As most of you know, I am the Clerk of Session – but do you know what that is? The Clerk acts as the recorder of all of the actions of the Session. They may or may not be a sitting Elder. This way there is a written record of all the decision made at the church, back to the beginning. It is also their responsibility to keep track of the membership of the congregations. In that capacity, they register all the new members, record births, deaths, marriages and baptisms. The Clerk also needs to know the polity of the Presbyterian Church. That is a fancy way of saying the Rules and Book of Order that make us Presbyterians. As such, the records or minutes of the Session meetings are reviewed once a year at Presbytery.
In this Clerk’s Corner, I will attempt to keep the congregation up to date with what is going on at the Session Meetings. Sometimes we have lengthy meetings where we discuss aspects of the church policy seemingly forever. Sometimes we have short meeting when there are no conflicts and we just accept reports of what is happening. We also have email votes between the monthly Session meeting to approve or deny anything that comes up. This can be as simple as someone borrowing chairs or as difficult as a policy change. If the Session feels it needs face to face discussion, they can get together in a Called Meeting. In 2016, we had as many Called Meetings and we did Regular or Stated Meetings.
I hope you enjoy this look into the leadership of the church. The idea of the Clerk’s corner was one of those decisions made by your Session to keep you informed of what is happening.
God Bless,
JerrieLea Hopf - Contact me at jerrielea@churchinyarnell.org
