226th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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There has been a lot going on in the GA Season the last couple of weeks and we are heading into another busy week as well. Personal commitments have kept me from being up-to-date for the last few Assemblies, but once this next one has adjourned, I hope to have a break in the action to do reviews of several of them. But on to this next Assembly…

The 226th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is set to convene virtually at 8 AM Mountain Time on Tuesday, June 25 for a brief plenary session. From there, the committees will be meeting virtually from June 25th to June 27th. June 28 is a travel day, and then all the commissioners will be together in Salt Lake City for the plenary sessions from Saturday, June 29 to Thursday, July 4.

As I have joked with some of you, the PC(USA) has tried all the other styles – all in person (1789-2018), all virtual (2020), committees in person and plenary virtual (2022) – so why not try the last remaining option of committees virtual and plenary in person. It does leave one other option of all hybrid with both in person and virtual participants like some other branches do. This permits those needing certain accommodations or who have travel challenges to still be commissioners and participate.

As usual, the source of information on all the business is the online PC-Biz system. For almost everything else the GA Home Page is there. This includes the preliminary general docket, the news feed, and the information on the two teams standing for Co-Moderators. The Home Page is also the starting point for live streaming and the live streaming will also be available on the Spirit of GA Facebook page which also has a link to a special GA226 Facebook page. For the live streaming of the committees, scroll down the page a bit.

For the doctrine and polity documents, you can get the Book of Confessions and the previous Book of Order as free downloads from the PC(USA) Store. (I am not finding the current Book of Order as a download from the store.) The current Standing Rules of the General Assembly are available too.

The theme for this Assembly is “Live into Hope”, a progression from the theme of the previous two assemblies which was “From Lament to Hope.” The theme, embodied in the hymn of that name by Jane Parker Huber, will be represented in the regular worship during the Assembly.

The PC(USA) has stopped updating their X(Twitter) accounts but the hashtag #ga226 is in use by others and I will be using that too. For GA related content the Facebook group mentioned above is probably the best social media, but they are also promoting their Instagram and TikTok feeds.

News items will appear on the GA226 news feed as well as the Presbyterian News Service feed. There are also updates on the Facebook page.

Out in the press corps, keep an eye on the Presbyterian Outlook on their website (pres-outlook.org) and Twitter (@presoutlook).

I plan to be on many of the live-streamed events and tweeting (@ga_junkie) and maybe some live blogging. And I hope to get a couple of preview articles posted here in the next day or two.

There is a lot of business coming to this GA, and there are overview articles on each committee and the business they will be considering on the GA News Feed.

The business includes the usual array of social justice and environmental concerns as we have seen in the past. The situation in Israel and Gaza will headline the International issues that will be considered and, considering past Assemblies, there could be protests around this. And there is some substantial internal business as a commission reports on the work to merge, or unify, the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

However, in what I will be watching, the top issue is what has been called the Olympia Overture and officially tracked as POL-01. This overture asks for two changes to the Book of Order, one adding gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of inclusivity and non-discrimination, and the second would require the examination of any officer for ordination to affirm this new diversity standard. The GA does not have the final word on this, and as a Book of Order change, they will recommend it and send it to the presbyteries for their concurrence. It will require a majority of the presbyteries to approve it. Much more on this as the Assembly progresses.

And bringing in my day job, I would note that the PC(USA) General Assembly is once again meeting in an active earthquake zone. You may remember the March 2020 Magna, Utah earthquake just a bit west of Salt Lake City. But running through the east side of the city is the Wasatch Fault at the front of the mountain range of the same name. While the timing and size of earthquakes on the Salt Lake City segment is not precise, it looks like earthquakes happen every few hundred years (300-500 years) and the last one was a few hundred years ago (600 years and maybe 400 years). Just your simple reminder to be ready to “duck, cover and hold on.”

Finally, I expect this summary to be a living document over the next couple of weeks, and I will update it at various points throughout the Assembly as systems and patterns develop.

So it will be an interesting GA in a number of ways. We will see how this scheme works to discern the business before it. We pray for patience for all involved as technology is navigated, technical glitches are confronted, and time will be at a premium at times. In an interesting change, an earlier adjournment time is docketed each evening. We will see if the Assembly can efficiently get the business done.

With all that going on, we offer our prayers for the commissioners, advisory delegates, and the leadership of this meeting. May they be guided by the Holy Spirit, particularly to discern God’s will as a body while not actually gathered in one physical space. It will certainly be an interesting GA meeting. Blessings upon you.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland 2024

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As General Assembly week continues in Edinburgh, we move on to the next Assembly, the 181st General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

Free Church of Scotland Logo

The meeting began yesterday evening, Monday 20 May, at 6 pm at St. Columba’s Free Church in Edinburgh with worship, the installation of the new Moderator, Rev. Callum Macleod, and a few pieces of initial business.

The meeting will be live-streamed for our viewing pleasure on the Free Church website. The 2024 General Assembly Reports volume is available as a PDF document. And there is a schedule available.

