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Rev. Dr. Holly J. Dillon Elected General Presbyter
The Presbytery of Tampa Bay elected Rev. Dr. Holly J. Dillon as our new General Presbyter this week!
Rev. Dr. Holly J. Dillon photo
At a special meeting of the Presbytery held on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, our General Presbyter Search Committee nominated --- and the Presbytery elected --- Rev. Dr. Holly J. Dillon as our new General Presbyter.

  • She will officially start in her new position in late September, with the specific date worked out in conversation with the Coordinating Team.

  • THANK YOU to all who were present and waited patiently for us to let you know that Holly had let her current coordinating council and presbytery know about our vote and her acceptance of the call to serve with us.

As you can see in the Report of the General Presbyter Search Committee that was distributed in the meeting packet, the committee decided she was "the best choice for our opening due to experience in a very similar role in another presbytery, and as a minister or in other staff roles in churches ranging from 75 to 1700 members." As members of the search committee explained in the report and in their comments in introducing her, they "admired their connectedness to the larger church through presbytery-, synod- and denomination-wide service," and felt that her "philosophy of engaging in conversations, taking time to discern the proper path, and not making knee-jerk or rash decisions" was very appealing.

Early on the day of the meeting, we also sent out two supplementary documents to those registered to participate in the meeting. The first of these, called "About Me," is a brief biographical statement, and "Stepping Stones of Faith" recounts a bit of her faith journey starting in a small, Quaker church. Taken together, you'll learn more of how she came to be serving on the staff of St. Augustine Presbytery and is now heading to Tampa Bay!

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The meeting summary linked below will tell you a bit more about Wednesday morning's special meeting of the Presbytery.

Also, look below the meeting summary for initial info on our next "regular" presbytery meeting: the August 27 Stated Meeting of the Presbytery.

After that, you'll find a couple of items from the 225th General Assembly, another reminder about Stewardship Kaleidoscope in Savannah this September (and a July 31 deadline for an early-bird discount), some open positions, and a couple of other things.

Blessings,
Rev. William A. Wildhack III
Stated Clerk and Temporary General Presbyter
(813) 868-4800, opt. 2 (landline; no text messages)

P.S. As Libby begins transitioning out in early August and starts her new position on August 22nd, and Holly won't be starting with us until the third week of September, please be patient with me and Ann Marie in our office as we work with commission and committee chairs to keep things going, and please don't expect the two of us to be able to do what three of us could do the last few months or four of us could do last year. Thanks for understanding.
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My work is supported by per capita funds from congregations in the Presbytery of Tampa Bay, which also help unite all Presbyterians in sharing God’s love through mission and ministry. Thank you!
SPECIAL PRESBYTERY MEETING HELD WEDNESDAY, JULY 27
Notice for this meeting was sent to minister members and clerks of sessions on Saturday, July 16, as required by our bylaws for ten days' notice of a special meeting. Almost 90 people attended all or most of the meeting, which started just after 8:30 and lasted just a few minutes over one hour.



NEXT STATED MEETING OF THE PRESBYTERY, 9:00 a.m. SATURDAY, AUG 27, ON ZOOM
Our next REGULAR meeting of the Presbytery will feature Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett, Pres. and Exec. Dir. of the Presbyterian Mission Agency!
Diane Moffett
We'll be back on Zoom for our Stated Meeting on Saturday, August 27, starting at 9:00 a.m. Ministers and elders serving as a clerk of session should look for an email next week with more details on registration and Zoom sign-up, and later eNews will also have information on how others can view the meeting on livestream without being in Zoom.

Our special guest --- rescheduled finally from our COVID-canceled May 2020 Stated Meeting --- is Rev. Dr. Diane Givens Moffett, President and Executive Director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency (you can read a short bio of her here). Among other things, Dr. Moffett is one of the key driving forces behind Matthew 25 in the PC(USA): A bold vision and invitation.

