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Congregational Mission Partners

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Presbytery Partnerships

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Greetings

To the members of the presbytery,

In The Acts of the Apostles Luke tells us, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John…they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.” The obvious question is whether, either as individuals or as the church, we ever give a similar impression.

I believe that the stories contained in this year’s Annual Report bear witness to the fact that many congregations, individuals and groups are demonstrating “boldness” in their witness to our living Lord and Savior. I urge you to read this report and share the stories with others. More importantly, I ask you to pray for those who are represented in these stories.

Perhaps the most tragic thing that can be said about a church, presbytery or denomination is that it has great potential. If you can remember back to your high school physics class, you might recall the difference between potential and kinetic energy. Potential energy is like a spring wound up, ready to uncoil, but suspended in time, waiting. Kinetic energy is motion, the spring unleashed, moving, and working.

A presbytery with potential is a presbytery where the talent, the resources, the ability to take up the cross in the name of Christ is all present. A presbytery with potential, however, lacks the will to put all those talents and resources to work. It is a presbytery standing at the threshold of the Kingdom but without the nerve to step into it. A presbytery waiting, suspended, caught in time.

Let it not be said that the Presbytery of Cincinnati has potential. Rather, let it be said that the Presbytery of Cincinnati is kinetic, in motion, ever moving in the direction of the Kingdom, ever moving forward in our pilgrimage and witness, allowing God to touch us and use us.

Blessings,

The Reverend James DiEgidio
General Presbyter

Outdoor Ministry & Christian Education Scholarships

Living into the New Form of Government

In 2011, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted a major revision of its Constitution that kept the “what” of decision-making in the Form of Government and shifted the “who” and “how” to the various councils (formerly known as governing bodies). This shift, along with changes in some basic terminology and citation numbers, necessitated changes to the presbytery’s way of doing business as well as its bylaws, policies, and other documents.

As stated clerk, I have edited documents to reflect the new language and numbers and encouraged committees to update policies and practices. I have not worked alone. Special thanks go to the following for helping the presbytery live into the new Form of Government:

• General Assembly Commissioner Gregg Rabenold (Heritage), who led pre-presbytery events concerning “nFOG”
• Council Chair Cinda Gorman (life coach, Seasons of Purpose), Moderator Jill Moormann (Knox), and General Presbyter Jim DiEgidio, who led Presbytery Council in a comprehensive review of presbytery responsibilities
• Donna Burckle (bookkeeper), who ordered and distributed copies of the new Book of Order
• Marion Montefiore (administrative assistant) and Sandy Phillips (business manager), who changed headings in the Presbytery Directory, on presbytery registration lists and signs, and many other documents
• Rhonda O’Reilly (member-at-large), Bob Clary (HR) and Chris White (stated supply, Christ), who helped update COM policies
• Barry Stare (College Hill), who drafted a new checklist for the Committee on Church Order’s session minutes reviews
• Clerks and/or moderators of Blue Ash, College Hill, Crescent Springs, Crestview, Heritage, Knox, Mt. Washington and North sessions, who shared policies as examples for other sessions to use in updating or creating their manuals of operation.
• Sessions who made sure that church bylaws and policies were amended to include provisions that once were (but no longer are) covered by the Form of Government
• Everyone who has made an effort to make the transition to our new way of ordering things go as decently as possible even though it has meant learning new language and ways of making decisions.

Janis Alling Adams, Stated Clerk

Presbytery Statistics

Throughout history, God’s people have recorded numbers – two, seven, 12, 40, 114,000 – which gain meaning only as we become more familiar with the stories surrounding them. So, too, with a presbytery’s annual statistics. As you read the following, please keep the people they signify in mind and prayer.

Congregations
At the beginning of 2011, the presbytery was composed of the Taiwanese Presbyterian Ministry of Greater Cincinnati and 83 congregations. During the year, the presbytery dissolved Bantam Presbyterian Church at the request of its members and appointed an administrative commission to work with four congregations intending to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): Church By The Woods, Holtsinger Memorial, Russellville, and Wheat Ridge.

Teaching Elders
In 2011, the presbytery welcomed six new members: Jim Brazell (member-at-large), David Good (interim pastor, Calvin), Stephen Melton (interim pastor, Loveland), Clem Street (interim pastor, Harrison First), and Deborah Uchtmann (stated supply, Bethel Murdoch). It transferred four teaching elders to other presbyteries: Bruce Archibald to Western New York, Lance Jones to Arkansas, Nate Manzo to Blackhawk, and Mark Wright to Carlisle. Having been on the inactive roll for three years without change in status, Dennis Lo was removed from the rolls. On November 9, the presbytery lost the Rev. Caroll Wood (HR) to death.

At year’s end, the presbytery rolls included 143 Presbyterian teaching elders and two ministers from other denominations:
60 serving with congregations (including four honorably retired),
15 serving in validated ministries outside congregations (including one honorably retired)
59 honorably retired (four serving with congregations, one in a validated ministry), and
16 members at-large of the presbytery.

