Category Archives: General Assembly

145th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In Canada

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I hope you are ready because it is now the month of June and the General Assembly Season is about to get VERY busy. First up, this evening the 145th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada opened with worship and they have installed their new Moderator.

The first sederunt this evening, including opening worship, was held in the sanctuary of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, of Kitchener, Ontario. The meeting will continue through Thursday 6 June 2019 and the remaining business sessions will be held at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario

A few things to know to help follow along:

  • There will live streaming of the Assembly meetings and they are typically archived afterwards
  • From the GA 2019 page you can download the full and final Book of Reports. The daily schedule is found on page 4 of the packet and a more detailed docket begins on page 6. The Supplementary Reports is available from the GA 2019 page as well. The Book of Reports contains both a synopsis of each report, frequently one page in length, as well as the full report from each body reporting. The synopsis of reports begins on page 32.
  • Official news updates are available on the news feed. We can probably expect follow-up after the meeting in the new PC Connect e-newsletter.
  • I anticipate there will be daily GA Briefings and probably video recordings of the sederunts posted regularly. The Briefings, a summary of each sederunt, will probably be available on the GA 2019 page and the videos archived on the Live Stream Page.
  • The General Assembly Resources page is where you will find the important doctrine and governance documents including the Book of Forms and a link to the Acts and Proceedings page.

The theme for the meeting is “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

The Assembly can be followed on social media through the PCConnect Facebook page and through their official Twitter feed @PCConnect. The hastag for the meeting is #pccga2019. And we can expect pictures on the PC Connect Flickr feed.

As we go into this GA, let me first point to one of my Twitter stalwarts, Jeff Loach (@passionatelyhis) although I have not seen a GA tweet from him yet. I have seen GA activity from another GA go-to commentator, Scott McAndless (@A_Nobel_Theme) who once again will be blogging about the GA. And one more who has had a few GA-related tweets is Matthew Brough (@mbrough). UPDATE: Pleased to see that another GA veteran is tweeting, that being John Borthwick (@jborthwik).

Over the last few years, the continuing discussion has been on human sexuality and what path the church is going to take. At last year’s Assembly they decided they were at an impasse and decided to form a Special Committee of Past Moderators – fourteen in total – to help them through it. (And I would note that one of the Moderators’ first recommendations is “we are concerned that this not become a practice of the church.”) This Special Committee will be the first report on Tuesday morning and their proposal can be found in the final edition of the Book of Reports starting on page 472. Procedurally, they are proposing that the Assembly descend to a Committee of the Whole to discuss, both as a large group and at tables of smaller groups, four possible paths forward.

The first pathway is the Current Practice option. This would hold things are they are: marriage is between one man and one woman, homosexual orientation would not be considered a sin but the church would not conduct same-sex marriages and only celibate LGBTQI individuals would be eligible for ordination as teaching and ruling elders.

The Inclusion Pathway would open the church to conducting same-sex marriages and those in same-sex marriages would be eligible for ordination as teaching and ruling elders. Significantly, while this option would have the liberty of conscience for sessions, individual ruling elders and congregations, there would be none for new teaching elders going forward and those ordained in the future ” would be expected to affirm same-sex marriage and to participate in the ordinations and inductions of LGBTQI clergy who are in same-sex marriages.”

The third Pathway is One Denomination – Three Streams. If adopted, this would set up a Traditional, an Accommodating, and an Affirming stream in the church. Sessions would recommend to their congregations and congregations would approve their membership in a particular stream. Congregations and teaching elders would be free to change their stream at any time. All presbyteries would be dissolved and new presbyteries within each stream would be created. Because of this structural change, the plan would require that it be sent down to the presbyteries under the Barrier Act for their concurrence before the plan could be implemented. (And to be clear, the second and fourth pathways also have elements that would require the presbyteries to approve under the Barrier Act.)

Finally, the fourth Pathway is Pastoral Accommodation. Under this option, the doctrine of the church would remain as it is now, as discussed above in the first pathway. However, there would be a suspension of discipline so that congregations that felt called to could host same-sex marriages and could ordain, call and install married LGBTQI individuals in their congregations without concern for being disciplined.

Will this break the impasse? Tune in on Tuesday morning for the start of this discussion which will have additional reports and discussions on Wednesday. In addition, the Special Committee Re Listening (LGBTQI People) has a recommendation that “any form of conversion or reparative therapy is not a helpful or appropriate pastoral response.” Also, as a response to this whole process, the Assembly Council is asking that a group be formed to bring a report to the next GA regarding churches that which to leave the denomination.

