Aug. 20 and 21 gathering of the Presbytery of South Alabama
Philip Melton
The last meeting of the Presbytery of South Alabama took place at Providence Presbyterian Church in Mobile on Aug. 20 and 21. We gathered at 5:30 p.m. for dinner and then moved into a time of worship.
The keynote speaker for this meeting was Rev. Terry Newland from the Synod of Living Waters for the World. His message on Friday night was on “Messy Missions” and this served as the focus for the small-group meetings that night.
Jody Beth Melton and I served as small-group leaders for this meeting.
After worship and small-group meetings, we met as one body for the plenary session, where we conducted the business at hand. Upon approval of the docket and the minutes from the February meeting, we began to hear reports from various committees.
● Of note during this session, the Rev. Lauren Peters, formerly of Swift PC, presented two reports. One report was on the UKirk Campus Ministry and the other on Teens for Christ.
● We heard reports on the Presbyterian Home for Children and Alabama Presbyterian Cursillo.
The next gathering of the Alabama Presbyterian Cursillo will be APC #36, it will be held March 30 through April 2, 2017, with Ginny Granade being the moderator.
● We heard a report on Presbyterian Women given by Judy Persons. This group will gather at Swift Church on Saturday, Oct. 1, for their annual meeting.
Moderator elected — The coordinating division nominated Dr. Walter Lawrence, ruling elder from Green Hill Presbyterian Church, Enterprise, to be the moderator for presbytery in 2017, and he was duly elected. On a personal note, Dr. Lawrence and I were in the recent reformed theology class together at Dubuque Theological Seminary.
Saturday morning, the business began with worship where the message was a dialogue on the recent General Assembly, followed by small-group study again. Afterward, several items of note took place:
● Pastor Kim Vanbrimmer was commissioned to Orange Beach Presbyterian Church to serve as the interim pastor there, and a friend, Marcia Willett, was commissioned to Grand Bay Presbyterian Church.
● A few other items of note were: the retirement of Rev. Tim Ferrell and the granting of Rev. W. Samford Turner permission to labor outside the boundaries of the presbytery to continue his work with the Presbytery of Mississippi.
