Finally....after 28 years as Stated Supply pastor, Rev. Dr. Steve Poos-Benson is officially a called pastor!

FINALLY… at our Special Called Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, the Committee on Ministry presented a motion to approve Rev. Dr. Steve Poos-Benson to move from temporary supply pastor to called, head of staff at Columbine United Church. It was approved by an unanimous decision! Read Steve’s story below. Send Steve an email and congratulate him.

Twenty-eight years - it’s a long time to wait to become a Sr. Pastor. Actually, my journey to become the pastor of Columbine United Church began thirty-six years ago. The moment I stepped into the congregation when I was a snot nosed green behind the ears fresh out of seminary twenty-five year old I heard a divine call that said, “Here, here is where I want you to serve.” Over the years there have been other opportunities but each time the message was very clear, “No, I want you to stay at Columbine.” So, I did.

The hiccup came after year seven when Ken Biel the Sr. Pastor retired. The congregation did a two-year search and interviewed three finalists for the position, all who declined the offer. The Presbytery Executive, Hank Blunk, asked me if I’d be willing to take the position. I asked how this would be possible since the Book of Order expressly stated that Associates cannot become Sr. Pastors in the same congregation. Hank said, “We’re going to make you the Stated Supply.” I didn’t care about the title; it simply confirmed my call to stay at Columbine. 

The years rolled by and I joked that I was going to be the longest running Stated Supply in the history of the denomination. I reasoned that in many ways we’re all temporary and this was a living reminder that someday I too would move on to something else, even if that was retirement. People have often asked me how long I would serve at Columbine. I simply replied, “Until God, the congregation, and the Presbytery decided otherwise.”

It’s been an interesting journey. We’ve had many experiences as a congregation – programs, mission, and building expansions. The congregation was thrown into the national spotlight as it played a crucial role in the Columbine shootings. Through it all there was God’s abiding presence and call.

I someday longed to have my title changed. The door opened when the Book of Order was amended. Our Presbytery began working with pastors in temporary positions to move them to called and installed positions. I wondered if it would someday apply to me. Thanks to the Committee on Ministry and the members of the Council and congregation of CUC we walked the necessary steps together. Then last week you voted to make the dream a reality.

It might seem odd that after thirty-six years and just a few years from retirement I’d want to change things now. Why not just become the longest standing temporary pastor? It’s simple. It’s because of my call. I wanted to be able to stand before God and say, “Here I am, still, use me.”

Thank you for making it all possible. It has been worth the wait.

Highlands Presbytery Camp & Retreat Center Pays Off Mortgage

A day some thought might never come

In midst of pandemic, Presbyterian camp pays off multi-million-dollar mortgage

by Paul Seebeck | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — Maria Shupe thought the day when she would be able to pay off Highlands Presbyterian Camp & Retreat Center’s mortgage “might never come.” Before she arrived as executive director, the camp near Boulder, Colorado, had borrowed millions of dollars to build a lodge and retreat center.

It wasn’t the way Highlands planned it. But like so many projects, it ended up costing nearly three times more than the anticipated amount — in part because an endangered species study was required and a million-dollar commercial water treatment plant had to be built.

Despite raising more than $5 million, Highlands had to borrow $3.2 million in 2000 to begin construction on the retreat center, which would have sleeping rooms, offices, dining rooms and a commercial kitchen. It was dedicated in October 2002.

Shupe, a self-described fiscal conservative, said when she took the job 15 years ago, many people anticipated Highlands would close within three years.

“There were some really, really hard days,” she said.

More than one time, Shupe had to say to the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks, which owns the camp, “We can’t make it. We need your help.”

But thanks to a lot of people who gave $50 to $500 a month — and to some large annual gifts — the mortgage has finally been paid off.

“So many people have given over the years to wipe out that debt,” Shupe said.

When she first arrived, Highlands received one of those larger gifts anonymously from a bank in Colorado. Shupe had no idea who was behind the gift until she had a conversation one day with the Rev. Jane Hays, who was the first woman ordained in Denver Presbytery. After selling its camp, Denver Presbytery became an important partner with Presbytery of Plains and Peaks in Highlands’ camping ministry.

