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The Board of Presbyterian
Voices for Justice
2009 - 2010 |
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Members of the
Board,
2009 - 2010
[10-29-09]
Co-Moderator (2009-2010): Bill Dummer
Bill is a 1966 M.Div. graduate of San Francisco Theological
Seminary. He served on the staffs of churches in Long Beach and Monterey,
California, where he was involved in both Christian Education and community
ministry. For 15 years he took a detour in rural mid-America, serving
churches in Nebraska and Kansas. In 1987 he returned to his home town of
Milwaukee as pastor of Calvary Church, which hosted the Witherspoon Society
Dinner at the 1992 General Assembly. From 1993 until his retirement in 2006, he
was an interim
ministry specialist, with a focus on community ministry and
congregational transformation. Since his retirement, Bill's major occupation
(besides gardening) has been his development of a partnership between
Milwaukee Presbytery and a presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
Co-Moderator (2-year term):
currently vacant
Treasurer (2-year term): Darcy Hawk
Darcy holds a D.Min. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
and is a member of Pittsburgh Presbytery. He has been pastor of Gibsonia
Presbyterian Church since being ordained in 1984. He was previously employed
by The United Cerebral Palsy Association of Pittsburgh community living
program and having served on the board of Renaissance Center, a community
mental health provider. He chaired Pittsburgh Presbytery's committee on the
concerns of people with disabilities. Finding that physical barriers are
easier to remove than attitudinal ones, he welcomes the challenging
prophetic work of full inclusion of all God's people.
Secretary/Communicator (2-year term): Mitch Trigger
Mitch served as the Wareham intern at the 1995 General
Assembly in Cincinnati and has been a regular attendee at General Assembly
ever since. Mitch and his wife Sue have served as co-pastors in Indiana and
upstate New York and have been strongly committed to social justice issues
throughout their ministry. They are now co-pastoring (if that's a word) at
First Presbyterian Church, Rockaway, N.Y. Before entering into ordained ministry, Mitch
worked in the broadcasting field (radio & TV).
Membership Coordinator (2 year term)
Currently vacant
Members At Large (2-year terms):
Colleen Bowers,
a nurse who lives in Baltimore, MD, is one of three board members
representing Voices of Sophia.
Sylvia Carlson, a retired minister
in Redstone Presbytery, is active in her presbytery's partnership with
the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church.
Molly Casteel, who lives in Louisville, KY,
until recently held a position as
staff for women’s advocacy in the Racial Ethnic and Women’s Ministry
Program of the church.
Catherine C. Snyder is a life-long Presbyterian who has served
as chaplain to Mary Baldwin College, as associate of Blacksburg
Presbyterian Church, and as Presbyterian Campus Minister at Virginia
Tech since 1995. She feels blessed to serve in a ministry that has a
very long history of working for peace and justice. Since the mass
killings of April 16, 2007, she has been dreaming of living in a land
with strict gun control. Sylvia Thorson-Smith
was born and raised a Lutheran in Anchorage,
Alaska, but she's been a Presbyterian all of her adult life. In the
1980s she served on COWAC (the Council on Women and the Church) and
staffed the 1988 GA report, "Pornography: Far From the Song of Songs."
She was a writer of the 1991 GA report, "Keeping Body and Soul Together:
Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice," and has written books on
human sexuality and LGBT justice. Sylvia is a founding member of Voices
of Sophia, an affinity group formed in 1995 to advocate the
theological/liturgical contributions of women and promote interconnected
activism on all social justice issues. She is retired from teaching
sociology, religious studies, and gender/women's studies at Grinnell
College and lives in Tucson, AZ, where she serves on the session of St.
Mark's Presbyterian Church, enjoys life with husband Mike Smith, and
cavorts with her 4-year-old airedale, Cocoa.
Ex-officio positions
filled by persons
named by the Board for particular functions
Communications Coordinator: Doug King Doug has served as editor of Network News since 1993, has
since then become manager of the Witherspoon web site, and keeper of the
membership database. He taught for ten years at Satya Wacana
Christian University in Indonesia, then was chaplain and professor of
Religious Studies at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. He is now
retired, and lives in Woodbury, Minnesota.
Bookkeeper: Susan Robertson Susan works nearly full-time as bookkeeper for a medical
practical in Eagan, Minnesota, and manages our financial records as
well. G.A. Booth Coordinator: Vicki Moss Vicki has played this vital role for some years, meeting and greeting
almost every soul wandering through the exhibit hall at each GA.
She served for some years as chaplain at Davis and Elkins College in
West Virginia, she is now serving as pastor of Ridgewood Presbyterian
Church in Ridgewood, NY. |
To send a note to any of these officers,
or all of them,
send one to your WebWeaver
and he'll pass it on.
 We do want to hear from you! | | |
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Visit
our lively
new website! |
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GA actions
ratified (or not) by the presbyteries
A number of the most important actions of the 219th
General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries,
confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.
We provided resources to help inform the
reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.
Our three areas of primary interest have been:
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Amendment 10-A,
which removes the current ban on
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender persons being considered as
possible candidates for ordination as elder or ministers.
Approved! |
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Amendment 10-2,
which would add the Belhar Confession to our Book of
Confessions. Disapproved, because as an amendment
to the Book of Confessions it needed a 2/3 vote, and did not
receive that. |
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Amendment
10-1, which adopts the new Form of Government
that was approved by the Assembly. Approved. |
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If you like what
you find here,
we hope you'll help us keep Voices for Justice going ... and
growing!
Please consider making a special
contribution -- large or small -- to help us continue and improve
this service.
Click here to send a
gift online, using your credit card, through PayPal.
Or send your check, made
out to "Presbyterian Voices for Justice" and marked "web site," to
our PVJ Treasurer:
Darcy Hawk
4007 Gibsonia Road
Gibsonia, PA 15044-8312 |
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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