Stated Clerk’s Corner September 2019
First on my items of the day is to remind everyone that the second and last Review of Minute Books and Registers for the year is coming up on October 5, 2019 at Calvary Presbyterian Church, South Pasadena beginning at 10:00 am that morning and expected to end by noon. I try not to take up too much of everyone’s Saturday and give people a chance to sleep in a little as well. A great many of the churches of this presbytery are expected that day as only a few came to the spring review. I am looking forward to seeing so many of my clerk and pastor friends on that day. Please contact me at my email (statedclerk@sangabpres.org) if you plan to attend.
As the fall gets into full swing, the Executive Presbyter and I look forward to the annual Mid Council Leaders’ Meeting and our respective organizations’ meetings which are held every October somewhere in the United States. This year we will meet in Baltimore, Maryland between October 17 and October 21. We meet in Baltimore because next year’s General Assembly will be held there. We will have the privilege of getting a basic knowledge of the logistics of the Conference Center as well as accommodations for next year. We will attend meetings that will inform us of upcoming foci of the meeting, as well. Workshops are available to each of us that are geared to our various position needs. I have requested a workshop that will discuss the proposed changes to the Book of Discipline, something I really need to understand. I have requested another one that will discuss the difficulties of maintaining records in an age with such climate change, as well as changes in technology. I am truly looking forward to this workshop. I am hoping that the denomination will be coming up with some plans to meet the challenges we are all facing in that area. There is another one specifically geared toward Digital Pastor Files that is of interest to me. Another workshop dealing with the drafting and updating of Sexual Misconduct Prevention Policies to incorporate Child, Youth, and Vulnerable Adult Safety is available again this year. I have made my requests, we will see what I get on my schedule in October. The Executive Pastor will have requested workshops geared to her needs for the presbytery. We’ll see what she gets when we arrive. This is always a busy and long few days and we come back tired but also full of new ideas and information to share with members of this presbytery. We do look forward to sharing when we return.
There will be a notification in the September Presbytery Packet of the dates that have been chosen for Presbytery Meetings for the 2020 year. But, in the event some of you may not see that packet, here are the dates:
January 14th – Tuesday, 7-9 PM
March 28th – Saturday, 9am-12noon
May 30th – Saturday, 9am-12noon
September 26th – Saturday, 9am-12noon
November 17th – Tuesday, 7-9pm
(We have the privilege of having the Co-Moderator, Cindy Kohlmann with us at our May 30th Meeting. We are excited about that!)
We are now looking for locations for those various meetings. If you would like to volunteer your church as a possible location of one of these presbytery meetings, please contact the stated clerk and/or the executive presbyter. We would love to discuss that idea with your church leadership.
Lastly, I continue to work on an individual basis with new clerks in the presbytery this year. If you’re a new clerk who would like individual training or are a pastor of a new clerk, please contact me and we can set up a time and place for an education meeting to help get a new clerk acclimated. I have done several of these meetings and they have proved very successful for the new clerks. I look forward to meeting with anyone who needs some help.
Blessings,
Diane M. Frasher
Stated Clerk