Third Week of Advent: A Time for Preparation

Going Deeper

Advent offers a counterbalance to our frantic lives.  It invites us to a darkening, quiet, reflective time.  It asks us to ponder with Mary the order of a disordered world.  With her we wonder why God picked that time and place to reach down and give birth to a new way of being?  Can we birth that hope again, this season, in a world gone mad with consumption?  Can we take one step away from the glitzy enticements of the season?  If you are reading this, it is a certainty that you have already taken many steps away from the things of this world.  Can we all go just a little deeper, no matter where we are in our advocacy?  Can we?  Somewhere deep inside us there is a voice that says “please”,  please put aside the frenzy.  Listen to the urging of that voice! Name one thing that will take you deeper into the season, and then go there.

We invite you to take a breath and feel the peace that the Prince of Peace wants each of us to have in honor of his coming. Six times you will be blessed with an advent reflection that we hope will take you deeper.  Let us journey together to Bethlehem.

Scripture:
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him. (Luke 1:17)

Reflection:
Advent: A Time for Preparation
Our pastor recently suggested “Joyous Advent” as a post-Thanksgiving greeting.  Coupled with his suggestion was a reminder that our preparation and celebration leading up to Christmas day is equally important as our celebration of the day itself.

Ironically, the frenzy of the preparation often overshadows the event for which we prepare and causes us to lose sight of what it is all about.  Sadly, this is often the case during what should be a joyous celebration of the Savior’s birth. Many of the activities of preparation on which we choose to spend our time and resources– though not necessarily bad in and of themselves– are also the things that not only drain our joy, energy and wallets but also place a greater strain on Creation:  Think of the tons of wrapping paper produced for a single use most of which will likely end up in a landfill and the obligatory gifts – many of which will likely go unused if not returned.  Or the annual harvesting of evergreen trees that have taken years to reach maturity only to be enjoyed for a few short weeks before being discarded.  Then there’s the exhaust-emitting traffic and crowded malls that inspire moods that are anything but joyous.

I must admit that the pressure that our culture – and even our own families – put on us to engage in the frenzy is often difficult to resist.  I love to lavish family and friends with special – and sometimes impractical - gifts but often have to be reminded that it really is “the thought that counts” not the amount of money spend or the miles driven (or the carbon emitted).

Though not a faith-based organization, The Center for the New American Dream has published a guide called “Simplify the Holidays” that provides many meaningful ways to have more fun with less stuff during this season (www.newdream.org).  Those of us who revere this holy time of year as more than a secularized observation of consumerism have all the more reason to refocus our time and energy in ways that keep “Christ in Christmas.”

This year our family’s Advent preparation has paralleled our preparation for our move to Uganda next summer where we have been called to serve in ministry.  Our impending move has helped clarify and inform how we spend our time and resources before we leave and especially our decisions regarding what we buy for Christmas.  The adage “you can’t take it with you” takes on a different meaning when considering what presents we exchange this month are practical to ship to Africa next year.  It is also a good concept to keep in mind on a regular basis when making choices about how to spend our time, energy and money.

I believe we honor the Creator and the spirit of the season more deeply by focusing less on the superficial and temporal trappings and instead lavishing those we love with the intangible fruits of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (and yes) self control”(Gal. 5:22) when tempted to engage in the frenzy of the season.

Prayer:
Lord God, Help us to keep the season holy by avoiding the cultural excesses that can so easily consume us by focusing our minds and hearts on the gift of Jesus, in whose name we pray.
Amen

This week's reflection was written by Paul Homeyer, PEC SW Region Steering Committee Member Representative.  Paul is an Elder at First Presbyterian Church of Houston.  Professionally, he is an architect specializing in Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse and Sustainable Design.

'We Three Trees of NYC Are' - Advent Week 2

Going Deeper

Advent offers a counterbalance to our frantic lives.  It invites us to a darkening, quiet, reflective time.  It asks us to ponder with Mary the order of a disordered world.  With her we wonder why God picked that time and place to reach down and give birth to a new way of being?  Can we birth that hope again, this season, in a world gone mad with consumption?  Can we take one step away from the glitzy enticements of the season?  If you are reading this, it is a certainty that you have already taken many steps away from the things of this world.  Can we all go just a little deeper, no matter where we are in our advocacy?  Can we?  Somewhere deep inside us there is a voice that says “please”,  please put aside the frenzy.  Listen to the urging of that voice! Name one thing that will take you deeper into the season, and then go there.

