STATED CLERK'S NOTES - JUNE 5, 2025

“You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Psalm 90: 1-2

Last Sunday, I attended the installation of the Rev. Lora East at University PC, San Antonio. I had a moment when my past, present, and future collided.

Davy Goff, an Elder at St. Andrew, San Antonio, where I served from 1996-2004, was on the commission that installed Lora. His wife, Ginger, attended too, and I thought of all the dinners (too many to count!) we had together when our children were small and how hard it was to leave all the saints of that congregation. 

Leslie Ellison sat a few rows ahead of me. I followed him as Stated Clerk in 2000, at the turn of the century, I like to say. I remembered how, ok, …scared I was when I began that work. I served four years. Since then, I have served as a bridge Stated Clerk in Tampa Bay Presbytery, and now I am here again in Mission Presbytery. I get a chuckle when I see my former name, Laurie Spencer, on various folders and documents around here.

Caitlin Supcoff was on the commission, and she was a kid the first time I was here.

Monica Smith was on the commission, and she and I had worked on various projects together in the past (I recall a junior high conference at Mo Ranch), and we have messaged each other from time to time over the years. She’s a good friend.

Eunbee Ham, Madison Square, San Antonio, was on the commission. My husband, Ed, was on the Pastor Nominating Committee that called her. 

Bobby Musengwa was on the commission. We were colleagues in Tampa Bay Presbytery, and here he is, most unexpectedly, the Transitional General Presbyter. How did that happen?

Carla Mathews was on the commission. I was on the Examinations Committee on the Commission on Ministry when she transferred to Mission Presbytery. I now have the opportunity to serve with her on the Committee for Representation and Participation. 

David Meriwether and I led cohorts of new pastors through the denomination some 900 years ago. Some of those new pastors are retired now. 

I sat with Consuelo Donahue, usually a dangerous endeavor. :)  We were in a clergy group together that met together and played together. 

Lemuel Garcia has ties to the church I grew up in, the church that nurtured me, Broadmoor PC in Baton Rouge, La. 

New friends! Like Marc Raney, Melissa Richard, Lou Williams, Alex Serna-Wallender, Karen Jensen, Sandy and Art Nicholson, and, and, and…..so many others.

So when it came time to come forward to lay hands, all of this was swirling around and in me. For someone who rarely cries, I came close. Did I mention that I rarely cry? The great cloud of witnesses was present. 

This moment was everything to me. All of this and more at one installation for a pastor I’ve only recently met. 

“So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.” Psalm 90:12

Yes. This is what I felt right to my core that afternoon. 

What makes you feel this way, when the Holy envelopes you, opens your whole self to the grace and mercy of God? Where past, present, and future collide? 

And when was the last time you attended an ordination and/or installation service? When the next opportunity arises, just do it. Hope rises there. What a great witness to the connectedness of our church. 

Holy One,

You have been our home longer than we can imagine, spanning back generations.

You have been God before there was anything at all. 

We remember that from dust we came, and to dust we shall return, and this happens alarmingly fast. Our lives are like a dream, soon gone. Or grass that flourishes and withers. 

But You–even 1,000 years is an instant to You. We rest in You.

“Our years come to end like a sigh. The days of our life are 70 years, or perhaps 80 if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”

I hope to see you at the June presbytery meeting.

peace,

Laurie