The Moderator has called a meeting of the Tidewater Presbytery for 9am, Saturday, August 17, 2024, at New Covenant Presbyterian Church located at 1552 Kempsville Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23464. The purpose of this meeting is to examine TE Robert Corwin of Heritage Presbytery for transfer into Tidewater Presbytery (BCO 13-6) and address the matters related to his call to be an assistant pastor at New Covenant PCA.

The request for this meeting comes from the Session of New Covenant PCA and the TWP Membership Committee, which meets the requirements to call a meeting given in BCO 13-12 (at least three TEs and three REs from at least three different churches).

This should be a short meeting, so there will not be a meal.

MATERIALS: Materials for the meeting are available in the members-only section of the presbytery website. You may download the combined packet or access each individual report. Please note that there is now an archive of all presbytery minutes available in this members-only section. I will send out an announcement if reports are added or updated. The password for the members-only section is: PCAinRVA51!

REGISTRATION: Please register your attendance or submit your request for excused absence using the online form here. Churches/Clerks may register all their Ruling Elder Commissioners in a single form. Teaching Elder Commissioners must register individually. There is a place at the end of the form to list any visitors attending with you. Contact the Stated Clerk if you have any problems with the form. Form submissions will be accepted until noon, Friday, August 16, 2024.

the 32nd Stated Meeting of Tidewater Presbytery will take place on Thursday, May 9, 2024, at By Grace Community Church located at 2831 Denbigh Blvd, Yorktown, VA, 23692.

SCHEDULE: The worship service will begin at 4:30pm. TE Bryan Chapell, the Stated Clerk for the PCA, will be preaching. A dinner will be served on site following worship. The business portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin by 6:30pm.

MATERIALS: Materials for the meeting are available in the members-only section of the presbytery website. You may download the combined packet or access each individual report. Please note that there is now an archive of all presbytery minutes available in this members-only section. An email announcement will be sent if reports are added or updated. Contact the Stated Clerk if you need the members-only password.

REGISTRATION: Please register your attendance or submit your request for excused absence using the online form here. Churches/Clerks may register all their Ruling Elder Commissioners in a single form. Teaching Elder Commissioners must register individually. There is a place at the end of the form to list any visitors attending with you. Contact the Stated Clerk if you have any problems with the form. Form submissions will be accepted until noon, Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

​Regarding registration and excused absences, please remember:

• If you do not submit a request for an excused absence, you will be considered unexcused. Our by-laws recognize the following excuses: (1) immediate need for pastoral care: illness, funeral, crisis counseling, and weddings; (2) personal or family illness; (3) unexpected business demands; (4) extraordinary distance to travel by those laboring outside the bounds of Presbytery; (5) honorably retired and (6) Sabbaticals. 
• Ruling Elder Commissioners must be elected by their Sessions to represent their congregations prior to the meeting. If you were not so elected, you should sign in as a visitor, as you are not eligible to vote. BCO 13-1 - "When the Presbytery meets as a court it shall comprise all teaching elders and ruling elders as elected by their Session. Each congregation is entitled to two (2) ruling elder representatives for the first 350 communing members or fraction thereof, and one additional ruling elder for each additional 500 communing members or fraction thereof.” 
• A church that is unable to send at least one commissioner should notify the Stated Clerk with the reason for its absence if it wishes to receive an excused absence.

I am pleased to announce that the 31st Stated Meeting of Tidewater Presbytery will take place on Saturday, February 3, 2024, at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, VA (1600 Colonial Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23517).

The worship service will begin at 8:30am. TE Mike Sharrett of Blue Ridge Presbytery will be preaching. A breakfast will be served on site following worship. The business portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin by 10:15am.

Materials for the meeting are available in the members-only section of the website. The password is available from the Stated Clerk.

