Category Archives: General Assembly

Rebranding In The Free Church Of Scotland – “Dress For The Job You Want.”

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Today the Free Church of Scotland rolled out a rebranding of their mission work. When I heard the preview of this at their GA three weeks ago it reminded me of that old corporate and job-search advice

“Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.”

More on that in a minute. But first…

Welcome to Generation

This is the new name and logo for the Mission Board of the Free Church of Scotland. It includes branded printed material as well as their new website, generation-mission.org.

As I said, this was previewed at the 2018 General Assembly and the branding presentation can be viewed on the archived GA recordings for the Wednesday Morning session. (Begins at the 1:50:00 mark).

Overall, this represents a nice consistent branding effort for the mission outreach, home and world, for the Free Church. While yellow is not my favorite colour, the yellow/black pallet works surprisingly well. The four areas – Church Planting, Church Development, Church Equipping, and Global Mission – have their areas and presentations. Looks like some work could be done on the html header and metadata for the web site, but I am sure that will get caught at some point. In addition, there seems to be a minimum of linkage between the new branded web site and the existing Free Church site. I am curious to see how that develops.

Now, in the original GA presentation one thing caught my eye and gets back to the quote at the beginning. As they were describing the development process they gave examples of other logos that inspired them. Here is the screen capture of that point from the video:

To list the four examples given they are 20 Schemes, 9 Marks, Redeemer City to City, and Acts 29. If you are not familiar with them, they are all parachurch organizations. While I have no fundamental issues with them, it raises the question – for me at least – of what the goal is. As that advice says: “Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.” Is this opening the door to the Mission Board distancing itself from the Free Church in its branding and moving toward a more autonomous model?

To be clear, there was no hint of this in the discussion at GA – the intent was clearly to establish a brand that would help the Mission Board promote the work that it is doing. But when I saw the company it was looking to keep it raised personal red flags when there were all parachurch organizations and at least three of the four are usually viewed as part of what has come to be known in the States as the Evangelical Industrial Complex. (I know 20 Schemes as a church planting/revitalization effort in Scotland and one whose work I have come to respect. They are however associated with an American non-profit according to their about page.)

And as a historical note, my own view may hold a bit of caution because of a similar effort in the PC(USA) that about four years back became a bit of an issue. It should be noted that the church planting entity is still there and is still in the church  planting business.

So at this point, enjoy the brand and prayers and best wishes to the Mission Board in their work. I don’t know with any certainty whether separately branding an effort within a denomination is a beneficial way to go, so we look forward to seeing how this effort develops.

85th General Assembly Of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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210px-OrthodoxPresbyterianChurchlogoThe 85th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church will convene tomorrow, Monday, 11 June, at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and is being held concurrently with the URCNA Synod. The meeting will conclude the evening of Friday, 15 June.

This GA does not have live streaming but we usually have the next best thing: There is a tradition of very well done running daily reports for the OPC GA and expecting the tradition to continue watch this page when the assembly gets under way.

The agenda and reports are not posted on-line but you can access the Book of Church Order and the Standing Rules and Instruments of GA if you need background material. There is also a collection of reports from previous GA’s that have become guidance for the church.

The OPC has elected to keep a perpetual hashtag for their meeting (no sticking a year or GA number in there) so it should once again be #OPCGA. In terms of who to follow let me list the usual suspects and update once things get rolling.  The list would include Ryan Cook (@ryanlawdawg), Christopher Drew (@ChristopherDrew), and maybe Rachel Stevenson (@whatshewrote). It is probably worth keeping an eye on the Reformed Forum (@ReformedForum) crew including Camden Bucey (@CamdenBucey) and Jim Cassidy (@jjcassidy). In addition we might see comments on D. G. Hart’s feed (@oldlife), maybe The Daily Genevan (@TheDailyGenevan), and one of their denominational associations, NAPARC.

Since reports and detailed agendas are not available to anyone but the commissioners, it is difficult to highlight any particular business items that will be coming to the Assembly in advance of it being considered on the floor. The URCNA has put out a full schedule showing the times of joint meetings. These include opening and closing worship, but it also has a session highlighting their joint work on the new Psalter Hymnal. I would add that once again the Rev. Todd Smith at Faith Bible OPC, Brick, NJ, has put together a brief and general summary of the meeting. Check back on that blog for his thoughts afterwards.

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.

144th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Canada – Some Notes After The Fact

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After a week off from live streaming General Assemblies we were back at it again this week with two live streams and three meetings total to track. The first to kick off was the 144th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

I have been swamped with various items this week – Presbyterian and otherwise. So I will do some minimalist notes on each of the meetings, and noting that this one concluded yesterday, but the information could be useful.

