Reported by Rev. Jesse Larson
Bethany’s Session met in person and via Zoom October 25, 2022.
The South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership (SSIP) Food Closet and Bethany continue to negotiate SSIP's expansion on our campus. We have approved two different expansion proposals which currently involve The Fisherman's House. Presbytery will also be providing a task force who can help us best approach land leases, property sales, etc. For the past year, we've had a small subcommittee from Bethany working on the details of the SSIP expansion, but Session recently voted to disband this small sub-ommittee. We want to be sure that our Session first reaches a shared vision as to how we want to approach our relationship with SSIP. Are they a mission we support? Should they be asked to pay rent? So at this point, the SSIP expansion committee will work directly with our session as they move forward with their plans.
We are recognizing that some of our commissions are struggling to function (a few no longer exist, and some others only have one participant). We are discussing which commissions might be joined together, and what work at Bethany is critical and what work we must let go of. Currently, our session is comprised of Rev. Larson, moderator; Grace Ogata, clerk; Juli Jensen, Jackie Sneed, Debbie Leibrock, Ron Carlsen and Cathy Sapunor.
We have voted to move our investments over to the Presbyterian Foundation. We hope that this will ensure a clearer understanding of our investments, including which monies can be spent and which have certain restrictions upon them. In many ways, our money will be managed in the same way that we'd hire a professional account manager to manage our own private investments. For more information about this 200-year-old institution, click here.
Presbytery’s Administrative Commission is requiring that we complete a financial review by the end of the year.
Candace Keefauver and Jackie Sneed have been elected to represent Bethany at the Presbytery meeting on November 5.
A conversation has begun with Rev. Larson and the pastor of Parkside United Church of Christ (Rev. Rajeev Rambob) concerning the possibility of "federation" — that is, uniting our two congregations into one for the purpose of sharing resources and saving costs. These conversations are just in their infancy. Our initial steps are to discuss if these two congregations might be a good fit in terms of theology and approaches to mission.
We have run into a snag concerning tax issues with the county over one of our rental groups. They have not yet provided a confirmation of their 501c3 status as a non-for-profit organization. So our Budget and Stewardship commission is deciding next steps as to how to cover the costs of these additional taxes.
We know that many of our decisions require compromise and are far from perfect. But because of our decreasing membership and resources, we need to make do as best as we can. We hope that our members will respect our decisions and trust the Presbyterian process. Most importantly, we request that you keep Bethany and its leaders in your prayers—our work can be quite overwhelming at times. We are prayerfully seeking a united vision for our future but we don't know yet what big decisions that will entail.
