Since becoming your Interim Executive Presbyter on March 1, it has been a pleasure and honor to serve you and to get to know you. As I go from church to church, I have become aware that relationships are important to you. The biblical image of the Body of Christ comes into mind – together, we belong to the Body of Christ and individually, we all contribute to the Body. I give thanks for your warm welcome to ministry within this presbytery and give thanks for how you live out your faith relationships.
We have received notification from the Office of General Assembly that Amendment 10-A has now passed a majority of presbyteries and will become a part of the Book of Order on July 10, one year following the conclusion of the 219th General Assembly. The matter of ordination has been a matter for discussion within our denomination and within other denominations for many years. We are not of one mind on this matter.
I am grateful for those who care deeply about their faith and seek to live out that faith in mission and witness. For those who may feel anxious about the matter of 10-A, let me make these observations:
--Our process for determining suitability of call has not changed. Our sessions will continue to determine suitability of call for those called to serve within the local congregation. The presbytery will continue to determine suitability of call for Ministers called to serve within this presbytery.
--How the body of Christ relates to each other serves as a witness to the world, for many, both young and old. It is my hope that we begin dialogue as the means for discernment. Ask someone who voted in a different way why they voted that way. Ask someone who attended the 2010 General Assembly in Minneapolis how that Assembly made its discernment. Our commissioners were Mary Jane Knapp, John Arbuckle, Jr (Edgewood), Paul Romine (First, St Albans), Susan Eason (First, Morgantown).
--Remember what brings us unity in Christ. We proclaim Christ to be the head of the Church. What did Christ ask us to do? – to love one another – to go and make disciples – to baptize and teach – to go into all the world – to preach the Good News -- to follow… In responding to this call, we can find unity and a focus for our mission together.
It is my prayer that we seek that unity and do what Christ has called us to do.
“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.” (Col. 3: 12-17)
Forrest Palmer, Interim Executive Presbyter
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