The theme for the meeting is “With Glad and Generous Hearts”.

The Assembly had a presence on social media through the PCConnect Facebook page and through their official Twitter feed @PCConnect. The hastag for the meeting was #pccga2018.

Again this year a closely watched topic were the overtures and items related to human sexuality. From the many proposals and requests the updates give two important action items. The first was that a special listening committee called the Rainbow Communion, had their terms of reference amended so a broader range of people could provide input in their work. In addition, “The Assembly also suspended indefinitely censure for LGBTQI minister and elders who serve on the committee and/or tell their stories, allowing them to participate freely and honestly in the work of the special committee.” And yesterday the Assembly agreed with a proposal to form another special committee composed of the last 12 GA moderators “to review the issue and propose a way ahead that allows for the mission and ministry of the PCC to continue.” It is expected to report back at next year’s General Assembly. I would add that in my following the live stream I was aware that a significant process for the commissioners was listening to each other, and reflecting in silence.

There are the quick notes. Check the reports, minutes and updates for more.

Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly – May 22, 2018

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of observing the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) as they met in their first full day of business. This is a group that knows what they believe and are very forthright and clear about that in their conversations, their business, and their preaching.

I think a bit of context is helpful before I start discussing the Assembly itself. The Presbyterian Church in Scotland has almost as many splits and reunions as the American Presbyterians do. Focusing specifically on the Free Church of Scotland, the denomination was formed in The Disruption of 1843 when just over a third of the pastors walked out of the Church of Scotland General Assembly and a few days later constituted their own GA. After the Free Church went through a couple of unions it then, in 1929, reunited with the Church of Scotland. But there were a number of congregations that resisted the union with the United Presbyterian Church and continued as the Free Church of Scotland, essentially the Free Church body that is present today.

Then, in January 2000, in the midst of a church discipline case, a group within the Free Church walked out of the Commission of Assembly meeting when they regarded that church discipline was not properly exercised in the case of a leader in the church. This was the causative incident but differences had been building for a number of years. (And as expressed to me yesterday, the doctrinal gap between the two groups has been widening in the 18 years since.) As the Moderator put it in his address yesterday, they consider themselves the branch that represents “Truly unqualified subscription to the Westminster Confession.” For a bit more you can see the the History page on the web site and for the whole story from their perspective there is a recently released book, A Divided Church. (I picked up a copy yesterday and look forward to reading it.)

So yesterday I caught the bus to the LIberton section of Edinburgh, about three miles south of the Town Centre. The Assembly meets in the Liberton Kirk, the building of a Church of Scotland congregation which works very well for their Assembly.

Liberton Kirk building, Edinburgh

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly

I want to thank the Moderator, the Principal Clerk, and the whole assembly for their warm welcome. I have worked on press credentials at a few different assemblies now and their level of hospitality is second to none. The press are invited to join them for their group meals at their expense and the press seating is in the first row. Here was the view from my seat.

Free Church (Continuing) General Assembly – view from the first row press seating

The press row

Throughout the day there was Psalm singing from the volume on the right in the picture, which is a modern printing of the Scottish Psalter of 1650. While I was there we sang one song in Gaelic. Can’t say I did well but I tried. For that one, it was helpful that the precentor lined the psalm for us as we sang. (And I would note that occasionally I would hear conversations around me being held in Gaelic.)

Following the opening singing the Moderator, the Rev. David Blunt, read the scripture for the day, the Book of Jude, and then gave his Moderatorial Address from the book, focusing on Jude 3 and “Contending for the faith today.” While I won’t try to summarize his address here (you can read it at the link above) I will say that he spoke of the need for zeal in contending for the faith and that all in the church – pastors, elders, deacons, and members – have a role to play. It would be easy to read into the address the message that the Free Church (Continuing) is the inheritor of the true Presbyterian heritage of Scotland, and in a conversation with him and the Principal Clerk later in the day I confirmed that I was not reading too much into the address.

In fact, throughout the day in subtle, and sometimes not so subtle ways, this was woven into the fabric of the Assembly.

From the Address they moved into business and the first item of business was the Loyal and Dutiful Address. (A formal letter to the monarch, for those who might not be familiar with it. Each GA produces one.) There were a couple changes accepted from the floor. There was a question about why the recent Royal Wedding was not included in the letter along with other congratulations, and the Moderator confirmed it was related to fact that the bride’s previous marriage had ended in a divorce on other than biblical grounds. The body was content with that answer and no move was made to add that to the congratulations. Another interesting feature is that, where applicable, members of the royal family were addressed by their Scottish-related titles.

