Presbytery of Donegal Announces

Press Subheading

Unofficial notes of the meeting

Unofficial Presbytery Notes for Sept 20, 2005 at Eastminster Presbyterian *

• Called to order at 9:30am by Moderator Elaine Lenyo and opened with prayer.
• Seated Rev. Lyn Reith, pastor of St. Luke's UCC Church in Lititz - our covenant partner in ministry in the Lititz area.
• The Hunger Offering at lunch will go to Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief.
• Worship and Communion led by Rev. Jim Crawford; Matt 6:5-14
• Roger urged a full reading of Peace Unity and Purity report. A Nov. pre-Presby workshop will be on this report. Ordination anniversaries: Bill Brown - 55, Dave Horner and Pat Hartsock - 30, Ann Dickey and Sally Brown - 25, John Morgan and Wayne Lutz - 20. Congratulations! John Blewitt doing well in Baton Rouge.
• Send Leadership topics and good dates to Charlie Gross - cgross@donegalpby.com
• Presbytery approved the position description for Associate Executive Presbyter, and Business Administrator. Search will begin for both of these positions. The Business Administrator will replace the Bookkeeper position.
• The 2006 Budget was passed with Per Capita at $21.48, and Mission distribution set at 43% for Presbytery, 12% for Synod, and 45% for GA. Financial reports are on-line.
• Important change is being recommended for nominating GA Commissioners.
• Eastmister presented an excellent lunch and presentation of their Peru mission trip. You can book this by calling Tom Steele at 717.764.8048.
• Approved the "Steps Toward Peace" educational trip to Israel & Palestine 4/25/06 - 5/5/06. Deadline is Oct 30 to submit applications for this Presbytery team.
• Rev. John Helgeson presented Rev. Ted Mingle, Highland Presbyterian, with the Andrew E. Murray Peacemaking Award for their Lancaster County High School Peace Essay Contest.
• Rev. David Powers asked for Columbia clothing bank support - men's, boys, undies.
• Rev. Walter Chuquimia and Mary Ellen Sebastian did minute for multi-cultural education. It takes 125 years for U.S. development to reach third world. On Oct 30th, Memorial Presbyterian will have Haitians joining them.
• Rick Schmidt gave bulletin inserts (also on web) for Hurricane relief options.
• Hear Dr. Stan Ott at Allentown on Nov 5th! $25 ea or $100 brings whole church. Details on website: www.donegalpby.com
• Come to Nov. Presbytery luncheon with Hinderliters - send email to registration@donegalpby.com and say you want to attend the luncheon.
• Rev. Steve Clark commissioned the 6 going to Umtata, Oct 20 - Nov 1st.
• ** Could someone donate a fairly new notebook computer for Percy Mabo?
• Rev. Dr. Don Hackett and Rev. Ray Meute presented a new vision from New Church
• Development. They want to continually launch vital communities to serve Christ! This Division needs you, your ideas, your resources to move out and experiment!
• "Reaching the Unchurched" watch for this as Nov. pre-Presby workshop!
• ** Read this: The Shaping of Things to Come, by Frost & Hirsch.
• Katherine Sundermeier became a Candidate!
• Sherry Elliott was certified ready to be ordained
• Committee on Ministry recommended a minimum of 1.5% raise for pastors. They also strongly recommended that pastors meet proactively with financial boards to negotiate creative packages based on needs and situations.
• IRS mileage allowance for Sept - Dec is .485/mile.
• Camp Donegal Harvest Happening 2005 is Oct 4th 9am to 4pm $15/person - send in by Sept 30th. Fall Wood cutting day is Nov 5th 8am - 1pm. Amy Wade provided 8 pages of "ready to use" inserts! It's that Easy! Log onto www.pcusa.org to find links to pdf flyers to download.”
• Visit our growing Resource Library at the Presbytery office! Or search it online!
• There will be an overture brought to Nov meeting on G-18.0302 regarding church property. Get this on the web and read it prior to the meeting.
• The meeting was closed in prayer!