Ruling Elders Commissioned to Pastoral Service
There were also changes among ruling elders commissioned to pastoral service. The presbytery commissioned Vicki Abend to succeed Lewis Wittman in serving with Calvary. Jim Faas’s service with Church By The Woods ended. At year’s end, the presbytery had 14 ruling elders commissioned to pastoral service: 13 serving with congregations and one in a validated ministry.

Inquirers and Candidates
This year the presbytery enrolled Christy Lee Mitchell (Hillsboro First) as an inquirer and moved Dawn Black (Northminster), Sungduk Kim (College Hill), and Kevin Waters (Northwest) to candidacy. At the end of 2011, there were four inquirers and four candidates preparing to become teaching elders.

Certified Christian Educators
There were no changes in the number of certified Christian educators (3 employed, 2 retired).

For complete lists of people serving in the above categories, visit “About Us” at www.presbyteryofcincinnati.org.

Sessions
Each year sessions are required to submit reports on about 50 variables (e.g. membership gains and losses by types, Christian education enrollment, and racial ethnic composition). A ten-year trend report for each congregation is available at www.pcusa.org/tenyeartrends.

A special THANKS to all session clerks, administrators, treasurers, and others who submit data throughout the year.

Janis Alling Adams, Stated Clerk

Presbytery Office Staff

The Presbytery of Cincinnati office staff consists of Donna Burckle, Marion Montefiore, and Sandy Phillips. Marion is the Administrative Assistant responsible for publishing the annual directory, answering the phone, and keeping track of all the information received by the presbytery office. Donna is the Bookkeeper responsible for making sure all of the funds are allocated to the correct place and also for ordering all of the bulk mail items for the presbytery. Sandy is the Business Administrator responsible for logistics for the presbytery meetings, and finance. She works with Jim McVicker, the presbytery’s Treasurer. Annie Tinsley is the presbytery’s Custodian and has held that position since 1986.

Llanfair Retirement Community

(The Rev. Jan Ledford serves as the Chaplain at the Llanfair Retirement Community, a Presbytery Partnership. I have taken the liberty of editing some of her annual report for Validated Ministry to include in our Presbytery Annual Report. Reading through the names and roles of many of our involved pastors is a testimony to this shared ministry. Editor)

My traditional ministry focuses on celebrating worship and the sacrament of communion in two Sunday services each week and in a total of four Bible study groups that I lead in various living areas of our community. I preach each week for the Sunday 11 am worship held in our Nursing Center and twice a month for our 3pm Vespers Service. The other two to three weeks I invite our resident’s pastors as guests worship leaders for that service. While many of our independent residents remain involved in their community church, those who cannot, welcome this opportunity to worship with their pastor.

With the opening of our new Chapel two years ago our new music offerings have been enthusiastically received. Our organists, Phil Bishop of Covenant First Presbyterian, and Earl Apel of Mt Auburn Presbyterian, alternate Sundays and have brought musicians from their congregations to inspire our congregation.

For Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost special programs and services are also planned by me with a Team on our Spiritual Life Committee. In addition, though I make it a priority to involve the pastors of our resident’s home churches, when that is not in place, I also take the primary role of comfort for our dying residents and their families and as well as officiate their funeral services, most often in our chapel, or in funeral homes.

My teaching ministry has focused in the past year on drawing resident attention toward expressions of faith in the world around us. I have offered programs such as “Everyday Spirituality”, “Healing Oils of the Bible”, and “In Company With Angels” (which expanded on the Taft Museum exhibition of Angel Tiffany windows from a local Swedenborgian Church). We also had a three part series on the influence of community churches on the development of early Cincinnati. The Rev. Russell Smith from Covenant First PC offered a program “From Cleopatra to Christ” when the Cleopatra exhibit was in Cincinnati. And in November he will begin a four part series called “The Gospel According to Shakespeare” that will coincide with each of the Festival plays. In October I offered a program called “Sharing Food and Faith” in which three Turkish young women introduced our residents to their food and their Muslim faith. If there is enough interest, we hope to continue this dialogue with several cooking classes. These young women have offered this program in several of our Presbytery churches and I wanted our residents to have the opportunity as well.

Our Llanfair representative from the Ohio Presbyterian Retirement System Church Relations Council is Sara Smith, a member of Crestview Presbyterian Church. Her role is to encourage and support Llanfair’s relationships with churches of our residents. She attends Presbytery meetings and works with me and our marketing department to fulfill our Covenant Agreement with the Presbytery in offering educational programs and services from Llanfair to community churches. One of the programs she offers twice a year is called Tools for the Servant in which in-services on topics of interest to pastors and parish nurses are given. Finally, in August we hosted a Saturday morning meeting of Presbyterian Women for the second time at Llanfair and I am hopeful that we can continue to develop this relationship.

In many retirement facilities as well as hospitals, the ministry of a chaplain is narrowly defined by worship and room visits. I hope that this description of my ministry and our Presbyterian Partners makes it evident that ministry at Llanfair is about bringing the perspective of faith to many facets of our life together. What a blessing and privilege!