Central Presbyterian Church

Minutes of Called Congregational Meeting

Sunday, December 16, 2001

A quorum being present, the meeting in the sanctuary following the 11:00 a.m. worship service was
opened with prayer by the Rev. Mark Baridon. Rev. Baridon explained the eligibility for participating in
a Congregational Meeting. All who wish may attend the meeting; all members of Central Presbyterian
Church have voice and vote; all clergy friends of Central have voice but no vote.

The Rev. Ann Deibert stated that the scope of this called meeting is to approve the Terms of Call for the
pastors. No other business may be transacted.

Rev. Deibert introduced the Rev. Mary Kuhns whom the session had approved to moderate this meeting
per G-7.0306. The pastors left the room.

The moderator called on Elder Susan Stanford, chair of the Personnel Committee, to present the
sessions recommendations on Terms of Call for 2002 for both pastors. Copies of the recommendations
were distributed to all present. A copy is attached to these minutes.

Elder Stanford briefly explained the data noting that Rev. Baridon very generously had asked for no
increase in his compensation this year asking that his increase be allocated to Rev. Deibert instead.

The moderator asked if there were questions or discussion.

The Rev. Johanna Bos asked why Rev. Deiberts compensation showed 0 for salary. Elder Stanford
explained that a pastor may choose how to allocate their compensation for salary and housing. At
income tax time it is the pastors responsibility to document the amount of compensation claimed for
housing; the balance is charged to salary. Rev. Bos also asked, Is there an attempt on the part of the
session to equalize the salaries of the two pastors? Elder Stanford answered that the session felt the
increase found in this recommendation was all the budget could support because of the poor
performance of the endowment fund in 2001 to date, that there was a thought that reaching full parity
might take three years, and that Rev. Deibert had said she felt this was a good effort in the direction of
parity.

Elder Joe Edmiston questioned whether pension benefits were being calculated on Car Allowance,
Professional Expenses and the SECA Offset noting that they should be paid on the SECA Offset but not
on Car Allowance and Professional Expenses. Elder Stanford responded that the calculations would be
checked for accuracy.

Elder Sammie Lambert asked for the grand total of compensation for both pastors and the results of the
2002 Stewardship Campaign to date. Elder Craig Johnson, treasurer, reporting for the Stewardship
Committee said the total to date is $194,000 from 85 pledging units. He anticipates the total will reach
$210,000; about 10 15 additional pledges are expected. Elder Carrie Klinge responded that the grand
total for pastoral compensation is $129,341.10. Elder Lambert said too much of Centrals budget is spent
on ourselves; we should be giving more to mission. Elder Klinge supported that view saying the
percentage of our total budget allocated for mission giving is too low.
Elder Priscilla Freeman said she is concerned about the high percentage of pledged income going for
pastors salaries and said a church Centrals size should not have two pastors.

Elder Klinge asked, How did Central decide to have two pastors? Elder Eileene MacFalls, Clerk of
Session, responded with information about the process the PNC and session engaged in as they worked
toward calling a new pastor/head of staff for Central and noted some subsequent session actions. This
included:
* congregational surveys and listening groups (early 1999) in which members asked for a
collegial style of pastoral ministry, rather than an hierarchical one;
* advice from representatives of the Committee on Ministry of the presbytery (1999) that the
way for the associate pastor to be eligible to become a co-pastor of the same church is for
the church to have a co-pastoral model in place for 3 years. They noted it was imperative that
candidates for pastor/head of staff be aware of the need for collegiality and the desire to
consider an official co-pastorate in the future;
* the Policy for Working Relationships among Pastoral Staff approved by the session
(September 2000) as a guide for the pastors during the 3-year waiting period;
* the calling of a pastor/head of staff (February 2001) who values non-hierarchical shared
collegial ministry and whose immediate past work experience is as co-director of the
chaplaincy program of a hospital;
* session action (June 2001) that Central live into a model of co-pastoral leadership over the next
3 years, that the Personnel Committee explore and implement this plan and that the session
keep the congregation involved in the process;
* the Personnel Committee is establishing a Task Force to engage the session and
congregation in discussions so they will be prepared for an informed vote about
officially changing to co-pastors.

Elder Klinge said that nothing has happened since the session action of June 2001 noted above. The
clerk said the Task Force is expected to begin its work in January and that a vote on changing the calls of
Rev. Baridon and Rev. Deibert to co-pastors cannot occur until our co-pastor model has been in effect
for 3 years. (G-14.0501f)

Elder Harry Gans stated that the discussion about two pastors is out of order at this meeting. The
moderator noted again that all that can be voted on at this meeting is the Terms of Call of the pastors.

Elder Priscilla Freeman asked, Why should we give Rev. Deibert a salary increase? Elder Stanford
responded that the pastors job responsibilities are clearly equal and their salaries are not.

Elder Freeman asked, Who said their responsibilities should be equal? The clerk responded that the
Policy for Working Relationships among Pastoral Staff indicates that the sharing of responsibilities is
to be mutually agreeable to the pastor and associate pastor, is to be approved by the session and
communicated to the congregation. The clerk noted that the division of responsibilities was approved by
the session in April 2001. (This was communicated to the congregation in the May Central Idea.)

Member Steve Handy noted that if you look at the church as a business, a church this size would not
have two pastors.

Rev. Robb Gwaltney reminded us that at the Congregational Meeting in February 2001 when Rev.
Baridon was called as pastor there was discussion about the equalization of the pastoral salaries.

2
Rev. Sharon Youngs asked, How does this compare with other churches in our presbytery? Elder
Lambert responded that she had contacted the presbytery office and learned that other churches in the
presbytery that have two pastors have hundreds more members than Central does.

Elder Greg Cardwell-Copenhefer repeated that this discussion is out of order at this meeting. He noted
that we have a responsibility to Rev. Baridon and Rev. Deibert to fairly compensate them because we
called them to serve as pastors at Central.

Rev. Bos said she is in full support of a raise for Rev. Deibert. She feels that women are traditionally
underpaid.

Elder Michael Purintun said that in a church like Central pastoral leadership is a mission expense and a
church growth expense.

The moderator summed up the sense of the meeting by noting that the Task Force the session has asked
the Personnel Committee to put in place to work on the meaning of a co-pastorate at Central needs to
begin its work immediately. She also said that there were elders in the meeting hearing the conversation
and that while some of it was not "literally" on Terms of Call, it was important to have heard it. And that
obviously some more education needed to be done about how we got to this place in time which would
indicate that it was indeed time for the Task Force to begin involving the congregation through small
groups or some such.

There was a call for debate to end; the congregation voted to cease debate.

The moderator asked for a voice vote to approve the recommendations of the session for the Terms of
Call of both pastors. The majority voted in favor of the recommendations.

The moderator asked that the pastors be called back into the meeting and closed the meeting with prayer.

Respectfully submitted,

Eileene J. MacFalls
Clerk of Session

Rev. Mary Kuhns

Moderator pro tem

Approved January 28, 2002