Register for the 2009 Annual Tentmaking Conference:Doing Ministry With Muddy Feet will be held Oct. 30-Nov. 1, at the Center for Development in MinistryUniversity of Saint Mary’s of the Lake, 1000 East Maple Ave., Mundelein, Ill. Conference leaders include: Lea McCloud, MATS, President of Alternative Gifts International; Fr. Frantz Cole, Development Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and Priest-in-Charge of multiple parishes; Rev. Dr. Linda Wygant, Planter/Founder of Grace Seeds Ministry. Sponsored by the Association of Presbyterian Tentmakers (APT). A tentmaker-minister is one who divides the week’s working hours between two or more positions, one in service as a minister of the Word and Sacrament and the other in a secular position where one also celebrates the presence of God and shares the Good News there. Registration costs start at $75-$375. For details, go to: www.pcusatentmakers.org .

A conference for pastors and all church members interested in having a thriving church. An opportunity to be in dialogue with church leaders who are on the cutting edge of today’s church. Keynote Speakers: Bruce Reyes-Chow, moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA); J. Andrew Dearman, has traveled extensively in the Middle East and is an experienced archaeological researcher; Carol Howard Merritt, author of Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation. Worship Leaders: Richard and Trish Bruxvoort Colligan, known throughout North America for their retreats and concerts which explore the depths of spiritual life through music, worship and theology. Registration Cost: $75.00 (Limited to 125 participants) Place: Presbyterian Clearwater Forest, Deerwood, Minnesota. More information will be coming.

Revitalize Worship at Your Church! Looking for opportunities to renew or revitalize the worship life of your congregation? Consider one of these two events at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in New Brighton:

Bringing Global Music into Worship
Thursdays, Oct. 22, 29; Nov. 5, 12, 19, 7:00-9:00 pm
Messiah United Methodist Church in Plymouth, Minn.
 
Please follow this link for course and instructor descriptions.
Fee: $175.00, Click here to register
Questions:rflesner@unitedseminary.edu or 651.255.6138

Creating Significant Worship through Design and Collaborative Planning
Saturday, Nov. 14, 9:00 AM-3:00 PM
Steckel Learning Center at United Theological Seminary
 
Please follow this link for course and instructor descriptions.

Group Fee: $190.00 for teams of 3-5(lunch included)
Individual Fee: $65.00 (lunch included), Click to register
Questions:rflesner@unitedseminary.edu or 651.255.6138

We would especially like to hear from those under the age of 40. At this present time, the majority of respondents are between the ages of 50-70. Since the church must always be looking forward, we need to know what the younger generations are looking for in their communication needs from the Presbytery.

Here is a link to the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zmZtCs8bk_2fHMmP1pj0Iv7A_3d_3d

Thanks for your participation!

Job Support Groups at Christ Presbyterian:  Christ Presbyterian in Edina offers the following groups to help those in transition:

• CHRIST IN CAREER SUPPORT GROUP:Meets first and third Saturdays of the month from 8:30-10:30AM in Room 316

Contact: Jack Baloga at 952.944.5194

*A ministry of Christ Presbyterian Church

• INDIVIDUAL MENTORING/COACHING*

Contact the CPC Lay Care office at 952.920.8515

*A ministry of Christ Presbyterian Church

• MINNEAPOLIS JOB SUPPORT WORKSHOP

Meets every Tuesday at 6:30PM

Contact: John Wetzel at john.wetzel@right.com

Visit www.mjsw.org

• WOMEN’S NETWORKING GROUP

Meets second Tuesday of the month at 6:30PM in the Parlor

Contact: John Wetzel at john.wetzel@right.com

Visit www.mjsw.org

Job Support Group at Lake Nokomis: The South Minneapolis Job Networking Group meets at Lake Nokomis Presbyterian on Fridays at 9am for support, resources and networking.  For more information, please contact the congregation at (612) 721-4463.

Boundaries Training Available: This training is offered on three different dates in three different regions of Minnesota. All sessions are from 8:30am to 4:30pm. Lunch and materials are included.

• Thursday, October 8th 2009 – Fergus Falls, MN
• Thursday, October 22nd 2009 – Hinckley, MN
• Thursday, November 5th 2009 – Lakeville, MN

For more information or to register contact Aundrea Billings at aundrea.billings@mnchurches.org  or 612-230-3236 or visit www.mnchurches.org .