For the polity wonks, the Acts of the Assembly can be found at the bottom of the General Assembly page. It appears that the online version of “Church Practice and Procedure – Free Church of Scotland” has been removed from the website but you can access the previous page through the Internet Archive. (I will try to add it to my resource page.)

To follow along on social media, you should check the official Free Church Facebook page and their Twitter feed @freechurchscot. The host church can be followed at @stcsfreechurch, and the hashtag is #fcga24, although sometimes tweets slip by with #fcga or #fcga2024. (At the time of writing, none have.) The simple hashtag #fcos is also in use. The seminary, Edinburgh Theological Seminary (@ETS_Edinburgh) can also be followed.

And important happenings at the Assembly may have an article appear in the Newsfeed.

Much of the business before the Assembly is of a routine nature, as it is with most General Assemblies of different branches in the Presbyterian world. One of the items that jumped out at me was regarding marriage and officers of the church. The Clerk’s Report (p. 20) has an item in the deliverance that asks “The General Assembly appoint a group to study the theology of marriage, separation, and divorce in the life of Minister’s [sic] and Office-bearers.” And there is an overture from the Free Presbytery of Glasgow and Argyle on “Marriage, Cohabitation, and Church Membership.” (p. 52) The overture asks that “They appoint a Committee to consider how the Church should interpret and apply changes in family and marriage law in society to applications for admission into the communicant membership of the Church.”

The overture was handled earlier this afternoon and there was an interesting debate about whether this is best handled doctrinally at the GA level or pastorally at the kirk session level. Also, the necessity for a quicker answer to this question since this is an active question in the presbytery, as opposed to an answer a year from now at the next GA. With some counter-motions and interesting polity twists and disagreements between the moderator and clerk, the Assembly decided to receive the overture and affirm this should be addressed pastorally by the kirk session at this time.

I have noted in past years the Committee on the Establishment Principle in the Twenty-First Century. This year, they have submitted their final report, beginning on page 44, which makes for interesting reading. The request for the report grew out of the COVID-19 concerns and the state asking the church to suspend in-person services for a time. But, as noted in the conclusions, the implications are further reaching. It says:

While the Committee does not feel this is the place to judge secular legislation, we would conclude that there is a clear demarcation between the state imposing a specific regulation for a specific amount of time due to an acute national crisis, and interfering in matters of doctrine which would have a strict bearing on spiritual independence. This is a question which may face much sterner challenges from future legislation which may undermine freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of private and family life. For example, the proposed ban on “conversion practices” currently being considered by the Scottish Parliament. In such cases, it has been noted that the Free Church’s Public Engagement Co-ordinator expresses our concerns to our legislators. We are called to submit to the governing authorities appointed by God (Romans 13) but there may come a time when we are called to give the response of Peter when commanded to stop preaching the gospel: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

Reports, page 50

The report notes that five papers were commissioned for the study and I hope that they are able to be shared on the Free Church website as suggested in the report. (I have not found them yet.) The Assembly is scheduled to take up the matter on Wednesday evening.

The Assembly continues until Thursday, 23 May. So, with that, we will keep this Assembly in our prayers and look forward to following along over the next few days. May your deliberations be guided by the Holy Spirit and the time productive for advancing The Kingdom. Best wishes to all.

General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing) 2024

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As I have been saying, this week there are traditionally three General Assemblies, and I will honor the trifecta and bring you a brief note about the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) and its General Assembly.

The General Assembly of the Free Church (Continuing) will convene tomorrow, Monday, 20 May at Patrick Free Church (Continuing) in Glasgow.

The new venue allows them to live stream the proceedings on the church’s various channels. These are all listed at the bottom of the General Assembly article including a feed on SermonAudio.

The Reports for the meeting are available to download. Likewise, there is a page to download the Acts and Proceedings. I don’t expect regular updates during the Assembly but following the meeting we can expect a summary article on the News feed.

The Free Church (Continuing) does have a Twitter account @fccscot, but typically there is nothing being posted live, and a notice of a summary article will probably appear shortly afterward. I am not seeing hashtags in use yet but following past practice they would use #fccscot and #GA2024, but remember that the second one is also being used by the Church of Scotland, so the first one may be a better one to watch. There may also be live information on the Facebook page, including the livestream.

The convening of the Assembly tomorrow will include the formal election and installation of the Rev. Andrew R. Allan as the Moderator for this year. Rev. Allan has an interesting background and an earlier long-term career as a freelance photographer. His conversion to a saving faith and journey to the pastorate came later in life. He is also the pastor of the host church for the Assembly.

In the business Wednesday morning, 22 May, the Assembly will consider the Committee on Public Questions, Religion and Morals report. It begins with a discussion of the moral decline of the country and the loss of its spiritual life. It then addresses several specific issues: Child Discipline, Gender Recognition, Transgenderism, Conversion Therapy, Abortion, Assisted Suicide, Lord’s Day Matters, Climate Change, and Funerals. For most of these, the recommendation is to educate the members of the church and/or advocate for their position with the government.

