Retired & Thinking

Just noted the recent tallies on voting for 08-b and seeing how badly it was passed this past weekend by the Presbytery of the Cascades. The vote wasn't a surprise; the presbytery is blue across the votes. What did catch my eye was the number of those voting. I couldn't help but wonder why a loss of 210 voters over 11 years. We have had a number of deaths among retired ministers but have also gained more than a few who want to come to the Pacific Northwest. Maybe people are just tired of the fight. Some are just too busy being a pastor to their members. Saturday afternoon I ran into one member of Presbytery who didn't attend the meeting at an event for one of his members because being with his member was more important. Sadly, I might assume that some figure if they don't go they're not to blame for what happens. With a presbytery of some 65,000 square miles the place where the vote is held might be an issue as well. The largest turnouts for meetings take place in ...

Toby Brown has blogged about " Two Types of Presbyteries " and within 5 minutes of reading his blog I received the following letter from Rev. Brian Boisen, of Hope Presbyterian Church in Rouge River. Brian was in Sacramento with Rick and me, he is wonderful brother in the faith and a man of God. He's attempted to lead his congregation faithfully into and through difficult waters and…we'll I'll let you read what has occurred… Letter dated November 7, 2007 "My dear brothers and sisters in Christ and colleagues in His ministry, I wanted to get this note to you before you all gather for presbytery this weekend. I’m writing to let you know about what has been happening with our congregation, Hope Presbyterian Church in Rogue River, and I am doing it to honor our relationship and shared work over the past number of years, and because I am sure it will be discussed at presbytery. In a nutshell Hope has disaffiliated itself from the PC(USA) and placed itsel...