Witherspoon officers gather in Santa Fe,
look ahead
a report by Doug King
[9-30-00]
If you have to have a meeting, Plaza Resolana in Santa
Fe makes it more than tolerable. And a meeting with thoughtful,
congenial Witherspoon officers makes it better yet. And a meeting that
really gets things done -- that's beyond the bounds! But that was the
story of our meeting on September 21 - 23.
A few highlights:
The group welcomed Michael
Livingston as a new at-large member, and welcomed Jane Hanna on her
return in a new role as president of the body. Michael, formerly the
chaplain at Princeton Seminary, is now serving as national staff person
for a council of community churches. Jane, who was the
secretary-communicator of Witherspoon for some years, has returned now
as president. She and her husband live in Santa Fe, so they, along with
Membership Secretaries Betty and Ray Kersting, were our gracious hosts
(along with the staff of Plaza Resolana, of course) for the weekend.
The group took a major step forward as we sorted
through various ideas for specific projects to extend our outreach and
activities over the next few years, and selected six or eight of them
for our immediate attention. You'll be hearing more about them over the
next few weeks.
A high point of the weekend came on Friday evening,
when some 25
Witherspoon members from
the Santa Fe area joined us for dinner and an hour of conversation
afterwards. The group provided valuable feedback to some of the projects
we had been discussing, and the evening gave many of us a chance to
renew old friendships. We were happy to be joined for the evening by a
number of participants in a gathering of clergy women which was also
meeting at Plaza Resolana.
With regret, the group accepted the resignation of
Nancy Neal as our staff coordinator, as she is returning to her
full-time staff position with the People of Faith Network. It has become
clear over the past few months that our hopes for funding her part-time
position would not be met. During the weekend, however, Nancy made
significant contributions to our discussions, and she will continue to
serve the group in various ways -- most immediately by becoming a member
of the Nominating Committee.
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Officers in session
From left around table: Kent Winters-Hazelton, Brian
Christoffersen, Nancy Neal, Vicki Moss, Betty Kersting; backs
to camera: Chris Iosso, Jane Hanna. |
A number of plans were formed, including a commitment
to distribute 1000 extra copies of the current issue of Network News
to seminary students, presbytery and synod staff members, and others. We
are committed to reaching out to people who have not traditionally
considered themselves "'Spooners," especially at this crucial
time in the life of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
If you're one of those we should be reaching out to,
send a note and we'll send you a copy of Network News, and do
whatever we can to encourage you to join us!
Perhaps the most important outcome of the weekend was
our decision to focus our efforts for the next few years on finding,
defining, and helping to nurture "whole Gospel congregations."
For some preliminary ideas of what this might mean, click
here for a short essay by Gene TeSelle, and click
here for a sermon which Kent Winters-Hazelton preached
right after our meeting.
The future of the Witherspoon Society -- like the
future of our church -- holds great promise, but also confronts us with
many challenges. We invite you and urge you to join us as we
face the problems and work to fulfill the possibilities of the future.
