Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ!
Synopsis of the April 2005 Presbytery Meeting

Held on Tuesday April 19, 2005 at Doe Run Presbyterian Church
[Note: These are completely informal and unofficial notes of the meeting provided for your use by Charlie Gross.]

* We heard from Rev Juan Rodas, Moderator of the Presbytery of Honduras, about the needs in his country and our wonderful partnerships with them! Also learned that the Presbytery Mission trip in June needs $2000 for medical supplies.

* In worship, Rev Walter Winegar preached on John 20:19-22, Luke 24:28-31.

* Roger Uittenbogaard celebrated numerous ordination anniversaries and expressed disappointment in the March Presbytery meeting attendance after lunch when John Detterick spoke. Also highlighted the deadline of April 21st to order Planning Calendars.

* Charlie Gross thanked Don Lincoln, Jeff Lampl, and the Caldwells for leading workshops. Highlighted Natural Church Development workshops on May 12th 10-12 at Bellevue, May 21st 10-12 at First Strasburg, and June 25th at Bellevue. Sign up by contacting him at Presbytery office: 717.392.4035 or cgross@donegalpby.com Invited everyone to our special Presbytery day at prayer: May 17th Memorial Presbyterian Church, 426 South Queen St, Lancaster, PA. Phone 717.394.0480.

* Passed the new Mission, Vision, and Goal areas statement. The Presbytery of Donegal Growing Faith Growing Churches; Vision: Donegal Presbytery is united through faith in Jesus Christ and demonstrates God’s love to each other, the community, and the world. Goals/Priorities: Build healthy, vibrant congregations, Provide leadership development for lay members and ministers, Promote evangelism and new church development, Engage in outreach to the world with ministries of compassion.

* Committee on Ministry is looking more closely at terms of call, trying to get them to comply fully with our own rules as well as the IRS rules.

* Committee on Preparation received Timothy Dooner (Paoli) as an inquirer.

* Peacemaking Division of Outreach highlighted the Diversity Camp experience at Camp Donegal. This will be held from July 3rd to the 8th for 7th and 8th graders. Additionally, highlighted the Peacemaking award application on our website.

* Nominating Committee brought Bob Best for Administration Department.

* Vitalization Division highlighted Transformation – as a renewed and reinvigorated sense of God’s call and purpose to us in this time and place. National Transformation Conference – July 14 – 17 at Columbia Univ NYC – send teams of people and ask Vitalization Division for scholarship money! Presbytery office has booklets, or go to: www.MT2005.org

* Mission Beyond – Rev. Doug Baker, our missionary in Northern Ireland spoke eloquently of raising our gaze, increasing our vision of what is possible, planting many seeds of justice, peace, and reconciliation and doing our daily work to the glory of God! Jim Caldwell led us in prayer and laying on of hands for Doug, and Alex Wimberly. (Alex and Kiran are going to Sri Lanka May 15 – June 8th and will report in June)

* Mission Within The Presbytery – heard from the new chair – Betty Orr. This division is planting seeds for new mission initiatives, and handles $95,000 for Presbytery mission.

* OAR brought forward an overture from the Session of the Forks of the Brandywine titled, “On re-affirming sections of the Westminster Confession, Larger and Shorter Catechism.” We heard 7 speakers on each side of the issue with excellent reasons for both supporting and defeating this overture. The overture was defeated by a vote of 46-65. [editor’s note: It seemed that the Presbytery does support the underlying issue of giving our Sessions a voice in the larger church conversation. Let’s heed Rev. Dr. Jim Moyer and Rev. Kristine Hileman’s urging to find ways to dialogue around these important topics!]

Doug Baker’s schedule and future scheduling possibilities:
Thursday, April 28th
Daytime – Available
Evening – Highland, 6:30pm Dinner
Contact – Rev Marcia MacKellar, 717.569.2651 or marciam@dejazzd.com

Friday, April 29th
Daytime – Available
Evening – Available

Saturday, April 30th
Daytime – Available
Evening – Oxford, 7:00pm
Contact – Elder Dorothea Murray, 610.932.8367 or pdmurray@ccis.net

Sunday, May 1st
Morning – Westminster West Chester – 9:45am
Contact – Rev. Dr. Don Lincoln 610.399.3377 or dlincoln@westminsterpc.org

Future Scheduling: Doug will be available from June 28th – July 7th and July 18th till July 31st. To schedule time with him during this stay, email him directly at:
doug.baker@dnet.co.uk