The 83rd General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church got under way this past Wednesday, 8 June, at Sandy Cove Conference Center in North East, Maryland. The meeting will conclude no later than noon next Tuesday, 14 June.

This GA does not have live streaming but we have the next best thing: There is a tradition of very well done running daily reports for the OPC GA and the tradition continues this year so please follow along on the Running Report Page.

The agenda and reports are not posted on-line but you can access the Book of Church Order and the Standing Rules and Instructions of GA if you need background material.

The OPC has elected to keep a prepetual hashtag for their meeting (no sticking a year or GA number in there) so it is once again #OPCGA. And with the meeting off and running it is a fairly well used hashtag at that. First, Shane D. Anderson (@Shane_A7) has a very nice thread of Twitter updates going for the meeting. This is complimented nicely by, shall I say color commentary, by Ryan Cook (@ryanlawdawg), “Toad” (@oldprinceton), and Rachel Stevenson (@whatshewrote). (It is worth noting that Rachel has also posted a great article about the GA on her blog The Classy Counterculturalist and it is worth watching for more.)

A number of interesting items of business have already been transacted. To begin the business following opening worship, Ruling Elder Paul Tavares from Covenant OPC in Grove City, PA was nominated and elected the Moderator of the Assembly. The Assembly approved an overture to have the Committee on Christian Education study the possibility of producing a modern English study version of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The Assembly also approved the contents of a new edition of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal and if it receives the approval of their partner, the United Reformed Churches of North America, in a couple weeks time it will begin production. In addition, the Assembly is marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the denomination in a number of different ways.

So prayers for the teaching and ruling elders of the OPC as they spend a week reflecting on what the Spirit is doing in their branch and their discernment of the future. May you indeed discern God’s will in your decision making.