REPORT OF THE GENERAL PRESBYTER MARCH

REPORT OF THE GENERAL PRESBYTER MARCH, 2015
A DECADE (almost!) OF CHANGE
In August, 2006, Sim and I unpacked our boxes, and I began my adventure as your General
Presbyter. It has been quite a ride – challenging, surprising, difficult, energizing, humbling,
and fruitful. As I try to summarize this journey, I am aware of God’s grace and your
generosity, dear Presbytery, in putting up with me and following my lead. Central to my heart
these last 9 years, has been the Calling Statement which we crafted together in 2008 –
“Hudson River Presbytery is called to practice resurrection,
with passion and partnership, in a changing world.”
Join me on the balcony of Hudson River Presbytery, as we look out over the lower Hudson
Valley and discover how we have together lived out the words of our Calling Statement.
PRACTICING RESURRECTION
“Unless a grain of wheat dies and is buried, it cannot bear fruit.”(John 12:24) Dying to the old
and rising to the new has been the pattern of our days together:
1) Since 2006, this presbytery has experienced 80 pastoral transitions.
2) Our presbytery community has gone from 92 congregations to 82 – with twelve
congregations either closing, merging, or leaving the denomination (Poughkeepsie,
Freedom Plains, Westtown, Unionville, Amity, Ridgebury, Suffern, Hughsonville,
Webb Horton, Middletown, Rock Tavern, and Kingston). God has been pruning the
presbytery in order to provide hope and resources for new beginnings. We
currently have 8 Discernment Teams/Administrative Commissions working with 8
congregations to determine the future of their congregational lives – which may
lead to more creative closings, mergers, or fresh starts.
3) Several congregations have, or are currently, nesting in their old buildings – New
Rochelle, Poughkeepsie ( which eventually merged with Freedom Plains),
Hughsonville ( which eventually gave their building to Iglesia Christiana El
Sembrador - and closed), and as of this presbytery meeting, Good Shepherd and
Brewster.
4) Small churches have re-imagined themselves : 1)with shared pastoral leadership
(Highland, Marlboro, South Amenia, Millerton, Ancramdale, South –Yonkers, Good
Shepherd, Pine Plains, and the For Faith Parish: Bethel, Hortonville, Roscoe,
Livingston Manor, and Lake Huntington); 2) transition to part-time pastors (Cold

Spring, Wappingers Falls, Thompson Ridge, Good Shepherd, Campbell Hall); 3) and
renewed engagement in their neighborhoods (many!).
5) The presbytery structure has been re-imagined twice – completing the journey
from hierarchical and regulatory to relational and permission giving (no General
Council), creative Ministry Teams, fewer elected members and more emergent
task forces. Using a paradigm coined by writer Ori Brafman, our organizational life
is both a “starfish” (adaptive and emergent – you cut off a leg, and a new starfish
emerges!) and a"spider” (maintenance functions connected in a web of authority
and accountability – Trustees, Personnel, Faith and Order, Representation and
Nominations).
6) Presbytery Gatherings (formerly called “meetings”) have been transformed from a
primarily business and polity orientation into gatherings focused on relationships,
Community Conversations, and joyful, creative worship (always with the
Sacrament of Communion). Necessary business has been streamlined through a
lengthy Consent Agenda, and focused debates and votes. The culture has shifted,
and more and more people are actually enjoying our Prebytery Gatherings, with
an unusually high attendance by Teaching Elders. (Our low Ruling Elder
participation continues to be an urgent concern). The 50th
year celebrations in
2011 were full of laughter, story-telling, boating on the Hudson, and dancing.
PASSION AND PARTNERSHIP
We are the Body of Christ – and individually members of him. (I Corinthians 12)
1) Programmatic committees have been transformed into ministry networks – where
collaboration and partnership between congregations around areas of passion
have emerged (food justice, cross cultural experiences, immigration, prison
partnership education and transformation, Christian Education brainstorming).
2) Community gardens have sprung up across the presbytery as congregations have
reached out to their communities to provide hospitality, food, and community
(White Plains, Bryn Mawr Park, Port Chester, Goshen, Monroe, Holmes, Dobbs
Ferry, Chester, etc.) Other community/congregation partnerships that have
emerged include a weekend Back Pack Program between Cornwall and the public
schools; homeless ministries and feeding programs (Union, Newburgh,
Calvary/Newburgh, Beacon); Thrift Shop and Warming Station in Middletown;
Service Sundays at Patterson and Wappingers Falls; a community/congregation