We invite you to take a breath and feel the peace that the Prince of Peace wants each of us to have in honor of his coming. Six times you will be blessed with an advent reflection that we hope will take you deeper.  Let us journey together to Bethlehem.

Scripture: 
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15

Reflection: 
One of the most famous trees (though it is a different one each year) in the country, is the one that is displayed each year in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan throughout the Christmas season. This year a roughly 75 year old, 76-foot-tall Norway Spruce has the “honor.” It is 46 feet in diameter, and weighs 12 tons!  No doubt it was a thing of beauty to behold in its natural setting. And hopefully at least some who see it will still be inspired with visions of eternal life that have historically been the reason we turn to evergreens for this purpose.

But its natural beauty is to be shrouded with approximately 45,000 multi-colored twinkling LED lights, and topped with a “breathtaking” Swarovski crystal star that is 9.5 feet in diameter, and weighs in at 550 pounds!  Talk about “guilding the lily!”  One wonders whether this once beautiful symbol of eternal life has now become instead a symbol of commodification of nature for profit.
A second, and more recently famous tree is actually immortalized in a bronze sculpture of the roots of a Sycamore tree that once stood in the historic cemetery of St. Paul’s Chapel. The tree had been knocked over by debris from the Twin Towers on 9-11but missed all the gravestones and chapel. Called “Trinity Root” by its creator, Steve Tobin, it is installed on the grounds of Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church.
In the description which accompanies the sculpture, the artist speaks of how the connected tendrils of the tree’s roots are akin to the network of human interconnections which helped the city to survive the terrible events of 9-11. It is this kind of Human interconnection that will become the basis for the hoped for Peaceable Kingdom toward which all creation groans in travail.

The third tree is a Callery Pear tree found on the site of the Ground Zero memorial. Known as the Survivor Tree, it has a truly dramatic story of survival. Planted at the eastern edge of the original World Trade Center plaza in the 1970s, workers found it damaged and “reduced to an eight-foot-tall stump” in the wreckage at Ground Zero. It was moved to a New York City park and nurtured back to health – that’s 32 feet tall! But then it was blown over in a 2010 wind storm and yet, once more survived to be brought back and restored to the memorial site in time to survive Hurricane Irene’s 40 mph gusts.

The message of these three trees seems to be this:  that the same human beings who are capable of cutting down one tree in the name of honoring beauty and faith for the purpose of profit,  we can also join together to help another  one survive.  As we yearn through the season of Advent for the coming “not yet” peaceable kingdom, we have the “always already” presence of the resurrected Christ among us to show us the way to being the stewards we were created to be.

In Mary Oliver’s poem titled “When I Am Among the Trees” her last verse seems to capture the essence of our takeaway as the trees call out to her: “It’s simple … and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”

Prayer:
O Lord of trees -- from the smallest shrub to the giant sequoia; from the garden of Eden at the beginning of our story to the Celestial City of Revelation at the end -- help us to make a straight path in the wilderness of our world by learning to weave among and care for the trees of our earth. Amen

This week's entry was written by Fred Milligan, a PC(USA) pastor who serves on the PEC steering committee. A former Associate for Stewardship Education with the GAMC, Fred currently provides stewardship consulting services through The Generous Steward Consulting as well as serving as an Interim Pastor at the Newtown Presbyterian Church, in Newtown, Pa.

First Week of Advent

Advent Blessings

 

So soon?  Wasn’t advent just last … 

 

But, no.  Here we are again, caught up in the imperatives of our living and yet looking at the craziness of cramming shopping, parties and family visits into a life that is too full.  Birthday!  There is no time for that this month.  Oh, that’s right.  The season is about a day of birth.

 

We invite you to take a breath and feel the peace that the Prince of Peace wants each of us to have in honor of his coming. Six times you will be blessed with an advent reflection that we hope you can enter into.  Let us journey together to Bethlehem.

Peace

 

Sunday, December 1, 2013, the First Sunday of Advent (Year A)

 

Scripture: Psalm 122:1­9

I rejoiced with those who said to me,

    “Let’s go to the LORD’s house!”

Now our feet are standing

    in your gates, Jerusalem!

Jerusalem is built like a city

    joined together in unity.

That is where the tribes go up—

    the LORD’s tribes!

It is the law for Israel

    to give thanks there to the LORD’s name,

    because the thrones of justice are there—

    the thrones of the house of David!

Pray that Jerusalem has peace:

    “Let those who love you have rest.

    Let there be peace on your walls;

    let there be rest on your fortifications.”