And so we look forward to following the work of this General Assembly, and we pray for their deliberations and witness.

Church of Scotland General Assembly 2024

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General Assembly week in Edinburgh began today, Saturday, 18 May, with all the ritual and pageantry of the opening of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. As it starts, here are some details and places to find the basic information, and as the GA progresses, I hope to comment a bit more.

Church_of_Scotland_Logo

If you are interested in following along and keeping track of the business and activities this year, here are the starting points:

  • The proceedings will be live streaming, and you can connect to the stream from the livestream page.
  • Most of the Documents about the Assembly are linked from the General Assembly Publications page. This includes the Assembly Reports and Order of Proceedings volumes, known as the Blue Book, in several different electronic formats including the traditional PDF as well as EPUB format for your readers. There is also a Dyslexia-friendly version. The Reports and Order of Proceedings are available separately on the Publications page in all those formats. The Assembly Paper contains late-breaking changes, the summary business agenda, and worship material. Other formats are available on the Publications page.
  • Individual reports and additional documents are on the Reports and Additional Documents Page.
  • If you need to refer to the documents about how they do this decently and in order most of those are linked from the Church Law page. This web page also used to have the useful “An Introduction to Practice and Procedure of the Church of Scotland” but it was being revised and seems to have disappeared. While dated, I have a copy of the 2009 Third Edition available from my Resources Site. There is also a Guide to the Assembly page that covers some of the basic actions and terminology.

What we all want to know of course is how to follow along on social media and there will be no lack of that. You can begin with the Church of Scotland’s official Facebook page. There is also the Kirk’s Instagram feed and YouTube channel. And the YouTube channel is now the place to watch the proceedings after they have happened and they have the meeting broken up into individual reports. There is also a photo gallery from the Assembly.

On Twitter, the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2024. There is an official account for the Moderator of the General Assembly, @churchmoderator, but during the Assembly, we will have to see how many opportunities there will be to tweet. The church’s official publication, Life and Work, is also a good source for information on the website, on Facebook, and on their Twitter feed @cofslifeandwork. In addition, there is the individual account of the editor, Lynne McNeil, at @LifeWorkEditor, who does the most comprehensive live-tweeting of the Assembly. (As always – Thank You, Lynne, and congratulations on this, your 30th GA)

Concerning the business before the Assembly, there is a nice summary of the major reports on the Life and Work website.

The Assembly convened today with opening worship and the usual ritual of formally electing the new moderator and hearing the King’s Letter. After a break, the morning session continued with committee reports including the Legal Questions Committee bringing a draft of the Presbytery Review Act with the intent to do a proof of concept in the coming year in two presbyteries before bringing a final version of the act to the 2025 Assembly. There was a bit of drama in the afternoon in the report of the Assembly Business Committee regarding the cost of the Assembly. It was suggested by a commissioner that it could be done better at half the cost and a motion was presented to that effect going forward. The motion was defeated but the convener of the committee discussed various costs particularly in view of the number of churches being closed and sold. At one point the comment was made about the Assembly that it was “an annual act of self-sabotage.” More on this in the Daily Report from Life and Work.

The Assembly is about Worship tomorrow on the Lord’s Day and will return to the Assembly Hall on Monday morning. There are also several Fringe events including many lunches. In the evening programs, there is a hymnary supplement launch and the Guild’s Big Sing worship event Tuesday evening.

Some of the consequential reports include the Assembly Trustees report on Monday which will address the financial situation the Kirk is in. It notes right at the top that “the Church’s financial situation demands further urgent attention supported by a focus on the agreed priorities.” Later it says:

It is apparent that the Church can no longer afford its current model of ministry support and the Assembly Trustees therefore have a duty to take urgent steps to move to a new, affordable, model which recognises the hard reality that only 29% of charges are paying for the cost of the ministry they receive.


I look forward to this discussion and considering hard realities and decisions.

The Theological Forum in their report will present a new report on Transgender Identities in the Church of Scotland.

So here we go. It will be an interesting Assembly. We will track what happens during the week and add what we can in the midst of the three Scottish assemblies this week. We watch and pray for the commissioners and all involved in the meeting.

50th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In America

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Presbyterian Church in America logo

We are in a couple of busy weeks for General Assemblies and as I work to get caught up on all of them, I will begin with the 50th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America beginning today.

The Assembly is being held in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Committees of Commissioners are gathering today to begin their work which can extend into tomorrow. The Assembly convenes in plenary session tomorrow evening, Tuesday 13 June, at 6:30 PM CDT, and will probably adjourn the evening of Thursday 15 June, but could go on Friday if need be. Being the 50th anniversary of the formation of the PCA there are a number of special events that will be part of the meeting and a special website. The meeting will be live-streamed.

While the full volume of reports is available only to commissioners, the docket, schedule, and overtures are available online. There is also a breakdown of the Committees of Commissioners’ Schedule. And to access all of this on the go the Assembly is again using the Guidebook app.

