Church and Society Mission Team

Third Meeting: 6/10/07

First Presbyterian – Columbia, MO

Members Present:

Team Moderator, Debby Howland, Jefferson City

Nancy Copenhaver, Moberly

Ruth Thompson, Columbia

Pastor Richard Ramsey, Columbia

Brian Long, Jefferson City

Moderator Howland called the meeting to order and thanked Pastor Ramsey and Ruth Thompson for making their church available for the Team meeting.  She also noted that Pastor Beard regretted that he was unable to attend because of a last minute conflict.

Following a brief discussion, the Team approved the minutes from the 4/22/07 meeting.  Several members gave progress reports on “assignments” agreed upon at the 4/2207 meeting.

Moderator Howland reported that she gave a brief update on the Team’s activities at the MUP meeting at Covenant Point on 5/17/07.  At the meeting, she distributed yellow index cards bearing the internet address of the Team’s website.  Coordinator Long noted that he has received about half a dozen requests to be added to the Team’s mailing list since the MUP meeting.  He announced that he plans to add a guest register to the Team website to better gauge site usage.  Pastor Ramsey suggested that face-to-face contacts are the most effective way to publicize Team activities and increase support.

Nancy Copenhaver reported that she discussed the Team’s work at the Presbyterian Children’s Services Board meeting in Springfield and received encouragement.  She volunteered to take “yellow cards” with the Team’s website address to the next board meeting.  Debby Howland offered to mail her some of the yellow cards that were left over from the May Presbytery meeting.  Nancy indicated that she will contact Representative Judy Baker now that the state legislative session is over.

Ruth Thompson said that she had spoken with Pastor Jackson about contacting the Women’s Pastors Group but had not yet learned of the results from the most recent meeting of that group.  Ruth will work with Pastor Jackson to get the Team’s “yellow cards” distributed to the pastors at the next meeting.  Debby will mail yellow cards to Ruth.

Coordinator Long told the members that he contacted Beth Griffin, Director of  Citizens For Missouri’s Children, and learned that she works with the following church affiliated organizations:  Metropolitan Congregations United in St. Louis, Missouri IMPACT, Kansas City Church Community Organization (KCCCO), and the Jewish Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis.  Pastor Ramsey indicated that Jewish congregations have a strong history of local social action and could be potential allies in the Team’s efforts.

At the April meeting, Moderator Howland agreed to follow up with Eva Schulte of  Kansas City Church Community Organization (CCO).  Eva has agreed to meet with interested C&S Team members at First Presbyterian Church in Jefferson City at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 18.  This meeting has been arranged to learn more about organizing congregations for social action and familiarizing Ms. Schulte with our Team’s work.  Debby invited all team members to the meeting on June 18.

Moderator Howland told the committee that she learned at the Presbytery meeting that the other Mission Teams who reported indicated that they had received grants to support their work.  Pastor Ramsey suggested that this may be because the Team was formed outside of the regular budget cycle and that if we need additional support from the Presbytery that we should make a presentation to the budget committee later this year.   Following our June 10th meeting in Columbia, Pastor Beard has clarified that the 2007 Presbytery budget has a line for $6,500 for our Church and Society Mission Team (line is #2169).  This is part of the Mission Team Committee's $31,000. budget.  It was approved without objection last year and appeared for the first time this year (2007).

Ruth Thompson suggested that the Team could merge with the Presbytery’s Peace Making and Social Justice Team and take advantage of this team’s unused budget.

Pastor Ramsey told the team that he has noticed a long-term trend in the Church away from statewide to local action.  He said that local action is immediate, tangible, and under local control.  These attributes may be more attractive than efforts at large scale change and consciousness raising.

Coordinator Long presented a review of activities from the recently concluded state legislative session.  He told the members that the General Assembly did not even grant hearings to bills that would regulate payday lending.  He suggested that this indicates that leadership is not interested in advancing the issue.  Bills granting tax deductions and tax credits fared better and, if signed by the Governor, will remove an estimated $250 million to $300 million from state revenues over the next five years.  This amount is almost exactly the amount cut from the state’s Medicaid program in 2005.  A bill making sweeping changes in the administration of the state’s Medicaid program was passed but failed to return health care coverage to the almost 170,000 Missourians cut from the program in 2005.

Moderator Howland announced that the Team has been invited to make a presentation on the Team’s goals and activities to the Session of the Fulton First Presbyterian Church on August 21.

Coordinator Long suggested that now that the legislative session is over the Team should focus on outreach.  The members agreed to set goals for the remainder of the year as follows:

• Face-to-face meetings with each of the other three Presbyteries in the state; and
• Presentations to three MUP Church sessions (including Fulton).

Moderator Howland asked members to contact churches that might be receptive to Team presentations.  Coordinator Long volunteered to send members an outline of the Team’s presentation to assist with these contacts. 

Moderator Howland told the Team that Pastor Beard has suggested that opposition to the state’s death penalty would be a timely and appropriate additional focus for the Team.  She explained that the National Church has repeatedly issued statements against capital punishment and that federal courts have just lifted a stay on Missouri executions.  Pastor Ramsey confirmed that the Presbyterian Church has a long history of opposition to the death penalty but questioned whether work on this issue would detract from the Team’s ability to achieve desired results on the three currently identified issues of concern.  Team members agreed to defer action on Pastor Beard’s proposal until he has on opportunity to more fully present this idea.

The next Team meeting was set for Sunday, August 26 at Columbia First Presbyterian Church.