arts program in Beacon; prison visitation ministries at Katonah, Ossining, Rye, and
Bedford; Bridges to Community mission trips to Nicaragua and the Dominican
Republic (Larchmont, Katonah, Bedford, Cold Spring, Goshen, Freedom Plains);
Appalachian Service Project trips (Pleasantville, Freedom Plains), Katrina recovery
trips ( Presbytery, Goshen, Mt. Kisco); 6 PresbyBuild houses – and the list goes on
and on.
3) Advocacy networks and collaborative social justice campaigns have re-emphasized
the central role that justice passions have played in the history of Hudson River
Presbytery: gun control initiatives and overtures; successful advocacy to change
denominational polices around the full inclusion of GLBT persons; climate change
marches and strategies; a Peru partnership focusing on food justice,
environmental and trade issues; and spotlights on human trafficking, domestic
violence, police brutality, and racism.
4) Partnerships between and among congregations have grown ( Four Parish Youth
Ministry in Rockland; ESL Program shared by White Plains and Scarsdale; shared
community meals among the Amenia churches; For Faith Parish (five
congregations in Sullivan County sharing vision, mission, regular worship and the
Celebration Choir, while also sharing one Commissioned Ruling Elder as Pastor).
5) The presbytery has deepened and formalized its partnership with Holmes Camp
and Conference Center, the Stony Point Center, Rural Migrant Ministry, and
PresbyBuild ( 11 congregations building houses together).
6) Reaping the benefits of our connectional system, HRP has vigorously pursued
grants from Synod and General Assembly sources, combining them with our own
Challenge to Change, building proceeds, and endowment funds to create contract
positions – Cross Cultural Catalyst, Food Justice Catalyst, Prison Partnership
Coordinator, and the Nyack Spiritual Leader.
7) In partnership with the leadership of the Poughkeepsie First Presbyterian Church,
the Vision 2020 Fund was created with roughly a third of the money from the
Poughkeepsie building ($385.000), planting new seeds of ministry and vision
across the presbytery.
8) The HRP Stewardship Team has offered workshops in regional and individual
settings to 80 of our congregations – and been asked to lead training sessions in
presbyteries and conferences across the country.

9) Unlike many presbyteries across the country, our congregations have faithfully
paid per capita assessments, and our mission giving has remained fairly steady –
despite the recent recession. HRP gives a higher percentage of mission giving
dollars to the General Assembly than most other presbyteries. Together we are
honoring our connectional partnerships – realizing we can do more together than
any of us can do alone.
IN A CHANGING WORLD
Change in the world around us, and in the health and life of mainline Protestant
congregations, has been a whirlwind among us and around us. “Institutions” are no longer
trusted, traditional organizational models no longer work, younger generations have little
interest in structured religion, and the larger partisan nature of political and social life has
seeped inside the walls of our churches. Add to this the deep roots and ageing buildings that
so many of our congregations cherish, and what we have before us is nothing short of a crisis
- a word which in the Chinese language means both “danger” and “opportunity.” The old is
finished and gone – and the new has come – that is Christ’s promise when we are baptized
into the “new creation.” The only faithful response to crisis is CHANGE – a commitment to
embrace radical change and trust that our dependable God will continue to be with us. And
so change has been the context for our life together for the past nine years:
1) Both the composition and design of the HRP Staff has changed with breath taking
speed and regularity. Since 2006, we have said goodbye to 15 staff members (Ray
Bagnuolo, Sue Wonderland, Bruce Tischler, Doris Schelhas, Shirley Russell, Chris
Shelton, Cathy Talbot, Michelle Torosian, Harriet Sandmeier, Anthony Lederhaas,
Ricardo Sheppard, Theo Harris, Jay Bishop, and Mike Lombardi). And we have said
hello to 11 staff members ( Susan Andrews, Rhonda Kruse, Susan DeGeorge, Emily
Monk, Abbie Huff, Lori Hylton, Noelle Damico, Sarah Henkel, Hans Hallundbaek,
Tom Buchanan, and Wendy Spierling) Only Jean Kaiser and Peter Surgenor still
remain from the original staff in 2006!
2) The staff now includes 1 person full time (the GP), 8 part-timers (ranging from a
few hours a month to 32 hours per week – most around 20), and two volunteers.
Four of the part-time staff are grant funded – which has allowed for passion and
creativity, but lacks financial stability for the future. The office move to
Scarborough (to cut the expenses by half) also cut down on office space – so our
part-time staff often work off site and share space in the office. Coordinating and
building a collaborative team with such scattered hours, spaces, and

