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222nd General Assembly

June 18-25, 2016 in Portland, OR

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is holding its biennial meeting in Portland, Oregon, June 18-25. Here is a link to all the information available about this important gathering in the life of our denomination.

General Assembly website

You will find information on the docket for the GA, as well as a link to PC-Biz, where you can find information about overtures and committees of the General Assembly, and follow the business of the GA in real time using SessionSync.

The Presbytery of East Tennessee has elected the following individuals to attend this year's GA:

Teaching Elders: Ann Myers (validated ministry with Dept. of Correction) and Max Reddick (pastor, Fountain City Presbyterian Church)
Ruling Elders: Kenneth Kim (Korean, Knoxville) and Mary Boyd (Westminster)
Young Adult Advisory Delegate: Malerie Lazar (New Providence)

John Knox Center hosts PET

On Tuesday, May 17, 2016, John Knox Center hosted the stated meeting of the Presbytery of East Tennessee. In addition to enjoying the beauty of God's creation, we engaged in the shared work of the Presbytery, including the following actions:

Recognized the retirements of the Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden, recently received into the Presbytery from Lake Michigan Presbytery, and the Rev. Dr. Joe Tanner, who has served First Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, TN since 1984. (That's 32 years!)

Recognized the retirement of Barbara Flowers, long-time John Knox Center administrative assistant

Received into membership the Rev. Dr. Gradye Parsons, current Stared Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Approved a grant of $250,000 from the Congregational Development Team Fund to the Korean Presbyterian Church in Knoxville for an expansion of their church facilities to accommodate their growing congregation.

Approved the appointment of a new treasurer, Josh McGill (ruling elder, Lake Forest Presbyterian Church)

Awarded the New Vision Banners to Highland Presbyterian Church in Maryville in recognition of their outreach efforts to people with disabilities.

A highlight of the meeting was the opportunity to break into smaller groups to explore four different topics led by various individuals from the Presbytery:

Art as a means to Ministry (The Rev. John Stuart - pictured here)

Social Media for Churches and Ministries (Ms. Jaclyn Beeler)

Group building exercises for congregational groups (JKC staff)

Creative Worship (The Rev. Laura Becker)

From the Hunger Committee

Hunger Ministry at Powell Presbyterian Church

Powell Presbyterian Church has an active food pantry that has been supported by the Presbytery Cents-ability Hunger Offering. Here is the picture of all their volunteers unloading the Second Harvest food truck.

Pastor Jonathan Warren points out, "This is truly a community effort with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Kroger employees, community leaders, and church members." On April 23, they made a food distribution and the next day, the congregation hosted a homeless family through Family Promise of Knoxville. "For a congregation with less than 100 members we continue to follow Christ's call to help our neighbors.."

From the Climate & Energy Stewardship Team

Carbon footprints and natural gas

We use natural gas to heat our homes and water, cook food, dry clothes, and can even be used to run cars. It is used in some power plants to generate electricity and has other industrial uses. It is relatively cheap, and generates roughly half the CO2 as coal when burned. All of this makes natural gas an attractive fuel for our energy needs. But of course there are downsides. There are the damaging effects incurred during the process of extraction and transporting, including fracking and its associated consequences of erosion, earthquakes, and water pollution, as well as a certain amount of leakage into the atmosphere of the gas which consists mainly of methane (a much worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide). And while burning of natural gas releases much less greenhouse gases than the burning of coal, it is still a fossil fuel, so isn't renewable or carbon-free. In continuing our look at our carbon footprints, the impact from natural gas usage is highly variable from one household to another, of course, but can be measured by looking at your natural gas bill and multiplying the volume of gas (in ccf) by $0.235 to get the social cost. This is one more piece of the puzzle that will illustrate how our use of earth's resources impact all of creation. Stay tuned to see how we can use this information to protect the gifts God has provided.

Spread the news!

We invite you to share your news with us. All articles and news items must be submitted by the 20th of the month prior to publication. Send your information to Dana Hendrix, dana@presbyteryeasttn.org.