New Presbyterian Life & Witness Board finds its footing in a glorious corner of God’s Creation
At Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center, 18 board members come together for the first time
ZEPHYR POINT, Nevada — Meeting for the first time in person at the spectacularly scenic Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center, the Presbyterian Life & Witness Board on Monday opened the first of three days together in worship, with board member the Rev. Scott Lumsden offering a reflection on Matthew 18:15-20, a recent lectionary passage.
Lumsden, co-executive of Seattle Presbytery, noted that on first blush the passage seems to be about church conflict. In his experience, conflict is often about discerning a new direction, “and others aren’t feeling it, so there’s this tension. Sometimes there’s even bad behavior.”
“This is where we come in,” Lumsden told fellow board members. “What can make our work different [from that of previous governing boards] is reforming and rethinking this journey in our context.”
“From time to time we will have to hit the pause button, ask more questions and maybe disagree with each other, living in that tension,” Lumsden said. “It’s some of the hardest work a board can do.”
The Bible passage concludes with Jesus promising that where two or three are “gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
“My prayer for us is as we discern the future for our church and the work before us is we rest in that promise and discover the opportunities and possibilities God has for us a church,” Lumsden said.
On-the-job training
Much of Monday was spent hearing reports and training the 18-member board to handle the work ahead. The PL&W Board is the successor to the former Presbyterian Mission Agency Board and the Committee on the General Assembly, which were dissolved following unification of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and the Office of the General Assembly. The Unification Commission served as the governing body in the interim.
In a report to the board, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA) and Executive Director of PL&W, noted some of the work that must be done regarding referrals from the 227th General Assembly and appointments to special GA committees by Co-Moderators the Rev. Marta Pumroy-Cordero and the Rev. Dr. Kris Schondelmeyer.
“All of this work is happening in the context of a world that is in need of God’s love and justice,” Oh wrote to the board, “of partners who are calling for meaningful and costly solidarity in the places of greatest injustice, of a society in which both ecumenical and interfaith unity and witness are growing in importance, of a church and world that continues to experience rapid transition, and of a deep longing for wholeness — just peace, abundant live, repair, restoration, redemption, equity, flourishing of all Creation and more.”
Pumroy-Cordero and Schondelmeyer offered brief talks on their work to date, having recently undergone orientation at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. “At every meeting, we’ve asked, ‘How can we be praying for you?’” Pumroy-Cordero said.
She highlighted a visit to Grace Presbyterian Church in El Paso, Texas, which is “creatively” using part of its space for bearded dragon rescue.
Schondelmeyer compared the task of the PL&W Board to Wasgij puzzles, which require the person putting the puzzle together “to imagine the future version of the puzzle and what it might look like.”
“To me, that’s an example of what’s happening in the life of the church,” he said, “if we’re open and listening to the movement of the Holy Spirit.”
Board members then viewed six brief videos, from Presbyterian Women, the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Foundation, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, PL&W and the Administrative Services Group, hearing after each one from leaders from each agency or entity.
Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program doesn’t yet have its video, but Clare Lewis, PILP’s president, said she didn’t need a visual.
“Your feet are on the floor [in Dobbins Hall] of a project we helped fund,” she said. “The building you’re sleeping in” was also financed by PILP.
Presbyterian Women’s executive director and president, Dr. Susan Jackson-Dowd, said PW “is built on a connectional level. It is participant based, not membership based,” and is comprised of people “who fulfill Presbyterian Women’s purpose in any way,” including working for peace and justice.
Krysten Carter Holloway, President and CEO of the Board of Pensions, said she walks the floors of the Board’s office in Philadelphia every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to pray for the staff. “Going forward, it is my goal to make sure we understand where we are connected and to tell our stories better about what we can do,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of the Rev. Dr. Tom Taylor, Rob Fohr, the Presbyterian Foundation’s Senior Vice President for Strategy and Engagement, said the Foundation values its relationships with PL&W and ASG, noting Oh and A Corporation President Ian Hall are both members of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Hall offered talks on both PL&W’s financial picture and enterprise risk management, which he said assists leadership and boards on how to evaluate risk “and what our appetite for risk is.”
For the A Corporation Board, the Administrative Services Group identifies categories and levels of risk. The A Corp Board reviews those identified as high risk every quarter. Hall gave examples of risk at every level, including cybersecurity risks, damage to the PC(USA)’s reputation by, say, a cybersecurity breach, and flood or tornado damage to the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
April Davenport, General Counsel in Administrative Services Group, took board members through its ethics policy, and Kelly Beeland, a consultant who facilitated work for the Unification Commission, offered a brief talk on the work of governing.
During worship on Monday evening, Oak Arias, a corresponding member representing the Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice, used Ezekiel’s account of the Valley of Dry Bones to talk about new life, using his own medical history as inspiration.
"You decided to show up for some reason,” Arias told the board. “You’re all a different part of the body of Christ, and it’s going to take all of you to make this work.”
“What if Ezekiel hadn’t followed God’s instructions? We all have a purpose here,” Arias said, “and it’s awesome to see how you stand up and say, ‘I disagree, and we need to talk about that.’”
Arias prayed to close out the evening, asking God “to breathe through this board in whatever way is needed now.” He also asked the Almighty to “move through us as you moved through the Valley of Dry Bones.”
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