The most substantive debate of the day came in the report of the Committee on Ecumenical Relations. (Starting on page 10 of the reports.) The positive news for the denomination is that the Free Church (Continuing) is back in full Ecclesiastical Fellowship with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. On the other side the committee expressed concern about the path of the  Synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (liberated), or GKN(v). Last year the Synod began the process of admitting women to ordained office and in response the International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC) suspended their fellowship with the denomination with a final decision on their membership to be made when the GKN(v) makes the decision final. The Free Church (Continuing) was asked to follow the lead of the ICRC and suspend the church-to-church level relationship. The Assembly concurred with the recommendation.

There was an addendum proposed to the report that as an aid to evaluating ecumenical relationships the church should “draw up a comprehensive statement of Free Church principles” and doing the same for other Scottish denominations for the next GA. There was some reasoned discussion of this and there were questions as to whether this is a needed document. In the end the addendum was defeated by a wide margin, but it brought some important issues to light.

This discussion reminded me of a proposal, also defeated, in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) a few years back to define what the phrase “essential tenets of the Reformed faith” in the Book of Order meant. The argument for the proposal was similar – how do we evaluate standards of discipline if there is no standard? The argument against was the there are confessional standards and how do you condense a confession down to a few bullet points while still doing justice to the subordinate standard? And would the summary be held, or used, in place of a full, recognized, subordinate standard? And while the proposal did not get traction in the PC(USA) when the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO) was formed they did create such a document.

Most of the rest of the day was made up of fairly routine reports. The Committee on Finance and Sustentation was presented on ministerial pay and new proposals that were being worked on for life insurance coverage coverage for pastors to assist families if the need arises. The General Trustees reported that the church budget was in good shape but spoke of seeking creative ways to help with capital needs of church planting. The Special Committee on Psalmody reported that the new Psalmody was now in its third printing due in large part to the hard work of some dedicated member of the church. And the Welfare of Youth and Education Committee distributed the annual Sunday School prizes as well as reporting on the holiday camps. Attendance has been an issue and a challenge to their viability. One in particular, the All-Ages Holiday Camp has been canceled this year and they are looking for a more affordable venue for future years.

Finally, there were several ecumenical delegates that were invited to speak. Two in particular caught my attention. The Rev. Josh Rieger from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales spoke of the context of his own church in Northumberland. This is an area that a centenary ago had ninety Presbyterian churches. Today his is the only one. And the Rev. Dr. John P Wilson brought greetings from the Presbyterian Church in Australia, of which he is the Moderator. He briefly outlined the history of the Presbyterians in Australia and commented on the formation of the Uniting Church 41 years ago. For him, this was a very positive event in the church as the progressive side of the church departed leaving a group more dedicated to the confessional tradition. He spoke positively of the trajectory of the church and what the future holds. (I would add that having read much of the book issued for the 40th anniversary last year, Burning or Bushed, that more comprehensive evaluation give a much more nuanced view of the state of the church at this time.)

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly in session

Three quick notes:

For those tracking minister/elder participation the elder numbers are just about two-thirds the number of pastors – 38 pastors to 24 elders

It was an interesting juxtaposition to be in the session on Ecumenical Relations discussing the concerns over a partner denomination moving towards ordination of women at exactly the same time the Church of Scotland had their celebration of the 50th anniversary of the GA vote to ordain women.

And finally, I have been trying to characterize this GA and what struck me was the tight focus in doctrinal standards I saw. While the Assembly discussed matters tied to doctrine, doctrine itself was not really on the table. Unlike many other GA where commissioners with broad, or at lease broader, doctrinal interpretations where business is discussed through those filters, at this GA I found in neither the floor discussions or the many personal conversations I had with commissioners, did I find much variation in doctrine.

So again, my sincere thanks to the Free Church (Continuing) General Assembly and its officers for the stimulating day, enlightening conversations, and warm welcome. Best wishes and prayers for the conclusion of your Assembly and I hope to visit again at some time in the future.

[Update 26 May 2018: The text regarding the royal wedding and the bride’s earlier divorce and the spelling of Northumberland were corrected. Thanks to Mr. Blunt, the Moderator, for bringing it to my attention. We regret the errors.]