For the sake of my family and friends,

    I say, “Peace be with you, Jerusalem.”

For the sake of the LORD our God’s house

    I will pray for your good.

Reflection:

Now our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem!

 

There is something about place—particular places, really—that bring us closer to God. I love that this passage reminds us about the holiness of the City of God—a place of justice and love and peace and rest. As we enter into this season of Advent, we so often get caught up in the bustle of things and we get pulled away from the places where we feel God.

We so often find ourselves surrounded by stores and more things to buy—pulled away from the beauty of creation in this season of hope. And there IS hope in this season as we wait for the Christ who came once long ago and who will come again, bringing the good news that God loves us and all creation. I want to spend this time of hope in places that make me feel that God is near. So, I’m avoiding places that distract from looking for justice and love and peace and rest this year. I’m hiking around the foothills of Northern California to look down onto the city where I feel God and praying.

Peace be with you, Jerusalem.

Prayer:

God of hope and light and life… help us find peace in this bustling season. Help us find places of rest and help us love each other as we wait for the Promised One. Thank you for the places to which you’ve called us and help us find you there. In the name of the One for whom we wait, Amen.

 This week is presented by Rev. Abby Mohaupt.  She is the Pastoral Resident at First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto in Northern California. She loves running and spending time with her partner, Nathan, and their three cats.

Larry Rasmussen's Conference Contribution

These notes were compiled by Karen Bennett, a former Volunteer in Mission for the Presbyterian Church and 35-year member of the Sierra Club and Bread for the World.  Karen holds an M.A. in French from Middlebury College and attends Jacksonville Presbyterian Church in Bordentown, NJ.  She is also active on Mission and Earth Care committees.

At the Presbyterians for Earth Care Conference, held in Little Rock, AR: from Oct. 16-19, 2013, the theme of "Ethical Earth Care: Keeping Creation Sacred" was led in Plenary sessions by Larry Rasmussen, ThD, who focused on “Earth-Honoring Faith.” He reflected on how the sacred and creation intersect.

Sacred traditions were organized by the following dichotomies:

• asceticism vs. consumerism (the simple life offers an alternative to the consuming spirit of desire)
• sacred vs. commodified (sacramental ethics views life as a shared commons, contrasting against a commodity ethics)
• mysticism vs. alienation (classic mystical experience is that humankind belongs to the "all". Alienation is resolved by all things communing with God.
• prophetic/liberative practices vs. oppression (Justice is at center of Christian life with the prophet's vision of a redeemed creation. Contrast this with evil and injustice from a violated creation and mal-distributions of power
• wisdom vs. folly (all wisdom traditions counter the negative forces in our lives and in creative order and deal with universal religious and cultural traditions.

What is sacred? David Gushee defines it as "something common lifted up and set apart, with elevated rank" Greta Van Wieren in Restored to Earth believes violating the sacred is a serious sin and often a crime.  The ecological virtues for restoring us and the earth also include a list of 5-"R"s:

-Reverence, Respect, Restraint, Redistribution, Responsibility, and Renewal.

What kind of communities are needed for ethical earth-care?  Dr. Erin Biviano's research on congregational environmentalism found the following elements necessary for environmental activism:

• adequate level of scientific literacy (when the knowledge gap is devoid of science, religious environmentalism has very little purchase)
• multiple interdependencies (everything belongs and should have a life- living up or down stream- creation is seamless and recycles everything)
• social and economic (20% of San Francisco air pollution is from China)
• ecological
• spiritual (moral and spiritual issues-kinship and family-the homeless at a church shelter who have names – everything belongs and should have a life)
• moral heat of social justice (-among the most identified and influential among religious environmentalists- focused on poor people and the love of the present, future, near, far, animate and inanimate neighbor- The human poor and the earth as the new poor, here social justice expands to become creation justice. 
• the discovery of a bigger God (making green spirituality the broader platform for moral globalization.  We must gather 13.8 billion years of religious environmentalism).

Final reflections, regarded having the "green blues" or environmental melancholia. How do Christians cope with irreversible climate change?  We are charged with leading people through grief and loss, trying to keep nature sacred.  We should work for the whole earth and not focus on single environmental campaigns.

Divestment! It's for you!

Dear friends,

You may have been hearing the term divestment a lot recently.  Divestment from fossil fuels is increasingly up for discussion in many institutions, especially houses of worship.

PEC membership, at our annual meeting at Ferncliff on Oct 18, voted enthusiastically to support the work of PCUSA Fossil-Free (PCUSA Divest). 