Dr. Moffett will be our preacher during worship, and we're working out the details for an opportunity to interact with her outside the formal meeting. Stay tuned for more!

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Although Rev. Libby Shannon will already be one week into her new position as Transitional General Presbyter for the Presbytery of Twin Cities Area, our August meeting will also include an opportunity to celebrate her ministry with us since her ordination to serve as a chaplain at Eckerd College twelve years ago through her service as Associate Presbyter for Emerging Ministries for the last three years. More on that to come, too.
Two items from the 225th General Assembly
GA225 News Banner
We'll have more for you on actions taken by the 225th General Assembly (2022) in upcoming eNews, but here are two teasers:

One of them is committee background on a decision made later by the full assembly that came out of work Rev. Libby Shannon was a part of getting started as a commissioner to the 222nd GA (2016) --- and which Rev. Cindy Kohlman, Co-Moderator of the 223rd GA (2018) introduced to us at our Stated Meeting in February 2020. Final approval was delayed by COVID from the 224th GA (2020) to this year.

The other is a summary of GA actions on creation care from Presbyterians for Earth Care which features Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo, who was one of the GA commissioners from our Presbytery this year.
Perfect 20/20 vision

225th General Assembly (2022) The Moving Forward/Vision 2020 Committee approves a large part of a guiding statement for the PC(USA) Two tasks from the committee's first item of business will have to wait until Friday morning: recommending the 225 ...

Read more
www.pcusa.org
'GA, Creation Care and You' | Presbyterian Mission Agency

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service LOUISVILLE - Nearly 90 people tuned in to a Presbyterians for Earth Care webinar Thursday, "GA, Creation Care and You," for a look back at what commissioners and advisory delegates to the 225 th...

Read more
www.presbyterianmission.org
Here's the Guiding Statement described in the "Perfect 20/20 Vision" article above.

As one of the Vision 2020 Team co-moderators pointed out in the article, this "is not a vision statement, but a guiding statement." He said, “We are asking churches to wrestle with the document,” suggesting it's “Not, ‘Are we courageous?’ but ‘What does it mean to wrestle with being courageous where we are?’”

The 225th General Assembly (2022) approved the following Guiding Statement to the church in its entirety for use by and for the church until a time in which the church deems it prudent to form a new guiding statement.

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The Guiding Statement
Our Reformed heritage understands the power of words and we humbly offer this Guiding Statement as speaking truth and declaring life.

The 2020 Vision Team was mandated by the 222nd General Assembly (2016) and charged with developing a guiding statement for the denomination as it moves into the future.

In the faithful desire to discern the will of God we listened throughout the denomination and beyond, hearing hope and frustration, expectation and anxiety. Along our journey even when it is hard to see the way forward, God has spoken and continues to speak to us in these times and places.

Therefore, with renewed energy, we believe God calls the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be:

Prayerful
  • Confessing our sin to God and those we have wronged, we accept our responsibility for the brokenness in the world and in ourselves. In Christ we are assured of forgiveness and freed to forgive others.
  • We ask the Holy Spirit to direct and guide us as we actively listen to Scripture and fully engage in the joys and challenges of life in this present world.
  • By grace and love Christ binds us together, cleanses us in the waters of baptism, nourishes us at the Lord’s table, and sends us out to share the Good News.

Courageous
  • Reformed and always being reformed, we follow the Holy Spirit in new and imaginative ways to places we have not yet been.
  • We foster the hope of reconciliation in Christ who transforms the world through healing individuals, communities, and creation.
  • We work for God's justice and peace for all people in every land, walking with the vulnerable, the marginalized, the oppressed, and the abused.

United
  • As members of the Church universal, we are Christ’s disciples, called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
  • Against forces that seek to divide, Christ compels us to bear witness to a love that connects communities across great differences.
  • We approach others in a spirit of openness and trust as we follow Jesus Christ in respecting the freedom of other religions, worldviews, and traditions.

