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21-January-1998 
98021 
 
    Presbytery and Synod News 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
SYRACUSE, N.Y.-The offices of the Synod of the Northeast are relocating 
from Syracuse to DeWitt, N.Y., effective Jan. 31. 
    The synod has purchased a building in the Heritage Landing Office Park 
in DeWitt.  The new mailing address is 5811 Heritage Landing Drive, East 
Syracuse, NY 13057-9360.  The synod's phone number, (315) 446-5990, and fax 
number, (315) 446-3708, remain the same, as does its toll-free telephone 
number, 1-800-585-5881. 
 
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.-South Dakota Presbytery's clergy family camp, June 21-28, 
will include "an old-fashioned barn raising." 
    The goals of the annual event at the presbytery's Camp Rimrock have 
always been community building, fellowship, learning and getting acquainted 
with others serving in the far-flung presbytery.  This year a service 
project has been added to the agenda.  It will involve either rebuilding 
the chapel at the camp or working on a nearby housing project. 
 
LOS ANGELES-The 20th annual Stewardship and Mission Rally of the Synod of 
Southern California and Hawaii, Feb. 7, will be held at Trinity United 
Presbyterian Church of Santa Ana. 
    The event will include a vast array of workshops for youth and adults 
and will feature keynote addresses by Patricia G. Brown, General Assembly 
moderator; Rodger Nishioka, coordinator for youth and young adult 
ministries for the General Assembly; and the Rev. Marian McClure, director 
of the Worldwide Ministries Division in Louisville. 
 
MORGANTON, N.C.-"Telling Our Stories: Evangelical Witness through the 
Church Year" is the theme of a March 20-21 conference sponsored by Western 
North Carolina Presbytery. 
    Held at Bethelwoods Conference Center, the conference will be led by 
the Rev. Charles M. Olsen, director of the Center for Transforming 
Religious Leadership and author of "Transforming Church Boards into 
Communities of Spiritual Leaders."  It will focus on the importance of 
congregational stories as a vital element in evangelism. 
 
BAINBRIDGE, N.Y.-Sara Lisherness of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program 
will be keynote speaker for Susquehanna Valley Presbytery's annual 
Presbytery Day, Feb. 28 at Bainbridge Presbyterian Church. 
    She will speak on the topic "Building Peaceful Families in a Violent 
World."  The event will also include training sessions for church 
nominating committees, elders and youth ministry leaders, and seminars on 
such subjects as good movies for peacemaking and using art in education and 
worship. 
 
PORTLAND, Ore.-Cascades Presbytery will again host mission conferences this 
spring -- April 25-26 for lay leaders and April 26-28 for clergy.  Both 
conferences will be held at the Village Green in Cottage Grove. 
    Keynote speakers are the Rev. Philip Wickeri, former head of the Amity 
Foundation in China and professor of mission and evangelism at San 
Francisco Theological Seminary, and Mary Mikhael, president of the Near 
East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon.  Worship will be led by 
renowned Presbyterian musician and composer the Rev. Isaiah Jones, who is 
campus pastor at Oregon State University in Corvallis. 
 
JACKSON, Miss.-The Mission Committee of Mississippi Presbytery is 
sponsoring Mission Fair '98, March 28 at Westminster Presbyterian Church of 
Hattiesburg. 
    Featured speakers are the Medical Benevolence Foundation's the Rev. 
Paul Read; Susan Ryan, coordinator for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in 
Louisville; the Rev. Cody Watson of the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship; 
and Jerry and Verneice Goode, presbytery members who have participated in 
two mission trips to Cuba. 
 
SPOKANE, Wash.-After flying mission work teams for several years to Kenya, 
Mexico, Romania, Alaska, Russia and Central America, Whitworth Community 
Presbyterian Church in Inland Northwest Presbytery is now sending about 30 
families just eight miles way to give birth to a new congregation in the 
presbytery. 
    Volunteer missionaries have been commissioned by Whitworth Church to 
develop the Colbert Presbyterian Church in burgeoning north Spokane County. 
The Colbert Church had its first worship service Nov. 16, 1997. 
    The 50 churches of Inland Northwest Presbytery have pledged $18,000 in 
1998 for the new church.  The Synod of Alaska-Northwest is contributing 
$20,000 in start-up funds and the Evangelism and Church Development office 
of the General Assembly has granted $90,000 in program support. 
 
PANAMA CITY, Fla.-On Feb. 19, a 15-member delegation will depart from 
Florida Presbytery to visit the presbytery's partners in the Presbytery of 
the Western Cape of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. 
The delegation will visit the Cape Town area, Zimbabwe, Zambia and the 
Eastern Cape area of South Africa before returning home March 9. 
    The group will visit several projects it supports, such as a day-care 
center in Kanana, a church and school in another part of Cape Town and 
church development projects in Khayelitsha, a township just outside Cape 
Town.  Delegation members will be hosted by congregations in the 
presbytery. 
 
BERKELEY, Calif.-Renowned Presbyterian sociologist the Rev. Carl S. Dudley 
will be keynote speaker for San Francisco Presbytery's annual Presbytery 
Day event, Feb. 28 at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church. 
    Dudley is professor of church and community at Hartford (Conn.) 
Theological Seminary and is co-director of the seminary's Center for Social 
and Religious Research.  He formerly taught at McCormick Theological 
Seminary in Chicago. 
    The event will also include a number of workshops on a wide variety of 
topics designed to strengthen the ministries of congregations. 
 
BATON ROUGE, La.-"One Spirit: Varieties of Gifts -- Varieties of Service" 
is the theme of the 1998 Stewards in Mission rally of South Louisiana 
Presbytery.  The rally will be held March 7 at First Presbyterian Church of 
Baton Rouge. 
    Fourteen workshops have been planned on such topics as The Year with 
Education, spiritual disciplines, small church ministry, older adult 
ministry, Christian education, the art of storytelling and media literacy. 
 
HOUSTON-Harold H. Saunders, a former high-ranking U.S. State Department 
official and current director of international affairs at the Charles F. 
Kettering Foundation, will be the featured speaker at the fifth annual 
Church in Washington conference sponsored by New Covenant Presbytery. 
    Participants in the March 28-April 1 conference will travel to 
Washington, D.C., for briefings with the Presbyterian Washington Office, 
Bread for the World and other organizations.  The group will meet with 
Houston Congressman Bill Archer and other members of the U.S. Congress from 
the Houston area. 
 
COLUMBUS, Ohio-The Synod of the Covenant is receiving applications between 
now and March 31 from congregations that wish to participate in the synod's 
1998 Ecumenical Parish Program. 
    Each year a number of "ecumenical associates" from partner churches 
overseas come to the synod to help Presbyterians here understand mission in 
other countries.  In 1998 the focus is on Europe and the synod hopes to 
host visitors from Eastern Europe, Great Britain, including Northern 
Ireland, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.  The visitation 
program is scheduled from Sept. 16 through Oct. 28. 
    The program is held in cooperation with the Global Awareness and 
Involvement office of the Worldwide Ministries Division in Louisville. 
 
ANAHEIM, Calif.-The 1998 Pastors' Retreat for Los Ranchos Presbytery has 
been slated for Feb. 18-20 at Serra Retreat Center. 
    Designed for fellowship, reflection and study, the retreat will be led 
by Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern 
California.  His published works include "In Search of Guidance" and "The 
Spirit of the Disciplines." 

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