgh Presbytery on October 18, 2007.
Moderator David Green opened the meeting with prayer. In anticipation of the business to take place later he called our attention to the page in the packet that outlined who could vote and speak on an issue.
Stated Clerk Jay Lewis announced a quorum and we moved into worship.
Our worship service was the annual remembrance service for ministers and elders who have died.
Rev. Doug Portz, our acting Pastor to Presbytery, preached. His text was 2 Corinthians 8: 16-24. “It is broken, the whole system is broken. We are sending fewer and fewer missionaries. We can’t do church the same old, same old. What happened to our partners in mission? We have a disconnect between the people in the pews and the people in the field,” he began. These were the words of presbytery staff in Louisville meeting to discuss how to create healthy congregations and healthy presbyteries.
“We need less regulating and more relationship, not top down, more flexible and nimble. We need to start with prayer to find passionate people,” he continued. “It was refreshing to me that ‘they get it’ and that there was an urgency to find a way forward.”
Portz called attention to Leonard Sweet’s “unlearning organization.” “We are getting back to basics and to a mission mold that has been around for 2000 years.” First we need people of integrity, sound judgment faithfulness and passion to lead our congregations. “What concern has God laid on your heart? What about your faith gets you out of bed in the morning?”
Second, ministry is personal and we want more one to one relationships with our missionaries. Portz relayed the story of the missionaries killed in Ecuador in the 1960s and how his church’s relationship with one, Nate Saint, was a major influence in his faith life. “We need to throw off the policies that choke us unto death and challenge our congregations to link up one to one with a missionary.”
Third, we need to share material support. Paul tells the Corinthians to give for their own spiritual welfare; they will grow as they give. “God is not a faceless God but the one who sent his Son to sit at table with us. New rules are being written for a new day.”
During the offering, statistics about hunger in Allegheny County was displayed on the screen. One in five (64,000) City of Pittsburgh residents are hungry and one in nine (140,000) Allegheny county residents experiences hunger. Heinz Field seats 65,000 people so think of it as filling that stadium 4 times.
Vice Moderator Kears Pollock took the chair after worship. Missionary Susie Frerichs, from Mexico, presented a brief summary of her work. The Rev. Carmen Cox Harwell brought greetings from our host church, Mt. Hope.
The celebration of 200 Years of Black Presbyterianism was given over to a presentation on the life and work of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. Rev. Maxine Jenkins introduced the Rev. Daisy Belle Thomas Quinney who portrayed Dr. Bethune. “Thank you for what you have been doing to end racism. We must work for interracial understanding.” An educator, founder of schools, friend of the Roosevelts, delegate to the first United Nations and the recipient of eight honorary doctorates, she said “Only a great God of love could have raised me out of poverty. The challenge for racial dignity is as strong as when I started. For those who come behind let me give you my Last Will:
I leave you love
I leave you hope
I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in each other
I leave you the thirst for education
I leave you faith
I leave you racial dignity
I leave you the desire to live in racial harmony
I leave you the responsibility to young people.”
Called the First Lady for racial dignity who carries an iron first in white gloves, she came from the same hometown, Maysville, South Carolina as the Reverends Samuel George and Johnnie Monroe.
The Rev. Stuart Broberg brought the docket forward for approval and one item was removed from the consent docket. There was no new business. In the Report from council, Rev. Broberg noted that any church seeking to leave the Presbytery through the negotiated process must alert Presbytery before December 31, 2007. The process would be to hold a congregational meeting and then notify Pastor to Presbytery Doug Portz who would talk with the discussion group and the negotiation process could begin.
The Item removed from the consent docket was the refinancing of loans to the Urban Mountain Gathering Place through the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program. Presbytery gave its approval.
Elder Carol Hunley presented the first reading of the 2008 budget. She noted that challenge she had presented to match the $10,000 given for the Lazarus fund had been 60% met (about $6,000). The budget for 2008 is balanced, there is no increase in per capita, in fact there is a decrease, they expect a 4.4% in revenues but an additional $75,000 will be given by the Presbytery Foundation. Rev. Doug Portz “breathed life” into the numbers saying there was an $8,000 decrease in the personnel budget, the Mission Agencies had received the $200,000 they asked for and that per capita was down 15 cents from last year to $21.44.
“People look at us as a non-profit agency and people want to know what ‘value added ministry we provide. We have Camp Crestfield which served 390 children and had 15 staff from our churches. Their service is expanding. This year we had 11 days camps in our churches and we will expand that in 2008. We will give out 17 enhancement grants in 2008. Our resource center will take a more pro active stance. Our Transformation Funds will cover the ACTS Initiative and the Days Camps. We have Urban Interns at Hazelwood and Bethesda. Our Malawi partnership is strong. We will have a Black History celebration in February 2008 where Tony Campolo will speak. We are providing pastoral care and our staff is excellent and faith-filled. Through the efforts of the Vera White and New Church Development, we have a Vietnamese Congregation ready to call its first pastor.” Doug also gave credit to the rest of our marvelous and dedicated staff for their work, even Jay Lewis, our “friendly” Stated Clerk. (Ok, you had to be there to see the photos.)
David Green returned to chair the rest of the meeting. The next item was the vote to allow Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church to leave this presbytery and our denomination for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Moderator Green reminded us that this was a negotiated settlement and that the Presbytery could vote yes or no on the whole agreement but the terms were not amendable. We then moved into 20 minutes of debate.