Important News about the Bible Content Exam – The PC(USA)’s Bible Content Examination will now be administered ONLINE ONLY. The online Bible Content Examination is a proctored examination administered at seminary testing sites. Test takers will need a computer with internet access in order to take this examination. The examination will be available in English, Korean and Spanish.  The exam will be offered twice each year beginning October 2, 2009. Applicants must first read the instructions and explanatory material before visiting the new site  (www.pcusa.org/exams/bible.htm)

which allows for online registration and payment for the exam.

Synod Communicator Event Set for September: Communicators, and anyone else who might want to attend, are being invited to the second Synod-wide Communicators Conference Wednesday through Friday, Sept. 2-4, at the Hilton Garden Inn, Eagan, Minn. Sarah Moore-Nokes, associate executive presbyter in Winnebago Presbytery, will lead the conference’s first session Wednesday evening on Google Tools. Attendees are asked, if possible, to bring their own laptop computer. Shane Whisler, communications director in the Synod of the Sun, will provide details about working with Presbyterian Neighbor News on Thursday morning, and Bethany Furkin will also address the conference about the Presbyterian News Service during that time. There is also a possibility that the executive director for the Committee on Local Arrangements for the 2010 General Assembly will be on hand before Thursday’s lunch. Full registration is $100 and includes all sessions, accommodations, opening dinner, two breakfasts and a lunch. For those who do not need accommodations, registration is $40 for all sessions. Registration is easy, simply send an email to Duane Sweep, associate for communications at the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, at dsweep@lakesandprairies.org . The email should include name and position. The registration fee can be mailed to Duane Sweep, Synod of Lakes and Prairies, 2115 Cliff Drive, Eagan, MN 55122.

A Conversation on the Future of Faith Communities: Saturday, September 19th, 2009, 9am – 3pm, Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church, 1620 East 46th Street, Minneapolis MN 55407.  Does the church have anything to say anymore to the big questions in people’s lives? if so, what?  How can the church be engaged with the questions: What is a lifetime? Why do we live it?  We will learn about the loss of identity and loss of belonging that characterize so much of life today, and explore how the church might imagine hope and community with and alongside people.  We’ll talk about how the church can wrestle with questions, enter into suffering, and speak of hope in reality.  We will hear from Andy Root (from his forthcoming book, “The Promise of Despair: The Way of the Cross as the Way of the Church”), and also get into some good theological conversation with one another – from many different churches and perspectives.  
 
This is for church leaders, and for regular folks: it is a day of theological conversation for everyone.

 Registration Including Lunch: $20 (Lunch by Pepito’s)Registration is limited. To register, call Jan at 612-721-4463. Download a flyer at www.ptcaweb.org/News/Root%20Event%20Flyer-4.pdf .

Dr. Andy Root is a theologian and professor of Youth & Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, St. Paul and the author of Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, Relationships Unfiltered, and the forthcoming The Promise of Despair: The Way of the Cross as the Way of the Church.

Co-hosted by Randolph Heights Presbyterian Church, Edgcumbe Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, and Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church.

Workshop on Mental Illness:  The Disability Concerns Task Force is sponsoring a workshop called, Mental Illness: A Challenge to our Churches, September 19, from 9AM to Noon at Presbyterian Church of the Way in Shoreview.  This workshop is open to Parish visitors, pastors, family members of persons who live with mental illness, deacons, elders, anyone who wants to understand mental illness and cares about ministry with the one in five who live with mental illness.  To register, find more information and for childcare, please contact Rev. Bebe Baldwin at randbonmarquette@hotmail.com  .

Prayer at the Fair: You don’t have to miss church to attend the Minnesota State Fair. Once again the Minnesota Council of Churches presents Prayer at the Fair, an ecumenical service of thanksgiving and praise for God’s creation on the Sunday mornings of the Fair. The Minnesota State Fair is a celebration of abundance.

Each year more than a million people come to partake in all that has been created for us – from the miracle of new life in the birthing barn to the silliness of deep fried candy bars on a stick. Join Leslie Ball, Liturgist and Fair Fanatic for a morning of readings, prayer, and choral singing.

Prayer at the Fair takes place at the Bandshell on Sundays, August 30th and September 6 from 9:15 – 9:45am. We even have bulletins on a stick!