2018 General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland

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abb92709-4c93-44fe-8b75-2ef076924200Tonight the full compliment of General Assemblies are in progress as the Free Church of Scotland 2018 General Assembly convenes at St. Columba’s Free Church in Edinburgh. The meeting will run until about noon on Thursday. It is always an interesting meeting so here is some info about following along.

To follow along in social media you should be checking the official Free Church Facebook page as well as their Twitter feed @freechurchscot. The host church can be followed at @stcsfreechurch and the hashtag will be #fcga18, although sometimes tweets slip by with #fcga or #fcga2018. In addition, I would suggest also keeping an eye on the Twitter account for the official bookstore, Free Church Books (@freechurchbooks). Also, the seminary, Edinburgh Theological Seminary (@ETS_Edinburgh) and its principal Iver Martin (@IverMartin) should be informative.

Regarding other individuals and church tweeting the GA let me start with @jedirev, the moniker of Gordon Matheson, who has come back to Twitter for the GA. Add to that an elder from St. Columba’s who is a commissioner this year “Neil DM” who’s feed is @neilbriogaisean. (And must add I had a great evening talking with the two of them after the opening session.) I will update here any additional accounts that are interesting as the GA progresses.

Not present at the GA but worth mentioning is the former Moderator David Robertson. He is on sabbatical in Australia but might weigh in on either Twitter at @theweeflea or on his blog, The Wee Flea.

Much of the business before the Assembly seems like the routine but necessary work of a connectional denomination. A couple of interesting items include the approval for the London City Presbyterian Church to sell their manse and an agreement between the Assembly and the congregation as to how to split the proceeds. There is also a item to deal with ruling elder representatives to Synods, which still exist but meetings were suspended in 2009. The Assembly Clerks are also proposing a policy regarding electronic records and their handling and storage. There is also a action item regarding the structure and procedure of the quinquennial review of the seminary.

One of the important items is the Board of Ministry report and the section on Ministry with Integrity. This continues the close examination of the ministry in the Free Church in response to the ” the tragic and untimely death by suicide of Rev. Dr Iain D. Campbell in January 2017,” and other pastoral integrity issues. There are a number of steps and safeguards recommended in the report but the lead point is:

It was agreed to commend to all ministry candidates and serving ministers the challenging and realistic book, Dangerous Calling, by Paul David Tripp. This volume deserves to be read and re-read to help foster a healthy pastoral culture where genuine repentance and heart-humility is normal and where glory and fear is not given to men but to God alone. To that end pastors need to be encouraged and supported through healthy relationships with other Christians and their fellow leaders to whom they must be properly accountable.

It is a pleasure to sit in as an observer of the Free Church Assembly this year. I look forward to a couple of stimulating days with them.

So best wishes to the Free Church on their Assembly and we pray for the Holy Spirit to guide your discernment throughout.

2018 General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing)

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Things are getting busy in Edinburgh now as two more Assemblies convene this evening. Here is a brief preview on the Free Church (Continuing). More on the other later in the day.

The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) will convene at 6 PM this evening at Liberton Kirk, Kirkgate, Liberton, Edinburgh, and will conclude this coming Thursday, probably before noon. The church’s press release has more details on the meeting arrangements as well as a summary schedule.

The book of reports is available for download online. For governing documents and church order, the Acts of Assembly are available online and the basic polity document is the Westminster Form of Presbyterial Church-Government. In addition, the church is guided by the Westminster Standards. And finally, there are a few documents related to this branch’s formation back in 2000.

Compared to other meetings the social media footprint will be fairly small. Expecting some news on their Facebook page, and the church’s Twitter feed is @fccscot. The hashtags for the meeting are #freechurchcontinuing and #ga2018. Probably best to focus on the former as the latter is in use by the Church of Scotland as well. And other than myself when I will be with them I am not aware of another individual tweeting from the Assembly. Will update if I find a good follow.

It is my plan to join them for a full day of business, probably on Tuesday but that is not set yet.

Looking through the Reports I see a lot of business typical of Assemblies these days. The Assembly Arrangements Committee includes in their report investigating the improvement of video conferencing arrangements. This would provide the opportunity for office bearers from the Presbytery of the USA to more fully participate in other meetings. The Ecumenical Relations Committee will be presenting an update on an invitation from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to join in Ecclesiastical Fellowship. On the other side, they note with sadness the decision by the Synod of the Gereformeerde Kerken of the Netherlands to admit women to ordained office and seek to end the Ecclesiastical Fellowship with them. And the Committee on Psalmody will report on their production of a split-leaf Psalter.

