Central Florida Presbytery - Spring Meeting - 2012

A DEBATABLE MOMENT AT THE SPRING MEETING

Yesterday was Central Florida Presbytery's Spring Meeting at Cocoa Beach, Florida. As we do once each year, the presbyters gathered on a Saturday to do the business of the Presbytery, and to join in worship and fellowship. The meeting was well attended, including our elders, Mary Bell, Dave, Chuck and Martha, as well as Paul and I. It was good to see and chat with many of the pastors and leaders in our presbytery, though several of my friends who are usually at these meetings were not there. I missed Connie and Jeff, especially.

We had an excellent worship service and sermon by Dr. Larry Cuthill who is about to retire as the pastor of the Winter Park Presbyterian Church, where he has served for 18 plus years. All who know Larry know that his messages are always thoughtful and well prepared and yesterday was a great example of his homiletic gifts. He also has a fine speaking voice, so is always a joy to listen to. The worship included communion and the Worship Task Force presented the 2011 necrology report, on a screen, as the communion was served. We were touched to see Carl and Gus, our elders who have joined the Church Triumphant, among the dear ones remembered there.

The Resolution Team, working hard to find a way to respond to the request of one of our sister congregations to depart the domination, presented a motion to the presbytery which brought us near, but not to, the point of agreement about this sad juncture in the life of the presbytery. After much discussion, action on this report was postponed until the next meeting of presbytery, so that those finer points could be made more specific and helpful input from representatives of the 185 faithful remnant members could be incorporated into the process.

The good people of Riverside Church were most welcoming and gracious and had a lovely meal for us, consisting of four kinds of salad, as well as cookies and cake, if one wished. They also provided sunny skies and a day of record-breaking heat. It was warm for March but no one was complaining. Lovely weather, really.

In the afternoon, much business and many announcements occurred, and some helpful new paragraphs were added to the "Gracious Witness" policy, and while the discussion was in fact long, the result confirmed the wisdom and hard work of those who had been asked to revise the policy, based on recent experience.

The drive to and from Cocoa Beach is accomplished in about an hour and a half, and since the skies were sunny, most of that Paul and I managed with the roof down, going over to the meeting via I-4 and the Beach Line, but jogging north to 50 and 434 for our return trip.