A new Witherspoon chapter is forming in
Cascades Presbytery
[7-30-02]
A special report from the Rev. Bruce Cameron, Peace
Church, Eugene, Oregon
About 20 of us met for lunch at a local brewpub in
McMinnville, Oregon, just prior to the opening of the June meeting of
Cascades Presbytery. Our goal was to pull together a few people for open
discussion of the possibility of forming a Witherspoon Society chapter
in our large Presbytery (over 120 churches, with 300 clergy!).
There was a lot of enthusiasm for the project. It was
agreed that a Presbytery-level chapter would be a good focal point for
progressive people to coordinate their energies, instead of working in
isolation from one another. Our goal would be to provide a
"peaceful, progressive presence" at Presbytery events.
Ideas we talked about included: networking on issues,
providing resources and support for various Presbytery committees and
task forces working on social justice, peace, and environmental issues;
writing our own overtures for Presbytery to submit to GA, instead of
always reacting to initiatives from the other side.
We decided to accomplish these things by: having a
Witherspoon table or booth at every Presbytery meeting; providing
Witherspoon resources at our annual Presbytery summer conference;
nominating progressives to Presbytery committees; having a
pre-presbytery meeting theological discussion and social gathering. We
concluded the meeting by each of us writing down the names of three
potential Witherspoon members. A contact committee will approach those
on the list. All present were encouraged to join WS if not already
members. Several new memberships were gathered.
We will meet again in the Fall. Perhaps we will
sponsor a dance.
So how about you?? Organize your very own
Witherspoon chapter!
If you want to get a few folks together in your
area for a Witherspoon chapter, we hope you'll do it! Click
here for a few more ideas, and please let us know if we can help
in any way -- perhaps with membership brochures, extra copies of
Network News, and anything else you can think of. Well, maybe
not quite any thing, but we do want to help!
