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Westminster Presbyterian Church
Durham, North Carolina
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Diaconate Meeting 11/11/2007
Attendees: Bill Hatch, Bill Burig, Helen Tharrington, Carol Kelly, Sarah High, Darren Skeen, Gary Lehew, Rob Wilgus, Anne Vann, Holly Borden, Sharon Barnes, Neal Nichols, Marty Warburton, and Betty Berghaus
Bill Hatch opened the meeting at 5:15 with a reading from Psalm 67. The group read in unison a Prayer of Thanksgiving by Jean Mortimer.
Concerns: Walt Beckwith’s uncle passed away Friday. Scotti Harwood is stepping down from the Diaconate due to personal issues.
The October meetings were reviewed. Holly Borden made a motion to approve, Sharon Barnes second, and the Diaconate approved.
Committee Reports
Assimilation: Time and Talents cards were collected as part of the Stewardship campaign. A thank you will be sent to the congregation and Marty request the committee leaders follow up with the people who signed up to help their committee. A new Inquirers class is beginning. Coffee each Sunday will be discontinued; however, birthday Sunday celebrations will continue.
Congregational Care: We have had 3 cases in the last couple months. We are recruiting additional care leaders and have identified 4-6 congregation members to join the committee.
Fellowship: Idea generation meetings have begun. The committee is targeting lots of small group ideas with a variety of interest in hopes that everyone can find something that fits their interest.
Local Missions: (1) NCCU is requesting an increase from $1500 to $5300 in annual budget. This increase would match the support we give to Duke. The diaconate would like Eileen McAvoy to attend our December meeting to provide more information regarding how funds are spent. Initial discussions of where money could be pulled from included the Westminster Fund and possibly the money that was marked for environmental causes. (2) Chuck Byrd sent information for the group regarding YO: Durham to show where the money is being spent and the successes of YO: Durham, (3) Sharon Barnes shared that Next Step Housing may soon be run by Resources for Human Development which is a group that finds places for people to live after coming out of John Umstead Hospital. With this move, someone would always be onsite to manage the complex. The board is meeting this week to review but it seems to be a positive move. Sharon will keep us informed as to how these changes may affect the organization and our contributions. (4) Sharon passed around a newsletter from Threshold that is published by the members of Threshold. She requested boxes in the Mission Center be dedicated in December for donations of clothing, food, and hygiene items for Threshold. (5) With Scotti stepping down from the Diaconate, a replacement will be needed to lead the local missions “Other” subgroup.
Global Missions: (1) Holly shared information that PDA provides an immediate initial $10K for disaster relief for areas such as California fires and Mexico Floods. Additional funds will likely be needed for each of these. Also, Paul mentioned the possibility of pulling in the Mission trip to Mexico due to the recent flooding. (2) On December 6th, Westminster will host a meeting regarding disaster response in an effort for local churches to have a cohesive organization of their disaster relief response. Chick Palermo has been instrumental in the organization of this effort. (3) Presbytery has issued a “Mission Challenge 2007” as a way to support PCUSA missions. The global missions group is looking at additional opportunities to support missions in Russia, etc.
Mission Focus
After group discussion regarding the 2008 Mission Focus, Sharon Barnes made a motion that the 2008 Mission Focus continue to be Youth at Risk. Holly second the motion and it was unanimously approved. Since Durham Nativity is more established and is in our annual budget for $3600, it was decided that the December offering be dedicated to YO: Durham and that half of the Easter offering go to Durham Nativity school. (Note, the other half of the Easter offering goes to One Great Hour of Sharing).
New Business
There was discussion to review meeting times and move to later in the eveing.
One proposal was to move meeting time to 5:30 to align with Youth group. No
decisions were made at this time.
Marty Warburton asked why Meals on Wheels was not in the budget. Betty suggested that it may be funded through DCIA but was not sure. This can be reviewed when finalizing the budget.
Betty closed the meeting with prayer at 6:40.
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Vann