Ah, a Presbytery’s work is never done. Historic elections take place and voters dance in the streets, but the elders must proceed decently and in order to accomplish their deliberations.
Actually, this was a very nice Presbytery meeting, due in no small part to its
taking place in my own GMoG’s (Great Minister of God’s) church, Memorial in Phoenix. The photo above was taken as people were finding their places before the opening introductions, and it was a joy to see the sanctuary nearly filled.Even so, we were expecting a larger turnout, since the meeting was in Phoenix. It seems the cost of gasoline has put a damper on everyone's ability to travel.
We are a bi-lingual church, so the headsets distributed throughout the congregation were not for the hard-of-hearing but for those who chose to listen to the Spanish
interpretation. We are also, rather recently, a church with lots of children, some of whom came along with their Dads and Moms who were serving food and helping commissioners find their way around our plaza.
November in Phoenix is patio weather, and we took advantage of both the sunlight and shade before and after items of business. In spite of our best efforts
at gate-keeping, there always seems to be a bunch of Hicks at these meetings.[David Hicks, Mae Hicks, Marcia Hicks, S. L-Hicks.] Some of these are even Reverend Hicks.
Our Presbytery's new Office Manager, Carolyn McBurney, turns out to be a shady character. At least, I couldn't draw her out of the shade for a decent picture. Carolyn was on site nearly as
early as the ladies fixing breakfast, and kept registration running so smoothly one would think she'd been born for this job.
Adventurous elders have been known on occasion to tie one on. On this occasion, the tying was done on a comforter quilt on behalf of PDA, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Blankets are always needed when floods, fires and other catastrophies drive people from their homes, and throughout American history, quilts have been a means of offering emotional nurture along with physical comfort. As the Presbytery's
business continued through the drowsy afternoon hours, needles and thread kept a number of folk alert and 
functioning. And we can also attest that something useful was, in fact, accomplished during the meeting. 
All right, I’ll try to be serious. Quite a bit was, in fact, accomplished during this meeting, from the Rev. Trina Zelle’s sermon, which was so moving it will be posted on the Presbytery’s website, to the prolonged discussion on ordination standards.
Several items of business were accompanied by Power-Point presentations, which were particularly helpful in comprehending the concept of the "Per Capita"," often mistakenly called the Head Tax, as well as the report of the Ganado Administrative Commission.
Two candidates were examined and approved for ordination: Sharon Selestewa, (Pastoral Call as Stated Supply Pastor to Vah Ki PC) and Tully Fletcher (Pastoral Call as Associate Pastor to Orangewood PC.)
Two other pastors were welcomed into the Presbytery. David Turner is the new Associate Pastor to Valley PC and Paul Soderquist is returning to Arizona as Interim Pastor to Fountain Hills PC.
Through the course of this meeting, several items of business provoked strong conflicting opinions, and people lined up at the microphones to express disagreements. But the most striking impression I brought away from the meeting was how careful everyone was to attack the issues without attacking one another. We have learned to disagree agreeably, and we deserve to be proud of our Presbytery.
A highlight of the day was the presentation of the George Brooks Award to Dan Abbott, whose list of accomplishments is truly awesome, including work with the Migrant Trail Walk, “No More Deaths,” Empty Bowls, Just Coffee, Humane Borders, Family Promise, and numerous other organizations and ministries of our church. As we listened to all that Dan has accomplished and continues to work toward, most of us felt as if we’ve hardly been doing anything at all with our time.
Yet Dan said that he would rather the award could have gone to his friend Walter Danforth, who was the 1st person to encourage sales of Just Coffee as a model for Christian economic justice at work. That brought tears to many eyes, because we knew Walter was at that moment awaiting a much greater reward. (Our beloved friend and mentor, Walter Danforth, entered the Church Triumphant on November 10, just two days after the Presbytery Meeting.)
We also spent a lot of time considering how our Presbytery should change and reform (a very Reformed notion) as we move into the future. Many ministers and commissioners stepped to the microphones to respond to the question, "How can the Church be relevant at times like this?" Ideas ranged far and wide from “Relate to youth” to “Learn to speak Spanish!” By far the majority of suggestions involved building caring relationships to meet the real needs people are feeling in the present. It was also clear that we urgently need to discern and follow the leading of Our Lord. How the Presbytery will use these ideas to restructure and direct the institution into the future remains to be seen.
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