To track the polity of the PCA, you can access the Book of Church Order (BCO) online, which also contains the Rules of Assembly Operations (RAO). For the hardcore polity wonks, there is Morton Smith’s Commentary on the Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America which is only available in a print edition. (Similar to what some branches call the Annotated Book of (Church) Order. And I see it is currently out of stock.) There is also the new Parliamentary Procedure for Presbyters – a beginner’s guide from the Presbyterian Polity group with a PCA focus and the booklet will be distributed at a luncheon at the meeting. For those of us not present, they might make it available to order. Additional polity resources from the group can be found on the pcapolity.com website

News updates will be posted through the official news website and online publication byFaith.

Turning to social media, you will probably want to keep an eye on the byFaith Magazine Facebook page. There are numerous opportunities to follow the meeting on Twitter including the official feed from byFaith (@PCAbyFaith) and their reporter Megan Fowler (@Fowl_Words). The hashtag for the Assembly is #pcaga although #PCA50 is sometimes used. For pictures, keep an eye on the PCA Flickr site.

Other related Twitter accounts include Reformed University Fellowship (@RUFnational), PCA Discipleship Ministry (@PCACDM), Mission to the World (@mtwglobal), and the Mission to North America (@pcamna). I would also include in this group the denomination’s schools, Covenant College (@CovenantCollege) and Covenant Seminary (@covseminary).

As for individuals to watch – round up the usual suspects. Some who will be at the meeting and are, or will probably be tweeting include Fred Greco (@fredgreco), Ligon Duncan (@LigonDuncan), Sean Michael Lucas (@SeanMLucas), and Melton L. Duncan (@MeltonDuncan). I would also add a former moderator and coordinator of MNA, Irwyn Ince (@Irwyn). For organizations, I will mention Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing (@prpbooks), Greenville Seminary (@GPTseminary), and Reformed Theological Seminary (@ReformTheoSem). Others that I would include on this list are Presbycast (@Presbycast), and Presbyterian Polity (@PCAPolity).

There is a long list of people tweeting (check out the #pcaga hashtag), and I am not sure where to start, but I will mention a few of the early active ones now. Derek Radney (@DerekRadney) is doing us a great service with the detailed tweeting from the Overtures Committee meeting. Others with active accounts at this time include Jared Nelson (@brothernelson), Nick Batzig (@Nick_Batzig), and George Sayour (@GeorgeSayour). For some of the more, shall we say, unusual accounts, so far this year we have activity from Hipster Teaching Elder (@Hipster_TE), and GA Famous (@GA_Famous). Some others that posted something last year but have not been active yet this year include the @PCAPresbyter, Joey Pipa’s Mustache (@jpipasmustache), and PCA Logo (@PCALogo).

There are also a number of seminars being held tomorrow afternoon. I am not seeing live streaming of them but at least some of them should find their way onto the PCA podcast “gifts and graces.”

As usual, the overtures to this Assembly reflect where the PCA is today and what it is concerned about. There are 30 overtures on the Resources page – including one carried over from the last GA – and there are brief summaries of them from byFaith.

It is no surprise that the topic of human sexuality has the most overtures addressing BCO changes this year after most changes were not adopted last year. Three of the five overtures (Overture 9, Overture 16, and Overture 17) ask to modify BCO 7 regarding qualifications of church officers. For those not tracking this issue, the PCA is not just concerned with homosexual practice but with individuals identifying as having same-sex attraction but being celibate as well. In addition, Overture 23 and Overture 24 ask for changes related to this issue of standards in the next chapter of the BCO regarding elders.

There are also multiple overtures related to the roles that women may serve in. Overture 15 would add to the Directory for Worship a section to “Disallow Exhortation, Preaching, or Teaching by Women in Worship” and to make that section constitutionally binding. Another proposed change is in Overture 26, which would add the line, “Furthermore, unordained people should not be referred to as, or given the titles connected to, the ecclesial offices of pastor, elder, or deacon.” As was noted in today’s discussions by the Overtures Committee, this does not include and does not prohibit the title of “minister.”

And in a move that probably has a backstory I have not found yet, Overtures 10 and 14 prohibit “professional counsel” from participating in ecclesiastical judicial cases. Today the Overtures Committee recommended these overtures be answered in the negative but there are indications there may be a minority report.

The PCA General Assembly does not generally take social witness positions as some other more progressive Presbyterian branches do, within their understanding of the Westminster Confession of Faith 31.4. But under that WCF section, a church may tred into civil affairs “by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary.” In the case of Overture 12, it is to “Petition Government to End Sex-change Procedures for Minors.”

And By Faith has posted a news article with all of the actions of the Overtures Committee taken today, 12 June. Spoiler alert – most of the recommendations are to not approve the requested action.

