'GA Peas’ gather five presbyteries for Potluck Conversations
Workshops and communion draw leaders from Cherokee, Flint River, Greater Atlanta, Northeast Georgia and Savannah presbyteries to St. Simons Island
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Georgia — The last time representatives from all five Georgia presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathered in one place was 1998. On Feb. 20–21, 2026, that changed.
More than 200 leaders from Cherokee, Flint River, Greater Atlanta, Northeast Georgia and Savannah presbyteries gathered at Epworth by the Sea conference center for the All Georgia Presbyteries’ Gathering, a two-day event built around workshops, potluck conversations and shared worship under the theme “Building a Bigger Table: Gathering, Sharing and Learning Together.”
The gathering had roots stretching to 1979, when Savannah Presbytery launched what was then called the Elder Training Conference at Epworth. Over the decades the event evolved — first renamed the Leadership Development Conference, then the Faith Enrichment Conference — expanding its audience each time. “The idea was that everyone wants to enrich their faith,” said Marty Susie, who directs mission and program advancement for Savannah Presbytery and was the registrar for this year’s joint gathering. “The conference fulfills its purpose by providing exceptional keynote speakers and workshop opportunities that inspire, educate, and equip participants to carry their new knowledge and inspiration back to their congregations.”
What grew this year into a five-presbytery event traces to a series of quarterly planning meetings among the five Georgia presbyteries’ leadership teams, who call themselves the “GA Peas.” Encouraged by ruling elder Valerie Young, synod executive for the Synod of South Atlantic, the group formed a task force in mid-2024, surveyed their committees and commissions, and selected Feb. 20–21 as the date. The Rev. Andy James, stated clerk of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, convened the planning team.
Participants chose from 13 workshops across two blocks. The Rev. Ellen Sherby, manager of internationally-based global ecumenical liaisons with the Interim Unified Agency’s Global Ecumenical Partnerships team, facilitated a session on the denomination’s evolving approach to global mission. She described the shift toward a broader vision in which all congregations and communities practice agency and understand themselves within global ministry. Sherby provided information on the office of Global Ecumenical Partnerships, which includes international and U.S.-based liaisons, as well as incorporates a closer connection to the manager, staff and programs of the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
“When you think of the word ‘global,’ we’ve often thought of focusing internationally,” Sherby said. “What we’re also trying to do is give new expression to help make it clear that global includes the United States — the world is here.”
The Rev. Dana Waters, ministry relations officer for the Presbyterian Foundation in the Southeast region, led two sessions on stewardship. One, “Expanding the Offering Plate: Sustainable Funding Models for Churches,” introduced actionable steps and real-life examples for congregations seeking additional revenue streams beyond Sunday offerings. The other, “Weaving Stewardship into Worship Throughout the Church Year,” explored how churches can incorporate giving and generosity into every season of their worship life rather than treating stewardship as an annual campaign. The Rev. Susan Haynes, a clergy member from Cherokee Presbytery, found Waters’ perspective on the history of church giving especially useful and recommended that Waters present for a presbytery-wide event for Cherokee Presbytery.
“The fact that the way we give to the church now is really pretty much a new concept — when you compare it to the different ways the work of the Church has been funded over the centuries,” Haynes said. “I certainly learned some things I didn’t know.”
Friday evening’s Potluck Conversations drew some of the most engaged discussion of the conference. In two open-format rounds, participants self-selected into informal conversations on topics they generated themselves — from youth ministry and racial justice to hunger ministries and public policy advocacy.
One session introduced attendees to Presbyterians for a Better Georgia (PBG), a nonpartisan statewide advocacy organization that employs a lobbyist at the Georgia State Legislature to work on housing and health-care access. The Rev. David Lewicki, pastor of North Decatur Presbyterian Church and co-chair of PBG, described the group’s animating vision and described the expanding network of churches beyond metro Atlanta, north to Cartersville and south to Augusta, and hopefully further as all Georgia presbyteries collaborate in ministry.
“Can we imagine a world in which no one is homeless in Georgia? Can we imagine a Georgia in which every person can go to a doctor when they’re sick?” Lewicki said. “We put those visions in front of our legislators and say, ‘Help us.’”
The Rev. Dr. John Ruehl, pastor of White Bluff Presbyterian Church in Savannah — which recently celebrated 280 years as a congregation and is the oldest continuously Calvinist church in Georgia — reflected on what civic engagement means for a congregation with that kind of history, which is now discerning how to address the needs of immigrants and refugees. “Self-governing was meant to have open doors to the faith that we claim,” Ruehl said. “We just need to call ourselves through to the awareness of that.”
A separate potluck session on hunger ministries drew participants from rural, suburban and urban congregations who traded stories of food ministries under pressure. Ruling elder Richard Shelton of First Presbyterian Church of Valdosta described his congregation’s Meals on Wheels-style program, which has delivered free meals five days a week for 52 years but has faced mounting financial strain since 2021.
“We serve 32 meals a day,” Shelton said. “The ministry went negative in 2021 — which was our last year with a positive cash flow. Right now, we’re sustaining it from the membership. So, where do we go from here?”
Joyce Dejoie, a ruling elder at Belle-Terrace Presbyterian Church in Augusta, described her congregation’s new partnership with a local medical practice to refer patients managing chronic disease to the church’s community garden, a collaboration seven years in the making.
“We’re not a food desert that surrounds our church — but it’s the step before the desert. We want to educate, to feed, to have people participate, see how food is grown, what it takes, and to eat fresh groceries,” said Dejoie.
For Susie, who directs Savannah Presbytery's School of the Laity certificate program and has organized a similar annual conference for Savannah Presbytery at Epworth for decades, the scope of this gathering — five presbyteries, one table — felt like something the region had been moving toward for years.
“Beyond the formal sessions, it was the shared meals, joyful reunions and meaningful conversations — especially during the Potluck Conversations — that felt deeply sacred,” she said. “I left reminded that God is still moving, that the Church is alive with the Spirit — not only in worship, but in conversation, community and the shared bread of our connected body.”
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