By Maureen Wright

As I write these words, I am about to begin my fourth month as your Transitional General Presbyter and Stated Clerk. The opportunity that God has placed before us as a community to reflect on our identity, purpose, and future as a Presbytery is unfolding before us. When I began, I shared that this transition would most likely last between 15 and 24 months. We are now at 12 to 21 months. As time moves forward, our task remains the same. The Presbytery of West Virginia continues its journey of leaving behind our old ways of doing and being “church.” God is asking us to reflect on the deeper questions of our identity, purpose, and future as a Presbytery – in other words, who is God calling us to be and what is God calling us to do now.

In mid-September, I had the opportunity to invite the Presbytery to participate in the first step in the Leadership Team’s call for A Season of Discernment, the formal process of discerning who is God calling us to be and what is God calling us to do now. Hopefully, you know that this process is being guided by Emily Swanson of Holy Cow! Consulting. The discernment began with a carefully designed Landscape Survey, the core of which has been used with both congregations and middle governing bodies of Presbyterians and our ecumenical partners. The Leadership Team and Emily worked together to put together the questions for our Presbytery. The Presbytery of West Virginia community submitted nearly 500 responses!

As I think about this opportunity that God is providing, I think about stories. The Leadership Team is offering the Presbytery space to tell its story and you are the storytellers. Whether you have been part of the Presbytery story since before the Presbytery of West Virginia existed or whether you have been part of the Presbytery for only a short time, you have a story to tell. Whether you are someone who has served on Presbytery committees, attended Presbytery meetings, gathered for Presbytery events, or you are someone who has only heard of the work of the Presbytery from your pastor or though the Presbytery meeting highlights, you have a story to tell. What story about the Presbytery do you have to share? The goal is to weave together all of the stories that our storytellers share to get a clear picture of the Presbytery’s story. Some of the threads of this story will be happy, some will be sad. Some will be stories filled with grace and others will not. Some will be of the Presbytery’s “finest hours,” and others will be snapshots of our failure. I hope that the overall story of the Presbytery will be one of faithfulness, living out God’s call and doing God’s kingdom work.

A Season of Discernment continues with opportunities to share our stories. Throughout this week, Ms. Swanson has met on Zoom with a number of groups of people, all who serve the Presbytery in specific ways with specific roles: members of Presbytery committees, Clerks of Session, staff, ministers of the Word and Sacrament and Commissioned Pastors, and retired ministers of the Word and Sacrament. Starting on Sunday afternoon, the Leadership Team will meet in person with members of the Presbytery of West Virginia community. These meetings are your opportunity to share – to share your thoughts, to share your vision, to share your story – the story of God’s Presbyterian people in the Presbytery of West Virginia moving to the place God is calling us to be and doing the work God is calling us to do. The Leadership Team wants to hear from you. I want to hear from you. Please join members of the Leadership Team at one of the meetings listed below.

  • October 29 from 4 to 6 PM at Clifton Presbyterian Church, Maxwelton.
  • October 29 from 4 to 6 PM at Kuhn Memorial Presbyterian Church, Barboursville.
  • November 2 from 6 to 8 PM at First Presbyterian Church, South Charleston.
  • November 5 from 4 to 6 PM at Fleming Memorial Presbyterian Church, Fairmont.
  • November 5 from 4 to 6 PM at First Presbyterian Church, Williamstown.