'Elder As Spiritual Leader – Reclaiming The Call' National Elders Conference to be held in Nashville By Toya Richards Hill Presbyterian News Service Special to The Layman Online Friday, August 17, 2007 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first national training and networking event for elders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will take place Aug. 29-31 in Nashville, Tenn. The 2007 National Elders Conference will bring together elders from throughout the denomination under the theme "Elder As Spiritual Leader – Reclaiming The Call." The Office of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Council are sponsoring the event. "In Nashville elders will experience prayer, worship, study, education, workshops, fellowship and networking," Robert Wilson, vice moderator of the 217th General Assembly and an elder at Fellowship Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Ala., said in conference material online. "Elders," he said, "'reclaim your call.'" A number of workshops are planned, including "Bridging Generations In Church," "Elder As Caregiver," "Elders In Mission" and "Elders As Communicators." Speakers will include Melva Costen, who recently retired as the Helmar Emil Nielsen Professor of Music and Worship at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary, and Freda Gardner, professor emeritus of Christian education at Princeton Theological Seminary and moderator of the 211th General Assembly (1999). The Rev. Joan Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly (2006), and the Rev. Eric Hoey, director of evangelism and church growth for the PCUSA, are slated as preachers for the conference. The Nashville Convention Center and Renaissance Hotel Nashville in the city's downtown will be the venues for the conference, and evening worship the first two nights will be held at Downtown Presbyterian Church. "Come share this time of renewal and revitalization with sisters and brothers leading churches small and large, urban and rural, as we all engage in learning more about our office as elder," Barbara Corwin, an elder at Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood in Ketchum, Idaho, and a member of the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, said in online conference material. Toya Richards Hill is a reporter for the Presbyterian News Service, on whose Web site this story first appeared. It is reprinted here with permission.

Respond to this article

Home · Archives · The Layman · PLC Publications Presbyterian Lay Committee · Feedback · Links