Worship—As always, our Assembly was a worship event.  Susan McGhee was our preacher for the day.  Susan’s sermon focused on “singing and dancing” our way into the future.  The Lord’s Supper was celebrated by Alan Finnan and Cheryl Thorne.

Recognition of New Covenant Church’s Ministry—There has been an Administrative Commission in place for several months charged with assisting in the dissolution of the Monroe City/New Covenant Church.  A frequent story in the close of a congregation is that in the last decade the church has a total focus internally and abandons external mission.

The celebration of New Covenant’s ministry is that for the last decade the congregation has become external mission completely.  The congregation is a thing of the past, but the ministry to the community through the Lord’s Warehouse continues.  That program meets the basic needs of the community and moves into the future as a community ministry.

Sexual Misconduct Policy – The Presbytery adopted a new policy on Sexual Ethics and Boundaries.  This policy marks change in several areas.  Importantly, the policy is focused on the presbytery and is not written for congregations.  Every session is charged, through the current Book of Order to develop its own policy.  Assistance is available to help congregations do this important work.  An addition to the policy are provisions for training and orientation.

Lay Pastor Committee becomes the POV Academy Committee—This is much more than a change of name.  In the past the mission of the committee has been to train people to be Commissioned Lay Pastors.  That last name has also changed.  However, the new committee is now focused on a much larger goal of providing training and education to all people in the presbytery.

Nomination and Election of Officers and Leadership for the Presbytery—We elected members of committees and officers for 2012.  Commissioned Ruling ElderMike Beaver was installed as Moderator and Rev. Scott Hill was installed as Vice Moderator for next year.

End of Year Reporting Changes—It was reported that General Assembly Statistical Reporting is going to be completely “online” this year.  It is important to note that there is no need to have the contents of these reports approved before they are submitted to the General Assembly.

The next Assembly will take place at 1:00pm Eastern time on Thursday, December 1st, at Mitchell Presbyterian Church in Mitchell, IN.

Registration will begin at 12:00pm.

Reports for the Packet must be submitted via email by noon on Monday, November 21st to Stephanie Worden.

The packet, driving directions, and the minutes from the September meeting will be available for download from the assembly webpage after 4:00pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 23th.