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Holy Week resources and reflections

Ed Koster to stand for election as stated clerk of the General Assembly

DETROIT--The Rev. Edward H. Koster, current stated clerk of the Presbytery of Detroit, announced April 21 he will stand for election as stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Koster comes to the election from a varied background with experience as a pastor, presbytery stated clerk, and lawyer.

He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and served five years in the Navy during the Vietnam War. After receiving his Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., he studied Old Testament history in the doctoral program of the Department of Near Eastern Studies of the University of Michigan for three years, receiving his MA in 1974. He served as pastor of Calvary Church in Ann Arbor, Mich. for 10 years, during which time he also served as chaplain in the Washtenaw County Jail, president of the Ann Arbor Council of Churches, and chaplain at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor. He studied organizational development in 1985-86 under the late Dr. Ronald Lippitt, then at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, and Kathie Dannemiller, who was principal in Dannemiller-Tyson Associates of Ann Arbor.

“Amnesty April”

One colleague calls it "Amnesty April." Others call it "data cleanup" and "data scrubbing."

Whatever the name, this month at the church I serve we will initiate a thorough cleanup of our membership data. That may seem a small and mechanical matter, but I think it cuts to the heart of what we do.

A diamond in the dirt: Playing baseball in Nicaragua

The crisp, hot, late afternoon sunshine in Nicaragua is perfect for playing baseball. Who might want to play?

We notice that the construction crews seemed to finish up the day's work with a bit more energy and gusto; several of them asked me as the work for the day wound down, "Baseball?" Just that one word, with their deep Spanish language accent, and the interrogative lilt rolling up at the end, turned a word into a question. "Si," I would readily reply, wondering what I was getting myself into.

Pope makes pitch at Yankee Stadium

Baseball is often rhapsodized as a religion in America. It makes sense then that Yankee Stadium is a stomping ground for popes.

The only two who have set foot on U.S. soil have celebrated Mass in the Bronx, in the most famous sports arena this side of the Colosseum.

On April 20, Pope Benedict XVI was set to become the third.

Two Indianapolis churches find mutual ministry in the inner city

One long-standing partnership between a big congregation and a smaller one is the local mission partnership between Second Church in Indianapolis -- a suburban church that stands more than 4,000 strong -- and Westminster Church, an inner-city congregation that's dropped to just 22 active members.

The partnership goes back to 1980, when Catholic, Baptist, and Presbyterian congregations in the neighborhood -- a low-income area just east of downtown -- decided to hold Vacation Bible School together. That led next to the idea of creating a summer-long program for area children, "a safe place to be," said Donna Studevent, a member of Westminster since 1982. She is an educator who trains substitute teachers and now is Westminster's clerk of session and commissioned lay pastor.

Big or small, local or international, churches work together in mission

Sometimes it happens organically -- a small church and a big church form a relationship and start working together.

But now there are new efforts in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to try to cultivate intentional partnerships between bigger congregations and smaller ones, to explore ways they can work together in mission, both overseas and close to home.

Painful lessons

So how do you respond to the Jeremiah Wright episode? Most pastors would be thrilled to discover that after one's retirement from pastoral ministry millions of people watch videotaped excerpts of their sermons. Wright probably isn't thrilled.

The broadcast on YouTube of excerpts from some of Wright's sermons has generated widespread

More mission workers proposed in budget GAC to consider this week

LOUISVILLE -- The mission budget being proposed for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 2009 and 2010 does not call for layoffs, but would use $7 million in reserves to balance the budget.

The proposal, which the General Assembly Council will vote on this week -- probably April 25 -- also calls for an increase in the number of missionaries who would serve the PC(USA) in the next two years.

And it would restore the denomination's Environmental Ministries office, which was eliminated in a major round of budget cutting in May 2006. At least two overtures coming to this year's General Assembly have asked for that -- with one from Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, for example, saying that the office was eliminated "at a time critical to sustaining the planet and life on earth as we know it."

The cost for restoring the office is estimated at $100,000 a year.

The council will vote this week to approve a proposed two-year budget that it will send on to the General Assembly for consideration in June. Concern about Presbyterian presence in global mission work definitely will be part of the discussion.

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