We encourage you to talk with your General Assembly commissioners about divestment and begin a conversation in your congregation and presbytery.

We will share our booth at General Assembly with PCUSA Fossil Free and will work to encourage the work of 350.org and PCUSA Fossil-Free.

Divest & Reinvest Now! is GreenFaith’s campaign to support fossil fuel divestment and reinvestment in a clean energy future by faith communities. Presbyterians for Earth Care is a proud co-sponsor of this campaign!

Here are two great ways to engage members of your faith community and introduce them to this growing movement:

• Offer a sermon on fossil fuel divestment and clean energy reinvestment.
• Have a discussion on the topic with your members.

To help you get started, GreenFaith provides free sermon tips and discussion materials on the topic.

They'll also give you a free copy of Moral Ground:  a new collection of writings on religion and the Earth.  Simplyrequest your free copy by sending GreenFaith the date of your sermon or discussion.

On top of that, GreenFaith is offering two prizes of $250:  one prize for the best sermon, and one for the best discussion, on fossil fuel divestment and clean energy reinvestment.  GreenFaith will announce the winners and runners-up on June 15, 2014, World Environment Day.

Presbyterians for Earth Care is a proud co-sponsor of the Divest & Reinvest Now Campaign's initiative to promote sermons and discussions by faith communities on divestment and reinvestment!

It’s time to step forward.  Schedule a sermon or discussion today, and invite members of your wider community to attend. 

When it comes to the planet’s future, this is a key moment.  Will your faith community rise to the occasion?

Blessings,
Diane Waddell and Sue Smith
PEC Moderator & Treasurer

Dear Lord,

Bless and energize each of us as we find our voices, speak our terrible truths, and humbly lay hands to the work that will mend what we have done to your good earth.  Send us your prophets who will speak to our fossil fuel misuse.  Forgive us for our overindulgence in carbon.  Let us remember that it is you  who are the light of the world—not our human created bulbs shining from a million sockets. 

Thank you, dear God for your words, given each week to congregations across our land.  Give us ears to hear “what the spirit is saying to the church today”.

Amen

Upcoming Overtures!

Dear Friends, 

 

Presbyterians for Earth Care is looking toward GA 2014 and encourages your involvement in overtures related to environmental and social justice issues. There are 

at least four such overtures in various stages of the approval. Three are in need of a concurring presbytery, and I invite you to review these overtures and respond to the initiating presbytery contact if you are interested. (The concurring presbytery does not have to use the same rationale, just the main overture statement.)

 

Heartland Presbytery is in the process of submitting two overtures: 

 

1.Sustainable Development:  The Precautionary Principle (the principle of ‘forecaring’.)  affirms the vital importance of an ethic of responsible and moral development of consumer products.  If governments/societies used the Precautionary Principle as a guide, the burden of proof of the safety of products coming to consumers would shift to the developer or corporation before the product is sent to the public.   Concerns most specifically relate to Genetically Modified crops, toxic chemicals, and products of nanotechnology.  Currently if a product comes to the public which is harmful, the burden of proving the harm is placed upon the individual or group in the public realm harmed.  This overture "affirms the Sacred in societal and Creation care, protecting the Earth for future generations." Read about Sustainable Development

2.Food Sovereignty for All  affirms the vital importance of Food Sovereignty, in which people are able to educate and empower themselves to manage their own food (and water) systems in a culturally appropriate and sustainable way, leading toward a just, peaceful, and sustainable world. This overture addresses hunger issues, unequal distribution of food and monetary wealth, water rights, land grabs, possible challenges brought by corporations, and Fair Trade (with definite concerns about the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement). Read about Food Sovereignty for All

 

The Presbytery of Seattle is submitting an overture regarding  Coal Exports to Asia. This overture would be  “to affirm the decision of civil authorities to conduct a full, programmatic review and assessment of the impact of expanded coal export projects in Washington and Oregon on human health and the well-being of communities along the Northwest rail lines.”  Read about the Presbytery of Seattle's overture 

.

Additionally, PC(USA) Divest is furthering its overture on Fossil-Free PCUSA and although it does have concurring presbyteries, is looking to add to that number. PEC voted in our annual membership meeting to support their position and overture!  We will be sharing our booth at GA and encourage you as individuals, 

congregation, and presbytery to research and support Fossil-Free PCUSA!! Read about this overture here.

 

 PC(USA) has information on how to submit  and concur with an overture.  If you have questions or comments and/or would be interested in concurring with an overture, please contact the PEC coordinator, Tricia, who will forward your email. 

