The Session of Westminster Presbyterian Church (WPC) convened for a stated meeting at 5:00 p.m. on 15 April 2007 in room 105 of the Holderness Mission Center.  The Moderator J.Walchenbach was present and called the meeting to order and it was opened with a devotional and a prayer by S.Pottenger.

Associate Pastors P.Ransford and B.Berghaus was present.  

Elders F.Anton, K.Bunch, A.Denson, N.Gaddis, J.Graham, S.Landis, S.Pottenger, S.Ruffing and D.Wellemeyer were present. Elders B.Cunningham, J.Jones and M.T.Peters were absent and excused.

WPC staff members B.Fletcher and N.Rozak were present.

Clerk of Session D.Derr and Assistant to Clerk of Session T.Fletcher were present.

Retired WPC Pastor Haywood Holderness was also present.

The Moderator declared a quorum present.

SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS

Campaign for the Early C.E. & Worship Center at Union/PSCE

Haywood Holderness met with the Session to talk about a campaign for the Early C.E. & Worship Center at Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education (“Union/PSCE”).  He first expressed his appreciation for all the gifts given to him and Mary at his retirement; and that he continues to feel good about the direction WPC is headed and appreciates how effective Jack has been.

Haywood said that prior to his retirement he felt a call to reconnect with the Seminary and has since done that.  He said the seminary is doing a remarkable job of training young men and women.  Ten years ago, the DCE School across the street from the Seminary was in financial peril and the Seminary merged with the DCE School in an effort to help it recover.  They are now in the process of building the Early C.E. & Worship Center which focuses on Christian education.  At the same time as this merger, the Seminary also opened a remote school location at Queens College in Charlotte for week-end classes.

The Seminary requires $15 million a year to operate and is in the midst of a Capital Campaign which will end on June 30, 2007.  WPC currently budgets $2,000 a year to the Seminary.  Haywood asked WPC to continue their current support of the Seminary, as well as to consider supporting the current Capital Campaign.  Haywood spoke of two particular areas where financial support is especially needed: The Endowed Faculty Chairs and Support and the Distance Education/Technology.  The campaign is set up to have pledges paid off over a three year period.  He suggested WPC consider a contribution of $15,000.00 giving $5,000.00 a year for three years.  The sense of the Session was to refer this suggestion to Ways and Means for consideration and a decision or recommendation.

MINUTES:

Clerk D.Derr reported that the minutes of the Retreat and Stated Session Meeting on January 19-21, Called Session Meeting on January 28, Congregational Meeting on February 18, Stated Session Meeting on February 18, 2007 and Stated Session Meeting on March 18, 2007 and Called Congregational Meeting on April 15, 2007 were not complete yet.

 COMMUNICATIONS:

Older Adult Ministries’ Outstanding Older Adult Award

The Moderator asked if there were any nominations for this award.  F.Anton inquired whether WPC had ever presented this award before.  Because WPC has many people who could be nominated, she was concerned about someone being singled out this year and this only be a one-time event.  It was decided that WPC would continue to participate in this annual award.  D.Derr recommended Elder John Knight and F.Anton will assist in completing the necessary paperwork.

 Motion: A motion to nominate John Knight for the Older Adult Ministries’ Outstanding Older Adult Award from WPC was made, seconded and approved. 

Renewal of Charters for Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts

D.Derr acknowledged the very thorough and informative reports that Elder Chip Reinhardt had written and submitted to the Session.

Dismissals: 

Motion:  A motion dismissing David Prosser to New Hope Church, Durham, NC and Scott and Alison Gatherum to Watts Street Baptist Church, Durham, NC was made, seconded and approved.

OLD BUSINESS:     

Annual Review of Rolls of WPC

The Session reviewed the names on the list of members to contact and assigned Elders as follows to contact these members:

B. Berghaus has written a letter to be sent to certain members, which D.Derr needs to forward to the Session for review and comments or suggestions. Also, J.Walchenbach has written another letter to be sent to other members. The lists of intended recipients for each of these letters need to be further reviewed and then these letters need to be finalized and sent to the appropriate recipients.

Members to move to Inactive Roll

Motion:  A motion to move Laura Bartholomay Childs, Brian Bartholomay, Emily Kaufman, Jonathon Kaufman, Diane McAvoy, Bill McAvoy, Jr., Jennifer Fletcher Morton, Mandy Williford and Carrie Williford Harris to the Inactive Roll was made, seconded and approved.

Church Audit

S. Landis will continue to work with the Rosenmarkles concerning a secure place for the offering between the first and second services.

