Christian Education
Please join us on Sunday mornings (Sept. through May) from 9:15 am until 10:15 am for Sunday School, beginning the Sunday after Labor Day through the Sunday before Memorial day. We use PCUSA curriculum for grades pre-school through 12th grade and the adults study different books, DVDs, etc. throughout the year.
At Christmas, we organize the Hanging of the Greens, complete with decorating a tree in the parlor.
At Eastertime, we offer a Lenten Study and present Easter symbols each Sunday during Worship.
The year closes with a Graduate Recognition Sunday and a Teacher-Student Recognition Sunday.
Vacation Bible School is free to all. It is held each June for a week. The theme changes each year. We have been using the GROUP programs for several years.
The Church library is located off the parlor and is open to all. There is a nice selection of devotional, fiction, and nonfiction books that may be checked out on an honor basis by signing the book.
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Presbyterian Polity
The word "presbyter" has its root in Greek words meaning elder. It has been used since the days of the early church to indicate a person holding authority in the local church. The church government of the Presbyterian Church (USA), as provided in the "Book of Order," is based on government by elders (also called ruling elders). They sit on the ruling body called the Session in the local church, they act as delegates to the Presbytery, and they are voting members of the highest level, the General Assembly.
The Session is sometimes compared to the city in civil government, the presbytery to the state, and the General Assembly to the nation. The synod is a regional grouping of two or more presbyteries that can conduct missions on a larger scale than a single presbytery could manage, but it is the presbytery that sends commissionsers to General Assembly.
Dayton Memorial Presbyterian Church is a member of the Presbytery of Wabash Valley https://ourpresbytery.org/. The Presbytery of Wabash Valley is one of eight presbyteries that form part of the Synod of Lincoln Trails https://lincolntrails.org/ (all in Indiana and Illinois). Wabash Valley Presbytery sends commissioners to the biennial (every other year) General Assembly https://oga.pcusa.org/section/ga/ga/. The 224th General Assembly (2020) will meet June 20-27, 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland. Presbyteries and Synods can send Overtures to the General Assembly to bring recommendations and matters of concern before the whole church.