Hays mentioned to Shupe that she’d seen on her husband Bill’s tax return that he’d given $165,000 to Highlands that year. Together — the couple gave to Highlands separately — their gifts totaled more $1 million in their lifetimes.

“Jane used to say to me over the years, ‘The real money doesn’t come until we die,’” Shupe said.

After Bill died in 2011 and Jane in 2017, three trust fund gifts came from their estate. Because the couple always gave to Highlands’ general fund, Shupe committed 50 percent of each gift to debt reduction, with the rest being used for program development and major maintenance projects.

The last gift, which came a week ago, was more than expected. Shupe said it was “an extraordinary gift,” which allowed Highlands to pay off its debt, set aside $500,000 for pandemic support, and still have some left over for programming or maintenance needs.

READ FULL STORY→

Summary of our conversation with Dr. Jim Todd on July 24, 2020

Coronavirus: The Current State of our Knowledge

On Friday afternoon, July 24, 2020, Rev. Dana Hughes and Peter Hulac had a conference call with Dr. James Todd.  Jim says that there is new learning all the time, and there is still so much we do not know.

For this particular virus, there was no preexisting immunity in the community.  Current community immunity is probably 10 or 20%.  It would take 80 to 90% to achieve herd immunity, and we do not know if an individual’s antibodies will last long enough to be protective.  That means that COVID will continue to roar through in cycles.

Kids younger than 10 years old are less likely to acquire the virus and are less likely to spread it.  (See below.)  The fact that older people suffer more with this virus seems to be explained by as yet, poorly-understood exaggerated immune responses.

The biggest route of transmission is airborne spread in droplets, but smaller, non-droplet virus particles are also vectors.  These particles remain longer on surfaces and in the air.

Even if everyone wears a mask, infected people can still spread the virus, although at a lower rate.  Forty to to 50% of people with the virus have no symptoms or are presymptomatic, but still able to transmit it to others.  This is what makes this one so nasty and so difficult to trace.

More than 4 million Americans have been officially diagnosed with COVID.  The real number is probably much higher.

The risk of infectivity is increased with longer length of exposure and with proximity between people.  Exhaling with force (singing, exercising, playing a wind instrument, and yelling at a rally or at a sports event) is a significant problem.  The risk is decreased if there is a mask on the infected person; to a smaller degree if the mask is on the uninfected person. 

There are two kinds of testing.  Both have challenges.  

• Testing for current infection involves looking for the virus or for genetic evidence of it.

  • There are false negatives and false positives.

  • Even if a patient’s test is negative on a particular day, it is still possible that a test obtained a day or two later will become positive.

  • There are sometimes long delays in getting results.

• Antibody testing looks for evidence that a patient has had the infection in the past and has made antibodies to it.  We do not fully understand the predictive value of either positive or negative results.

With COVID-like symptoms a person must be in isolation for at least ten days; and we must trace contacts.  If a person is exposed to someone proved to be positive, each exposed person must be in quarantine for 14 days.

What is new in prevention and treatment?

• Maybe convalescent plasma (being studied in Colorado, including at Children’s Hospital Colorado).  Current supply is low, so it is rationed to people who are further along in the illness and are sicker.  In other illnesses, like chickenpox, treatments like this are useful only if given early.  Studies are continuing, but convalescent plasma might not in the long run be proven to be helpful. 

• Antiviral medications like remdesivir.  Remdesivir was reported in one study to help hospitalized patients go home earlier, but there was no change in the risk of death.  There is no evidence that it will help if given early in an illness.

• Steroids, like dexamethasone (Decadronᴿ), might be helpful for severely ill patients. 

• New vaccines are being studied in accelerated protocols, but there is still some chance that they will not meet the dual, important criteria of safety and effectiveness.  It is difficult to count on any projected date of either when a safe vaccine will first become available or when quantities will be large enough to establish adequate herd immunity.

How about gathering for worship?

There are dozens of well-documented examples of post-church service infections.  There is a published CDC report about the aftermath of an Arkansas congregation’s worship service in the early days of the pandemic.  Of 92 people in attendance, 35 people became infected and 3 died.  There was also evidence of further disease spread in the wider community. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6920e2.htm

There are some reasonably good efforts at protecting worshipers, but many church members are in highly vulnerable populations.  Reasonable choices are really tough.  We cannot make the risk “0.”

