April 4-16, 2016
Leadership Team
The members of the 2016 Mosaic of Peace Leadership Team include:
Susan Orr, Conference Co-Director
Susan Orr is Presbyter for Mission & Education (PME) for the Presbytery of Genesee Valley in the Rochester, NY area. Susan has faithfully served the presbytery since 2001, first as Coordinator for Educational Resources before becoming PME in 2010. The PME helps shape the Presbytery’s approach to mission, promotes new mission initiatives within and through the presbytery, and connects congregations seeking to enrich and enable their mission activities. Susan is a certified associate Christian Educator and a certified National Resource Center Director by the Ecumenical Resource Center Alliance. She is a ruling elder at the Laurelton United Presbyterian Church, a small urban congregation, where she recently completed her term as Clerk of Session after more than 10 years.
Susan’s participation in the Mosaic of Peace was her first experience outside of the United States. Shortly after returning, Susan served as elder commissioner to the 221st General Assembly where significant decisions regarding the Middle East were made. Moved by these experiences and Jerusalem’s Latin Archbishop Twal’s plea to “go home, share the stories, and never stop praying and empowering Christians in the Holy Land”, Susan has traveled throughout her Presbytery advocating for justice and peace and is privileged to serve as Co-director for the Mosaic of Peace 2016.
Lawrence Bartel, Conference Co-Director
Lawrence Bartel is the pastor of Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church in Old Forge, NY. Together with the congregation, a vision of contextual discipleship emerged after he became pastor in 2004 that embraced the unique Adirondack context that surrounds Old Forge while cultivating the church’s already deep roots through generations of faithful worship and mission.
This discipleship takes a variety of forms including Sabbath Time. In the midst of life’s fullness, the congregation and guests take Sabbath Time for weekly walks, bicycle rides and paddles in the summer as well as snowshoeing and skiing in the winter.
In the fall of 2014, Pastor Lawrence joined a good friend who is a Roman Catholic priest to paddle the Adirondack Canoe Classic (his seventh time). The course of this three-day race covers the ninety miles between Old Forge and Saranac Lake. In the fall of 2013, the two of walked the 120-mile Northville-Placid Trail that winds through the most remote regions of the Adirondacks.
In 2012, Lawrence traveled to Europe on a family sabbatical exploring the theme of "Walking with God" on Holy Ground. In that season he walked the final 200 miles of the Camino de Santiago and then experienced the interior journey of walking the labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral in France. Earlier journeys to Scotland, Australia, India, England, Norway and South Africa fostered within him the awareness of pilgrimage as a spiritual practice that continues to unfold today.
Following the Mosaic of Peace 2014, Lawrence walked the Jesus Trail from Nazareth to Capernaum. He is incredibly excited to be a part of the Mosaic of Peace 2016 experience.
Carl Horton, Coordinator, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program
Carl is a lifelong Presbyterian of the Southern California variety, born, raised and nurtured in the faith in Santa Ana, the place of warm winds. He is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, Princeton Theological Seminary and Rutgers School of Social Work. Carl has been an ordained teaching elder for over 20 years and has had served on the pastoral staff of congregations in California, Nebraska and Kentucky. He was previously the Coordinator for Church Leader Support with the PCUSA. He then served as interim pastor in 4 congregations in Mid-Kentucky Presbytery and is currently leading the Peacemaking Program through a transitional period. In his spare time you’ll find him playing with dogs, working in the yard, sweating in hot yoga, or eating at El Mundo in Louisville,
Kate Taber, Mission CoWorker in Israel-Palestine
Kate is serving on the ministry team of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. She assists U.S. Presbyterians visiting the Holy Land and facilitates Presbyterian involvement in volunteer opportunities. In addition Kate helps build relationships between U.S. Presbyterians and church partners in Israel and Palestine.
“I want to help U.S. Presbyterians know and engage with Palestinian Christians: their lives, their ministries, their joys, and their struggles,” Kate says. “I hope our denomination might be a faithful Christian witness in and about the Holy Land.”