 

Strength, courage and wisdom as we care for this Sacred Earth,

 

Diane Waddell

Moderator

Earthkeepers of Heartland Presbytery

Presbyterians for Earth Care

Creator God,
 

Give us the passion to carry forward to our governing bodies the words so carefully crafted in these overtures. Give us the energy to change how we think of energy, food and protection from corporate negligence. Help us to put attention on these four overtures thatawaken us to deep places of pain on this gift we call Earth.

Amen

Award Winners Announced!

Greetings!

As you are reading this, 100 Presbyterians are gathering at Ferncliff Camp in Little Rock, Arkansas for the PEC's national conference "Ethical Earth Care: Keeping Creation Sacred." These dedicated stewards of the earth are spending three days learning about creation care as well as taking time to worship the Creator.
 

One piece of this conference is the presentation of the William Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award.  This award is named for Bill Gibson who shaped the Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice policy that was adopted by the Presbyterian denomination in 1990. Individuals receive the William Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award and congregations, governing bodies, ecumenical agencies, and Presbyterian-related entities receive Restoring Creation Awards for environmental work that is particularly praise-worthy and innovative.  

PEC will honor Rev. David Gill and Solar Under The Sun (SUTS) at its Annual Meeting on October 18 at Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center. PEC will present the William Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award to David Gill and the Restoring Creation Award to SUTS. 

David Gill, Executive Director of Ferncliff Presbyterian Camp and Conference Center, is an original organizer and Board member of Solar under the Sun. Since 1997, Rev. Gill has steadily led Ferncliff to be one of the most sustainable camp/ conference centers in the country. Under Gill’s leadership and direction, Ferncliff built an entirely new youth camp with geo-thermal for heating/cooling and the recently completed Eco Center that will serve as a center for creation care and the home for the SUTS Solar School. Ferncliff also transports guests around the 1200 acre camp in a 14-passenger solar electric vehicle and uses a truck that runs on cooking oil.

Solar Under the Sun is a Presbyterian-related organization whose mission is to illumine our fellow human beings with hope and life through solar energy.  SUTS is a ministry of Synod of the Sun that trains volunteers to design and install solar power systems in partnership with communities that lack reliable electrical power.  This organization is now establishing solar at a rate of almost two installations per month.  In the past four years, SUTS completed nine training sessions, trained 191 missioners, and conducted 50 solar mission outreaches in three countries: Haiti, Ukraine and Kenya. Chris McRae, Executive Director, will accept the award for Solar Under the Sun.

Since 1997, Presbyterians for Earth Care (PEC) has annually given awards to recognize individuals and organizations for their forward thinking and leadership in caring for God's creation.  

Blessings,
Tricia
PEC Coordinator

Meet the New PEC Coordinator Tricia!

Hello Caretakers of Creation!

My name is Tricia Bruckbauer and I am the new PEC Coordinator for this year, so I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself.

I am from a small town in Washington State right near Mt. Rainier.  I just graduated from Gonzaga University in May where I majored in Communications and minored in Sociology and Religious Studies.  I enjoy traveling, baking, Gonzaga basketball, board games, and am a self-proclaimed National Park “junkie”.  My parents are both from Montana so between Big Sky Country, Mt. Rainier National Park in my backyard, and a minivan, I was fortunate to be able to see a lot of the country’s wild places growing up.

I moved to the other Washington in August as a part of the Lutheran Volunteer Corps.  My placement for the year is with Creation Justice Ministries (CJM), and part of that position includes coordinating the efforts of PEC.  As Coordinator, I am managing PEC’s website, social media, email accounts, and mailings as well as doing other administrative work.  Alongside PEC, the main focus of my time with CJM will be public lands issues and matters of preserving God’s creation.  Growing up in the West, I have come to appreciate wilderness and what it does for the mind, body, and soul.  I am very passionate about land conservation and making sure that the areas we enjoy today will be around for future generations to enjoy tomorrow.

I was raised in the Lutheran Church and stewardship of the land has always been part of my understanding of how I interact with nature.  I am looking forward to working with people just as passionate about Creation as I am as we address the multitude of environmental issues that plague our cities, states, country and planet.  Just in my first few weeks on the job, I have experienced the love that PEC members have for the earth and have admired the hard work and determination that is invaluable to the environmental movement.  As people of faith, we have a vital role to play in restoring, caring for, and preserving God’s creation and I look forward to joining you in this journey.