responsibilities has been a challenge – but this passionate, highly talented staff
team offers quality, diverse ministry at a bargain cost to the presbytery.
3) By living within our means – budgeting realistically and holding people and groups
accountable – the financial security of the presbytery remains strong. The creative
use of building sales (Vision 2020, the new Legacy Fund) and denominational
grants has enabled us to do and be more than per capita and mission giving would
allow. Planting new missional seeds – rather than building emergency funds for
the future – has kept the Gospel alive and the presbytery growing and changing.
4) Technology is at the heart of our changing world, and we have struggled to take
old models of communication and make them fresh and useful in a technological
world. After years of trying, we finally have a useable data base and online
directory, and we increasingly use e-mail, web posting, and Constant Contact
messaging to tell our story and communicate with all of you (including a
collaborative presbytery blog). With the calling of a creative and skilled Director of
Communications we are finally entering the 21st
century. Much more must change
– a new web design, future use of video conferencing, greater social media
presence - so hang onto your seats.
5) There are two kinds of change –“technical change” (doing time tested and valued
things in new ways) or “adaptive change” (taking risks to become relevant and
responsive to a world that is completely different than it was 50 years ago). Some
ways in which we have pursued effective TECHNICAL change have been:
- Re-structured our presbytery work into a permission giving structure with
ministry teams of fewer members and no General Council;
- Combined the work of the Budget, Finance, and Property Committee with
the work of the Trustees;
- Created a Disaster Preparedness Response Team, structured regionally to
equip and train congregations to be prepared for natural disasters;
- Re-wrote the Sexual Misconduct Policy, offering mandated misconduct
prevention training for pastors, creating a Misconduct Response Team with
protocol and policies in place if misconduct should occur;
- Created a trained Healthy Congregations Mediation Team to be a resource
to sessions and congregations who find themselves divided by conflict;
- Re-wrote our By-Laws (thanks to our Stated Clerk)

- Developed a transparent and accountable budgeting process for the
presbytery;
- Established an annual participatory Staff Performance Review process, and
re-wrote the Personnel Policies twice;
- Created grass roots, participatory granting processes to disburse missional
grants funded by the sale of buildings;
- Created a discernment process to facilitate the gracious dismissal of 5
congregations seeking to leave the PCUSA
With hearts open to the dying of the old and the rising of the new, and with the creation of a
Connections and Change Presbyter position a few years ago, we put ADAPTIVE change at the
heart of our ministry:
-Provocative speakers were brought in to the presbytery to open our eyes to
changes in the life of the church in America – Len Sweet, Diana Butler Bass, Erin
Dunigan, Lillian Daniel, Bill Carter, Gail Erwin, David MacDonald, etc.
- Nine congregations chose to participate in the New Beginnings Program –
partly funded by the presbytery and facilitated by the Connections and Change
Presbyter – and through an assessment process, “stuck” churches were
encouraged to look honestly at their resources, use of time, neighborhood, and
faith commitment – in order to make a radically new investment in some form
of new ministry in their community.
-Several congregations have faced a radical change, or the end of their life
cycle, in creative ways – celebrating their legacy by planting seeds of new
ministry with their physical resources – New Rochelle, Poughkeepsie,
Hughsonville, Kingston, Good Shepherd, Brewster – using their buildings as
tools of mission to help build the reign of God in new ways.
-Through the work of our Cross Cultural Catalyst, several congregations are
focusing on serving the needs of their Latino and global neighbors, by
addressing the fear and racism which has greeted so much of the demographic
changes in this country. Creative materials have been developed for how to
turn “nesting” immigrant congregations from renters (money) to covenant
partners (mission).

