Photo from Garden website

You and your family are invited to join the Winnebago Presbytery staff on the afternoon of Sunday,   June 30, 2013 between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. at the Green Bay Botanical Garden for an afternoon of enjoyment.

Spend time simply enjoying the wonderful scenery and activities the Botanical Garden has to offer while you have the opportunity to get to know colleagues and friends outside the realm of committee meetings.

Not By Bread Alone from Green Bay will be catering the event.  They have planned a superb array of refreshments and summer sippers.  We would appreciate knowing if you plan to attend so we can ensure enough for everyone to enjoy.

Please respond before June 10 by calling the Presbytery office or by contacting Nancy.  Let us know the number of adults and children under 12 in your party.

Looking forward to an afternoon of fun, food and fellowship!

Gracious Lord, you are our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble. With sadness and questions in our hearts, your Spirit prompts us in this hour to pray for our sisters and brothers in the wake of the tragedy in Boston. Comfort with your generous grace in a way only you can, Lord, those who lost their loved ones in the bomb explosions today, those who are trying to connect with their loved ones, and those who are injured. Strengthen first responders, medical personnel, and other authorities as they work through the day and night to come to the aid of many. Pierce the heart and soul of the perpetrator(s) of this act of violence. Forgive that individual(s) for they know not what they do.

The complete prayer offered by Neal Presa, moderator of the 220th General Assembly; Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the General Assembly; and Linda Valentine, executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, can be found at the website of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The links listed below will offer some follow up to the discussion and can also be helpful for those who were not able to attend.

The Board has set up a website that addresses the healthcare issues discussion specifically. It includes news and info, FAQ’s, resources, and medical plan facts. The direct link is: http://healthcare.pensions.org/medical_plans_facts/index.html.

The Regional Benefits Conferences are coming up within the next few weeks and the presentations are available in Power Point format the Regional Benefits Conference link which is:
http://www.pensions.org/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=374&mode=2. Scroll down to the 2013 Meeting Presentations.

Reflections in Progress

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is experiencing a deep time of discernment. With a fast changing landscape in our society, congregations and mid-councils responding in varied ways, the PC(USA) as a prior generation had known it, or even as we have collectively experienced it at the dawn of this new millennium is necessarily changing.

What I have seen and heard is a Church seeking to be faithful to our Reformed tradition, while willing to experiment and take risks. Folks are in one or a combination of three places:

• Awareness: becoming aware that a changing landscape, demographic changes, finite resources, and a call to be more faithful in the midst of it all is calling for not onlystructural and organizational changes, but more importantly, durable, and attitudinal and cultural changes
• Anxiety: with the prospect of change comes the anxiety of grappling with the question, “So, what next, Lord?” With this comes the instinct of organizational reconfigurations, managing stress and conflict, and with the ecclesial map shifting as congregations seek dismissal or exploring dismissal, anxiety and tension increase. The Presbyterian instinct is to run to the rules, processes, and policies as a safe haven for what is manageable and controllable
• Advent: with the New Form of Government, some mid-councils and congregations are taking risks to do innovative ministries, or doing away with old structures and grappling with councils that focused so much on the governance function and attending more and more to cultivating and sustaining meaningful relationships nourished and propelled by worship, mission, and fellowship

In the midst of the various travels, speeches, and sermons in the next 18 months of my term, as with the first six months, I will give focused attention on two areas of a vision for our life together

• Unity with Difference: building upon the groundwork laid out at the Stony Point Talks last December with leaders of the various progressive and conservative affinity groups, our hope is to bring both the discussion/debate model and the substance of the nature of our theological differences to the public arena to catalyze serious consideration around our unity in Jesus Christ with the differences we have

• Ecclesiology: moves to restructure and reorganize must be informed and shaped by a robust ecclesiology grounded in our Reformed tradition for the 21st century, around Christ’s enduring and continual call to worship-witness, for we are Christ’s gathered-sent community

I remain grateful to serve our Lord and the Church in this way. Please join me in praying daily for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and for sisters and brothers in Christ here and around the world as we all seek to serve faithfully and fully in our Lord’s name. Grace and peace be with you.

Read more. . .

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Many thanks for your patience!

Presbyterian Mission Agency

Greetings to members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, mid council executives, and friends,

This year’s General Assembly—which concluded in Pittsburgh less than two weeks ago—coincided with a remarkable anniversary, the 175th anniversary of international mission by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.

On Wednesday, July 4, the assembly sensed the movement of the Holy Spirit as we commissioned our newest mission workers and Young Adult Volunteers, who have now gone out into all the world, just as thousands of mission workers have for 175 years.

Hunter Farrell, director of World Mission, calls for us not only to celebrate this exciting 175th anniversary but also to continue to be a part of God’s mission in the present and the future.     Read Hunter’s message

Stay abreast of all the reports, committee actions, and Assembly work by visiting http://oga.pcusa.org/section/ga/ga220/

Plenary sessions will be live-streamed.  Click on PC-Biz on the above site to follow the business as it happens.

Remember our Commissioners and YAAD in your prayers throughout the Assembly.

Teaching Elder – Randy Argall

Ruling Elder – Anneliese Waggoner

YAAD – Sarah Johanek

“Supper at Emmaus” by Michelangelo da Caravaggio (1573-1610).

Easter isn’t just a Sunday — it’s a season. One day out of 365 is hardly sufficient to celebrate the great mystery of our faith — that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Accordingly, the season of Easter lasts seven weeks (a “week of weeks”), spanning the 50 days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday and encompassing the festival of the Ascension of the Lord.

The season of Easter is intended to be a joyful time for celebrating the presence of the risen Christ in the church. If your congregation doesn’t already celebrate the Lord’s Supper (a feast with the risen Lord) each week, the season of Easter is an excellent and appropriate time to explore this practice.

Of course, Easter really isn’t just a season either. In the fullest sense, Easter is a new way of life — in which we are ”dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11), called to ”walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). Every year, for fifty days, the church celebrates and rehearses this new way of life in the Season of Easter — as we await its completion in the fullness of Christ’s reign.                   (Read more on the PC(USA) website)