The Rev. Dirk Lesnett spoke for the negotiated settlement team and urged that the agreement be approved. “This agreement was negotiated in good faith, it is a good witness to Christ, and we stay out of the civil courts. Let us appreciate the pain on all sides and the good spirit of the discussion we had at the September Presbytery Meeting.
Dr. Andrew Purves spoke against the agreement. “Has Jesus Christ abandoned the Presbyterian Church USA? By leaving the PC(USA) they are saying that Christ’s presence is not enough. This is theological separation and complicity in this kind of separation is unfaith and cannot be tolerated.”
Elder Nancy Clifton was saddened that Beverly Heights had not contributed to the per capita over the past 10 years. ‘Our eagerness to help kept us from doing other service. Grace could be shown if they contributed their fair share.”
The Rev. Pat Mason was not going to vote for or against. “As the church, we are to be a light to the whole world. Jesus called us to the whole world and we are mistaken if we think we can move into the light without taking our darkness with us. Even if we move we carry our sin with us.”
Elder Hon Behnke asked “Are we as a Presbytery sending a message that we are more concerned about money than worship?”
Elder and Commissioned Lay Pastor Ken Love said he could not vote to divide the body of Christ.
Rev. George Hunter asked what the pastor’s standing would be with the Board of Pensions if they congregation left. Stated Clerk Jay Lewis noted that if a pastor is vested in the BOP then the pension would be paid out as normal.
Elder Ed Matco asked what the consequences would be if the vote was no. The answer was that we would be back to ground zero. Beverly Heights had followed the proper proceedure and asked to be dismissed. If the vote was no then they would not be dismissed.
Rev. Dan Merry said that it was time to vote and called for the question. Yours truly seconded that motion but Dan was ruled out of order (no, this was not a Dan Merry joke).
Elder and former Moderator Nancy Cochran pleaded for people to vote yes.
Elder Vicki Cleaver was going to vote no. “Even thought this was negotiated in good faith, it is a slap in the face to our congregations that they have not paid their per capita.”
Questions were raised about the 20 minute rule for debate (its in the Presbytery manual) and why there two color ballots – green for elders and pink for ministers. We were told this was not meant to collate statistics of any form of identification but to be sure that only those who could properly vote would receive ballots. We had a prayer after we started to vote and then the ecclesiastical committee counted the votes. The final vote was 174 yes, 73 no and 2 abstentions. Doug Portz offered pray when this was announced.
In the Pastor to Presbytery’s report we heard more from Susan Frerichs about her mission work in Mexico. Sharon Stewart noted the Leadership Training taking place on November 10 at Beulah Presbyterian Church from 8:30-1:30. There will be a pastor’s retreat at Crestfield on November 15 from 9-3. Please register soon for both events. Doug Portz promised opportunities for discussion of the theological issues in front of the church. He also urged us to look at the Form of Government (FOG) report. He noted many changes including talking about councils not governing bodies, ruling elders and teaching elders, flexibility to forge ministry, and interims will be able to become installed pastors with a supermajority vote at Presbytery, we will have no more inactive members but affiliate members.
Elder Susan Dobbins brought the nominating committee report. The committee nominated the Rev. Lowell Meek for the position of Senior Vice Moderator in 2008. Dan Merry nominated Rev. Donald Ewing from the floor. Balloting will take place in December.
We had a great treat and talked with the Rev. Kay Day in Malawi. “Thank you for making this year possible, for me to have one of the most incredible years of my life.” She will be returning on December 15. She asked for prayers for Zomba Theological College which had to close due to lack of funds and tensions with the church in Malawi.
In the Stated Clerk’s report we voted for an administrative commission to close the Sheridan Community Church. Ministers include Roger Howard, Eric Dennis, and David Carver. Elders include Sally Huber Lewis, Alfreda Overton, Templeton Smith, Jr., and Barbara Prevost.
Rev. James Tinnemeyer brought four candidates to move from inquirer to candidate: Christopher Graham Ford, Janice Holmes, Laura Strauss and Meredith Weaver Yuckman. Todd Leach was presented for oral trials and passed. He will be the new Associate pastor for Mission and Urban Ministry at Shadyside Presbyterian Church.
Elder Earl Wooding brought forward two pastors in new calls: Tim Martin to be the designated Pastor of Hampton Presbyterian Church and Tom Moore as pastor at Emsworth Presbyterian church.
Don Dilley presented a plan for pastor to worship together in November by conference call. The calls will take place at Noon on each Wednesday in November.
The Rev. Debra Evanovich gave the enrollment report. There were 131 ministers and 129 elders for a total of 260. 77 churches were represented by at least one elder and there were 25 visitors.
We gave $1,514.66 to the Hunger Offering.
Being 20 minutes ahead of the docket Moderator Green offered a resolution of thanks and Rev. Carmen Cox Harwell closed the meeting with prayer.
Next meeting is December 6 at First Presbyterian Church, Tarentum. (on a personal note my great grandfather’s house used to stand in what is now a vacant lot across 10th Avenue from the church and I remember Christmas there as one of my first memories.)
Respectfully submitted,
Rev. Mary Lee Talbot, Ph.D.
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