Saturday, November 14, 2009

Presbytery of New Covenant Report: Overture and IKE

Our presbytery had its last meeting of the year today. Attendance was the highest we have seen in a long time, perhaps because of the overture brought by First Presbyterian Church of Kingwood defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Here is the text of the overture:
The Session of First Presbyterian Church of Kingwood, Texas, requests the Presbytery of New Covenant to overture the 219th General Assembly (2010) to:

“joyfully reaffirm the historic, biblical and Christological teaching of the Church on the topic of marriage as a gift from God to bless humankind. As God created man and woman, so does God call some men and women to live together as husband and wife. God’s very order and design defines the institution of marriage.”
It passed by a written vote of 107 to 86. There was a good discussion before the vote. This overture will now be forwarded by Presbytery of New Covenant for consideration at next year's General Assembly. There is no doubt there will be other overtures on this subject on both sides of the issue that will be sent from other presbyteries.

The presbytery also showed an outstanding video about Hurricane Ike recovery (or lack of it) in southeast Texas since that storm hit just a little more than a year ago. You can view the video on the presbytery's website here. Then if you are inspired to come assist, here is more information about bringing your team down to this area to help with the rebuilding effort: Bring your mission team to Texas!

Donations for Hurricane Ike relief have been LESS THAN 1% of what was contributed for Hurricane Katrina relief. Yet Ike was the third most destructive hurricane in American history. It hit Galveston Texas with force 2 winds but a force 5 storm surge. It is estimated that it will take at least four more years to complete the recovery effort.

At lunch today I visited with a woman whose daughter and son-in-law had left Galveston and relocated to San Antonio after Ike because there was so little infrastructure left in the community. Now she is trying to establish a medical practice and he is trying to establish a law practice in a new town. There are many more stories like this one.

It was a good presbytery meeting--the music was provided by the Calabash Choir, an African group that is part of the church hosting the meeting. They had the frozen chosen moving around more than a bit!

1 comment:

zorra said...

Somehow I missed seeing you! We did have a good turnout today.