tuesday, a week after the vote

I'm sorry I haven't updated for a week but there hasn't been much to update. The kids and I flew up to Ohio for a visit with my dad at his place (and WOW was it cold! My blood has really thinned out with living down here!). Had a great time and I should have some pictures soon... I just like to look at them on my real monitor first instead of just the laptop.

Things at church have been pretty quiet, I guess a collective holding of breath for the called presbytery meeting on Thursday (Happy Valentine's Day... and called is just another word for special here). We continue to hope and pray that presbytery will allow our church's vote to stand, but we are looking into contingency plans as well. Presbytery is allowing our congregation to bring 100 representatives to the meeting, stipulating that both sides are equally represented. To them, that means 50 from each group... however, in terms of the vote, seems to me that 76 of the 100 should represent the "yes" vote and 24 should represent the "no" vote. But maybe that is just me?

One interesting note is that the group of Covenant PC(USA) Loyalists (their term) requested of presbytery (which in turn passed on to the Session) their own separate Sunday morning service, choosing to meet in the Fellowship Hall. I'm not exactly sure what to make of that, but it does not seem to me to mesh with the "we love you and want to stay with you" message that the Loyalist representative was sharing at a meeting a few weeks ago. Since I was out of state on Sunday, though, I don't know what was said at the special service or what the intent was behind it.

Once again I will point out that any opinions here are solely my own and do not necessarily represent the management. I will say that I love Covenant... I love the body of believers which worships at Covenant, the body which has become our family here.

Wednesday's update

After staff meeting, Andy sent an email to his youth leaders, which included the following:

Bill informed us this morning that the Session made some decisions last night, the details of which will be communicated in a letter going to today to all Covenant’s membership (you should receive it tomorrow). The Session chose to turn down Presbytery’s proposal to leave quietly in the next weeks, choosing instead to continue with our plans to formally request dismissal from the PCUSA at the Presbytery meeting on the 14th. Our conviction is that that we worked hard over many months to honor Presbytery’s process and meet its benchmarks, and we did: 76% of our membership present, and 76% of those voting in favor. At this point, it will be in Presbytery’s hands as to how things will unfold. Of course, we do realize the likelihood that they might refuse the request and take the property anyway, so we are continuing to pray and plan, plan and pray.

You may be asking what exactly our presbytery proposed since I haven't told you that yet. Honestly, I do not know the whole of it, but apparently it offered Bill and Stu the chance to be released to the EPC and a window of time for any members to quietly follow – but without any property. On the face of it, this might sound friendly and peaceful, but (disclaimer: everything following is Robin's opinion, not necessarily the official stance of our staff or leadership) what it says to me is that they want us to simply cast aside the time and expense (both considerable) which our church spent on this effort and simply fade quietly away. I'd like to remind you that our session upheld the requirements imposed on us by our presbytery. The numbers, the percentages, the time: all of those were set by presbytery, not by our session or pastors. Our church faithfully followed the process set out for us and I think it would be foolish not to follow through with the process. The vote did pass. Why should we pretend it didn't?

What does this mean for us at this point? It means that we hold our breath and pray for the next week. If our presbytery rejects our session's request for dismissal, the likely effect is that both of our pastors will be fired. Is that preferable to quietly resigning? In this case, I think it is. We could have left quietly, as the presbytery is proposing, at any point in the past year or more. If our action to seek dismissal was the right thing to do, and I think it was, then we cannot quit now. I, for one, am thankful that our session is not taking the presbytery's deal. We are waiting and pray that our presbytery will honor the vote and allow our church to stay together.

Tuesday night

I think I keep saying I'll have more information for you tomorrow. Sorry, I have to say it again. Presbytery made a proposal yesterday, our session discussed it last night, agreed to sleep and pray on it, and is meeting tonight to respond. The staff is meeting at 9am tomorrow to hear the next steps, so I hope to have more information for you by lunchtime. Thanks for your patience, and especially for your prayers.

"places we go" update

I know, I'm going crazy with the blogging this week... but then again I could be David Ziser, who posts his entries a half dozen at a time. I just wanted to take a moment to direct your attention to our sidebar, down in the section called "The Places We Go". I've added some links there that are worth a visit!

• Phoebe's Page: our dear friend Phoebe has started new adventures in Rwanda with Compassion International. She's promised me that she'll keep us updated in her blog. Also, she is now officially engaged to Joe, a guy I would love to meet in person.
• Dance Bochette: right now when you go here all you will see is a temporary page, but I'm including it in my list because I am the one responsible for it. Somehow my shooting my girls at ballet classes and shows has transitioned into web design for the studio. Kind of exciting!
• Confessions of a Pioneer Woman: she lives on a ranch, takes pictures like crazy, and is a really gifted writer. I am totally hooked on "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" and it is so worth a read. Be warned, though, she is up to 26 or 27 chapters at this point. Oh yes, she also cooks.
• Ugly Mug Coffee: Don't forget to buy some yummy coffee through this link and support Habitat for Hope.

The links I didn't mention are fun as well... I've been adding feeds to my Google Reader like crazy and might add some to our list over there. Frequently, if I take the step of recommending someone here in a post, I'll add them to that list. Enjoy!

Monday's meeting

There was a large meeting at church this afternoon--our session, trustees, pastors, and the presbytery. As yet we do not know any details of what presbytery proposed, but the word is that it was a cordial meeting. More tomorrow--

press coverage

Our local paper has published two articles on our vote: one before, one after. Here are the links.

• Saturday
  
• Monday

the results are in

OK, everyone, our church met as one congregation this morning and voted on whether or not to leave the PC(USA) and join the EPC. I've been asked about the voting process and what it entailed so let me give a brief rundown of how it works (still ongoing and I'll explain why).

Our session (our body of governing elders) made a motion to seek dismissal from the PC(USA). This was after 7-8 years of growing frustration with the denomination's stance and direction on several issues, including the identity of Jesus and the authority of Scripture. The presbytery set all of the rules for the procedure of the vote (because it is a major vote). The three main requirements were:

1. We announce the congregational vote no less than three months before it takes place.
2. In order for the vote to occur at all, 2/3 of the active membership must be present for the meeting and vote.
3. In order for the vote to pass, 75% of those present must vote yes (to seek dismissal).

I have heard that approximately 40 churches have gone through this process in the last year (or so) and of those, our church was given the most stringent voting requirements.

Our numbers were as follows: 76% of the active membership came for the meeting and vote. Of those present, 76% voted to seek dismissal. So yes, it was a slim margin, certainly not as much as we had hoped, although we have known that we were in for a rough ride. However, the fact at this point is that we faithfully met all of presbytery's requirements, and the vote did pass.

We will know more tomorrow about what happens next, once presbytery has responded. I will be certain to update the blog as I have details. I will warn you, however, that I will only post what I know to be accurate information, so it may not be as detailed as you might like. Thank you again for your prayers. Please don't stop yet!