-Using GA and synod money and Vision 2020 money, HRP has created the
Nyack Project and called a Nyack Spiritual Leader – to wander around Nyack,
connecting with the spiritually hungry residents and those suspicious of
organized religion, and create an emergent spiritual community focused on
purposeful lives and justice work.
-Our Commissioned Ruling Elder program has blossomed into one of the
healthiest and largest programs in the nation. We have 8 CREs currently
commissioned as pastors, chaplains, and prison ministers, and there are
another 6 to 8 in training, waiting to answer God’s call in some ministry setting
in our midst. The skill, passion, and calling of these ruling-elders-turned-
pastors is inspiring, and their leadership in all corners of our presbytery
represents a creative change in the understanding of Christian vocation.
-A new Emerging Ministries Team has been created to think about planting
new spiritual communities and re-creating existing congregations, as well as
how to “do” evangelism in progressive, contemporary ways.
-The nine Presbyterian congregations in Rockland County have started having
regular leadership conversations together, exploring how they can collaborate
and share ministry as each of their congregations shrink in money and
membership. Initiated by the Connections and Change Presbyter, the key
question being explored is “how does each congregation have to die to the old,
in order that something new can arise among them together?”
-The Commission on Ministry has been combined with the Congregational
Change Team, so that times of transition can also be times for congregations to
think about change. Change Specialists will be trained to interact with
congregations upon request.
THE FUTURE
Yes, much has changed, even as the values we hold dear have remained steadfast. As the
presbytery moves forward, the core values that you defined 8 years ago continue to be alive
in your midst: passion, partnership, hospitality, justice, honesty, curiosity, joy, and
generosity. As I move into a new phase of my own faith journey, and answer God’s call for
retirement and new ministry ventures, I leave you with some questions about God’s renewed
call to you as a presbytery family:
1) Using the insights of Jim Collins, key questions for effective ministry in the future may
be: What are you, as a presbytery community, most passionate about – and what do

you do better than anyone else? Who is God calling you to be outside the cozy walls of
your buildings?
2) As money and membership dwindle, what are the spiritual riches that can undergird
your future – your people resources, your spiritual gifts, your rich history, your deep
commitments and cherished relationships?
3) What does it mean to be a Gospel community – to be the salt and light and yeast of
the Living Christ in a secular world? How can the church be an alternative
consciousness, an alternative community, an alternative lifestyle – a sharp contrast to
the greed, partisanship, consumerism, and individualism of the secular northeast?
4) How can buildings become resources instead of burdens? How can “church” become
an organic Body, glorifying and enjoying God and incarnating God in the world? How
can the church be in the world – instead of separate and hidden from it?
5) How can the presbytery best empower, support, and appreciate each congregation in
its context and for its unique purpose? How can the presbytery better support,
nurture, challenge, and equip pastoral and lay leadership to bear the burdens of
Christian discipleship with joy and passion?
6) What staff design and skills can best meet the needs of the presbytery going forward ?
What does empowering, servant leadership look like?
I will keep all of you in my prayers, and remain vitally interested in your future - from afar. I
firmly believe that the future is very bright for Hudson River Presbytery.
GRATITUDE
Much of what I have described in this “balcony view” of the presbytery during the past nine
years was only possible because of the love, skill, passion, and calling of so many other
people. I am deeply grateful to:
- A dedicated, creative, and hardworking staff who offer their best each day – and
work many more hours than they are paid for. Special thanks to Jean Kaiser who has
hung in there longer than anyone else, and who has weathered the storms of change
with grace and humor.
- The many of you who have served on committees, task forces, discernment teams,
ministry teams, review teams, search committees, and all other forms of
organizational torture! The level of involvement in this presbytery is truly phenomenal
– and we are much better together than any of us could be alone.

-A special thanks to those who have served as Moderator during my tenure: Dan
Morse, Lou Glasse, Ed Garcia, Angela Maddalone, Chip Low, Margery Rossi, Bill
Crawford, Rob Trawick, and Tami Seidel; to those who have served as COM Co-
Moderators: David Harkness and Ken Wonderland, John Miller and Scott Ramsey, Chip
Low and Jeff Farley; and to those who have chaired the Trustees: Ken Godshall and
Charles Barton.
- To the many committed congregations who have taught me how faithful people can
change, grow, die, rise again, and serve Jesus with amazing grace – regardless of size,
demographics, money, or location.
- To my long suffering husband, Sim Gardner, who has listened to me, supported me,
and endured long evenings without me, as I traveled the many miles of this presbytery
journey.
In the Spanish language, there is no word for “retirement.” Instead the word used to describe
this third stage of life is “jubilation.” So, as I begin my Jubilation Journey, I thank you for our
time together – and wish you only the richest of God’s blessings.
Faithfully yours,
Susan Andrews
Susan Andrews
General Presbyter
March 21, 2015

REPORT OF THE GENERAL PRESBYTER MARCH

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