Please register your attendance or submit your request for excused absence using the online form here. Churches/Clerks may register all their Ruling Elder Commissioners in a single form. Teaching Elder Commissioners must register individually. There is a place at the end of the form to list any visitors attending with you. Contact the Stated Clerk if you have any problems with the form. Form submissions will be accepted until noon,Thursday, February 1, 2024.

​Regarding registration and excused absences, please remember:

• If you do not submit a request for an excused absence, you will be considered unexcused. Our by-laws recognize the following excuses: (1) immediate need for pastoral care: illness, funeral, crisis counseling, and weddings; (2) personal or family illness; (3) unexpected business demands; (4) extraordinary distance to travel by those laboring outside the bounds of Presbytery; (5) honorably retired and (6) Sabbaticals. 
• Ruling Elder Commissioners must be elected by their Sessions to represent their congregations prior to the meeting. If you were not so elected, you should sign in as a visitor, as you are not eligible to vote. BCO 13-1 - "When the Presbytery meets as a court it shall comprise all teaching elders and ruling elders as elected by their Session. Each congregation is entitled to two (2) ruling elder representatives for the first 350 communing members or fraction thereof, and one additional ruling elder for each additional 500 communing members or fraction thereof.” 
• A church that is unable to send at least one commissioner should notify the Stated Clerk with the reason for its absence if it wishes to receive an excused absence.

RUF Campus Minister Peter Lyon has shared this invitation:
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Each Fall/Winter I hold an end of the year fundraiser for the ministry called Beers of Advent. It is my way of putting the four years I spent working in the brewing industry to work raising money for the ministry of the gospel on the campus of CNU. It is also a fun way for me to meet new people in the area and introduce myself and the ministry.  

Here’s how it works: You pay $150. $65 of that covers a curated case of 24 different beers; the other $85 is a tax deductible gift to RUF at CNU. You get a case of 24 different beers handpicked by me and the fine folks at the brand new Bird Girl Bottleshop in Newport News for the month of December leading up to Christmas. Invite friends and neighbors who might be interested in the beer… or supporting the ministry of the gospel at CNU!

Pick up is available in Richmond, Newport News, and Norfolk, VA.

The members of the James River, Tidewater, Blue Ridge, and Korean Capital Presbyteries are invited to prepare for the 51st General Assembly in Richmond, VA, in prayer. The Hosting Committee has provided a table of monthly prayer topics that churches can include during the prayer time within the Lord's Day worship services on the second Sunday of the month. The prayer topics are available here:

Monthly Prayer Topics for the 51st PCA GA

Thank you for your help mobilizing prayer for the 51st GA!

The Executive Committee, acting as a commission, has approved the minutes from the 30th Stated Meeting of Presbytery. The minutes are available on the members only section of the website. Contact the Stated Clerk if you need the password.

An Invitation to Churches from the PCA Administrative Committee:
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Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We had a magnificent time celebrating our 50th anniversary at the General Assembly in Memphis, TN. As we continue to celebrate God’s faithfulness to our denomination, I invite you to ask the church sessions in your presbytery to publicize Sunday, December 3, 2024, as our next day of prayer. This date commemorates the first GA held in Birmingham, AL, on December 4, 1973. Our prayer theme is based on the message delivered by the PCA’s first moderator, RE Jack Williamson: “To God Be the Glory.”

Please encourage your churches to set aside Sunday, December 3, as a special day of prayer. We are including a suggested prayer that can be used in the worship service. Feel free to shorten or adapt it, or develop your own approach to fit your worship context.

We are also collecting stories of God’s faithfulness to local PCA churches as they look back at their history, and forward to where God is leading them. We invite your session clerks to send such stories this month to Marlys Roos at [email protected]. Marlys is the Publications Director for PCA’s CDM.
 
All the information and related resources are available on https://pca50.org/dayofprayer/, including a link where individuals and churches can sign up to pray at certain times throughout that entire day.

The documents for the upcoming 30th Stated Meeting of the Tidewater Presbytery have been updated and are posted in the members-only section of the website. Contact the Stated Clerk for the password.