There are a number of other topics up for discussion and a few jumped out at me. The International Affairs Committee has a recommendation “That the Moderator write to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan expressing prayerful support for its country and its people that they will continue to live and serve one another in a peaceful democracy.” The Clerks of Assembly have a recommendation that options for flexibility in ruling elder terms on sessions be sent down to the presbyteries under the Barrier Act. And the Committee on Church doctrine is recommending that the report on recreational marijuana be brought to next year’s GA.

So prayers and best wishes for the members of the 145th General Assembly and as they address issues so difficult, but so important to the future witness of the church. May you indeed be guided by the Holy Spirit in these substantive matters of witness and ministry.

2019 General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing)

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Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly

So, let’s round out this weeks assembly activity in Edinburgh…

While the other two Assemblies are meeting up near the top of the Royal Mile, a bit to the south of them, in the Liberton area, the smallest of the three will be in session.

The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) convened 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 #ga2019. Probably best to focus on the former as the latter is in use by the Church of Scotland as well. Typically, there is not a lot of tweeting from this Assembly. Will update if I find a good follow.

Looking through the Reports there is a lot of the usual business that you find with General Assemblies that makes the church operate. But two items stand out because of their more public nature.

The first is in the report of the Committee on Public Questions, Religion and Morals. Among the multiple topics they discuss, the highlighted issue is a bill in the Scottish Parliament regarding a smacking ban. This is a continuing point of concern and last year the church issued a press release regarding their proposed comment to the Scottish Parliament. This is still an active matter and the church’s press office has sent me a copy of this year’s press release on the same subject. (I have not seen it online yet.) The release reads:

Holyrood shows skewed processes and closed minds on smacking ban, says Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)

The Public Questions, Religion & Morals Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, in a report to their General Assembly due to meet in Edinburgh from 20th May 2019, state that Holyrood has demonstrated skewed processes, in that the Holyrood Committee tasked with scrutinising the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill is comprised of seven members of whom five had indicated their support for the proposals before any scrutiny took place. When the representative of the Free Church (Continuing) presented the views of the denomination generally at a meeting of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee of the Scottish Parliament, held recently in Portree, along with numerous other witnesses presenting their concerns, the Committee demonstrated closed minds on the subject.

This information and additional details are also contained in the committee’s report, beginning on page 44 of the Book of Reports.

Another topic of focus this year will be Christian Education, part of the report of the Welfare of Youth and Education Committee. (Beginning on page 26) The committee will present the recommendations of a working group that is encouraging the availability of Christian Education resources on the denomination’s website, possible funding for Christian Education, and approving in principle the establishment of an annual conference on Christian Education. That report also recommends that the All-Age Holiday event be discontinued after this year due to costs unless a less expensive venue can be found. And finally, jumping back to Christian Education, a special program will be presented in Glasgow the day following the adjournment of the Assembly with Dr James Wanliss addressing the meeting on the theme “The Profit of Christian Education”.

I enjoyed my time with this GA last year and while I will be waiting for the post-GA reports from them this year, my prayers are with them for their deliberations and work. May it all be guided by the Holy Spirit.

2019 General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland

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General Assembly week in Edinburgh gets into full swing today as two addition GA’s convene this evening. One of these is the Free Church of Scotland 2019 General Assembly meeting at St. Columba’s Free Church in Edinburgh. The meeting will run until about noon on Thursday.

St. Columba’s Free Church

One of the features of this meeting is that it meets for business in the evenings so when the Church of Scotland meeting adjourns you can walk across the street to St. Columba’s Free Church and sit in on their meeting. You think I exaggerate? Here is St. Columba’s, and I took the picture from the public gallery entrance to the Kirk’s Assembly Hall. [One of my favourite lines from Doug Gay’s book Reforming the Kirk says “The Secession Church planted strategically while the Free Church planted competitively.” In my wanderings around Scotland last year it was not unusual to find a Church of Scotland building across the street from a Free Church building.]

So, to follow along here are some helpful starting points:

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 #fcga19, although sometimes tweets slip by with #fcga or #fcga2019. In addition, I would suggest also keeping an eye on the Twitter account for the official bookstore, Free Church Books (@freechurchbooks) who will have a pop-up bookstore at the Assembly. Also, the seminary, Edinburgh Theological Seminary (@ETS_Edinburgh) and the principal Iver Martin (@IverMartin), although he has not been active on Twitter recently. And I can add the new Mission Initiative “Generation” which tweets at @GenerationM18.