Among the special events for the branch’s 50th, on Wednesday evening, there will be a PCA 50th Celebration Concert with the group Indelible Grace. This group of musicians and composers grew from the church’s college ministry – Reformed University Fellowship or RUF. Personally, I am looking forward to this event which is on the schedule to be live-streamed.

And finally, if you are looking for a new Bingo Card, we can thank @Hipster_TE for that. For the vintage ones, Allan Edwards has given us Bingo Card 2 and Bingo Card 1, and the Selfie Scavenger Hunt.

There’s lots on the docket this week and multiple items that are sure to provide a spirited, and hopefully Spirit-filled, discussion among the commissioners. I have seen enough GA’s to know that predicting the outcome of these debates is difficult, but it will certainly be interesting to follow as the commissioners discern the outcomes together.

Our best wishes and prayers to the commissioners and leaders of the PCA General Assembly for this important meeting and prayers for your discernment in the next few days. May the Spirit guide you in your work.

General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing) 2023

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As I have been saying, this week there are traditionally three General Assemblies and I will honor the trifecta and bring you a brief note about the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) and its General Assembly. And I discovered an error in a previous post – there are now three General Assemblies in Scotland, but only two in Edinburgh itself this year. More on that in a minute.

The General Assembly of the Free Church (Continuing) convened yesterday, Monday, 22 May at Patrick Free Church (Continuing) in Glasgow.

The new venue allows them to live stream the proceedings on the church’s various channels. These are all listed at the bottom of the General Assembly article, but I am watching on the YouTube stream.

The Reports for the meeting are available to download. Likewise, there is a page to download the Acts and Proceedings. I don’t expect regular updates during the Assembly but following the meeting we can expect a summary article on the News feed.

The Free Church (Continuing) does have a Twitter account @fccscot, but again, there is nothing being posted live, and a notice of a summary article will probably appear shortly afterward. They have indicated the hashtags #fccscot and #GA2023, but remember that the second one is also being used by the Church of Scotland, so the first one may be a better one to watch.

The convening of the Assembly yesterday evening included the formal election and installation of the Rev. Gavin Beers as the Moderator for this year. In an interesting trend among the Assemblies, Rev. Beers is a church planter in North Carolina. However, unlike the other two American-born Moderators, that is his current charge, but he is a native of Northern Ireland. I guess the trend is for Moderators not native to Scotland.

Following the Church of Scotland’s meeting last year the Free Church (Continuing) adopted a statement expressing their “grave concern” on two actions the Church of Scotland took: the approval of same-sex marriages in the church and the adoption of the Saint Margaret Declaration on cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. In light of these actions, an additional response of the Free Church (Continuing) was to change venues from the Liberton Kirk in Edinburgh (a Church of Scotland congregation) to the new location in Glasgow.

In the business tomorrow, Wednesday, 24 May, the Assembly will consider additional responses to these actions. In the Reports, beginning on page 65, is the report of the Committee on Public Questions, Religion, and Morals. This Committee first brings a statement on the doctrine of man. The statement begins:

Many of the issues affecting our nation, and with which the Committee have had to concern themselves, involve a very basic teaching of the Bible. We find that there is a very concerted attact today on the doctrine of man, and particularly on man as male and female. The truths of which our generation needs to be remineded are there in the opening chapters of the Bible, and are worthy of considering briefly.

Another statement that the Committee brings is a response to the St Margaret Declaration. This response was sent to the Scottish Parliament last fall as it was getting ready to express its approval of the Declaration. This is a detailed rebuttal of the Declaration, taking each section and arguing against it using many quotes from historical and contemporary sources. This is not an item for formal approval by the Assembly since it has already been produced and distributed, but the deliverance has the Assembly thanking the Committee for its work.

And so we look forward to following the work of this General Assembly and we pray for their deliberations and witness.

General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland 2023

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As General Assembly week continues in Edinburgh, we move on to the next Assembly, the 180th General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

Free Church of Scotland Logo

The meeting began this evening, Monday 22 May, at 6 pm at St. Columba’s Free Church in Edinburgh with worship, the installation of the new Moderator, Prof. Bob Akroyd, and a few pieces of initial business.

This is an appropriate place to note the participation of individuals and churches in North America in this Assembly. Prof. Akroyd grew up in New Jersey and came to Scotland for graduate work in history. He got connected to the Free Church, which led to his studying for the ministry and teaching at Edinburgh Theological Seminary. The other connection is a Presbytery of North America – with churches in the Maritime Provinces of Canada – whose two commissioners will be participating in the Assembly virtually. The virtual connection was approved for this year, but the church has established that their commissioners should be present in person in 2024 and every third year after that. And in case you have not noticed the historical point here, the new Moderators of the Free Church and the Church of Scotland are both originally from America.

The meeting will be live-streamed for our viewing pleasure, both on the Free Church website and on their YouTube channel. The 2023 General Assembly Reports volume is available as a PDF document. And there is a schedule available.

For the polity wonks, the Acts of the Assembly can be found at the bottom of the General Assembly page, and there is an online version of “Church Practice and Procedure – Free Church of Scotland.”

