Connecting and Growing

May and June were busy months! As soon as we had completed the Wesley Day celebrations, we were plunged into the meeting of the Synod of the Cape of Good Hope District, which this year was held in our neighbouring circuit, Wynberg. It brought together lay people and ministers from all around the District including Namaqualand, Beaufort West and Outeniqua. Two members of the Plumstead Church, Joeline McKerry and Peter Merrington, were elected as representatives to Synod by the Victoria Road Circuit.

The business of the Synod covers a wide range of topics: ministry; current affairs (such as the abduction of the school girls in Nigeria); Church discipline; finance; the work of the ‘organizations’ of the MCSA and among children and young people. It is a time of worship, reflection, fellowship, information-sharing, planning, and deciding. The days are long and the work intense.

By tradition, on the concluding Sunday of Synod, there is an ‘exchange of pulpits’ and ministers are sent to circuits other than their home circuits, within roughly a 50-kilometere radius of the place in which Synod was held. At PMC the services on Synod Sunday, 1^st June, were led by Rev Vincent Harry, Superintendent of the Wynberg Circuit and Secretary of the Synod.

Sunday 8 June was Pentecost Sunday and the day when it was agreed that there would be the Confirmation of the young people from around the Circuit who had satisfactorily completed the preparation course that began in July 2013. Two of these, Daniel Paulsen and Temba Mettler, were welcomed into membership at PMC during a moving service at which they were supported by many members of their respective families.  Look out for photos of these newest members of PMC – one of the things they have in common is that they each have a grandfather who was an ordained minister!