Updates from Presbytery

Last weekend, several of us attended the 32nd Stated Meeting of the Gulf South Presbytery at Grace Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, LA. The presbytery has a number of responsibilities. Some of them are mundane and administrative, but if you ever attend presbytery, you’ll notice that the bulk of our time is focused on supporting the ministry of the church, both at home and abroad. Here are some of the things you may be interested in:

1. We heard reports from our World Outreach Committee about ongoing work in Sierra Leone and the Middle East. The EPC is in fraternal relations with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sierra Leone and has been engaged in mission work there for many years. The main thing we do is support Christian schooling in rural communities as an avenue for the gospel. So far, 6 churches have been established, 22 missions have been established, and the EPC of Sierra Leone has the goal of establishing 30 particular churches by 2030. If you would like to support this work, visit this webpage.

2. The EPC also has a small team that has been working in the Middle East for many years. They are connected to an evangelical church and school and focus particularly on reaching refugees from places like Syria. This is a very difficult place to work, and recently, our missionaries have been displaced by the Israel-Hamas war. In recent months, they have been furloughed in the United States, but now they are in the process of returning to the field. As a presbytery, we received one of the missionaries as a candidate under care. He is at the beginning of seminary, and our hope is that he will eventually be able to serve as a pastor in this region. You can support the work of this team at this link. (Since these missionaries are in a particularly dangerous place, they are only referred to as “G and E.”)

3. Most relevant to our congregation, the presbytery examined three men for examination, including me! We were all received unanimously in the presbytery. Eddie Ramer is a prison chaplain in the Louisiana prison system and serves at Grace Church in Alexandria. Jason Gregory is a navy chaplain who has recently been stationed on the Gulf Coast. He and his family attend Westminster in Gulfport. Both of these men will be endorsed as chaplains in the EPC. And of course, I was approved to serve as your pastor! This coming Sunday, a presbytery commission will be with us to officially ordain and install me.

Updates

1. Now that we have presbytery’s approval, we will have a service of ordination and installation this Sunday at 5PM. Members, especially, need to be present so that you can take your vows. And of course, we’ll have a celebration immediately following the service.

2. Next Sunday, February 9, our worship service will be followed by our Soup-erbowl lunch. Be sure to bring enough of your favorite soup for your family plus one. We would also encourage you to bring a special benevolence gift to support our missions partners.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid