Montclair Presbyterian Church
5701 Thornhill Drive
Oakland, CA 94611
August 3, 2010
Dear members of the congregation and friends of the MPC family:
It is simultaneously with both open and heavy hearts that we accepted the resignation of our pastor, the Reverend Karen Stokes. We accepted her resignation with open hearts knowing that she was reuniting with her partner Chandler, who has accepted a call in Grand Rapids, MI, and is serving a wonderful congregation there. We affirm Karen and Chandler’s relationship and wholeheartedly support their marriage. We have been well served by Karen, and we respect her personal decision as well as her pastoral one.
Yes, we all accepted her resignation with heavy hearts. We are a very different congregation than the congregation that called her over twelve years ago. Just as our mission study predicted, we were called to deepen our spiritual relationship with God, to attract younger families with children, and to continue our practice welcoming everyone to the table of our Lord Jesus Christ. Karen played a central role in how we brought that Mission Study into the fabric of our Sunday worship, our stated mission, and our community together. Even the sanctuary where we gather—to celebrate baptisms, weddings, and worship, and to mourn passage of our loved ones—is a different space.
You might wonder, then, what’s next for Montclair Presbyterian Church? The elected members of session, along with other church leaders, will do what the leadership has done before, including heading up the pastoral search that reflected the end of the Rev. Duke Robinson’s tenure and the beginning of Karen’s ministry.
All of us at MPC are the church. In the weeks ahead:
• We will continue to worship on Sunday, extending invitations to guest preachers as we did during Karen’s sabbaticals. This will be stewarded by the Celebration Committee.
• We will carry out the social justice ministry and programs of this congregation with the various committees of our church, while ably assisted by MPC staff Susan Hunn, Rebecca Herrero, and Talitha Phillips.
• We will keep the administration, communication, and logistics moving forward with our talented volunteers, Christine Peterson, and Interim Head of Staff, Leonard Nielson.
• We will move forward with the process of installing an interim pastor by the fall.
And then, with deliberation and care, we will prepare a new mission study. We expect that this will take some time. The interim pastor will assist us in this process. We will prepare ourselves as a congregation for answering the question as to what kind of congregation we want to be become, and what type of pastor we want to call.
In the coming weeks and months, as we gather in the sanctuary after worship, we will continue to talk about this process and important changes that are coming by both necessity and opportunity. After all, we are the church, and as the members and friends of Montclair Presbyterian Church, we are embarking on this next chapter together.
Yours in Christ,
Members of Session
Montclair Presbyterian Church