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Note #7482 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Tentmakers pitching annual conference 
02411
October 18, 2002

Tentmakers pitching annual conference 

Two-career Presbyterians, Episcopalians getting together next month

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - "Marching with a Different Drummer" is the theme of next month's
annual conference of the Association of Presbyterian Tentmakers (APT).

The three-day conference, which begins on Nov. 1 at the Center for Spiritual
Development in Orange, CA, is co-sponsored by the National Association for
the Self-Supporting Active Ministry (NASSAM) of the Episcopal Church.

"I think the biggest thing is that it's a support group for tentmakers," says
the Rev. Fred Bunning of Loveland, CO, the APT moderator. "It's also our
annual meeting. ... Business gets transacted at that meeting. It's a
continuing education event for us as well."

Tentmakers are ministers who serve in church-related positions but derive all
or most of their income from other employment. Bunning, for example, is a
part-time pastor of Weldon Valley Presbyterian Church in Weldona, CO, but in
his primary job manages concession stands for the city of Loveland, CO. Two
Presbyterian speakers will be featured during the event: Jane Odell, interim
executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Los Ranchos, will speak on "The
Value of Tentmaker Ministry," and the Rev. David Tomlinson, vice president of
the Southern California program of San Francisco Theological Seminary, will
speak about "Tentmakers' Future." 

Other program speakers include Fr. Allen Figueroa Deck, a Jesuit priest who
is director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality, who will share his
views on tentmaking in the Jesuit tradition. He is the author of "The Second
Wave: Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures."

The theme, "Marching with a Different Drummer," is meant to suggest that
"tentmakers are different from many regular clergy in several ways,"
according to Lea McCloud, APT's treasurer and conference registrar, who also
is director of Christian education at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in
Wichita, KS. She says, "In our secular workplaces, as well as in the church,
tentmakers march to Christ as our drummer."

For more information about the conference, contact McCloud by phone at (316)
773-9460, or by email at lea_mccloud@law.com.

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