Regarding other individuals and churches tweeting the GA I am at a bit of a loss at the moment as the hashtag has been very quiet. One account who has mentioned that they will be present is Rosskeen Free Chuch at @RosskeenFC. I will stick my neck out and mention “Neil DM” who is an Elder at St. Columba’s and has the handle @neilbriogaisean.

Much of the business before the Assembly seems like the routine but necessary work of a connectional denomination. The reports include updates on two initiatives approved at the 2018 Assembly, the Generation Vision launch for mission work, and a recognition of the need for rural church planting and development. In another response from last year, the Board of Ministry reports on their consultation with the presbyteries about the Ordination Promises or Vows. While a variety of views were found, they noted a consensus that the current wording could be clarified or shortened and asks the GA to pass this along to another group currently revising the church’s Practice. There is also an item to send to the presbyteries under the Barrier Act an overture to dissolve the provincial synods. The 2009 GA suspended the meetings of synods and with presbytery reorganization, the synods are now seen as a redundant layer of judicatory. And I had to smile a bit at the deliverance from the Psalmody and Praise Committee that included the item:


6. The General Assembly remind congregations that where praise items are projected on screen or printed on orders of service, copyright acknowledgement must be made for each item, for all Sing Psalms, Sing Scripture and for all hymns. Scottish Psalter items do not require this, being out of copyright. Further guidance is available on the Free Church website, including links to PowerPoint slides.

I know a few churches, including my own, who need to be reminded of this.

Having been the recipient of their generous hospitality last year, I will be watching from afar this year to see how several of the items I saw debated last year are moved along by the body this year.

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

Church of Scotland General Assembly 2019

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It is General Assembly week in Edinburgh. It was a great experience being there last year and visiting all three of the Assemblies going on that week. Once again, my thanks to all of them for their official and unofficial hospitality. This year we are back to normal and tracking them from the other side of the world.

A few hours from now, on Saturday morning 18 May the 2019 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will convene in Edinburgh – with all the traditional pageantry – for their annual week-long meeting. And it is looking to be an interesting meeting with major implications for the Kirk in the years to come.

Church_of_Scotland_Logo

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 Blue Book is available combined 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 Assembly Papers page. There is an option at the bottom of the page to subscribe to notifications of new documents being posted.
  • If you only want the action items, there is a Proposed Deliverances Page with a link to a PDF with all the Deliverances 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 detailed Programme page tabbed by day provides a schedule of docketed reports and events for easy look up.
  • And from the Daily Updates page there will be regular daily updates in print, audio and video.
  • 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. There is also the Kirk’s Instagram feed and YouTube channel.

On Twitter, the starting point is the Kirk’s main feed at @churchscotland and the official hashtag #ga2019. (And be alert – there is an event called Gamers Assembly that is using the same hashtag so don’t be surprised at the first person shooter video(s)) 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. And while the incoming Moderator, the Rev. Colin Sinclair, does not appear to be on Twitter, you can follow his church – Palmerston Place Church – @ppc_edinburgh. The retiring 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 inactive. The official account for the NYA Moderator, currently Tamsin Dingwall, is at @NYAModerator, and that is probably a better starting point. 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 usually does 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 says they will have someone 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, besides Susan Brown who I mention above. 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 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, I will include the Very Reverend Angus Morrison (@angusmorrison6) has been an interesting and entertaining read and frequently tweets in Gaelic, but he has not been active for a while.

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. And his choir from St. Stephen’s Church ( @invernesschurch) will be performing at Heart and Soul. Also from the Inverness area will be the Rev. Susan Cord at @sue_cord. Others I regularly follow from the Kirk include Darren Philip (@darphilip), Alistair May (@AlistairMay), Neil Glover (@NeilMGlover) who chairs the church’s Ministry Council, Liz Crumlish (@eacbug), RevShuna (@shunad) and Angus Mathieson (@angusmathieson). 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 2017 Chalmers Lectures, and his book, Reforming the Kirk, released a couple years ago. Life and Work published a piece by him about this year’s Radical Action Plan initiative. More on that in a minute.

And stay tuned – as usual once GA gets rolling I will update the list.

UPDATE: Should have added this sooner, but through the tweets found Scott Paget has a blog called Reading the Blue Book, 2019 Edition, where he breaks down reports from the Blue Book individually with his comments. You can follow him on Twitter at @smpaget.

