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Coming up this Saturday the first large General Assembly of the 2012 season begins as the 2012 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is convened in the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh.
The Assembly will begin at 10 AM on Saturday 19 May and adjourn a bit after 3 PM on Friday 25 May. On Sunday afternoon 20 May there will be a large public festival in Prince Street Gardens called Heart and Soul 2012, inspired by the similar and successful Roll Away the Stone program last year. |
So, to follow along with the GA here is what you need to know
- The Starting Point for almost everything is the General Assembly 2012 page
- The Order of Proceedings is available as a PDF and the Daily Papers will be on the media page
- Reports are available individually on the General Assembly 2012 page or all together in the Blue Book and Supplement
- The Assembly will be webcast, as usual, linked to the media page
- In addition, the media page will have the Daily Updates podcast and Assembly News Items
- There is an official Facebook page for the Church of Scotland, new this year if I remember correctly
- On Twitter the official feed is @churchscotland and the Assembly hashtag is #ga2012
- You can follow the incoming Moderator of the General Assembly, The Rev. Albert Bogle, on Twitter at @italker and his blog – iTalker
If you want to have the polity documents at the ready you start at the Church Law web page and from there can get the Acts, Regulations, Standing Orders, and An introduction to Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland (2009 edition).
The business of the Assembly is not as high-profile and controversial as some years because issues regarding human sexuality are not on the docket — the Theological Commission dealing with issues related to same-sex relationships in the church that was created by the 2011 GA will report next year.
But based on the press release and some of the media attention the report A Right Relationship With Money will be interesting to watch. This report, part of the work of the Special Commission on the Purposes of Economic Activity, is docketed as an Order of the Day at 2 PM on Monday and comes under the Church and Society Council. This is the only Order of the Day that I see in the docket.
I will update this info as necessary and comment in other posts as the week progresses. Prayers for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as the General Assembly meets.