Stated Meeting Highlights

Highlights of the August 16, 2022, Stated Meeting 

The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta gathered via Zoom for a Stated Meeting on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. We continued our two-year exploration of the Seven Marks of Vital Congregations as we considered the importance of “Outward Incarnational Focus.” 

This outward focus was exemplified throughout the meeting as we celebrated our Presbytery Partnerships by lifting up their work and their leaders. Representatives of Presbytery Partnerships assisted in worship. Rev. Irene Wong, executive director of Atlanta Ministry with International Students (AMIS), offered a sermon on Luke 19 and the story of Zacchaeus that looked at Jesus’ engagement with Zacchaeus as a series of actions of hospitality and invitation that are examples for us to follow as we taste the goodness of God and share it with others. The meeting closed with breakout rooms designed to provide Presbytery members with an opportunity to learn more about the important work happening in the partnership ministry of their choice. 

The Presbytery also heard a report from its commissioners to the 225th General Assembly, held June 17-July 9. After committee meetings were held in-person in Louisville in staggered groups, the Assembly met in plenary session via Zoom to consider over 150 items of business. Over 30 amendments to the Book of Order were forwarded to presbyteries for their consideration, including a completely new Church Discipline section. To learn more about the Assembly’s actions, the commissioners encouraged the Presbytery to attend a series of upcoming Conversations with the Clerk featuring our new Stated Clerk Andy James or to read a news summary. 

The meeting also included a number of other actions by the Presbytery: 

  • Three candidates were approved for ordination as ministers of the Word and Sacrament: Dana Gray as chaplain at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Nell Herring as Mission Specialist II with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and Sarah Lane as pastor of Zo Presbyterian Church New Worshiping Community. 

  • Two ministers were welcomed into the Presbytery: Victor Aloyo as the new president of Columbia Theological Seminary and Jasmine Evans as associate pastor of young adults at North Avenue Presbyterian Church. 

  • Sun Young Choi from Korean Community Presbyterian Church was enrolled as a candidate for ministry. 

  • The New Church Development Commission shared a video celebrating the chartering of El Nazareno Presbyterian Church as a congregation of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. 

  • NCDC also invited the Presbytery to attend What’s the Secret Sauce?, an event on September 12-13 at Decatur Presbyterian Church cosponsored by NCDC and the PCUSA’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities. 

  • The Committee on Ministry presented new minimum compensation standards for installed pastoral calls, with a minimum starting salary for 2023 of $49,623.62 and an additional 1% increment per year of experience. 

  • The meeting offering benefited CHRIS 180, a behavioral health organization that is committed to addressing the social determinants of health to better help individuals, children and adults heal and be able to change directions and change their lives. 

The next Stated Meeting of the Presbytery will be held on Saturday, November 12, 2022, beginning at 9:00am. The meeting will be held in-person at Korean Central Presbyterian Church and will include the annual Necrology Report of those ministers and ruling elders who died in 2021 and the installation of Rev. Andy James as our Stated Clerk. 

Previous Meeting Highlights and Minutes can be found here.