To follow along on social media, you should check the official Free Church Facebook page and their Twitter feed @freechurchscot. The host church can be followed at @stcsfreechurch, and the hashtag will be #fcga23, although sometimes tweets slip by with #fcga or #fcga2023. (At the time of writing, none have.) The seminary, Edinburgh Theological Seminary (@ETS_Edinburgh) can also be followed.

And important happenings at the Assembly may have an article appear in the Newsfeed.

And for others in the Free Church to follow on Twitter I would recommend David Meredith (@DCM_FreeChScot) and maybe we will see Gordon Matheson (@Jedirev) in the thread.

Much of the business before the Assembly is of a routine nature, as it is with most General Assemblies of different branches in the Presbyterian world. One of the items that jumped out at me was the final report of the Psalmody and Praise Committee, which concluded that they have fulfilled their original remit and that the ongoing publication and copyright work can easily be done by one authorized individual. In their deliverance, besides the request to discharge the committee with thanks, is a group of reminders to churches, including this one:

  1. The General Assembly remind Congregations that the Book of Psalms is a unique manual of praise, which should be given a central place in our worship services. They again urge upon Precentors, Congregations and Ministers, a duty of intelligent and skilful psalm-singing, and the maintenance overall of a high standard of praise.

Another report that caught my attention was a final step regarding a business item I mentioned last year to revise the discipline process in the church. Having initial concurrence from the Assembly last year, the Program Management Group operating under the Trustees is bringing a final version of the policy regarding Conduct, Complaints, and Discipline of Office-bearers for Assembly approval and action to send it for Presbytery approval under the Barrier Act. It can be found in the Trustees’ Supplementary Report beginning on page 79 and going for the next 21 pages..

Last year I also mentioned the report from the Committee on the Establishment Principle in the Twenty-First Century. This year’s report is again an interim report, but they say they expect the final report to come to next year’s Assembly. It does take on significance this year with the ascension of a new monarch who has sworn to protect the church. It will also be interesting to see what comments the Lord High Commissioner makes concerning the monarch when Lord Hodge addresses the Assembly on Wednesday, 24 May, around noon.

The Assembly continues until Thursday, 25 May. So with that, we will keep this Assembly in our prayers and look forward to following along over the next few days. May your deliberations be guided by the Holy Spirit and the time productive for the advancement of The Kingdom. Best wishes to all.

Church of Scotland General Assembly 2023 – Getting Started

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[Editor’s Note: At the moment I am finishing up an intense writing project (science, not Presbyterianism) and need to devote time to that. Here I provide a “Getting Started” to cover the opening weekend of the GA and plan to provide a more detailed preview in a day or two.]

General Assembly week in Edinburgh begins tomorrow, Saturday, 20 May, with all the ritual and pageantry of the opening of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. As it starts, here are some details and places to find the initial information, and as the GA progresses, I will add to this and fill out the preview.

Church_of_Scotland_Logo

If you are interested in following along, and keeping track of the business and activities this year, here are the starting points:

  • The proceedings will be live streaming, and you can connect to the stream from the livestream page.
  • Most of the Documents pertaining to the Assembly are linked from the General Assembly Publications page. This includes the Assembly Reports and Order of Proceedings volumes, known as the Blue Book, in several different electronic formats including the traditional PDF as well as EPUB format for your readers. There is also a Dyslexia-friendly version. The Reports and Order of Proceedings are available separately on the Publications page in all those formats. The Assembly Paper contains late-breaking changes, the summary business agenda, and worship material.
  • Individual reports and additional documents are on the Reports and Additional Documents Page.
  • If you need to refer to the documents about how they do this decently and in order most of those are linked from the Church Law page. This web page also used to have the useful “An Introduction to Practice and Procedure of the Church of Scotland” but it was being revised and seems to have disappeared. While dated, I have a copy of the 2009 Third Edition available from my Resources Site. There is also a Guide to the Assembly page that covers some of the basic actions and terminology.

What we all want to know of course is how to follow along on social media and there will be no lack of that. You can begin with the Church of Scotland’s official Facebook page. There is also the Kirk’s Instagram feed and YouTube channel. And the YouTube channel is now the place to watch the proceedings after they have happened and they have the meeting broken up into individual reports.

On Twitter, the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2023. (And I would note that the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) also appears to be using that hashtag.) There is an official account for the Moderator of the General Assembly, @churchmoderator, but during the Assembly, we will have to see how many opportunities there will be to tweet. The church’s official publication, Life and Work, is also a good source for information on the website, on Facebook, and on their Twitter feed @cofslifeandwork. In addition, there is the individual account of the editor, Lynne McNeil, at @LifeWorkEditor, who does the most comprehensive live-tweeting of the Assembly. (As always – Thank You, Lynne)

Concerning the business before the Assembly, there is a nice summary of the major reports on the Life and Work website.