Maybe the most high-profile report will be from the Committee on Public Questions, Religion and Morals. The church has issued a press release regarding their proposed comment to the Scottish Parliament regarding a bill to impose a smacking ban. The committee is concerned that this bill represents “Yet another example of the Government overreaching its locus and interfering in family life.” The Committee’s other ongoing matters include Child Protection and the Named Person Scheme, and Organ Donation.

I look forward to joining them in a day or two and continue to pray for their work and the deliberations ahead.

Church Of Scotland General Assembly:Day 2 – 20 May 2018

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Another interesting day in Edinburgh.

It began with the General Assembly worship service in St. Giles Cathedral. Needless to say the place was packed and the space was standing room only. (Not an exaggeration – in our part of the church there were a couple dozen people standing around the edges.)

If you are looking for “high church” Presbyterian worship it would be difficult to find something beyond a General Assembly worship service in the mother church of Presbyterianism. No “smells and bells”, but a distinctly secular aspect with the Lord High Commissioner in attendance and part of the formal processional and recessional. And it included singing God Save the Queen. But the music was good, I enjoyed singing hymns not in the common repertoire in the states, with a packed cathedral the sound was very full and rich.

We decided to stay for the second service, pretty much the regular St. Giles Lord’s Day service with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Good music, not as full a crowd, and a more simple feel. Again, some aspects were vary familiar – the reference in the sermon to being decently and in order got me a nudge from my traveling companions. And some were not, like the gathering in a circle around the very minimalist communion table to pass the elements between us. (That very minimalist is the white box in the picture below.

One of the joys of the day was in the first service sitting below the Holy Spirit stained glass window, this being Pentecost and all. Here is a shot of St. Giles down the main axis of the hall and one of the window.

Looking down the main axis of St. Giles Cathedral

Holy Spirit Window in St. Giles Cathedral

Being in St. Giles, one spot I had to visit was the traditional location where Jenny Geddes was sitting in back in 1637 when the Dean of the Cathedral began using the new service book imposed by the King and in her distaste for the mass threw her small folding seat at him. A riot ensued.  With the poor lighting I did not get a good picture of it, but this page about her includes a picture of the marker on the floor.

After looking at that, we were intrigued to find a plaque to her intended target, the Dean of the Cathedral, posted on a column near by. It reads:

James Hannay DD
Dean of this Cathedral
1634-1639
He was the First and the Last who read
The Service Book in this Church
This Memorial is Erected
In happier times by his Descendant

Here is more on James Hannay if you are interested.

The other Church of Scotland event of the day was the Heart and Soul event in Princes Street Garden. For the PC(USA) folks, imagine the GA exhibit hall moved outdoors into a park, with tents for booths and lasting only for an afternoon. One item Heart and Soul has that you won’t find in the exhibit hall is three stages and some children’s activities.

Overall it was a good afternoon for me as I got to talk with representatives of several organizations, committees and programs I have been tracking from afar. Thanks to them for the conversations and the opportunity to meet a few of them in person.

Heart and Soul actually began last night with a concert and worship of interest to young people. There was an enthusiastic and faithful crowd there for it but a lot of the seats were empty. One of the bands did Christian electronic dance music. Yes, apparently it is such a thing. The crowd was excited to see them and the evening was well received by those who attended. The worship time was fairly good and the preacher did a fine job of giving a Gospel message.

 

Preaching at the Heart and Soul Saturday night youth event.

So there is a quick wrap-up from today. Tomorrow things get interesting as two more GA’s get under way. Will be tweeting throughout the day but not sure what the posting will look like. We will have to see.

Have a good night

Moderator-Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing) 2018 General Assembly

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As we approach the start of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly convening tomorrow, I need to get caught up on this detail from last January.

The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) has selected the Rev. David Blunt as the Moderator-designate for the 2018 General Assembly. Mr. Blunt has been the pastor of the Free Church (Continuing) congregation of North Uist & Grimsay for the last eleven years.

He was born in Essex in 1958 and lived most of his childhood in Hampshire. Mr. Blunt’s original college studies were in Environmental Science at the University College of Wales. From there he conducted research at Dundee University.

In the course of personal study of the Bible and mentoring by Christians around him, he was convinced of the truth of the Gospel in 1983. He then found paths of Christian service, including assisting at a city mission and teaching part-time at a Christian primary school. Sensing a call to the gospel ministry, Mr Blunt received his ministerial training at the Free Church College.

Having competed his training, in 2000 he was inducted by the Free Church (Continuing) as an Evangelist/Church Planter in the Aberdeen area.  Seven years later accepted a call to his present position with the North Uist & Grimsay congregation in the Western Isles.

His higher denominational service includes work as a Presbytery Clerk and as well as the Clerk to Assembly Committees. In addition, last year he began as the editor of the denominational magazine Free Church Witness. A published writer, Mr. Blunt is the the author of Presbyterianism, published by the Free Church (Continuing), and of Which Bible Version: Does it Really Matter?, published by the Trinitarian Bible Society.

Our prayers are with Mr. Blunt as the Free Church (Continuing) assembly begins tomorrow and he is installed to the position of Moderator.

Church Of Scotland General Assembly: Day 1 – 19 May 2018

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No one does pomp and circumstance like the Church of Scotland.

While many Presbyterian branches have some ceremonial opening to their General Assemblies, as the national church the Church of Scotland has the ties to the civil government which are recognized and celebrated in the opening session. Have a look at the official photo gallery and you will see the symbols of the monarch with the Lord High Commissioner. The First Minister of Scotland seated slightly to his right. And a gallery of local provosts to witness the proceedings.

The letters and speeches in the opening were filled with memorable lines. In the commission of the Lord High Commissioner the Queen writes of her inability to attend due to “other weighty matters.” (For those who might be reading at a removed time there was a royal wedding today as well.) The Lord High Commissioner in his remarks spoke of his not having had the “brush with celebrity” as the new Moderator, Susan Brown, had. (She preformed Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding ceremony.) And the outgoing Moderator, the Very Reverend Derek Browning, telling about his meeting with the Pope where the Pope commented on his socks and how what was to be a 10 minute audience went much longer. As he said “We were together for over an hour. We kept the Archbishop of Canterbury waiting.”

It is notable that Ms Brown was chosen as the Moderator this year in which the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women as ministers will be celebrated on Tuesday. She is only the fourth woman to hold the position of Moderator and it was noted in her installation that she is the first Highland minister to hold the position in a while. It is also noteworthy that of the leadership at the top table seven of the eight are women with the Principle Clerk as the only man up front.

Two major business items highlighted the day. The one getting all the press coverage (and featured in the press coverage of the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago) is the decision to move ahead on permitting ministers to conduct same-sex marriages. The Legal Questions Committee presented their report outlining issues that need to be addressed in such legislation, but without a specific recommendation as to how to proceed. That was provided from the floor and by a vote of 345 to 170 the Assembly approved the motion to ask that proposed legislation be brought back to the Assembly in two years.

I would note a couple things about this debate and vote. First, while votes are not exactly comparable the proportions on this vote were roughly the same as votes on similar issues last year. And while I found the debate intelligent, well reasoned and respectful, I can’t say that any really new points were made beyond the numerous debates I have heard in general assemblies and presbytery meetings in the past.

The other big report was from the Council of Assembly as it tries to keep the Kirk a vital and solvent organization. Later in the week a new Strategic Plan for the next decade will be debated and adopted. The data are not good with a decline in giving of £1m over the last two years and a decrease in membership of 150,000 over the last ten years. Budget cuts, changes in the national offices, and decreased services are all possibilities. The concern was raised that this was just on the national level and local congregations are also in difficult positions with some burning through reserves to cover the general budget.

It was observed that many aspects of today’s business were out of place with regards to other reports throughout the week. For instance, why was some Council business before the Assembly when the Strategic Plan will be dealt with later in the week and the Panel on Review and Reform has yet to report?

Several items struck me as being themes that are common to multiple Presbyterian branches at this time. For instance, the Assembly Arrangements Committee was looking for ways to make Assemblies more efficient and to increase the participation of elders. Four years ago the PC(USA) adopted new procedures for its assemblies based on the work of the Committee to Review Biennial Assemblies. And this year, the Presbyterian Church in America will be considering an overture to increase ruling elder participation. Likewise, the PC(USA) has been revising the sections of its Book of Order to make them more conceptual and less prescriptive. The Legal Questions Committee is proposing revisions related to the Acts dealing with ordination and discipline. Among the reasons is to consolidate multiple acts into a single act for efficiency. Another reason is to reduce the time and cost of disciplinary procedures.

Finally, my favorite quote of the day in the context of the same-sex marriage debate with reference to the desire to safeguard pastor’s theological positions. But this gets back to a particular observation I regularly make about general assemblies in a broader sense and how what goes on in the assembly hall is not understood, or not deemed relevant to or by the “people in the pews.” How many GA special reports have been approved by the assembly and now just sit on shelves. How many get their 15 minutes of fame and then all that work is forgotten. (And I know, I sat on a drafting committee for one of these.) So in the course of the debate a commissioner rose and made the point focused on this line that could be applied to many items GA works on:

“Legislation isn’t going to protect – perception is everything in the parish.”