Serving
  • Gratefully following the One who washed his disciples’ feet, we listen to our neighbors, working to meet their practical needs.
  • We partner with others to become the hands and feet of God in the world, showing compassion and generosity to all creation.
  • The Holy Spirit pushes us beyond the familiar, meeting people where they are as we share Christ’s transformative love.
Alive
  • We are people of the resurrection: though death surrounds us, we are not afraid because we follow the One who was raised from the tomb.
  • The Holy Spirit gives us courage to trust each other and build a community that reflects the fullness of God’s image in humanity: beautifully diverse in age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexuality, physical and mental ability, geography, theological conviction, and viewpoints.
  • In the sure and certain hope of resurrection, we joyfully testify that the Church and its members are called to follow Christ’s model by risking all, even life itself, for the sake of the Gospel.

And so, God calls the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be: Prayerful, Courageous, United, Serving, Alive. Thanks be to God.

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This full text, other assembly actions on the Guiding Statement, and other resources can be found on PC-Biz at this link. (Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page for links to resources.)

One of the resources there is this Invitation to Engage with the Guiding Statement. Others include an MP3 file of the song included in the Invitation booklet.
Don't Save the Date 😏
Our June 16 eNews included a "Save the Date" notice for an invitation to lunch for our ministers
COM Lunch Save the Date
Then, just a couple of days after that eNews went out, we learned that the General Presbyter Search Committee had decided on a candidate, and we'd be having a special meeting on July 27 or 28 (two of the dates) to elect a new General Presbyter.

At the COM meeting on July 13 when COM examined Dr. Dillon for membership, we decided to postpone the lunches. The notice of the special presbytery meeting should have mentioned the change, but that got forgotten in the midst of the rest of the details. (Sorry!)

But we haven't given up on this idea, even though we may hold off long enough to include a chance for ministers in our regions to get to know our new General Presbyter a bit in her early days with us after she arrives in September.
Stewardship Kaleidoscope registration continues as early-bird deadline approaches
From the link below:

Sept. 26-28 event expected to draw hundreds of in-person and virtual attendees

Registration for Stewardship Kaleidoscope is still underway, with a July 31 early-bird registration deadline approaching for the Sept. 26-28 event to be held in Savannah, Georgia.

Click below for more info!
Stewardship Kaleidoscope registration continues as...

by Emily Enders Odom, Mission Engagement & Support | Special to Presbyterian News Service LOUISVILLE - Registration for Stewardship Kaleidoscope is still underway, with a July 31 early-bird registration deadline approaching for the Sept. 26-28...

Read more
www.presbyterianmission.org
Recent Job Postings
We're happy to share openings among our member churches and ministries (and occasionally beyond). Send information about openings to info@pbty.com with "eNews - Employment Opportunity" in the subject line --- and be sure to let us know if/when you fill the position!

If you had a job posting here before AND the position is still open, please send it in again!
MUSIC LEADERSHIP POSITION

First Presbyterian Church, Brandon, is looking for a skilled musician to assist in worship with the following possible responsibilities:

  • Organist
  • Pianist/Accompanist for Praise Ensemble, soloists
  • Director of Chancel Choir-Rehearsals once a week, September - May
  • Director of Handbell Choir-Rehearsals once a week, September - May
  • Collaborator in worship planning

This position involves one service on Sundays. Salary is negotiable. This is part-time
salaried position.

Please submit letters of inquiry and resumes to:

Worship and Music Ministry Team
First Presbyterian Church of Brandon
121 Carver Avenue
Brandon, FL 33510
--or--
First Presbyterian Church, St. Petersburg is looking to fill two part-time positions:

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COORDINATOR OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY MINISTRIES (Part-time)


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PARISH ASSOCIATE FOR PASTORAL CARE WITH WORSHIP (Part-Time)

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The next issue of the eNews will come out soon. Send me your ideas or announcements sooner rather than later, please.
And, as always, thanks for reading all the way to the end! -- Bill