NCP Office Summer Hours:  Please be advised that effective May 23 - August 29 the Presbytery office will be closed on Fridays.  Messages and emails sent on Friday will be returned by Noon on the next business day.  Normal hours of operation will resume on September 5th.

 Sunday, June 15th 

Midweek Musings by Kathi Busch, Moderator

William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury, once said, “The church is the only society in the world that exists primarily for those who are not members of it.”  Now, I know he wasn’t a Presbyterian, but he didn’t mean only churches in the Anglican communion when he made this statement.  He meant the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church” as we say in the Creed.  And there it is again:  apostolic.  If I remember my Greek correctly, the root of the word ‘apostolic’ means “one who is sent.”  In my recent sermon at presbytery, I said that “Jesus did not tell the whole world to go to church.  Jesus told His church to go to the whole world.”  We are sent primarily to those who are not members of our churches or any church.  And I know that is a hard sell to those in our pews who believe that their church exists primarily to take care of them, to care for their family members and provide for their spiritual needs. What’s a pastor to do?

The Scripture is clear that our primary mission is outside the four walls of our church.  Hey, doesn’t the Latin root of the word ‘mission’ mean ‘sent’, too?  Coincidence?!  I think not!  Years ago, I learned this benediction written by Richard Halverson, a Presbyterian minister who was Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. I use it about once a month as one way to create a sense of ‘sentness’ in our folks. They just love it.  I hear it coming back to me often, and I really believe that our folks at Covenant have begun to understand and truly embrace the fact that they are sent to their homes and neighborhoods and workplaces and schools with the good news of new life through Jesus.  Here are Halverson’s words:

You go nowhere by accident.

Wherever you go, God is sending you.

Wherever you are, God has put you there,

He has a purpose in your being there.

Christ who dwells in you has something

He wants to do through you, where you are.

Powerful, isn’t it?  We are sent, my friends. To whom is God sending you this summer?

- Kathi Busch

Installation service of Rev. Barry M. Gray

Graduation News

With satisfaction I would like to share that Rev. Doug Gerdts, Pastor-First & Central PC, received his DMin on May 17, 2008 from Lancaster Theological Seminary.  His dissertation was: We Are the Ones -- A Case Study of the Interfaith Coalition: Building Blocks for Wilmington.

Congratulations Rev. Gerdts! - - Jim Moseley, Executive Presbyter

SUBMISSION OF 2007 CLAIMS TO NCP

Download brochure here:  2008 MED-WRAP BROCHURE.pdf

Donna L. Scully

Administrative Assistant

New Castle Presbytery

(302) 366-0595

Prostate Concer Screenings

June 17th at Wilmington Hospital

Make it the best Father's Day ever!

Download flyer here: Prostate Cancer Screenings.pdf

Forum on Gulf Coast Mission Trips!

Has your congregation taken a mission trip to help rebuild the gulf coast???  If so, Mission Unit wants to buy you lunch and hear from you!

Thursday June 19 at 1:00 PM at Christiana Church (15 N. Old Baltimore Pike Christiana, DE) the Mission Unit is sponsoring a forum on gulf coast mission trips.  Come and hear some of what our congregations are doing and help dream about what more we can do.  Pizza, salads and drinks will be provided, but you can bring photos, scrapbooks and stories of your mission trips.

If you have NOT sent a mission team to the gulf coast, but want to know more, you are invited too!

PLEASE let us know if you are coming and how many to prepare for.  RSVP to bobschminkey@verizon.net 

Apply for Mission Program Grants

Funding is available for congregations and presbyteries that want to organize new congregations, transform existing churches or develop ministries that reflect the PC(USA)’s commitment to inclusiveness, diversity and ecumenicity. Learn more and apply for Mission Program Grants by September 1.

News from the IRC

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN FORT WORTH SEEKS

FULLTIME DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth is a large, growing, downtown congregation with nearly 2000 members and two campuses.  The church ministers to a broad age range with dynamic worship, engaging programming and well-developed outreach programs throughout the local community and internationally.  First Presbyterian will soon open a newly constructed, multi-million dollar building providing additional worship, fellowship and education space for its members and the community.  Read the full job description below and send resumes to Dana Fickling at dfickling@fpcfw.org by no later than June 27, 2008.

Download job description here: Communicator Job Description.pdf

Mission Yearbook Order Form

Download Mission Yearbook Order Form Here: Mission Yearbook Order Forms 09.pdf

Honduras Mission Trip

Presbyterians from Limestone, Hanover Street and New Castle Presbyterian Churches, three doctors, two University of Delaware graduate students, several others will travel to Honduras from June 7th to 15th to spend a week working with PC(USA) mission workers Tim and Gloria Wheeler there-- offering a medical clinic, a sewing project and a construction project.  Pastor Carolyn Gillette of the Limestone Presbyterian Church is leading this mission trip.  Honduras is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America, with nearly two-thirds of Hondurans living in poverty.  Here are ways that you can be a part of this trip.

Please pray for those who will be traveling and serving.  See below for you to pray for individual travelers on specific days.

Buy/Give BoGo solar flashlights for Honduras, see http://www.bogolight.com/Articles.asp?ID=6.   We sold out of our first shipment and hope the second shipment of lights will arrive in the coming week.  Contact the Limestone Presbyterian Church office at 302-994-5646 for information on donating SuperBogo lights (2 for $30).  You may choose to donate both flashlights, or donate one and keep one for your own use at home.  Checks should be made out to Limestone Presbyterian Church. We will take as many as we can in our luggage and we will ship the rest to our partners at Heifer Project in Honduras.  Please let us know if you want to keep or donate your second light.  These lights also make great gifts.  Thank you!

Please pray for the following mission team participants, during the days they are traveling: 

Thursday, June 12:  Please pray for Chuck Miller, a pediatrician, and his granddaughter (a graduate student), Dana Clasby.

Friday, June 13:  Please pray for Pam Zorn, an ER physician who is Chuck Miller’s daughter, and Pam’s son, Ivan Zorn, a high school student.

Saturday, June 14:  Please pray for Andrea Sotomayor of New Castle Presbyterian Church and Justin Greenberg, two graduate students in Spanish at the University of Delaware.

Sunday, June 15:  Please pray for the people of Honduras we have met and worked with, and safe travels home.

The Rev. Dr. Tom Long Coming to Delaware in June 

The Interfaith Resource Center is pleased to announce that Rev. Dr. Tom Long will speak on June 21, 2008 at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 2313 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE.

Clergy Forum... 1:30-4 p.m.Preaching in the Windstorm: The Pulpit Faces Contemporary America

Public Forum... 7-8:30 p.m.

The Church at the Four Corners

Dr. Long is Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Long has previously served on the teaching staff at Princeton Theological Seminary, Columbia Theological Seminary, and Erskine Theological Seminary. He has also served as director of Geneva Press, a division of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.

In a survey of clergy of all denominations by Baylor University, Dr Long was listed as one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English speaking world, ranking with Billy Graham, James Forbes, Barbara Brown Taylor, and William Willimon.

Dr. Long is the author of over a dozen books including The Witness of Preaching, Second Edition (2005) and Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian (2004). His commentary on Matthew from the Westminster Bible Companion Series is a must have for this Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary. Please check this IRC webpage routinely as plans for the event begin to take shape. Please contact the Interfaith Resource Center if you would like to be a sponsor for this event. Sponsor now and receive as our gift a copy of Matthew from the Westminster Bible Companion Series.

Tickets are now available. The clergy forum is $25 and the public forum is $10.  Please see below on information on how to purchase tickets:

For more information contact: