Dad’s Girl

Memories of a father can transcend time.

posted on January 25, 2010 in Patricia Schneider

“Come on Patsy, I have something to show you.” The voice filtered through the depths of my sleep. A hand shook my shoulder gently and strong arms lifted me and carried me outdoors. I shivered in my night gown, and the voice entreated me. “Listen.”

» More

A Hymn for Haiti

“In Haiti, there is anguish that seems too much to bear.”

by Connie Purvis

posted on January 18, 2010 in News

An American Presbyterian pastor has penned a moving hymn to unite churches in sharing grief and pain with the people of Haiti in the wake of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated the nation’s capital city on Jan. 12.

» More

The Rest of the Story

A tale of a different sort of Bible study.

by Patricia Schneider

posted on January 18, 2010 in Patricia Schneider

“A different kind of Bible study.”

So read the invitation in the church bulletin. Would it entice anyone? Would it entice staunch Presbyterians?

» More

Hear the Word of God

And make sure you're listening.

by Keith Randall

posted on January 15, 2010 in Wondering Wanderer

The challenge, the delight, of “doing radio” alone in a darkened studio is to make listeners of those who only hear. Dictionaries are a little ambiguous about my hair splitting, but when the reader proclaims: “Hear the word of God,” I think “listen to God’s word” might be more fruitful instruction.

» More

Worship and Play

Why don't we put them together more often?

by Andrew Donaldson

posted on January 15, 2010 in In Song

Sometimes I wonder where Presbyterians are the most playful—and self-revealing. I’m not convinced that it’s when we worship… Was that a logical leap? Blame it on the New Year’s egg-nog. Or blame it on our Presbyterian thesaurus that doesn’t put “worship” and “play” together.

» More

Presbyterians Rally for Quake-Stricken Haiti

Government to match donations up to $50 million.

by Connie Purvis

posted on January 14, 2010 in News

As traumatized residents wandered through the ruins of Port-au-Prince after an earthquake devastated the region on Jan. 12, support for relief efforts was already pouring into Presbyterian World Service and Development.

» More

From Disaster to Delight

Camping can be a lot of fun ... sometimes.

by Patricia Schneider

posted on January 11, 2010 in Patricia Schneider

My husband stood outside the open RV door in stunned silence. What had been a spotless RV was now strewn with sheets of paper towels and soup.

» More

Finding Myself

A journey to the past in search of the future.

by Patricia Schneider

posted on January 4, 2010 in Patricia Schneider

Although I have travelled many places, this particular journey is the strangest I have ever made. I have discovered that in losing a husband, I have lost who I am. Who was I before I took on all the roles of wife, mother, grandmother?

» More

Review: Song for Canada and Lift High the Cross

Two CD treats from the Oakridge Church choir from London, Ont.

by Andrew Donaldson

posted on January 1, 2010 in In Song

As I described in an earlier In Song entry, a church’s recording project can invite a wider public to listen to what is going on musically in a congregation, opening a window, and sometimes an inviting door, into its life.

» More

How Do You Pray?

It can be a learning process.

by Keith Randall

posted on January 1, 2010 in Wondering Wanderer

The dawning new year seems a moment that needs prayer as we face the unkown ahead. I suppose there is a course about prayer I could sign up for somewhere and maybe it would be helpful, like consulting a golf pro about my backswing.

» More

Communist China

by Frank G. Sterle, Jr., White Rock, B.C.

posted on January 1, 2010 in Letters

Why not be honest: the only thing communist about China is its government’s physically-brutal, authoritarian rule over its populace and that of Tibet; everything else about China’s government is capitalism based on smug wealth and greed.

» More

Sorry

by Nancy Wright

posted on January 1, 2010 in Letters

I’ve just looked at the November 2009 issue of the Presbyterian Record. In it on page 9 is a photo and write-up about Rev. James Grant. The information with the picture is for the most part incorrect.

