The meeting was attended by Presbyterian (PC USA) churches in the northern 2/3 of the state. For those of you who may not know what a Presbytery Meeting is, it is the government organization of the denomination. Each church elects "ruling elders" (Presbyter means "elder") who serve on session and manage the church property as a group. Sometimes deacons are also elected to help them. Each church is part of a presbytery (group of churches) . Groups of Presbyteries form a Synod, All of the Synods make up the General Assembly (national body) of the Presbyterian Church USA. General Assembly meets every 2 years. Presbytery of Arkansas meets three times a year. Each church appoints and sends commissioners which are ruling elders and pastors (pastors are also called teaching elders) to go to the Presbytery meetings and make decisions. Each Presbytery sends commissioners to the General Assembly to make decisions. Make sense? We have a very representative church government similar to Congress. Church leaders make decisions as a body for their church, for their presbytery, and for their denomination.
I want to go over 4 really cool parts of the meeting
1. Mission Co-Workers
Part of the meeting was a 30 minute presentation by Rev. Dr. Paul Matheny and Rev. Dr. Mary Nebelsick telling us about their work since 2001 as mission co-workers in the Philippines through Presbyterian World Mission. Mission Co-workers are like grown up YAVs; adults that give more than a year of service to live and be the presence of God in a long term mission role through the Presbyterian Church. If you visit their website (pcusa.org/paul-matheny-and-mary-nebelsick) or send them money you can get a prayer card with their picture, address and description of thier work. It goes well on your refrigerator as a daily reminder to pray for those doing justice work through the church, and the partners they work with. Don't forget to pray for the justice leaders in our communities here at home Below is their card on our fridge. Mary, Paul, and their daughter Rachel.
 |
| Paul, Mary, and Rachel's card next to a cool picture of Jesus also on our fridge |
The Rev.Dr.s both teach at Union Theological Seminary in Dasmarinas. They prepare students from the Philippines and other nations for leadership in ministry. Also, being Christians in the Philippines they are called to be a voice for the poor and the oppressed. I ate lunch with Mary and Paul and they told some stories about standing up for the poor. The government doesn't like it when the foreigners take the side of the poor, it's embarrassing so that puts Mary and Paul in a good place to make changes. They have to rely heavily on relationships with local citizens who know the political and social climate much better to navigate how to strategically make changes to help the poor. They've witnessed people get murdered for taking a stand and helping the poor as Christians. They've seen a man get kidnapped by the government and a response from the world church community pressured the President of the Philippines to reveal his whereabouts and eventually release him. They've seen the government lock up children and the homeless to get them off the streets so Manila would be cleaner for Pope Francis and President Obama to visit. Here's an article on that with some tough pictures. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2906730/EXCLUSIVE-Children-CAGED-God-Police-seize-orphans-chain-filth-clear-streets-Pope-s-visit-Philippines.html
2. Rachel Shepherd Passed her Ordination Exam!
Rachel Shepheard has been a new pastor at Second Pres (our church) since November. A former Virginian, and Union Theological Seminary (Richmond VA) graduate, she was quizzed at the meeting by five or six commissioners on her Theology, or how she would react as a pastor in certain situations. She was then approved to be ordained and installed as Interim Associate Pastor at Second Presbyterian Church where she's already been filling in. She is a great lady! We love her. She leads our "Tap Theology" and other Young Adult Activities. She's helped me plant trees at Ferncliff, and she preached at the Ash Wednesday Service. I'll point you toward a seminary project of hers I found online. Keep in mind this project is for mature audiences; http://justiceunbound.org/carousel/daughters-of-eve-biblical-women-take-back-the-microphone/
 |
| This is Rachel in front of the Osmanthus shrub at the church |
3.YAADs
Just like General Assembly I attended in June, The Arkansas Presbytery has Young Adult Advisory Delegates (YAADs) The churches send members of their youth group along with commissioners (elders and preachers). On most decisions the YAADs get to vote first. The voting commissioners get to see how the YAAD's voted, the moderator says, "you have been advised" and they can choose to listen to the younger folks or listen to their own conscious. YAAD votes do not count officially but give a voice to the younger church. YAADs study up on everything being voted on just as much if not more than the commissioners. It was cool to see so many passionate young people there to give a voice to how their church could be run.
We heard the most YAAD opinions when the hot buttion topic came up of allowing same-sex marriages in the PCUSA denomination. Three young girls got up and asked questions like "why are gay relationships wrong?" One questioned how do we know that the times when the bible says it is wrong are not just words influenced by their time? How can we tell if it was misinterpreted in translation or added after the original writing?" One asked, "even if it is a sin why are we making this sin such a bigger deal than all the other sins?" I admire these people younger than I to have the courage to ask these things to a room full of white people with grey hair. Way to go YAADs!
4. Commissioner's resolution
At the very end of the meeting, Rev. Marie from First Presbyterian, Little Rock presented a commissioner's resolution asking the body of Arkansas Presbytery to "declare its opposition to Arkansas House Bill 1228, allowing discrimination based on religious conviction, particularly intended to target gay, lesbian, and transgender people as well as others; and against Senate Bill 202, barring localities from passing anti-discrimination laws..." and also ask the Governor to veto SB 202. That passed unanimously so the stated clerk will let the legislature know that as a church body we oppose this "Conscious Protection Act" that could allow businesses to deny service to LGBT folks based on "religious convictions" The main idea here is that our religion, on the books as the same one the legislature is trying to "protect" is about loving your neighbor as yourself, respecting the dignity of every human being, has previously spoken out against prejudice based on race, religion, country of origin, gender, sexuality, etc, and that religion shouldn't be a cloak for discrimination.
Another important part of the meeting was a vote to change the denomination's policy on marriage and particularly same-sex marriage. In June an overture was brought to General Assembly changing the definition of "marriage" to " between a man and a woman" to "between two people" essentially allowing same-sex marriages to be performed by PCUSA churches and clergy. It was sent to all presbyteries to be ratified before it takes effect. It passed in Arkansas Presbytery this weekend and if enough other presbyteries vote in favor of the amendment it will take affect at the next General Assembly in 2016.
I plan to write another article about my experience seeing the marriage policy go through both General Assembly and Arkansas Presbytery.
Who says church government is boring? (maybe I've just been in it too long)
No comments:
Post a Comment