There is no question the Kirk has a hard path ahead of it. Can it pull out of the membership and funding decline? Again today we heard from Derek Browning the line that has become popular in mainline branches: “The church is not dying – it is reforming.” So what is the future? We will see as the week goes on.

Tomorrow is worship at St. Giles in the morning and the Heart and Soul festival in the afternoon. I anticipate a minimum of tweeting and will wrap it up with a post tomorrow evening about the Church of Scotland. With two other GA’s about to begin I will be turning my attention to those as well.

Good night. See you tomorrow

2018 General Assembly Of The Church Of Scotland

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Church_of_Scotland_LogoWe are almost to the Edinburgh GA’s – and I mean that in a couple of different ways as I will explain below.

[Note: revised slightly on Saturday morning 19 May after some consultation and getting a bit of ground truth in the Assembly Hall]

In about 12 hours, on Saturday morning 19 May the 2018 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will convene in Edinburgh for their annual week-long meeting. This is the mother church for us Presbyterians tracing their Assemblies back to the original one in 1560. But thanks to the spider web produced by the various splits and reunions there are more Presbyterian branches around it and more GA’s in Edinburgh. But that is a topic for another time.

So if you are interested in keeping track of the business and activities this year, here are the starting points:

  • There will be live streaming of the proceedings and you can connect to the stream appropriate for your device from the media page.
  • Most of the Documents pertaining to the Assembly are linked from the General Assembly Publications page. This includes the Assembly Reports volumes, known as the Blue Book in several different electronic formats including the traditional PDF as well as MOBI and EPUB formats for your eReaders. For eReaders, the same is available with the Order of Proceedings included. There is also a separate Order of Proceedings. The Daily Papers will contain late-breaking changes and are available on the Papers, minutes, worship, and speeches page. There is an option to subscribe to notifications of new documents being posted. (It appears the GA app has been discontinued this year, but I will update here if I find it.)
  • If you only want the action items, there is a Proposed Deliverances Page which breaks it down by the individual reports as well as a link to a PDF with them all together.
  • 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.
  • A brief order of the docketed events and reports can be found on the General Assembly 2018 page. And new this year is a very well done detailed Programme page which is tabbed by day for easy look up.
  • And from the Daily Updates page there will be regular daily updates in print, audio and video. There will be a new host this year, Laurence Wareing, and we look forward to his work.  For those who are not aware, the long-time host,the Rev. Douglas Aitken, a pioneer in British religious broadcasting, died earlier this year. I will have more to say later.
  • There is usually an official photo gallery of the Assembly. Will add that here when it goes live.

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 as well as the Facebook page for the National Youth Assembly.

On Twitter the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2018. There is an official account for the Moderator of the General Assembly, @churchmoderator, but during the Assembly we will have to see how much opportunity there will be to tweet. And the incoming Moderator, the Rev. Susan Brown, can be followed at her personal account, @VicarofDornoch. Similarly, the Church of Scotland Youth may be tweeting at @cosy_nya, although the account has been much less active. The official account for the NYA Moderator, currently Robin Downie, is at @NYAModerator. I would add that the NYA Clerk, Catriona Munro, has been regularly tweeting GA related items from her personal account @atrionacmunro. The church’s official publication, Life and Work, is also a good source for information on the web, on Facebook and on their Twitter feed @cofslifeandwork. In addition, while it is a personal account, you can follow the editor, Lynne McNeil, at @LifeWorkEditor, who will probably be doing the most comprehensive live tweeting of the Assembly.

I add to this list a semi-official account with a good potential for close live tweeting of the meeting: The curated account Church Scotland Voices with weekly rotating contributors at @churchscovoices will be hosted by James Bissett, the owner of @mansehound, and he will be covering GA. And worth mentioning the Kirk innovative ministry incubator, Go For It (@GoForItCofS)

In suggesting personal accounts to follow, let me start with three past Moderators of the General Assembly. The first is the Very Reverend Lorna Hood who is always an interesting read at @revlornascot and has been very active the past few years with projects related to Srebrenica justice and remembrance and also serves with YouthLink Scotland. The second is the outgoing Moderator, the soon to be the Very Reverend Derek Browning at @DerekBrowning2. Add to the list the Very Reverend Albert Bogle at @italker who has been getting some recent traction with the Sanctuary First ministry (@sanctuaryfirst) and whose charge is now related to online church. Finally, the Very Reverend Angus Morrison (@angusmorrison6) is an interesting and entertaining read and frequently tweets in Gaelic.

