Seattle Presbytery

Our News
Moderator's Musings for November 2008

Greetings!
Have you looked at your Presbytery meeting papers yet? Renton First, St. Andrew; St. Andrew, Renton First: where is presbytery meeting anyway?

By tradition, the Seattle Presbytery is hosted in November each year by the Moderator’s congregation. If that congregation happens to be University or Mercer Island or Newport, or any number of other churches, it is old hat, “been there, done that”. But when the congregation is Marcus Whitman or Trinity or St. Andrew there may just not be enough room to host the presbytery and we have to get creative.

11/13/2008 3:25:28 AM

Our News
Thoughts From the Desert

First communion. One of the privileges I have as an Army Chaplain is to lead worship services in the field (away from home). You never know who is going to show up or what kind of religious background they may have. I always keep this in mind, especially when serving communion.

11/12/2008 3:30:03 AM

Our News
Four Members of Seattle Presbytery are Recipients of Lilly Sabbatical Grant

Recognizing the importance and necessity for busy pastors to have an opportunity to take an extended break for renewal and refreshment, Lilly Endowment in 2000 introduced a new competitive grants program. The program awards grants to congregations that offer a program for the renewal of their pastor and, at the same time, give the congregations themselves an opportunity to better themselves as vital places of worship and mission.

11/6/2008 2:08:51 AM

Our News
Break Fast

by Rev. Larry Grounds, Redmond PC

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” Mark 1:35

I have recently gotten into a bad habit. I read the newspaper first thing in the morning as I arise with the morning light. I’m all for keeping up with current events, but this early morning barrage of bad news can really affect the way I see the world. My wife pointed out how cranky I was getting just the other day. I contemplated that maybe my frame of mind was being shaped by the grim news I was consuming each morning. I often lacked perspective in the morning and needed the wholesome re-connection with God at the beginning of my day. The word “breakfast” means literally to “break” the “fast” you have been keeping in your eight or so hours of sleep with no food. (Unless your sleep walk and raid the refrigerator). Well, in a similar way to this food fast, I was breaking the silence of my consciousness with a full dose of the world’s woes in newsprint without first reconnecting my mind and heart with God.

11/5/2008 8:03:03 AM

Presbyterian News
Training Event for Clerks of Session

Dennis Hughes, Stated Clerk of Seattle Presbytery, will be offering a Training Event for Clerks of Session on Monday evening, January 26, 2009, from 7pm to 9pm at the Presbytery Office on Beacon Hill. This workshop will cover the basics of Clerk work, including record keeping, annual reading of Session Records, communicating with Presbytery, and annual GA Statistical reports. Those who have been serving as a Clerk of Session for some time may also find the review helpful, and are encouraged to attend as well.

Please mark your calendar to save the date! As we get closer to the time, we will send a reminder and ask for an RSVP to accommodate planning.....

If you have a specific topic or question you would like Dennis to address during the workshop, please let us know! Send questions to Barbara Ranta: barbara@presbytery.org

11/19/2008 3:53:38 AM