COMMISSION AND OTHER REPORTS:

Ways and Means:  (J.Graham) The minutes of the Ways and Means Commission meetings on March 14 and April 11, 2007 and Financial Statements for March 2007 were distributed via the Session Packet mailing. Ways and Means will discuss H. Holderness’ request for WPC’s additional support of Union/PSCE.

Fellowship:  (D.Wellemeyer) No report; however, next large event for the committee will be the May 6 event.

Global Missions:  (F. Anton) The draft minutes of the Global Missions Committee meeting on March 14, 2007 were distributed via the Session Packet mailing. The next meeting is this week.

Education/Kindergarten:  (N. Rozak) The minutes of the Christian Education Commission meeting on March 20, 2007 were distributed via the Session Packet mailing. C.E. is launching a new program in the fall with the help of M.T.Peters and Holly Schmidt.  This program will be an all-family/all-church event held two times a year in conjunction with Advent and Lent.  There will be dinner, a Bible study for adults and youth and an outreach project for children. N. Rozak also said that as her sabbatical approaches, there has been incredible support for her from WPC.  While she is gone, all events will be run by volunteers and this is a wonderful statement about WPC.

Sanctuary Guild:  (J. Jones) She expressed appreciation for everyone’s help with the Easter lilies on Easter Sunday.

Youth Council:  (S. Landis) The minutes of the Youth Council meeting on March 11, 2007 were distributed via the Session Packet mailing. Silent auction for the Mexico Mission Fund will be held April 22; S. Landis is encouraging everyone to come and support the youth.  The Baccalaureate community worship service for high school graduates will be held on May 20, 2007 at Epworth Methodist Church.

Assimilation:  (S. Pottenger) No report. The next meeting is this Thursday.

Seminarians:  (B. Cunningham) No report.

Worship:  (K. Bunch) The minutes of the Worship Commission meeting on March 25, 2007 and the revised WPC Intinction Communion Guidelines were distributed via the Session Packet mailing.  Communion will be celebrated on May 6, 2007 with Elder responsibilities as follows:  (8:30) S. Landis; (11:00) S. Landis.  K. Bunch said the new communion procedures are in place.  The wedding committee now has 9-10 active members and Mary Holderness and Dana Lange will have a training session on April 25, 2007.  It was mentioned that Spiritual Enrichment Week-End will be October 21, 2007.  Frances Taylor Gench from Union Theological Seminary will be the guest speaker on Saturday evening. 

Transition:  (D. Wellemeyer) The Transition Committee’s 8 March 2007, 25 March 2007 and 4 April 2007 meeting minutes were distributed prior to the meeting and key points were summarized.  The committee will meet again on April 18, 2007.  Also distributed prior to the meeting was an advance copy of the congregational mailing to be sent individually to congregation members, including each confirmed youth member, on Monday, April 16, 2007.

The Session was briefed in detail on the status of planning and communications for the congregational self-study.  The self-study will be based mainly on the 2005 congregational survey, and the survey results will be refreshed by letting each and every member be heard about how WPC has changed in the two years since the survey, about their hopes and dreams for the future of WPC, and about the kind of leadership that may be called for in the years ahead.  A congregational luncheon with facilitated small group discussions will be held for this purpose following 11:00 worship on Sunday May 6.  Additional congregational input will be gathered throughout the month of May, and a report of the self-study will be compiled and ready for the PNC’s use by June 1.  The lunch event on May 6, 2007 will include informal discussion.  Reminders of May 6 events will be in newsletters, mailers and through pulpit announcements.  For May 6 events, the goal is to have 15 facilitators and 15 note takers and the committee is asking for help from the Deacons.  There will be a brief orientation for facilitators.  The committee is expecting 150 members and lunch will be catered, with childcare available.  There will be ongoing discussion groups available that morning for people who do not come to the lunch.  Because May 6 is Youth Sunday, this will be a good opportunity to involve the youth in this process.  After May 6, the committee will restart communications again, emphasizing to members that if they could not come to the lunch, the committee still wants to hear from them.  Question for A. Denson – how quickly could a slate of nominees be ready for PNC?  A. Denson said one could be put together by mid-June.  A form will be provided for people to send in nominations to serve on PNC.  The form will also explain the commitment/job description of serving on the PNC. There was discussion about some aspects of the proposed report of the self-study.

The Session was reminded that, at its stated meeting in August 2006, the Session referred a proposed Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual to the Transition Committee for review.  The Session was also reminded that, at its stated annual retreat in January 2007, the Session referred six audit findings concerning personnel administration to the Transition Committee for review, one of which (finding #29) concerning the personnel committee has been resolved. 

