PRESBYTERY MEETING REFLECTIONMay 2016

By Sheppards & Lapsley Moderator, Jim Toomey

The Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley held its regular stated meeting on Saturday May 14, 2016 at South Highland Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

We had the privilege of hosting the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Dr. Heath Rada. Dr. Rada participated in our Worship Service and delivered the sermon. He also spent the 11am to noon hour updating our Presbytery on current happenings in the larger Church and inviting and answering questions from the floor of Presbytery. Thank you Heath Rada for making this meeting of Presbytery a special one for all of us.

We always have a few guests at Presbytery meetings but we had some special guests at this meeting. We had a group of eight to ten members of Ukirk Birmingham. Ukirk is the network of collegiate ministries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It was great to see that group of young students learning more about our business meeting of Presbytery.

We were officially welcomed to the host church by Rev. Dr. Ed Hurley. What an outstanding job South Highland PC did in hosting this meeting of Presbytery. It takes many volunteers and much hard work to host a Presbytery meeting. Thanks for all the effort!

Some Presbytery Action Highlights were: The election of Rev. Terry Tingle to serve on the Nominating Committee, class of 2017 We had a Commissioning Service for our Presbytery's Commissioners to June's General Assembly in Portland Oregon. The commissioners are: Rev. Leanne Pearce Reed, Rev. Robert Hay, Noah Foster (YAAD), Elder Eva Carter, Elder George Miller, Rachel Mathews (TSAD) We had 5 one minute reports in the category “Good News from our Churches”

The Lord is at work in our Presbytery!

The Presbytery approved a $15,000 development grant in support of U-Perk in Tuscaloosa. We heard an update on The Stillman College Initiative Our Congo partners have now received over $80,000 for the construction of their first school We heard more about the exciting Camp opportunities at Living River on the Cahaba The Commission on Ministry (COM) examined the Rev. Lant Davis for a call to Mountain Brook PC and the Rev. Paul Sherwood for a call to Oakmont PC and the Rev. Lindsey Becker for member-at-large We approved Rev. Bobbie Epting for retirement, effective July 1, 2016 and Rev. Joe Slane for retirement, effective January 31, 2017.

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR RETIREMENT BOBBIE AND JOE!

Lant Davis, Lindsey Becker, Paul Sherwood

Rev. Dr. Ed Hurley

Rev. Dr. Heath Rada

The Commission on Preparation on Ministry presented Courtney Bowen to Presbytery as a Candidate for Ministry of Word and Sacrament. Courtney is a member of Independent PC and has just finished her second year at Louisville Theological Seminary

The Nominations Committee presented and approved 40 names for election to various committees and councils Daniel Killilea led us in our Closing Prayer and the Benediction

God is guiding us to be a gracious and hopeful Presbytery. Amen and Amen!

Jim Toomey, Moderator

Examination of Courtney Bowen