Session Notes: May 2023

Your Session sat, in person, for its regular monthly meeting this week.  There was a lot to discuss -- Pastor Laura’s 12-week sabbatical begins in three weeks.

Sabbaticals are a normal and expected part of the pastor/congregation relationship.  In fact, eligibility for a seventh year sabbatical was part of Laura’s original call to Western eight years ago (the pandemic postponed it a year).

We formally approved Laura’s sabbatical from May 29 through August 20, 2023, and also engaged the Rev. Dr. Dean McDonald, in customary fashion, as a temporary supply pastor for ten of these twelve weeks. Laura will have much more to say about this in the coming weeks -- and in her Words from Laura post today.

There are two important projects that we, the Session, will be working on this summer.  We’ve discussed these with you before, most recently at our congregational conversation in February.

First is the Intercultural and Antiracism Change Team (I-ACT) report.  The I-ACT has completed its work and issued summary recommendations to the Session that we will now prioritize and act on.  We thank the five members of the I-ACT for doing this demanding and essential work.  We’re humbled by the difficulty and size of the challenge.  Antiracism is hard work.

The other project is organizing our initiative, in partnership with the Presbyterian Foundation, to achieve financial sustainability.  Our hope is to have completed all the necessary preparations, planning and assignments by the end of summer.  We’re calling it the “Belonging and Building” process.

That’s all for now.  Much work lies ahead.  Thank you for your faithfulness.