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Moderator To Tour Presbyterian Ministries in Northwest, California


From PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>
Date 25 Apr 2000 09:13:10

Note #5868 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

25-April-2000
00165

	Moderator To Tour Presbyterian Ministries
in Northwest, California

	Trip will dramatize new strategy of treating U.S. as a mission field

	by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Final arrangements are being made for the moderator and
vice moderator of the 211th General Assembly to travel to the Pacific
Northwest and Southern California, touring sites that demonstrate
Presbyterian mission in the United States.

	"The Presbyterian Church does a marvelous job of supporting the total
concept of mission here in the United States," said the Rev. Curtis A.
Kearns  Jr., director of the National Ministries Division (NMD) of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). "It is a program that ranges from spirituality
to activism, discipleship to volunteerism. This year, for the first time, a
tour has been organized to try and encapsulate a sampling of Presbyterian
Mission USA."

	The trip, to be organized by NMD in cooperation with the middle governing
bodies in the locations to be visited, will feature ministries demonstrating
how vital partnerships among congregations, presbyteries, synods and the
General Assembly supports Christian mission in this country. This type of
tour may become a regular part of the moderator's annual schedule.

	Moderator Freda Gardner and the Rev. Floyd Rhodes, the vice moderator, are
scheduled to begin their travels in Alaska on May 3 and move from there to
the Seattle area, where Gardner will preach at a church re-development
project in Quilcene, Washington. The following week will include visits to
church-sponsored shelter programs, a new-church development and a young
adult volunteer ministry site.

	Also planned are worship with Native American congregations in Idaho, a
discussion with racial-ethnic and new immigrant church development pastors,
and conversations with Presbyterians engaged in mission of all types.

	Kearns said the 210th General Assembly adopted a Church Growth Strategy
that declares the United States to be a mission field for the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.). In truth, he said, this has been the case all along, the
difference being that the new strategy calls for a  more vigorous emphasis.

	"It is important to know that the churches and governing bodies of the
PC(USA) are historically mission oriented," Kearns said. "The moderator's
trip, Presbyterian Mission USA, is an attempt to highlight and promote
examples of that mission."

	The trip will conclude on May 12 in Southern California.

	Kearns and others from the General Assembly Council staff will accompany
the moderator and vice moderator on their tour.

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