Friends,

Olympia Presbytery is currently working through a careful discernment process with 8 congregations considering withdrawal from the PC(USA). Eventually as many as 12 may enter our process. Our guiding document, "Discerning God's Leading Together" was put together by a very diverse task force 3 years ago and was affirmed by unanimous vote of the Presbytery. This reality has allowed us to make our way through these diffcult times with a commitment to gracious respect that so far has been lived out in some astounding ways.

Within a few months it is possible that Administrative Commissions will be established to negotiate terms of withdrawal for each of these congregations. Our Council is currently discussing what agreements we might come to as a Presbytery which would offer structured considerations all Olympia Presbyery Administrative Commissions could use in these negotiations. We want to provide some consistency among A.C.s working with various churches to prevent huge differences in how our congregations are treated depending on specific A.C.s -- especially in terms of compensation to the Presbytery. For example, Mike Cole sent us New Covenant's Procedure for Seeking Dismissal which specifies a schedule of declining percentages of the per member share of the Presbytery's budget over a 5 year period.

If you have negotiation policies in place in your Presbytery, please comment on this blog or email me at Lynn@olypres.org. We may be unusual in the number of churches who may well withdraw, but I am sure many, if not most of you, are dealing with these kinds of questions.

With Blessings and Peace and Prayers for the Church,
Lynn Longfield