Academy of Vital Christianity: This fall, the Academy for Vital Christianity is offering classes in churches in the metro area as well as Alexandria, Duluth, Mankato, Rochester, and eastern North Dakota. Students will have the opportunity to learn from United’s outstanding and dedicated faculty members in classes that will meet for a total of 10 classroom hours in a variety of convenient configurations. For a description of courses or to register, please go to http://unitedseminary.edu/CommunityPrograms/academy.asp .

Spirituality Event at St. Thomas, St. John’s: The Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning presents:

Terry Gips on Religion and Sustainability
How Caring for Creation Benefits Our Spiritual Life, Finances, Business, Community, and Planet

Wednesday, September 9, 8:00 p.m.
Stephen B. Humphrey Theater
Saint John’s University, Collegeville
 
Tuesday, September 29, 7:30 p.m.
O’Shaughnessy Educational Center Auditorium
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul

The events are free and open to the public.  For more information, please go to the St. Thomas website at www.stthomas.edu/jpc/calendar/default.html .

Scottish Heritage Festival: 11am-5pm, September 12, First Presbyterian, Hudson, WI.  Bake Sale, Highlight Games, Scottish Foods and more.  For more info, go to First Hudson’s website at www.fpchudson.com.

“unChristian” Event at Bethel: Christianity has an image problem. Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest Barna Group report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like “hypocritical,” “insensitive,” and “judgmental,” young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of . . . unChristian.

Find out why these negative perceptions exist, learn how to reverse them in a Christ-like manner, and discover practical examples of how Christians can positively contribute to culture. Enjoy this interactive seminar with an extended Q & A time.

The guest speaker for the event is Gabe Lyons, a coauthor of unchristian.  The event takes place Friday October 9 from 10am-3:30pm.  To register, please go to bethel.edu/church-ministries.  To find out more, please email church-ministries@bethel.edu  or by phone at 651-638-6301.

Children’s Sabbath: October 16-18, 2009. This year’s theme, Create Change for Children Today: Bring Hope and a Better Tomorrow focuses on children in poverty, children’s health care, and the pipeline to prison.  In this time of economic hardship, it is more important than ever to insure that our children do not fall through the cracks. Children’s Sabbath is a great way to get your congregation aware of and involved in children’s issues. Join congregations across the country that will be participating in the National Observation of Children’s Sabbath. See the Joint Religious Legislative Council (JRLC) website (http://jrlc.org ) for more information about Children’s Sabbath and to find stories from congregations who have participated in the past.

Ministering to the Missing Generation: October 30, 2009 at United Seminary in New Brighton. An all day event featuring the Rev. Carol Howard Merritt, a Presbyterian pastor and the author of Tribal Church and co-host of the God Complex with Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow.  The cost is free to authorized members of the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ and $55 for all other attendees.  There is also $7 charge for lunch.  To register, please email Renee Flesner at mailto:rflesner@unitedseminary.edu  or by phone at 651‐255‐6138.

Spiritual Vitality in Turbulent Times - Personal and Corporate Practices – is the theme of the upcoming Minnesota Area Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation.  The Academy will be held November 8-13, 2009 at Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo, MN.

The focus on corporate practices will be taught by Don Saliers, who was the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia until his retirement in 2007. Don received his B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University, and both his B.D. (Bachelor of Divinity) and his Ph.D. from Yale University.  An accomplished musician, theologian, and scholar of liturgics, Don is the author of numerous books on the relationship between theology and worship practices. He recently co-authored A Song to Sing, a Life to Live with his daughter Emily Saliers, a member of the Indigo Girls. 

The focus on personal practices will be led by Kathryn Damiano.  Kathryn is a Quaker who brings over 20 years of experience as a spiritual director to her ministry.  She has a Master of Divinity, a Master of Arts in counseling psychology, and a Ph.D. in spiritual psychology. 

The Academy for Spiritual Formation is open to laity and clergy.  The total cost is either $575 for a single room or $525 for a double.  This includes linens, private bath, meals and tuition.  To receive a brochure with additional information about the Academy, please email Deb DeMeester, Retreat Leader, at demeesterd@aol.com.  To register, click on “Events Registration” at http://www.minnesotaumc.org/ .  The Academy is co-sponsored by The Upper Room and the MN Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Macalester LEEDs the Way :  When Macalester College decided to invest in a new home for the Institute for Global Citizenship (IGC), a program to educate and engage students to be global citizen-leaders, college leaders knew that it was critical that the building itself be designed and constructed in ways that demonstrate global leadership.