Here is some guidance:  Remote worship is still best.  Outside worship is better than inside.  Masks are mandatory.  There should be no congregational singing, no passing of the peace or other touching.  There must be at least six feet between worshipers or worshiping household clusters.  No objects should be shared, e.g., communion elements, bulletins, or hymnals.  Inside is much different.  If a church building has good HVAC, open windows, and reasonable cleaning: there might be lower risk.

Other, More Esoteric Facts:

Each virus particle is tiny.  250,000 of them lined up in a row would extend to only one inch on a ruler.  They cannot be seen with regular light microscopes, only electron microscopes.  Each particle has many spike-like protrusions.  In aggregate, the spikes make the virus look like a crown, thus the name.  (One scientist described coronavirus as a “crown of thorns.”)  These spikes attach themselves to “receptors” in individual cells lining the respiratory tract.  This connection allows an individual virus to invade and take over an attacked cell.  Young children do not have as many receptors on the surfaces of the cells in their respiratory tract, which explains why nearly all children are less susceptible to the illness and are less contagious.

There is, nevertheless, a rare childhood syndrome associated with this coronavirus.  It was first described in the UK by Dr. Michael Levin, who did his Infectious Disease fellowship with Drs. Mimi Glodé and Jim Todd here in Denver.           https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.levin  He first described it as “Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome, “PIMS.”  https://www.imperial.nhs.uk/about-us/news/kawasaki-like-syndrome-linked-to-covid-19-in-children-is-a-new-condition  Our CDC later changed the name to MIS-C, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children.  It has been diagnosed in children who have had earlier infections with this coronavirus.  The age range is between two and fifteen years.  It is caused by post-infectious inflammation in blood vessels, including those supplying the heart muscle.  It is very rare but serious, and it usually responds to treatment. 

Other Resources Suggested by Dr. Todd:

An explanation of the “model” developed by the Colorado School of Public Health.  It helps project the impact of specific favorable and unfavorable strategies upon the future course of the epidemic.  https://coloradosph.cuanschutz.edu/resources/covid-19/modeling-results

The Colorado Emergency Operations Center and the state Department of Public Health and Environment website is continually updated with new information for the public.  https://covid19.colorado.gov/

For all who grieve that the pandemic has interfered with their love of live opera, Jim also offers this website as a potential substitute.  The quality of the performances is exceptional.  https://www.metopera.org/

Sexual Misconduct Prevention Resources | Office of General Assembly

Sexual Misconduct Prevention Resources—A message from General Counsel Mike Kirk

The Insurance Board and Praesidium are partners with the PC(USA), providing victims, congregations, and councils with support and resources through the PC(USA) Helpline (866-607-7233). Recently the two organizations offered a presentation entitled “Abuse Prevention: Creating a Safe Environment.”

All congregations and councils are encouraged to review this presentation, which is full of information to help develop and enhance your policies, protocols, and procedures to keep minors safe in your ministries.

You can also find many resources on the PC(USA) Creating Safe Ministries webpage. It has a collection of PC(USA) papers and policies on sexual misconduct and child protection, including the Child/Youth/Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy and Its Procedures, recently amended by the 224th General Assembly (2020). This is a policy for the national agencies and entities of the General Assembly, but congregations and councils are welcome to borrow and adapt those portions of it that can be used in their own policies for their ministries. Remember that the Book of Order requires that all councils of the PC(USA) have policies to protect children:

All councils shall adopt and implement a sexual misconduct policy and a child and youth protection policy. (G-3.0106)

Children are precious and vulnerable. Please use all available resources to develop policies and procedures to protect them.

Click here for Denver Presbytery Minor/Vulnerable Adult & Sexual Misconduct Policy

A Common Statement on Racism, Advocacy for Black Women and Girls, and the 224th General Assembly (2020)

From Past Moderators, Co-moderators, and Vice Moderators of The General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Predecessor Church

Dear Siblings and Friends of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),

Grace and peace in the name of Jesus Christ our Brother, Savior, and Lord! We, as past Moderators, Co-Moderators, and Vice Moderators of previous General Assemblies, issue this statement out of grave concern for what occurred during the 224th General Assembly (2020) and the work we feel is yet undone in our walk with Jesus.