» More

Remembering Kintail

by Gayle Aitken, Via Email

posted on January 1, 2010 in Letters

While I understand the feelings and needs of the family who owns the land on which the Camp Kintail chapel was situated, I have fond memories of singing We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder, Soldiers of the Cross, and sitting on the benches in the chapel on the edge of Lake Huron.

» More

What Happened?

by Dianne MacKeigan, Tillsonburg, Ont.

posted on January 1, 2010 in Letters

Today is Tuesday, November 3 and I just received my October Record in the mail. If I wanted to make the deadline for submitting a cover design for December, I would already be too late as the deadline was October 15th apparently.

» More

Remembering Calvin

by Gunar Krevalis

posted on January 1, 2010 in Letters

The Christianity I had come of seemed at times to be insane while Calvin offered sanity. Through Calvin it became okay for me to think rationally about my faith. It was a sorely needed balance to the emotionalism had been drowning in.

» More

Churches Share Less with National Offices

Staff to take one week of unpaid leave in 2010 and 2011.

by Connie Purvis

posted on January 1, 2010 in News

A sharper-than-expected decline in Presbyterians Sharing income will result in the loss of up to five positions at the church’s national offices as well as the loss of a week’s wages each year for two years.

The 2009 budget called for Presbyterians Sharing to raise about $8.6 million in revenue, but indications were that only about $8.4 million would come in by the year’s end.

Stephen Roche, the church’s treasurer and chief financial officer, told staff at a meeting called to announce the reductions that there was no way to know if the drop in contributions was a result of the recession or whether contributions would recover.

Since 1999, Presbyterians Sharing revenue, which supports national programs and ministries, has ranged from $8.6 million to a high of $8.76 in 2006, but it has fallen short of budget expectations since 2003, thanks in part to budget levels being raised by $50,000 each year. In 2008, the budget shortfall was nearly $400,000.

Assembly Council approved measures in late November that will reduce national office payroll by $300,000 over the next two years and permanently reduce its staff by between three and a half to five full-time-equivalent positions by 2011.

The national office building will be shut down for one week in 2010 and again in 2011, during which time staff will take an unpaid leave. In addition, no cost of living allowances will be granted for the next two years. A cumulative COLA will be restored in 2012, but will not be retroactive for the previous two years. COLA is approved by General Assembly each year.

“We have to have an impact,” said Stephen Kendall, principal clerk. “We have to let the church know something is being given up – a week of salary and also a week of work.”

The national office management team said the changes were necessary to avoid more drastic cuts in the future.

The 51 staff affected work for the Life and Mission Agency, apart from core Presbyterian World Service and Development positions, as well as the assembly office, financial services and support staff.

Pension and benefits staff, PWS&D and the Women’s Missionary Society are all separately funded, as are the Presbyterian Record and Presbyterian Church Building Corporation, which are separate corporations.

“Courts have typically allowed employers a little leniency on salary,” said Mia London, a labour lawyer with a Toronto-based firm. Although employers cannot legally change fundamental terms of an employee’s contract, such as rate of pay and hours of work, she said changes that result in a salary loss of less than 10 per cent are rarely worth time in court. The proposed changes will probably not surpass a six per cent loss in salary over two years.

The cuts are part of a complex package to temporarily reduce costs and increase revenue by $900,000 over the next two years, and permanently by $800,000 per year beginning in 2011. The budget revisions include $600,000 in temporary revenue transfers to the operating budget and $400,000 in permanent transfers from other church funds.

According to Gord Walford, convener of the finance committee, overly optimistic projections of Presbyterians Sharing revenue in an already finely balanced budget meant the committee suddenly “saw a lot of red ink” down the road.

Although the council presented General Assembly in June with gradual budget reductions of between $100,000 and $400,000 each year over the next three years for a total of $700,000, the committee had to make all the cuts for 2011, said treasurer Roche.

Other cuts include $41,000 from the General Assembly office, $110,000 from the LMA and $13,000 from support services. National committees will be restricted to meeting in the Toronto area because it is the cheapest travel hub in the country, and travel budget restrictions are included in the cuts.