Reflecting that commitment, Markim Hall is the college’s first, and only the second higher education facility in the state, to be built with the goal of obtaining the LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It is also the first building in St. Paul to be built to these standards.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. Platinum is the highest level of certification. Only 12 college campus buildings in the United States have earned platinum-level certification.

Markim Hall will be officially dedicated following a campus-wide convocation Oct. 1. The $7.5 million, 17,000 square foot facility houses the Institute for Global Citizenship, civic engagement, study abroad and international programs, faculty and staff offices, meeting rooms, and an open atrium for campus events. Donors funded the entire project.

-Compiled by Beth Furkin, Presbyterian News Service

ELCA Assembly Leader Asks Members to Respect Each Other, Allow Time:  In final comments to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, pledged to the voting members “to speak well of you and of this church, and I ask you to do the same.”
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, met here Aug. 17-23 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. About 2,000 people participated, including 1,045 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly was “God’s work. Our hands.”
     During the week, the voting members adopted, following considerable debate, proposals to direct that changes be made to the ELCA’s ministry policies to make it possible for people in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.
     Hanson, who presided at the assembly, said, “One way I will speak well of you is not to use the word ‘fear’ to describe those who oppose the actions that prevailed in many of our discussions.  It’s not helpful to our life together. It’s not respectful of deeply held convictions shaped by theology and Scripture and faith.”
     “I am committed to the ELCA continuing to be a church body where people feel safe to teach, to preach, to lead and to serve in ways that they believe are consistent with the vows one takes in ordination and the promises one makes in the affirmation of Baptism,” he told voting members.
     The church needs to be a safe place for “rich theological conversation, biblical inquiry and faith expressions and explorations,” a quality of the Lutheran Church for 500 years,” he said. Hanson said the steps of implementing the actions of the assembly will take time.  “My prayer and my plea is that we take that time together rather than separately,” he said.
     Speaking to members who opposed the church’s decisions on ministry policies, Hanson requested that, if they are wondering about their place in the ELCA, “let us be part of that discernment.”
     “Take time with your decision.  Step back and understand the magnitude of the decision if you choose to leave, because we will be diminished by your absence,” he said, adding that the capacity for the ELCA to do its work will also be diminished.
     The Good News of Jesus Christ “is too good to squander with internal conflicts that will drain our energies when our capacity is to bring the Good News to the world so that all might know Jesus,” Hanson continued.
     He concluded by thanking the voting members for the week-long assembly, noting that “it’s been a challenge, it’s been a joy.”
     David D. Swartling, ELCA secretary, announced that the 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will be held at the Marriott World Center, Orlando, Fla., Aug. 14-22, 2011.

-ELCA News Service

Christian Vocation Sunday: God’s call is more than a job – daily service in the world through our jobs, talents and interests is a cornerstone of our lives as Christians. The programmatic emphasis for the Sunday before Labor Day – September 6 – is appropriately, Christian Vocation Sunday.

Cultivate a culture of call in your own congregation by claiming our theological perspective of the priesthood of all believers. Find ways of including this emphasis on call in your congregation’s worship and activities. Get help with resources from the office of Christian Vocation, including a call to worship, dramatic reading and a downloadable bulletin insert by going to www.pcusa.org/christianvocation/christianvocationsunday.htm .

New Youth Director at Church of the Apostles:  Presbyterian Church of the Apostles in Burnsville has hired Jill Carlson as their new Youth Director. Carlson lives in Burnsville with her husband, Kevin.  A life-long resident of the South Metro, she has been involved in Special Olympics, supporting her brother by joining him on his bowling and softball teams. 

In summarizing her past youth work, she said her emphases are on “service, social and spiritual work for all who seek enrichment.”

She continues, “I think my best qualities include my willingness to take risks and try new things, my flexible personality and my diligent skill to pay attention to the details. I also am capable of baking a really great brownie.”