We watched with great joy as the Assembly elected two capable leaders as Co-Moderators, both of whom are BIPOC (an umbrella term for Black, Indigenous, and people of color), including our denomination’s first Indigenous Moderator. We saw commissioners exhibit great enthusiasm for racial justice, even amid an abbreviated Assembly. However, we also witnessed micro- and macro- aggressions towards the Co-moderators, commissioners, corresponding members, BIPOC generally and Black women specifically in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). And, despite numerous attempts by commissioners, the 224th General Assembly adjourned without addressing the plight of Black women and girls.

As leaders who have been and continue to be deeply committed to dismantling racial and gender inequality, racial and gender inequity, and in calling out white supremacy and misogyny in the Church and in society as sin, what occurred at the 224th General Assembly was nothing short of white supremacy, white privilege, misogyny, and hypocrisy expressed as indifference, apathy, and outright inaction. These ubiquitous viruses are what is endemic in society, and, sadly, in the Church. You can well understand our moral indignation when we rightfully expected that we as a Church would have come a long way in translating our prayers and statements for #BlackLivesMatter to actual official, public actions by the Assembly that would confess, reckon with the truth, and repent.

Instead, the 224th General Assembly chose to do otherwise. The Assembly acted to defer to 2022 any consideration of Item 02–020, the Disparities Experienced by Black Women and Girls Task Force. The Assembly voted down an amendment to specifically name Black women and girls in Item 00–29, “On the Church in this Moment in History: Responding to the Sin of Racism and a Call to Action.” The Assembly voted down one attempt to suspend the rules to allow for a discussion of a statement on Black women and girls, and then voted down by a narrow margin a second attempt to reconsider suspending the rules to allow for a discussion. The Assembly then considered new business concerning the creation of a task force to study the plight of the pre-born. That was voted down, but during a vigil of silence lamenting police violence against Black people, a commissioner who supported that new business displayed a sign in protest that read “Pre-born lives matter.” While the diversity of perspectives is one of the things we treasure about our tradition, we should note that proclamations of “Black Lives Matter” have been co-opted in abortion debates, which have then been used in very racist ways to misrepresent abortion practices in Black communities and deflect from the realities of police brutality. This is, once again, a racist affront to Black women, Black girls, and Black grief in a time when we were invited to sit with one another in that grief.

The torrent of signals and votes for inaction concerning Black women and girls grieves us. The Assembly did not heed the wise and prophetic counsel of two corresponding members — both of whom are Black women clergy — our fellow Moderator colleague, The Rev. Denise Anderson, and The Rev. Kerri Allen, moderator of the Task Force. Their advocacy for action was set aside and ignored. And, though ultimately corrected, we should wrestle with how we could have omitted The Rev. Dr. Joan Salmon Campbell, — the first Black woman Moderator of the reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — from the original memorial to recently-deceased Moderators.

What is at stake? Why are we emphatic and categoric in calling the Church’s attention to this travesty and injustice? Read and internalize the words of the preface of the Task Force Report:

This report has been prepared in response to the immediate effects and long-term consequences of interpersonal and institutional violence perpetrated against black women and girls in U.S. society and in the PC(USA). This intersectional (race/gender) and multidimensional (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) violence manifests in dehumanizing expressions of black womanhood (e.g. pejorative stereotypes) and in theo-political sanctioned and socially accepted practices of disenfranchising (e.g. policing, silencing, making invisible, criminalizing). The dehumanizing tropes are intended to negate black female identity and the disenfranchising practices serve to restrict black female access to resources and opportunities otherwise afforded to those who enjoy hegemonic race/gender/sexual privilege.

Had the 224th General Assembly considered this report, or suspended its own rules to discuss and consider a public statement, the Assembly and the wider Church would begin to grapple with the realities of our Black women and girl siblings, the violence perpetrated against them often in silence, and that for so many is fatal. The Assembly missed an opportunity, and we grieve that. But more than that, we weep because the Church which we love, in which we serve, and for which we continue to serve refused to declare unequivocally, “This must stop!”

