GA08086

Joe Small honored with festschrift

by Janet Tuck

The Rev. Michael Lindvall spoke at the Company of Pastors/Order of Elders lunch on Tuesday. Photo by Joseph Williams

SAN JOSE, June 25, 2008 — The Company of Pastors/Order of Elders Luncheon was held at the Fairmont Hotel on Tuesday as a part of the gathering of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The organization was formed to provide a schedule of spiritual disciplines for pastors and elders. The disciplines include daily readings, prayer, book studies and regional gatherings for mutual encouragement.

Lunch was served to a busy room full of pastors and elders. They gathered to enjoy the fellowship but also to celebrate the recent publication of the essay collection, Theology in service of the church: Essays in Honor of Joseph D. Small III.

The collection was a surprise gift for Small, longtime director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Theology, Worship, and Education. Known as a festschrift, the essays were contributed by theologians, pastors and church leaders whose work Small has long admired.

Speaking at the luncheon was the Rev. Michael Lindvall, pastor of Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. He urged pastors to choose to love their congregations and to love the place in which they find them, calling this en loco pastorus.