Dear Mask-Optional, Fresh-Faced Friends:

In my Minister’s Monday Musings I have seldom shared the deliberations of our Session, the governing body of a Presbyterian congregation. Part of being Presbyterian is a dedication to an intentional process of discernment. In our polity, every level of governance is a collaborative group; no one individual is empowered to make binding decisions for the group. The theology behind this structure is an understanding that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the collective gathering of the disciples; therefore, private charisma is to be distrusted until it is weighed by the deliberations