I don’t know if this is a first for any Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbytery, but it is the first for the Presbytery of the Northern Plains and the first one I have heard of.

On Friday January 25, 2008, the presbytery will gather at four video conference sites the presbytery has established and meet together electronically.  The web page for the presbytery meeting says that presbytery committees have been meeting at these sites, all at churches across the presbytery, for over a year.  This meeting, being the first of the calendar year, will include the installation of the new moderator and vice-moderator as well as communion.

From the geography involved the desire to video conference is understandable.  The presbytery is the whole state of North Dakota plus the northwest corner of Minnesota and just a small piece of Montana.  Since the other two presbytery meetings of the year are listed as two day meetings at specific locations, this appears to be an accommodation for winter weather on the high plains.

However, I would not be surprised if another geographically large presbytery has already done this and I am sure that more will since the technology is available.  There is obviously a balance here between the desire to be more cost and time efficient with our meetings and the recognition that we are a covenant community that does meet together to govern the church.  The use of four sub-sites is a nice way to try to strike the balance.  I hope to get some reaction to how it works out.