wfn.org | Moderator Tells of Travels, Mission Forum Plans

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

18-Jan-96

96030    Moderator Tells of Travels, Mission Forum Plans 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Announcing that she has logged close to 400,000 air miles 
since July and about 11,000 more on the ground, Moderator Marj Carpenter 
said she senses an "upsurge in vitality ... out in the church." 
 
     She said the reason why is mission. 
 
     Carpenter said 99 people are registered for the Moderator's 
Invitational Forum on Mission, set for Jan. 29-30 in Louisville.  She 
intends to use the time to invite comment about what General Assembly 
programming might be cut in the 1997 mission budget -- just for the General 
Assembly Council's information -- and to evaluate how the Presbyterian 
Church (U.S.A.) is doing its mission. 
 
     "We're not going to address single issues about anything," Carpenter 
told the executive committee of the General Assembly Council during its 
January 12-13 meeting here.  "But it's [the roster of forum participants] 
an interesting list, a diverse group of people.  And I'm glad about that." 
 
     Carpenter said the moderator's forum is the first since the Rev. 
Benjamin Weir held one on the Middle East in 1987.  And, she said, it was 
organized even when there was no budget for it. 
 
     Where Carpenter sees activity in the wider church is in youth work and 
in new church development, particularly in the West. She said her favorite 
new church development is one that meets in a old pool hall in Igloo River, 
Alaska. 
 
     "I'm trying to be open to all voices," she said, describing her 
meetings with groups as diverse as the Presbyterian Lay Committee and the 
More Light Network.  "I've turned down no group that has asked me to hear 
them. ... 
 
     "I'm doing a lot of listening," Carpenter said. 

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