Church of All Nations Heads to South Africa: Jin Kim, pastor  of Church of All Nations in Columbia Heights,  along with  Pastor David Mwihia, Immigrant Ministries Pastor at the church  will lead the congregation’s 7 full-time pastoral interns, plus Risley and Renisha Prakasim, natives of South Africa, plus Pastor Joo Kim of Knox Pres in St. Paul, a recent graduate of CAN’s internship program. The 12 member team will reconnect with and deepen the relationships established with churches in South Africa in 2006. The church website notes this experience will be a life changing moment for the future leaders of the church. “This is the kind of critical learning and missional engagement that will be formative for these future pastors. We hope to bring back what we learn in the historic cities of Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg, Durban, and Cape Town to further equip Church of All Nations in its ministry of reconciliation in the Twin Cities.”

Randolph Heights Helps Epilepsy Foundation: Since, June a bin has been located in the corner of the St. Paul congregation’s parking lot.  The bin is from the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota, where people can donate used clothing and shoes to help the charity. “Over the past year, over 21,300 pounds of goods have been donated through our bin! That makes the bin we host one of the highest volume donation sites in the city!” said Pastor Matthew Robbins-Ghormley at the congregation’s blog. 

He continues: “The donations given go to support the Epilepsy Foundation in their mission to improve the quality of life of those affected by seizures, including sponsoring young people to go to EF’s Camp Oz every summer. Thanks to so many neighbors and friends of Randolph Heights who have participated in this great partnership for the common good!”

The donation bin is located at the corner of Hamline and James in St. Paul.

Arlington Hills Dedicates New Patio:  A new patio facing Lake Phalen was dedicated at the eastside St. Paul congregation on June 26.  The patio was the Eagle Scout project for Tony Yang, a member of Arlington Hills.  “The process for achieving the distinction of Eagle Scout includes planning a significant project,” according to the Heirloom, Arlington Hills newsletter.  “Tony chose the construction of the patio on the north side of our church, which previously was a patch of dirt overgrown with grass and weeds.”

Yang received his Eagle Scout badge on May 21.

Supply Pastor Gene Orr’s prayer at the dedication asked that this patio be to God’s glory and that it be a sign of welcome to community beyond Arlington Hills in East St. Paul.

New Church Start Hosts First Vacation Bible School: Chain of Lakes Presbyterian, a new church start in Lino Lakes, 

hosted its first Vacation Bible School in mid-August.  Sixteen children participated in the event, held at a local Catholic church. “Our success at Vacation Bible School just reminded me the importance of children in building a faith community,” said Paul Moore, organizing pastor. “Most parents want ministries for their children-even parents who are not connected to a church. The more we can offer quality ministries for children the better chance we have of developing as faith communities.”

Moore says the success of VBS has fired his passion for a children’s ministry at the new church development. Moore asks for prayers in how to go about building a ministry for children. You can read more at Paul Moore’s blog: http://chainlink-chainoflakesncd.blogspot.com/ .

“Thin Places” turns 10: “Thin Places” an ecumenical newsletter published by the Spiritual Growth Community at Westminster Presbyterian in Minneapolis, celebrates its 10th year of publication.  The journal started in 1999 just as Senior Pastor Tim Hart-Andersen was starting his ministry at the downtown Minneapolis congregation.  He took the occasion to write an article sharing his own experience of a “thin place,” a point where the everyday world and the world of mystery touch and lift up this important ministry. “I had nothing to do with its inception or its publication but drawn to its potential and felt called to encourage and support it,” Hart-Andersen writes.  “Thin Places emerged from a small group of spiritual pilgrims in the congregation, inspired by the wisdom and energy of Marilyn and Alan Youel, the editors for the last ten years. Those of us who read and use each issue are grateful to both of them for their fruitful efforts.”

Hart-Andersen notes that the Minnesota-based journal has had an impact felt not only locally, but around the world. “I am delighted that over its first decade Thin Places has grown to be a respected resource for the contemplative life here in the Twin Cities-and even around the world. More than once I have been at a church gathering somewhere far away when someone has approached me and thanked me for the ministry of Thin Places.”

You can read past issues of Thin Places by going online at http://www.ewestminster.org/thin_places .

Presbyterian Peacemaking Program offers new Minute for Mission video to interpret offering: The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program has developed a new minute for mission video to help interpret the Peacemaking Offering to congregations. The theme is “Peace Be With You” and gives over a dozen practical examples of what that means and how gifts to the Offering support activities and resources. In order to share the video with your congregations it can be viewed online or ordered through Presbyterian Distribution Service (PDS #12142-09-290). The Peacemaking Offering is typically taken on World Communion Sunday, which this year is Sunday, October 4th.