The Assembly convenes at 10 AM tomorrow, local time, with opening worship and the usual ritual of formally electing the new moderator and hearing the King’s Letter. After a break, the morning session continues with committee reports including the Legal Questions Committee bringing changes to the Standing Orders that include the ability of Presbyteries to name youth representatives to the Assembly. The afternoon reports include that of the Special Committee on the Ethics of Investment Practice which will be recommending the creation of an Ethics Oversight Committee.

So here we go. It will be an interesting Assembly. We will track what happens tomorrow and add more details in a day or two. We watch and pray for the commissioners and all involved in the meeting.

Reformation Day: God Alone Is Lord Of The Conscience

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2. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to his Word; or beside it, in matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience, and reason also.

Westminster Confession of Faith 20.2

I don’t know if Presbyterians inherently have more internal disagreements, but one of the unique things about Presbyterianism is that we seem to act on those disagreements more. Yes, other denominations have splits, but is there another one in the US with as many active branches as the original mainline Presbyterian church which now has six distributed descendants? And that does not count the ARPC or the RPCNA which trace their roots back to earlier divisions in Scotland.

At times, we hear a lot of the opening line in that paragraph from the Westminster Confession of Faith that “God alone is Lord of the conscience.” Presbyterians have long affirmed the right for you to have your opinion and I will have mine. But what is often missing is what follows those words, so on this Reformation Day let’s take a closer look at that.

While the Westminster Standards are not the earliest Reformed or specifically Presbyterian doctrinal statement, they are the most developed, extensive and widely accepted ones. The heart is of course the Confession from which the catechisms, Directory for Public Worship and Form of Presbyterian Church Government derive. As such, this section is found in the confessional standards of most Presbyterian branches. (I don’t know how many branches don’t use it but the Cumberland Presbyterians are an example of one that doesn’t.)

But this concept was important enough in early American Presbyterianism that when the New Side – Old Side split was healing and the first General Assembly (as a judicatory, not just as a meeting) was discussed, the freedom of conscience was the first of eight points that were put into “The Preliminary Principles” that became the preface of the first Form of Government. These eight Principles can be found in many Books of Church Order, for example in sections F-3.0101 to F-3.0108 of the PC(USA) Book of Order. The PCA History Center has a helpful page providing a comparison of the text as found in the original Form of Government and the Books of Church Order for three other branches.

But what comes next? Freedom of conscience is one thing but exercising it in a covenant faith community, particularly as an ordained officer of the church is another.

In the Westminster Confession we need to look eleven chapters further on to consider deciding matters of conscience. In 31.3 it says:

3. It belongeth to synods and councils, ministerially, to determine controversies of faith, and cases of conscience; to set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the public worship of God, and government of his Church; to receive complaints in cases of maladministration, and authoritatively to determine the same: which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission, not only for their agreement with the Word, but also for the power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God, appointed thereunto in his Word.

Westminster Confession of Faith 31.3

So conscience is not absolute within the context of the covenant community. The community can not bind the conscience, but it can determine whether it is consistent with the community’s understanding. As the prefatory material to the PC(USA) Book of Confessions says:

b. To be an ordained Presbyterian is to promise to be “instructed,” “led,” and “continually guided” by the confessions of the church—not just by one’s personal theological and ethical preferences or even by one’s own personal understanding of God or Jesus Christ or Scripture. The church should not “bind the conscience” of those who disagree with its confessions and interpretation of their meaning. When an individual or group of individuals disagree with the consensus of the church, the church must first examine itself to see whether it needs to reform its confessional stance. Nevertheless, in the Presbyterian Church the consensus of the church concerning the meaning of faith and life takes precedence over the opinions and preferences of individuals and groups in the church, and may lead to the refusal of ordination to those who disagree with the church.

PC(USA) Book of Confrssions, pg xxi

The Preliminary Principles reflect the time of tension and differing opinions in which it was written. After stating that God alone is Lord of the conscience it goes on to say:

That, in perfect consistency with the above principle of common right, every Christian church, or union or association of particular churches, is entitled to declare the terms of admission to its communion, and the qualifications of its ministers and members, as well as the whole system of its internal government which Christ hath appointed: that, in the exercise of this right, they may, notwithstanding, err, in making the terms of communion either too lax or too narrow: yet, even in this case, they do not infringe upon the liberty, or the rights, of others, but only make an improper use of their own.

Preliminary Principles, paragraph 2, https://www.pcahistory.org/documents/principles.html

So in the context in which it was written a branch or denomination can come to its own conclusions. It may disagree with the others but each has a right to its doctrinal standards. And it is probably important to acknowledge that this grew out of the American context where the lack of a national or established church was a feature, not a bug. And in fact, at this point, there are other associations (they don’t want to consider themselves denominations) where each congregation had explicit flexibility and they are now considering if and how to enforce doctrinal standards. (A current example)

The answer of course for Presbyterians is that section of the Westminster Confession (31.3) that says that doctrine is not decided by you or me or any single person, whoever they may be. We decide these in our councils and synods, in groups of people prayerfully studying scripture and discerning the will of God. Sometimes the process is slow – the first General Assembly in 1789 considered an overture to abolish slavery which failed. And usually, not everyone is satisfied with the result. But it is the faithful application of our Presbyterian process and principles where decisions are bottom-up and not hierarchical. And we need to be regularly reminded of the following section of WCF 31 which says “All synods or councils since the apostles’ times, whether general or particular, may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith or practice, but to be used as a help in both.”

