Papers for March 22, 2011 Presbytery meeting

Here are some papers you'll need for the Tuesday, March 22 Presbytery meeting, that will convene at 7:00 p.m. at the Allentown Presbyterian Church.

1) If you're a Presbytery member or Elder Commissioner, you'll need to print out and bring with you the brief "PrezBPass" form.

2) You'll also want to print out and bring with you a meeting Docket, with all the related committee minutes and reports appended to it. In order to be a more "green" Presbytery, the Mission Council has decided that DOCKETS WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE AT THE MEETING, except for a small quantity set aside for visitors who could not have had the opportunity to print them out ahead of time).

3) Because we'll be voting on Proposed Amendments to the Constitution, you'll want to print out a copy of the booklet describing these. It will be hard for you to consider these thoroughly, or to make much sense of the debate, unless you have a copy of the Amendments in your hands. We have a limited number of the booklets left and will distribute them on a first-come, first-served basis. (Many ministers and commissioners already have copies of the booklets, which have been distributed at the last two meetings; if you have one, PLEASE BRING IT.)

Here are a couple of additional items you may or may not want to print out, as you choose:

4) The packet files are mostly flyers and announcements concerning workshops, educational seminars and social events that are coming up in various churches of the Presbytery. To save paper, you may want to view these online, printing out only those you intend to distribute to others.

5) The PC(USA) Association of Stated Clerks publishes an analysis of the proposed Amendments to the Constitution. This is as objective an analysis as it could possibly be, prepared by a committee of presbytery stated clerks who are committed to explaining the nature and practical effect of the various amendments in plain language, without editorializing. This document has no official status, but it may be helpful. You can think of it as similar to the interpretative statements that appear on voting-machine ballots in secular elections, when Public Questions are up for consideration.