wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] 600 on board for pastors' retreat

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8715 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05215
April 20, 2005

600 on board for pastors' retreat

First-ever national event to offer more than 'headwork'

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - On the eve of the registration deadline, nearly 600 Presbyterian
ministers and their spouses have registered for the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.)'s first-ever National Pastors Retreat, May 27-31.

	Billed as "A Pastor's Sabbath," the Memorial Day Weekend event will
be more loosely structured than any national gathering of Presbyterians in
recent memory, according to the Rev. Sheldon Sorge of the Theology and
Worship Office here.

	Sorge, a member of a staff "resource team" pulling the event
together, told the Presbyterian News Service: "Our goal is to have something
truly re-creative. It's not overly programmed. We hope pastors will
appreciate the opportunity to do something other than 'headwork.'"

	Registration, originally restricted to pastors serving congregations,
was expanded recently to include specialized clergy - but national and
governing body staff have not been included. "This is for pastors," Sorge
said.

	The retreat, to be held at the Snowbird Resort in the Wasatch
Mountains near Salt Lake City, will include morning presentations on "sabbath
time" by renowned theologian Walter Brueggemann, free afternoons, and evening
worship.

	The retreat preachers are the Rev. James Forbes, pastor of Riverside
Church in New York City; the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest
and professor of religion and philosophy at Piedmont College in Georgia; and
the Rev. Tony Campolo, acclaimed evangelical urban ministry expert and
professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University in St. David's, PA.

	The retreat grew out of conversations a few years ago among the
leaders of the six national agencies of the PC(USA) - General Assembly
Council, Office of the General Assembly, Board of Pensions, Presbyterian
Foundation, Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program and the Presbyterian
Publishing Corporation - as they considered off-year possibilities when the
denomination moved to biennial General Assemblies.

	"The greatest need identified was simply pastoral renewal," Sorge
said. "No hidden agendas - just providing the opportunity for Presbyterian
pastors to get together in a completely different way."

	After the resource team composed of one staff member from each of the
six entities did the initial planning, the event was turned over to a
committee of pastors, chaired by the Rev. William R. Forbes of New Jersey,
who has since gone to work for the Board of Pensions.

	Other members of the planning committee are the Rev. David Kwon of
First Presbyterian Church, Elmira, NY; the Rev. Patricia Lane of Trinity
Presbyterian Church, El Paso, TX; the Rev. Ella Busby of New Harvest
Presbyterian Church, Florence, SC; the Rev. Laird Stuart of Calvary
Presbyterian Church in San Francisco; the Rev. Jerry Tankersley of Laguna
Beach (CA) Presbyterian Church; and the Rev. Anne Apple, a member at-large of
Memphis Presbytery.

	Space is still available - Snowbird can accommodate 800 - but the
registration deadline is Friday, April 22. Register online at
www.pcusa.org/pastorsabbath or by fax at (502) 569-8642. For more
information, call (888) 728-7228, ext. 2417.

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