As with this Assembly’s theme, we pray and serve “From Lament to Hope.” We call upon all of us, in all of our ministries — congregations, worshipping communities, fellowships, mid-councils, national agencies, theological institutions, historically-related colleges and universities, camps and conference centers, young adult volunteer sites, mission co-worker assignments, etc — to reckon with, confess, and repent of white supremacy, white privilege, and misogyny particularly against Black women and girls, for we believe, in the words of the Belhar Confession:

“. . .that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream; that the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.”

May it be so.

Yours in the work of God’s justice,

Elder (Dr.) Thelma Davidson Adair, Moderator, 188th GA (1976), UPCUSA
The Rev. John Fife, Moderator, 204th GA (1992), PC(U.S.A.)
Elder (Dr.) Patricia Brown, Moderator, 209th GA (1997), PC(U.S.A.)
The Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel, 214th GA (2002), PC(U.S.A.)
The Rev. Dr. Susan Andrews, Moderator, 215th GA (2003), PC(U.S.A.)
Elder Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator, 216th GA (2004), PC(U.S.A)
The Rev. Dr. Byron A. Wade, Vice Moderator, 218th GA (2008), PC(U.S.A)
The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator, 218th General Assembly (2008), PC(U.S.A.)
The Rev. Landon Whitsitt, Vice Moderator, 219th GA (2010), PC(U.S.A.)
The Rev. Dr. Neal D. Presa, Moderator, 220th GA (2012), PC(U.S.A.)
The Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia, Vice Moderator, 221st GA (2014), PC (U.S.A.)
Elder (Dr.) Heath Rada, Moderator, 221st GA (2014), PC(U.S.A.)
The Rev. T. Denise Anderson, Co-Moderator, 222nd GA (2016), PC (U.S.A.)
The Rev. Dr. Jan Edmiston, Co-Moderator, 222nd GA (2016), PC (U.S.A.)
Elder Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri, Co-Moderator, 223rd GA (2018), PC(U.S.A.)
The Rev. Cindy Kohlmann, Co-Moderator, 223rd GA (2018), PC(USA)

SOURCE: https://medium.com/@breyeschow/a-common-statement-on-racism-advocacy-for-black-women-and-girls-and-the-224th-general-assembly-9dcff36516ea

Stephen Scott, Deacon at Peoples Presbyterian, shares his story

I am a Racist White Male and I support Black Lives Matter

I share this racism with every white person in America.  Saying that, will offend some of us.  Whether it is a veiled cover up (“I’m not racist, but...”), or a genuine emotion of feeling “singled out”, the first instinct of white people is to resist the label. That’s because we do not distinguish our personal biases from the structure of racism.  Biases are within all of us no matter our color. We tend to be biased in favor of the comfortable and familiar and against the unknown. White people are more likely to express their biases based on perceptions-that change will bring about loss.  Bias from minorities is grounded in experiences of discrimination and retribution leading to distrust of the system administered by the majority.  Both sides are afraid, and if the current system is creating fear in everyone then the system is flawed.

So, my racism does not extend from the individual biases I hold, no matter how I consciously try to “be a good person”, but from the system that allows me to have advantages over other people based on the color of my skin.  I am not even aware of many of my advantage because they are so ingrained into the system.  I am just as blind to the perspective of folks who are disadvantaged.  So, as a white man, I am the least qualified to offer my perspective on solutions to racial conflict. I must submit to the leadership of those who are directly harmed by the system.

My Faith is grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition of shalom-the state of peace and wholeness in the world.  Paul writes to the Philippians that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds.”  As a child I thought that meant I am entitled as an individual to  a feeling of peace. I now believe it means that God demands peace, even if I am personally uncomfortable in the way it is attained.  My understanding is not necessary to the the ultimate goal of restoring wholeness.

Therefore, though I sympathize with the extraordinarily difficult position that policmen and women are put in, I must view any police action that results in death a failure.  That failure needs to be accounted for at every police level until the entire force agrees that harm and death of citizens prior to their due process by a judge or citizen jury is deemed unacceptable.                             

For my part, I don’t know what the solutions are to achieve racial justice in America.  But as a white man who recognizes his racism, I hope I can stay out of the way of black leadership, support the Black Lives Matter movement even if I am uncomfortable, and try not to let my biases get in the way.

Respectfully,  

Stephen Scott
Peoples Presbyterian Church
Denver, Colorado

Are you brave and courageous enough to share your story? Email beth@denpres.org.