Recommendation:  The Transition Committee moves that the Session reassign the review of the Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual and the remaining five audit findings concerning personnel administration (findings #25, 26, 30, 32 and 34) to the Personnel Committee.

Action: Approved.

The Session was advised that the Transition Committee is continuing to work on audit finding #22 concerning the need for an Annual Report to the Congregation.  The sense of the Transition Committee is that such a report will be very helpful, and the Transition Committee intends to present a recommendation before the end of the church year in favor of implementing an Annual Report to the Congregation at the end of 2007.  B. Cunningham is leading this initiative.

Regarding the matter of replacing the Clerk of Session at the end of the current church year, which is currently under review by the Transition Committee, there was discussion to clarify the sense of the Session regarding the preferred process to designate the new Clerk of Session when one or more candidates have been identified.  It is the sense of the Session that the Clerk of Session should remain a continuing assignment, and that preferably the new Clerk of Session should be willing to serve for at least three years.  It is also the sense of the Session that the Moderator should select and present a candidate for the consideration and approval of the Session, and that this procedure would be consistent with past practice. A. Denson agreed to continue as the Assistant Clerk of Session.

J. Graham spoke to the joint meeting of the Forum and Bible Round Table classes about the transition process. S. Landis, B. Fletcher and D. Derr as well as Elders G.Brannon and B.Derr, who have served on WPC PNC’s also, joined in the discussions. Some members present questioned the Presbytery policy and practice of not having pastor candidates preach at WPC and some felt nine members on the PNC would be too many. The sense of the Session is to have on-going information available on a regular basis about the PNC, through the newsletters, etc.  There was discussion on how to present this transition process to the youth.

Diaconate:  (B. Berghaus) The minutes of the Diaconate on March 11, 2007 were distributed via the Session Packet mailing. No report.

Congregational Care:  (F. Anton) The committee is growing.

Local Missions:  (A. Denson) The Local Missions Committee met today, no report.

Nominating:  (A. Denson)  A.Denson said they are wrapping up the officer nominations and all the bios are ready to be printed. The slate was presented this morning, and there were no nominations from the floor. They will begin to focus on nominations for the PNC in May.

Inquirers’ Class:  (S. Pottenger) No report, however, she will ask Sue McCaughan if she will start a new class.

Personnel Committee:  (B. Cunningham) Reported via an email that he has met with Elder Don Heagren and that Don has agreed to remain as the Moderator of the Personnel Committee and that they have agreed that for now the size of the committee will be three members being B.Cunningham, Don Heagren and J.Walchenbach. He also confirmed to Don that the committee is now a Session committee. Don is still quite concerned about the audit findings regarding personnel issues. The next steps will be for Don to bring him up to speed on current issues/activities in the personnel area and to review the audit findings and address each of them.

NEW BUSINESS:

Called Presbytery Meeting on April 17, 2007

Motion:  A motion that F. Anton and N. Rozak serve as the WPC Commissioners to Called Presbytery Meeting on April 17, 2007 was made, seconded and approved.

Examination of Confirmands

B.Berghaus and N.Rozak announced that there needed to be a called meeting of the Session to examine the Confirmands. They indicated they had scheduled this for April 22, 2007 at 5:00 p.m.

Officer Training Agenda and Format

Regarding officer training, the Moderator asked that the Elders e-mail him with a list of what aspects of officer training were most meaningful and any suggestions they may have for officer training.  The Moderator also asked that one Elder assist him in preparing for officer training and K.Bunch offered to be that Elder.

By common consent of the Session the tentative dates for New Officer Examination is September 16, 2007 in conjunction with the September Stated Session Meeting and for Officer Ordination and Installation is September 23, 2007.

STAFF REPORTS:  No reports.

CONCERNS AND CELEBRATIONS:

Concerns about the medical conditions of Bud Cowdery, Kelly Keadey, Paul Etter, Kitty Currie, Walt Beckwith’s mother, David Smith, Judd Staples and Barbara Penick were expressed.

Celebration

The Moderator announced that D.Wellemeyer has agreed to become the next WPC Clerk of Session.

Election of Clerk of Session

Motion:  A motion that D.Wellemeyer be elected as the new WPC Clerk of Session was made, seconded and approved.

D.Derr and D.Wellemeyer will confer and determine when the transition will take place.

The Session’s current business, having been completed, the Moderator declared the meeting adjourned and it was closed with a prayer by F. Anton at 7:36 p.m. 

Respectfully submitted,

Dailey J. Derr                                                                                                         Jack Walchenbach

Clerk of Session                                                                                                     Moderator                                                

S041507 Stated