Blessings,
Tricia

   

Holy One,
 

We thank you the gift of this passionate woman who has come to keep us focused, decent, and orderly.  We pray that she will find expansive time to explore her gifts and passions over this coming year.  Bless us as we seek to know and nurture this young woman and her four-footed companion.  May we, together, seek to amend how we have been in this world.  Let us find better ways of journeying with your creation.

Amen

Update on all things PEC!

Dear friends,
 

"We belong to the earth far more than it can ever belong to us. We—God, humankind, and the earth—are tied together. We have no life apart from this Trinitarian interdependency and we are called to care for the earth as if we are caring for ourselves and our Creator. The health and well being of one—be it God or humanity or the planet—is dependent on the health and well being of the others."
 

These were the words of my friend, the Rev. Jay McKell at a gathering of environmentally-minded people this spring at Village Presbyterian Church of Heartland Presbytery in Kansas. "We are to have dominion in the manner that God has dominion over us. In other words we are to heal, to help, to teach, to guide, to inspire, to create, and above all else, to love." Amen.

There is MUCH going on in creation-justice work. General Assembly is scheduled for June 14-21, 2014, in Detroit, and PEC is working to support social and environmental justice overtures. Beginning this General Assembly, overtures brought forward by a Presbytery will need another Presbytery to concur with the main overture statement, although the rationale can be different. Please see Holly's article, 'Upcoming Environmental Overtures' on page 4 regarding current overtures, and reply to our PEC coordinator if you are interested in more information about any of these upcoming overtures.

 

We welcome our new coordinator, Tricia Bruckbauer. PEC contracts with Creation Justice Ministries (formerly NCC Eco-Justice) as we share a staff member, a fellow from the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. (See Tricia’s brief bio on page 6.)
 

We are looking forward to a very meaningful PEC conference at Ferncliff in Little Rock Arkansas, October 16-19. The theme for the conference is Ethical Earth Care: Keeping Creation Sacred. Elspeth Cavert, our previous PEC coordinator, has accepted the position of conference coordinator. She joins a team of visionaries, musicians, and prophets to lead us in a wonderful experience in sharing our passion and expanding our vision in Creation Care.
 

Please be in touch with us regarding your work in earth care as we join together "to heal, to help, to teach, to guide, to inspire, to create, and above all else, to love" this beautiful gift of creation.  Feel free to check out the entire Fall update here!

 

Peace and passion,

Diane Waddell, Moderator. Presbyterians for Earth Care

Prayer

Holy One, you are the page and the ink! You are the mystery and the reason for our organization/organizing. May we listen to your urgings. May we delight in your creation! Most of all may we be servants of Christ and stewards of all your wonders.
Amen

PEC Annual Meeting – October 18

Dear PEC Members and Friends,
 

Each year, PEC has an annual meeting where we report to our membership and present items that require a vote by the membership. This year’s meeting will be on October 18 at the PEC Conference, Ethical Earth Care: Keeping Creation Sacred http://www.presbyearthcare.org
 

At this meeting we will be confirming the election of the new Southeast Regional Representative to the Steering Committee, Paul Homeyer, and presenting the Bill Gibson Award and the Restoring Creation Award to this year’s winners. The membership will also be voting on amendments to the PEC bylaws that were approved by the Steering Committee at its July meeting.  
 

The bylaws require the membership to be notified at least 15 days before the vote. The following amendments will be voted on by the membership at the PEC Annual Meeting at Ferncliff Conference Center on October 18.  

• The Steering Committee election will be conducted electronically in addition to a mailed written ballot prior to the Annual Meeting.  

• The Annual Meeting will be conducted at the Steering Committee’s Annual Retreat. 

• An Executive Committee, made up of the Moderator, Vice-Moderator, and Treasurer will have full authority to act for the Steering Committee in managing the affairs of the organization between meetings of the Steering Committee.

• A provision for the Steering Committee to fill a vacancy on the Committee, by appointing a successor to serve the remainder of the vacating Director’s term has been added.  The Steering Committee may also authorize the Moderator to make interim appointments to fill vacancies. Any person appointed to fill a vacancy on the Steering Committee will hold that office until the Annual Meeting at which the successor is elected and assumes office.  

• The Nominating Committee will be approved by the Steering Committee instead of being elected by the Membership. The Membership will still vote on the slate of nominees. 

• A quorum will consist of one-half of the Steering Committee members. 

To view all the changes and edits to the bylaws see the blackline document.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas.
 

Caring for God’s Creation,

Jane Laping

PEC Vice Moderator