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We
are God's joyful people.
We
are God's joyful people called together to be the Presbytery of
Elizabeth. We are the heirs of three centuries of bold
Presbyterian faith and witness in Central New Jersey. We are
blessed with an abundance of resources in wealth, intelligence, and
opportunity. We are further blessed with people of many languages,
races and cultures. Within our congregations we find inspiring
stories of faith, perseverance, generosity, and love in the lives of our
members. God's abiding love for us, and providential care for us,
surrounds and upholds us in every way. It is God's call that
motivates us to worship and serve together so that in our common
ministry, grounded and made complete in the person of our Savior Jesus
Christ, we may find our greatest joy. Together, we celebrate these
wonderful and mysterious gifts from God, and seek in our ministry
together to have fulfilled in us the prayer Jesus prayed for His
disciples: that they may have my joy made complete in
themselves. John
17:13
We
affirm that as Presbyterians we are a connected church.
We
are connected to God. Loved by God, forgiven through Jesus
Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we seek to be a community of
faithful disciples in the Presbytery of Elizabeth. Guided by
Scripture, we strive to deepen our personal connections to live and
share the Grace of God in Jesus Christ. We believe that in our
changing world, the love of God is made real through congregational
development, education, evangelism, mission, pastoral support, and
social witness and outreach.
We
are connected to each other. By a common ministry that celebrates
joy, beauty, and diversity our 55 congregations and communities, we
commit ourselves with enthusiasm to honor Christ's command to carry the
Gospel in ways that are both welcoming and challenging to others in our
larger world.
We
are connected to our communities. We are called to Christian
service with our personal involvement and sacrificial concern, seeing
and responding in mission to the needs of people in our congregations,
communities throughout the presbytery, and around the world.
Yet,
we confess our estrangement from God, from one another, and from our
brothers and sisters in need. We humbly recognize our complicity
in social structures that have produced and tolerated racism, poverty,
and injustice. Relying on the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to
God's sovereign rule where release is proclaimed to the captives, the
blind recover their sight, and good news is preached to the poor. Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18
Our
context for ministry is radical change.
Although our context for ministry is varied from congregation to
congregation, what we do share in every one of our congregations is
racial change in demography. The challenge for our presbytery, and
for our 55 congregations, and for our personal discipleship, is to
respond to these changes in strategic and creative ways. A
demographic study of the Presbytery of Elizabeth conducted through the
Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Development at Rutgers
University has identified four major trends within our region: 1) the
aging of Baby Boomers, 2) increasing racial and ethnic diversity through
immigration and domestic out migration; 3) continued decentralization of
populations from urban centers to suburban areas; and 4) changes in
families from traditional to non-traditional structures (i.3. single
parent households and unmarried couples). All ministries of our
presbytery need to take into account the changing landscapes of our
congregations' neighborhoods and of our region as a whole.
We
intend to care for the Body of Christ.
We set forth the following themes as ways of promoting the health of
the Body of Christ within the Presbytery of Elizabeth as we seek to do
God's work together in joy.
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The
presbytery, like every believer, exists in order to glorify and
enjoy God forever. Members of the presbytery have
communicated a desire that presbytery be more about relationships
and less about business meetings; more about connectedness and less
about committees. When we gather as a presbytery we will
celebrate our joy in the Lord in worship, and in the sharing of
Good News through personal testimony. We will look for
occasions to sing, to pray and to share our faith stories informally
as well as in planned worship times.
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face high
levels of stress, and often work in conflicted and isolated
situations. Presbytery needs to take seriously the spiritual
nurturance of its clergy and lay leaders. Presbytery will
encourage the building of community among clergy, and will promote
opportunities for mutual support.
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We
will care for our congregations. We commit ourselves to
the resourcing and strengthening of our congregations in all areas
of their ministry and fellowship. As a presbytery with an
urgent concern for evangelism and mission, we value our
congregations as mission outposts to the larger community, and as
our best resources for proclaiming Jesus Christ's compassion and
justice. We also will work to create partnerships between
congregations so that they can be more of a support to one another's
practice of faithful discipleship. The presbytery will create
incentives for our congregations to develop ministries that take
into account the radical changes in the communities they serve.
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In
a time when the PCUSA is wrestling with theological issues that have
caused division and pain within our congregations and our
presbytery, we commit ourselves to the One Body of Christ,
and to treat one another with tenderness, remembering that we are
all children of God. We commit ourselves to love and
respect one another, especially fellow Presbyterians who hold
theological views different from our own. We affirm that there
are truths and forms with respect to which people of good characters
and principles may differ. G-1.0305 We believe
that the divisions that separate us are not wider than God's mercy.
We strive to treat one another in such away that those observing us
will know we are Christians by our love.
Summary
We are God's joyful people called together to be the Presbytery of
Elizabeth. We affirm our connectedness to God, to each other, to
our congregations, and to the world around us as we live out our faith
in a radically changing environment. We will proclaim the Good
News of Jesus Christ joyously, nurture and support our church leaders,
strengthen the ministry and mission of our congregations, reach out to
the world in mission, and work for the unity of the church amidst the
conflicts of our time to the end that God's joy may be made complete
in us. |