In suggesting other personal accounts let me begin with the Rev. Peter Nimmo of Inverness who is a member of the Church and Society Council (@ChurchSociety01) and always a good source of information at @peternimmo1. He will only be present on one day, but still a good observer. Others I regularly follow from the Kirk include Darren Philip (@darphilip), Alistair May (@AlistairMay), Susan Cord (@sue_cord), Neil Glover (@NeilMGlover), Kristina Hine (@revgal_khine), Liz Crumlish (@eacbug), and Andrew Harris (@aharris2729) . As reform and renewal will be a major topic again this year, following Douglas Gay (@DougGay) should be helpful. He has helped drive this discussion with his three-part Chalmers Lectures, last year and his book, Reforming the Kirk, released last August.

UPDATE: Let me begin building the list of other’s to watch. Add to the above list RevShuna (@shunad) and Angus Mathieson (@angusmathieson).

As I write this section, I am sitting just outside Inverness watching the ocean and getting ready to jump in the car and drive to Edinburgh. (Another level of meaning in that “almost to Edinburgh” in the opening line.) I will also be covering the GA here on this blog as well as on my twitter account, @ga_junkie.  A quick note on my plan for the week is in order: Since there are three GAs in Edinburgh at the same time I will cover part of each but no complete coverage of any one of them. The Church of Scotland has the advantage that it is almost twice as long as the other two so there will be the most of it. I will be live tweeting whichever GA I am at and will be doing daily wrap-ups and reflections based on what I experienced that day. So stay tuned for more from me.

Once again the Assembly will have its annual Heart and Soul festival on the Sunday afternoon of the Assembly week that will again be happening in Princes Street Gardens near the Assembly Hall. The theme of both the Assembly and the Heart and Soul event this year is “Peace be with you,” a theme that has extended to the Assembly as a whole. It is reflected on the cover of the Blue Book. The event will be organized a bit differently this year with more distinct areas that group similar organizations and causes together. In addition, a Saturday night electronic dance music style worship event has been added to provide an event of interest to a younger crowd. It is also noted that due to planned renovation of the Princes Street Garden next year changes to the Heart and Soul event will be necessary, at least as far as venue is concerned.

In addition to the “Peace be with you” theme, another theme will be present in Heart and Soul and the full Assembly. The Scottish Parliament has declared 2018 the Year of Young People and this will be woven into the programme.

Concerning the business before the Assembly there is a nice summary of each report on the Life and Work site. A third of the big themes throughout the Assembly will be the 50th anniversary of the Church of Scotland approving the ordination of women for the ministry. While there will be mentions throughout the week, there will be a special celebration on Tuesday afternoon beginning with a procession beginning below the Mound and moving up to, and into, the Assembly Hall for an Order of the Day to recognize the anniversary.

One of the challenges facing the Kirk is how to reform the church to remain viable for the future. Many possible changes are presented in the Council of Assembly report. The Council is also presenting their Strategic Plan for the next decade. The Assembly Arrangements Committee is proposing changes to improve the flow and efficiently of the Assembly. This would include the reduction in time for the various speeches in debate. The Ministries Council will be presenting its new plan for recruiting ministers. The Theological Forum will be presenting a report that discusses the need for children to be baptized before taking communion. This will be of interest to some PC(USA) folks as one of the more debated changes in the new Directory for Worship was the removal of the requirement for baptism for anyone before they could receive the Lord’s Supper.

A significant debate is expected on the Theological Forum report on Thursday afternoon. That same section also includes debate on a presbytery overture regarding the Westminster Confession Confession and its continued suitability as a subordinate standard. It asks the Theological Forum to take a look at that and the possibility of revision, guidance, and possibly going with multiple standards in a book of confessions. (Can be found starting on page 28 of the Order of Proceedings.) In addition, on the opening day, on Saturday afternoon, the Legal Questions Committee will be presenting a report with some anticipated lively discussion. The item of prime interest is their report on details that must be addressed in a proposal on ministers preforming same-sex marriages. It will also call for forming a committee to draft such an act. In addition, they are proposing a new act on church discipline.

So here we go as we kick off a packed week for GA. I will have more on some other GAs in the next couple days.

But that is a topic for later – for now, the opening of the Kirk GA will be shortly in both space and time for me. Tweets tomorrow during the day and a reflection about 24 hours from now.

Stay tuned…