Vernon Thank You, Ben Davidson, Brownwood’s 100th
Palo Duro Presbytery sends a hearty THANK YOU!
to the hosts and attendees of the 156th stated meeting held in Vernon on September 29 and 30.
Highlights of the fall meeting were the approval of the 2024 Minimum Terms of Call for PDP, the 2024 PDP Budget, and the slate of nominations that was put forward by the Nominations and Representation Ministry. On Friday evening, the Word was proclaimed by Rev. Dr. Fran Shelton. The service of worship was followed by break-out sessions to “Practice the Practices” and included Mandalas, Letter Writing, Lectio Divina, Labyrinth, and Examen. The plate offering for the PDP Celebration Scholarship totaled $574.00
Thanks again to our hosts in Vernon and to all of the commissioners, committee members, and worship leaders whose efforts made this important meeting a success! Elder Joyce Records shares a poem to make us laugh and give thanks, “Full.” (Read below.)
Full
by Dan Erickson
I’ve been in bigger churches that were less full.
Annie says my socks are “full of holes”
and I protest that if they were *actually* full of holes
they wouldn’t exist at all.
But she’s not wrong. A place can be
full and empty at the same time.
And I’m a glass half full kind of guy,
but it doesn’t take an optimist
to see that we are overflowing
in all the ways that matter.
We are flavorful, purposeful, beautiful,
we are colorful, powerful, bountiful,
full of light, full of salt, full of beans,
full of life, full of grit
and anyone who disagrees is full of…
You get the picture.
We’re about relationship, not performance.
So trying to get a spreadsheet to understand us
is going to be frustrating.
The formula in that cell won’t show
our bottom line
because you can’t fill a spreadsheet
with smiles. You can’t fill it with hope,
with justice, with the neighborhood’s voice.
You can’t fill it with All God’s Critters.
You can’t fill that spreadsheet
with two different languages,
with our diversity, our ages, our nationalities,
those Microsoft programmers,
God bless ’em,
couldn’t imagine us. We are full,
and we are overflowing.
And anyone who thinks the most important thing
is butts in the pews needs to take
another look at our butts.
We have very high quality butts.
And honestly, you don’t catch us
sitting around on them much. We have no Bingo,
No bridge club.
Our shoes get full of holes faster
than the seats of our jeans, so we’ll keep
stocking up on sneakers and doing the work
God has for us here on Wilson Boulevard,
in this whole neighborhood.
We’re overflowing–
joyful, graceful, peaceful, faithful.
We are full.