Each congregation is encouraged to retain 25 percent of the Offering it receives to use for local peacemaking ministries. Twenty-five percent is used by presbyteries and synods, and 50 percent is used by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and other General Assembly Mission Council Ministries.

The 217th General Assembly (2006) encouraged congregations to consider directly some or all of their share of the Offering as a faithful Christian response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

You can find the Minute for Mission and additional resources online (www.pcusa.org/peacemakingoffering ) and information on the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program through their (www.pcusa.org/peacemaking ) Web site.

Church World Service Needs Kits: Deb Braun, Field Assistant in the CWS Minn-Kota Regional Office reports that the CWS Emergency Response Office (ERP) is currently working on some large shipments of material aid to Liberia, Moldova and the West Bank.  “Once those shipments are completed, we will have greatly depleted our supplies of Hygiene and Baby Kits,” Braun says. Donna Derr, Director of the ERP Office, has issued an urgent appeal for the Kits, also noting that our current inventory of Clean-up Buckets is only 1,700, which is a concern as we head into hurricane season.  Providing assistance to one major hurricane could easily deplete the current inventory of the Clean-up Buckets, which are heavily used in domestic disaster response.

Braun adds, “we often get calls from our kit donors and denominational partners, asking if there is a particular need for specific kits. As kits are being assembled this summer and fall for denominational meetings, we ask that you keep in mind this current urgent need for Hygiene and Baby Kits, Clean-up Buckets, and Shipping & Processing Funds.  Monetary donations to cover the cost of kits are also welcome.”

Please contact the Minn-Kota Regional Office ( phone: 1-888-297-2767 or dbraun@churchworldservice.org) for more information about these programs, or to request promotional materials.  We appreciate your help in supplying these urgently needed resources, and greatly value your partnership.

Completed Kits may be shipped pre-paid to:

Church World Service

Brethren Service Center Annex

601 Main Street

PO Box 188

New Windsor, MD 21776-0188

Kit Funds and Processing/Shipping Funds may be sent directly to CWS, PO Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515-0968.

 Winnebago Presbytery taking steps in going “green”: Winnebago Presbytery is contemplating a “green strategy,” according to a note in the July 24 issue of News and Notes, the presbytery’s newsletter. The note stated: “An ‘interest only’ meeting to determine how many people might want to participate in a task group to pursue a green strategy for Winnebago Presbytery and its congregations and what the focus of the group would be is scheduled in the meeting room on the first floor at Neenah First Presbyterian at 1 p.m. Aug. 13.” Persons interested in attending the meeting are being asked to notify Sarah Moore-Nokes, associate executive presbyter, at sarah@winnebagopresbytery.org.

Gordon Stewart is the Pastor of Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN.  This article originally appeared on Minnesota Public Radio .

Sometimes having a beer is a sacramental act. The president and vice president of the United States having a beer with Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and police Sgt. James Crowley, at a round table in the White House backyard, strikes me as that kind of moment.

There was no bread and there was no wine.

There was no prayer and no elevation of the host or cup. There was beer.

Gordon Stewart

And a most unlikely congregation — the arresting officer who responded to a 911 call regarding a suspected break-in; the Harvard professor whose keys wouldn’t work, arrested in his own living room for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest; the vice president with blue-collar roots from Scranton, Pa., and the president, who, in the aftermath of the most debated arrest since Rodney King, had stumbled on his words, and who had brought them all together for beer, conversation, and a “teachable moment.”

What was the teachable moment? What was it teaching us?

Sacramental purists, teetotalers and partisan ideologues will not see it. Nor will those who accuse the president of a public relations stunt to cover over a confessed political blunder that captured the news for 10 days. Their biases will not allow them to see it.

We see the world through the eyes of our experience. As a child I believed that the call of the Christian life was a call to purity, the call to clean hands. We were “Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.” The world was a dirty place; our job was to clean it up in the march against evil.

Then, as a college student, I read Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

They pulled me down from my high perch into a radical crisis, a crisis that led me to the ideas of practicing Christian theologians Karl Barth, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, men whose faith did not suffer the illusion of the recovery of lost innocence, but rather took the form of responsibility for one’s behavior on behalf of a gospel of reconciliation.

