Eastern Oregon Presbytery Meeting, February 19

The annual celebration of mission in the Presbytery of Eastern Oregon will be
Saturday, February 19, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Umatilla Community Presbyterian Church

We will hear about the mission ministry of churches and of the presbytery.

For more information go to http://bit.ly/hfwTjR

I hope t see you there.

Disaster Planning for Churches

See the referenced PowerPoint presentation on disaster planning for churches and the role that churches will play in a disaster.

http://is.gd/sXyLP0

Presbytery Council meets by phone, January 22, 1:30 PM PST

The January  meeting of the Eastern Oregon Presbytery Council will be by conference phone call on Saturday, January 22, 2011, 1:30 PM PDT.  All participants will be participating by phone.

To participate in the conference call, dial 866-941-8436 and enter pass code: 1047005 #.  

When the stated clerk enters the conference those on the call will be connected together.  The conference will start promptly at the stated time.

If you have questions about the process, contact Pete Wells at 541-379-2180 or by email.

More information 

Upcoming Meetings of Council

March 12, 2011

September 10, 2011

January 21, 2012

March 10, 2012

Upcoming meetings of Presbytery

February 19, 2011, Umatilla

April 8-9, 2011, LaGrande

October 21-22, 2011, Baker City

February 18, 2012

April 20-21, 2012

October 26-27, 2012

Presbytery mileage rate $0.255 in 2011 ($0.295 for more than one in car)

The IRS rate for business travel will be $0.51 in 2011.

The presbytery reimbursement rate is half the IRS rate for business travel.  Therefore, the 2011 presbytery rate will be $0.255 per mile for one person in the auto and $0.295 for two or more. 

If the number of presbytery miles is an odd number I will try to round to the next cent if the result would be an even number and remain as the lower number to maintain an even number.

Eastern Oregon Presbytery Meeting, Oct. 22-23, Pioneer Pres. Chruch, Burns

The Eastern Oregon Presbytery met at the Pioneer Presbyterian Church in Burns on October 22-23.  Some of the highlights:

• Nominated and elected the nominees to all vacant positions for which terms expire on December 31. 
• Including Rev. Jean Hurst to be moderator and Rev. Steve Kliewer to be Vice Moderator
• Heard reports from commissioners and staff from the 219th General Assembly of the PC(USA) held in Minneapolis in July.  
• Agreed that the 2010 and 2011 moderators will appoint task forces to review the referrals from General Assembly
• Belhar Confession - report and action in April
• New Form of Government - preliminary report in February and report and action in April
• Proposed amendment to Book of Order paragraph G-0106(b) "Sandards for Ordination) (Amendment 10-A) - preliminary report in February and report and action in April
• Proposed other amendments to the Book of Order (Amendments 10-B to 10-O) - report and action in February
• Task forces to deal with the following study and action items will be appointed in February
• Middle East Study Report
• Study reports on civil unions and Christian Marriage
• presbytery and model congregation sexual misconduct policie
• There was no report from the commissioners to the Synod of the Pacific as  their meeting was going on in Burlingame, CA, on Friday
• Renewed the commissions of Commissioned Lay Pastors Todd Bensel, Skip Iscore, and Richard I, Patt.
• Renewed the Stated Supply assignment of Steve Kliewer to the church in Lostine.
• Heard the Elder James Kauth, of Baker City, is beginning Commissioned Lay Pastor training.
• Adopted administrative and ecclesiastical budget that provides for total 2011 per capita for presbytery, synod , and General Assembly of $25 per 12/31/09 member.
• Adopted mission program and its budget for 2011.

These are some of the highlights,   For more information contact your pastor or church's commissioner to presbytery or me. 

Presbytery meeting is Friday in Burns

The presbytery meeting is coming together well.   The nominating committee met filled the positions be be elected, save one that we've not been able to fill for a couple of years and one yet to be confirmed.

The Mission Yearbooks came today so I can distribute them a the meeting.   That will replace a lot of mailing.

I created a mleage chart to help folks estimate driving distances and times.

For more information about the meeting see the web index to material http://bit.ly/9Vbpfe

Pew Center - How Much Do You Know about Religion

And how do you compare with the average American? Here's your chance to find out.

Take our short, 15-question quiz, and see how you do in comparison with 3,412 randomly sampled adults who were asked these and other questions in the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey. This national poll was conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life from May 19 through June 6, 2010, on landlines and cell phones, in English and Spanish.

When you finish the quiz, you will be able to compare your knowledge of religion with participants in the national telephone poll. You can see how you compare with the overall population as well as with people of various religious traditions, people who attend worship services frequently or less often, men and women, and college graduates as well as those who did not attend college.

The link to the full report is on the questionnaire site.

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