wfn.org | POAMN is fastest growing ministry in PC(USA)

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6645 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

12-June-2001
GA01083

POAMN is fastest growing ministry in PC(USA)

by Midge Mack

LOUISVILLE, June 12 - Every year at General Assembly the "POAMN People" have
breakfast together. POAMN is Presbyterian Older Adult Ministry Network,
reorganized in the late '80s. Its first breakfast was in 1989.

This year POAMN was privileged to have retiring Moderator Syngman Rhee as
its featured speaker, largely through the efforts of staff associate Miriam
Dunson of the denomination's Congregational Ministries Division.  The two
are old friends from Dunson's days as a missionary in Korea (1955-1973).

Speaking to the gathering of some 120 older adults, Rhee enumerated many
gifts of older adults and related them to his own life. He spoke of the gift
of being intergenerational since present day older adults are usually vital
links and special assets in their families. In Korea, it is likewise the
grandparents who pass along  Korean language and traditions.

He cited the interdependence he has experienced in his life, from
involvement in the church's Global Village event at Stony Point, N.Y. to the
fact that he was elected and installed as moderator of the 212th General
Assembly fifty years to the day of the outbreak of the Korean War, the day
he, at age 19, and his brother, 17, had to flee the country to save their
lives.  He also spoke of how U.S.A. churches provided food, blankets,
medicines, and most importantly hope to North Korea in the past year.

"We need," he said, "and we have in this church, the spirit of
reconciliation. He sang to the group part of a song from the musical Sound
of Music, which he learned when he first came here, 'Somewhere in my youth
or childhood, I must have done something good,' that's a beautiful song but
bad theology. The real goodness has come through people from the grace of
God," Rhee concluded.

After recognizing many persons involved in the Older Adult Ministry network,
Dunson described it as a frontier ministry and the fastest growing aspect of
congregational ministry.  The statistics show us, she said. "35 per cent of
all Presbyterians are over 65 years of age, 57 per cent over 50 and 67 per
cent over 45. The boomers will soon be joining us."

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