This gospel of reconciliation has become the primary lens through which I see the world. I share this view, expressed in my tradition by the Presbyterian Confession of 1967, which made the shift from the paradigm of innocence to the paradigm of reconciliation as the work of the Christian life.

It calls the church to work toward the end of “discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary … practice forgiveness of enemies and … commend to the nations as practical politics the search for cooperation and peace.”

The gathering of these four men in the backyard of the White House strikes me as a visible sign of such reconciling work. As in his speech to the Muslim world and in his historic Philadelphia speech on race, President Obama has brought to the White House a nonsectarian gospel of reconciliation.

Although they shared beer rather than wine, the scene of Gates, Crowley, Biden and Obama, each with his own dirty hands in a world without innocence, seemed like a reflection of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

“The Lord’s Supper is a celebration of the reconciliation of people with God and with one another, in which they joyfully eat and drink together at the table of their Savior … They rejoice in the foretaste of the kingdom … and go out from the Lord’s Table with courage and hope for the service to which he [Christ] has called them,” says the Confession.

Sometimes having a beer is a sacramental act, a kind of holy moment, a foretaste of the kind of world we seek, the dissolving of the divisions, community created boldly by grace out of the vain searches for innocence and the broken, rancorous claims of righteousness.

 
Lord God, creator of all,
you have made us creatures of this earth
but have also promised us a share in life eternal:
receive our thanks and praise
that, through the passion and death of Christ,
your child David, our brother,
whom we commend into your hands today,
shares with your saints in the joy of heaven,
where there is neither sorrow nor pain
but life everlasting. Alleluia. Amen.  

 Sincerely,
  The Staff of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area

Chaz Ruark, Executive Presbyter

Nancy Grittman, Stated Clerk

Risa Anderson, Office Manager

Dennis Sanders, IT/Communications Specialist   

*Prayer:   Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, 2000-2006.

Central Presbyterian Church
500 Cedar Street, St. Paul, Minnesota
Saturday June 13, 2009 – 9:00 a.m.
As part of the Minnesota Honors Vietnam Era Veterans celebration, special time has been dedicated for the families of our fallen heroes and POW/MIA heroes to join together for an inter-faith prayer service. This service will enable families to meet and get to know others who have experienced the same loss. This time will also allow us to give thanks for, to praise and honor these heroes.

All Families of Minnesota Vietnam era fallen and POW/MIAs are invited.

Families can register by sending an email to: MNVietnamHeroes@gmail.com.

A registration form and more information about the prayer service will follow. A complete schedule of events is available at: www.MNHonorsVietnamVets.org

For more information on the prayer service contact:
Merrilee Carlson, Mother of Sgt. Michael Carlson, KIA 1/24/2005 Iraq @ Merrilee@FamiliesUnitedMission.com Ph: 651-319-1194

Sponsored by:  The Graduate School of Liberal Studies  and The Office of Church Relations at Hamline University
    All classes meet from 9 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. and can be taken singly, or all together            

• June 5, Preaching, teaching and leading from hope, with Prof. Julie Neraas, author of: Apprenticed to Hope: A Sourcebook for Difficult Times    
•  June 12, Poetic Resources for Preaching, with poet and Prof. Angela Shannon, author of Singing the Bones Together       
• June 19, Biblical foundations for Hope, with Prof. Timothy Polk, biblical scholar, author of The Biblical Kierkegaard, The Prophetic  Persona: Jeremiah and the Language of the Self. 

   cost:  $50 for individual sessions, $140 for the series.  for more info. call: 651 523-2047.

Numbers don’t show everything, but sometimes the big statistical picture can help explain some churches’ leadership matching dilemmas.

Marcia Clark Myers – who is director of the Office of Vocations for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and whom Bruce Reyes-Chow, moderator of the 218th General Assembly, has given a shout-out for the way her statistical presentation had the audience buzzing (both in the room and via Twitter) at a recent meeting of denominational leaders – has spent time and energy recently pulling together numbers regarding leadership in the denomination.

Her bottom line: the PC(USA) has some mismatches between those trained for ministry and what the denomination needs.

The future leaders of the church will need to be flexible and creative, able to serve at a time of new denominational and religious realties. Among the types of ministerial leaders the PC(USA) will need: church planters; those who can transform older congregations into new ways of being; and those capable of “hospice” ministry, who can guide congregations that won’t survive faithfully through their final days.

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