The grant provided to Presbyterian colleges will be cut by a quarter of a per cent, saving about $25,000 a year.

To buoy the operating fund, council increased up to eight times the amount of undesignated bequest money in the fund. Normally, $25,000 of an undesignated bequest is kept in the fund, with the remainder treated as a deferred bequest. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, up to $200,000 from undesignated bequests can remain in the operating fund.

A number of large bequests received in the past few years prompted the council to establish a stabilization fund from which the operating fund could draw up to $240,000 each year. Beginning in 2011, the annual withdrawal limit will almost double to $440,000.

Another $200,000 will be withdrawn annually from the new church development capital fund, administered by Canada Ministries, and added to the operating fund. The capital fund, which held almost $6.7 million at the end of 2008, receives 30 per cent of the assets of dissolved congregations and generates about $250,000 in interest income each year.

General Assembly will also be asked to approve biennial assemblies starting in 2012 or 2013. Assembly costs about $350,000. Even if a national event were held in alternate years, it would save the church about $125,000 annually.

A recommendation at the 2009 assembly asked sessions, presbyteries and other courts of the church to vote on biennial assemblies and to provide feedback to be presented at the 2010 assembly.

The changes were not passed without critical comment. “As a member of the national stewardship committee, I’ve seen these numbers many times,” said Rev. Wes Denyer of St. Andrew’s, Brampton, Ont., as the proposals were presented for ratification.

“We continue to fail to find – or fail to attempt to find – a more creative way of funding the work of the national church. What I see is the way we do things isn’t working, and I see nothing in this proposal to change the way we do things.”

Letters – January 2010

posted on January 1, 2010 in Letters

Suggested Reading, by Albert Bailey, Simcoe, Ont.

Communist China, by Frank G. Sterle, Jr., White Rock, B.C.

Sorry, by Nancy Wright

Remembering Kintail, by Gayle Aitken, Via Email

What Happened?, by Dianne MacKeigan, Tillsonburg, Ont.

Remembering Calvin, by Gunar Krevalis

Hopeful and Needful Articles, by Pat Allison, New Brunswick

Peace Country, by Joyce Yanishewski, Wanham, Alta.

Deeply Impressed, by Lois Klempa

On Dying and Death, by Barbara Smibert, Ancaster, Ont.

Front and Centre, by Rev. Dr. Chuck Congram, Belle River, Ont.

Tending the Garden, by Murdo Smith, Victoria

Duct Tape, by Gary Naylor, Via email

Some Good Things Happened, by Valerie Canfield, Via email

Moving Toward Creative Change, by Rev. Dr. Hans Kouwenberg, Abbotsford, B.C.

Hopeful and Needful Articles

by Pat Allison, New Brunswick

posted on January 1, 2010 in Letters

Love the stylized front cover graphics (and those inside the cover as well). However, this is not the only point of communication today.

For oh so long many of us who are called laity have wondered at denominational rules about communion-serving, even baptism-applying and more. Rules made up by denominations are not found in scripture at all. Here we have heard from those seeing what we have been seeing for years … the need to exercise the priesthood of all believers (in Christ). It isn’t a big stretch to see that many are Holy Spirit-abled to lead and serve with Holy Spirit-given gifts, given for the good of all. Even without the rules of multi-degrees, without Word and Sacrament titles applied.

Imagine Christ equipping his priests to serve in all the needed ways.

Thank you to David Webber and the report on New Zealand’s rural church; for Calvin Brown’s comments for Lay Missionaries and Roland DeVries on “Our” Church. We also loved the story called The Piano by Harold McNabb. (A wonderful no coincidence-at-all story of Jesus’ Spirit at work across the land.)

Thanks for publishing these encouraging, forward looking, hopeful and needful articles.

Go PCC … open the doors and windows to fresh Holy Spirit winds and let God out of the proverbial box that we try so hard to maintain with our many denominational rules.

Letting God be God seems the best idea.