Have a good Reformation Day. Soli Deo gloria – Glory to God alone

Postscript: If you want more there is a one-hundred-page PC(USA) document reflecting on this when this because an issue shortly after the 1983 reunion. In 1988 the 205th General Assembly adopted “God Alone is Lord of the Conscience: A Policy Statement.”

42nd General Assembly Of The Evangelical Presbyterian Church

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The 42nd General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church began yesterday at Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church, in Northville, Michigan. Tuesday and most of Wednesday, there are workshops and classes that are part of the annual Leadership Institute. Business sessions convene at 4 PM Wednesday afternoon, 22 June, and will continue through Friday afternoon, as needed.

The Assembly meeting will be live-streamed on the web. This will include not just the business sessions but the plenary talks of the Leadership Institute.

There is a lot of information online, most linked through the Documents page and the GA 2022 page. Please note the embargo statement at the top of the Documents page about posting the documents elsewhere before the Assembly concludes. Here are some of the links for information about Assembly business and operation:

As for social media, there is a bit of that out there. There is a Facebook page for the EPC that is currently being updated regularly with Leadership Institute and Assembly items. The official EPC Twitter feed is @EPChurch and the active official hashtag (#epc2022ga) has sprung to life. There are other official but inactive Twitter accounts for EPC Student Ministries (@EPCStudentMin), the International Theological Education Network (@ItenEPC), and EPC World Outreach (@EPCWO) so not much to follow there.

As for individuals, we have activity from Zach Hopkins (@Zhop59) and Joey Sherrard (@jhsherrard) has checked in as well. There is also activity from a former Moderator Case Thorp (@casethorp). Others at the meeting include Pete Scribner (@PeteScribner), David Goetz (@davidmgoetz), Joel Keen (@keener_jm), and Dan Rose (@danielmrose). And we are seeing the usual color and correction from Decent & In Order (@Decent_Orderly) and another entry in the commentary category, chreeha (@chreeha).

The theme of the Assembly is “Recharge,” based on Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power…” The theme will be reflected in the worship services throughout the meetings.

There is a good summary of all the action items coming to the Assembly this year. One of the interesting items is from the Theology Committee which at the last Assembly was asked to consider whether virtual communion is permissible under the standards of the church. During the pandemic, a temporary decision was made that communion could be shared virtually but that permission has now expired. The Theology Committee has studied the issue and in a two-page report concludes that it is not permissible saying in the conclusion:

The consistent witness of Scripture, our constitution, and confessional standards is that the proper context for administering the Lord’s Supper is the physical gathering of God’s people, where the elements are given and received according to Christ’s command.

Among the items that the National Leadership Team brings to the Assembly is one regarding racial conciliation. As their report says “It has been placed on the heart of many and brought to our attention by others that the EPC should speak to the issue of race more definitively.” The action item is: “The NLT recommends that the 42nd General Assembly approve the establishment of a Moderator-appointed Ad Interim Committee to write a Pastoral Letter of Racial Lament and Hope.” Their report goes on to describe the vision: “This is not in response to any particular incident, but instead a carefully considered work in the course of perhaps two years to speak the truth of the Bible regarding race.”

Another action item from the National Leadership Team is to change the funding model for the national church by approving a “transition from “PMA” Per Member Asking to “POI” Percentage of Income as the Future Funding Initiative.”

The Fraternal Relations Committee brings an interesting action item to evaluate their relationship with the World Communion of Reformed Churches and possibly change their affiliation to the World Reformed Fellowship. I will let the text of the discussion in the Fraternal Relations Committee report speak for itself:

The Committee would like permission to evaluate whether or not continuing membership of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is appropriate for the EPC. At one time, our membership in WCRC made it easier for congregations departing from other denominations to be transferred into the EPC. In addition, some “gracious dismissal” agreements contained reversion clauses requiring that departing churches must stay in denominations affiliated with WCRC for a certain number of years. Most of these reversion clauses have now expired. Given the EPC’s membership in the theologically more conservative World Reformed Fellowship, we believe it is time for the situation to be evaluated.

And it is worth noting that in the opening business session this afternoon Ruling Elder Rosemary Lukens of Gig Harbor, Washington, was elected and installed as the Moderator of the 42nd General Assembly. Our congratulation and prayers for RE Lukens as she undertakes this service. And looking at that EPC news article it does not mention the fact that might escape some casual observers that this will be the EPC’s first female moderator.

It will be an interesting week and we wish the EPC commissioners well and we will be lifting them up in our prayers as they meet.