November 28, 2005

Can We Hear You Now?

Verizon guys say, “Can you hear me now?” This month, your Presbytery is asking, “Can we hear you now?”

This week members of the Presbytery staff are commencing the Great Presbytery Staff Road Trip – with an effort to visit every church in the Presbytery during the next five weeks. We want to introduce ourselves to you – half of us are new – and hear from you. As you prepare to welcome us, I want to encourage you to reflect on what things the Presbytery could do to assist you in your ministry and to think of helpful resources that you would like to share with others in the Presbytery. Most of all, we want to learn how we might help you more.

On another matter, last week we learned of the death of Coretta Scott King – a strong voice for racial equality and justice. Her death reminds us that an era is coming to an end. Last week we were reminded that her work is not done. In Federal Hill, an African American professor was harassed by two rogue and off-duty police officers. Would it not be a beautiful day if America asked Coretta (and Martin), “Can we hear you now?” I am sad that for many of us the connection is still fuzzy and unclear.

The Great Ends of the Church calls us to demonstrate the Kingdom of God to the world. Whether it is in our internal workings as a Presbytery or our connections with others who are different from us, let us strive to uphold this end.

Blessings,

Peter Nord

Inside this issue

Can We Hear You Now?

Take Note/Act Now

§ Educators Roundtable

§ POAMN

§ Springfield Hospital Ctr. Chaplain

§ News Update

§ 2006 Legislative Agenda

§ Big Event

§ ACREC

§ Katrina Work Trips

Prayer Concerns

St. Andrews NCD

People

Pray for Richard W. Shreffler, Pastor Emeritus of 1^st of Bel Air, who is in the Care Center at Oak Crest Retirement Community.

George DeMass’s mother’s service will be on Thursday, February 23^rd at 7:00pm at Perry Hall PC.

Pray for Dottie Sharp’s recovery.

William McGill, retired minister, died on January 5^th. For more please see the Presbytery homepage.

Prayer Concerns

St. Andrew’s NCD

asks for prayers:

· For Pastor Dan Melton as he refines the comprehensive vision plan for the church

· For a positive response and active participation during the presentation of the Vision to the congregation on February 26^th

Take Note/Act Now

The next meeting of the Educators Roundtable will take place February 9, 2006 at the Presbytery Office. Guest Speaker: Ed Richardson, DCE at Govans PC and Professor of Christian Education, Ecumenical Institute. Topic related to Big Event “Fear Not”.

Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network (POAMN) will be holding their annual conference April 19-22, 2006 at Stony Point, NY. Learn more about the conference and the theme, “A Passion for People”, at http://www.pcusa.org/olderadults/poamn.htm.

Springfield Hospital Center currently has no chaplains and patients are requesting them. They are seeking to hire chaplains immediately (Read More).

Read comments by Peter Nord regarding news about the Baltimore Presbytery in the Layman and at the Legislature on the Advocacy Team News page of our website: http://baltimorepresbytery.org/AdvocacyTeamNews.htm.

The agenda for the 2006 Maryland Legislative Season has been posted to the Presbytery website within the Advocacy section (a sub page of the “Our Ministry” section or click here).

The Big Event will be held at Woods Memorial PC on Saturday, February 25, 2006. Brochures have been mailed to each church. The brochure is also available as a PDF off of the home page of the Presbytery website: click here.

The Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC) announces the launch of its Web site at www.pcusa.org/acrec.

Hurricane Katrina work trips:

§ The Presbyteries of Baltimore, New Castle and National Capital are coming together to form a coalition to support and train groups who would like to travel to the Gulf Coast. Read more on our website. More details coming soon.

Also on our website

Don’t miss all the new Local Church Announcements at: http://www.baltimorepresbytery.org/announcements.html.

Past Issues of Tidings are available at: http://www.baltimorepresbytery.org/midweekmail.html.

Presbytery Yearly Calendar

Peter Nord, Executive Presbyter

pnord@baltimorepresbytery.org

Bill Millen, Associate Executive

bmillen@baltimorepresbytery.org

Deb Milcarek

Associate of Mission and Justice

dmilcarek@baltimorepresbytery.org

Charles Forbes, Stated Clerk