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 “Jesus Said: ‘Follow Me'”. It is reflected on the cover of the Blue Book. There is a Programme of events, including the multiple stages and venues, and the website suggests a broadcast, but I don’t see an active link for that yet.

Concerning the business before the Assembly there is a nice summary of each report on the Life and Work site. In addition, each of the conveners has recorded a short video introducing their report.

The challenge of how to reform the church to remain viable for the future is front and center this year. Last year the Assembly made a bold move when it rejected the Council of Assembly’s proposed ten-year strategic plan in favour of a countermotion calling for “a radical action plan.” The group working on this radical action plan is reporting and as I mentioned above, Doug Gay gives a nice summary of the plan in that Life and Work article. For the full details, check out the Council of Assembly report. It also headlines the Kirk’s GA preview news article.

The proposal makes major changes in the structure and work of the church. The proposal is to cut at the top to provide greater focus and resources for the churches and the communities. For example, one detail is to cut the number of presbyteries from 45 to 12. It would establish a Growth Fund between £20 million to £25 million for church planting and community outreach work. Administrative costs at the top level would be cut, maybe as much as 40%, and the number of councils would be reduced from four to two. In addition, the church’s social care arm, Crossreach, could be given greater autonomy. The debate on the Radical Action Plan is scheduled for first thing Wednesday morning (which means I will have to set an alarm).

So here we go as we kick off a packed week for GA. The other two Assemblies begin Monday evening and I will have more on those Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Stay tuned…

General Assembly Season 2019

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Has it been a year already? Time to get my act together for the new season. So buckle up – here we go.

Today is May 1 – my official starting point for General Assembly Season. Yes, a few Assemblies have already come and gone, but now we start to ramp up to the really busy season. Here is a look at what is coming.

As always, this is the line-up as I know it – I will update as I clarify additional Assembly and Synod meetings. Let me know if I have missed one.


45th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Malaysia
26-27 March 2019

63rd General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Taipei
24-26 April 2019


59th Synod Annual General Meeting
Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago
25-27 April 2019

Synod
The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia
7-10 May 2019
Manning PCEA Church, Taree, N.S.W.


General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Tasmania
14 May 2019

General Assembly & Family Camp
Covenant Presbyterian Church
15-19 May 2019
Dayton, Iowa


General Assembly
Church of Scotland
18-24 May 2019
Edinburgh



General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
20-23 May 2019
Edinburgh

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland
20-23 May 2019
Edinburgh

43rd General Assembly
Korean-American Presbyterian Church
21-24 May 2019
Los Angeles

General Assembly
United Free Church of Scotland
29-31 May 2019
Perth

145th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Canada
2-6 June 2019
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario


General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Ireland
3-6 June 2019
Belfast


86th General Assembly
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
5-11 June 2019
University of Texas
Richardson (Dallas), Texas

144th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
9-12 June 2019
Huntsville, Alabama
Concurrent with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

189th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
9-14 June 2019
Huntsville, Alabama
Concurrent with Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America


188th Synod
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
10-14 June 2019
Geneva College
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
Concurrent with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

215th Stated Meeting of the General Synod
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
11-13 June 2019
Geneva College
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
Concurrent with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America

39th General Assembly
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
18-21 June 2019
Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church
Denver

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Queensland
Including the Presbytery of South Australia
23-27 June 2019
Brisbane Boys’ College
Brisbane


47th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in America
25-28 June 2019
Dallas


N.S.W. State Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Australia
in the State of New South Wales
15 July 2019 (begins)
Presbyterian Ladies’ College
Croydon, N.S.W.

83rd General Synod
Bible Presbyterian Church
1-5 August 2019
Tacoma Bible Presbyterian Church, Washington

National Youth Assembly
Church of Scotland
16-19 August 2019
Stirlingshire
(Technically not a governing
body, but still an Assembly I track)


General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Australia
9 September 2019 (begins)
(trienniel)



General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Victoria
7 – 10 October 2019


112th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Western Australia
25 October 2019 (begins)
St. Columba’s Church, Peppermint Grove


 

Thanks to the list from the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council, I would add these additional two meetings that I don’t have more information on yet:

So that’s the list I am tracking at the moment. I will update as appropriate. If I have missed one, or have information wrong or incomplete, please provide the appropriate information and I will update the list.

And, to make the GA season complete here are two more items…

The first is the series of articles I wrote as an introduction to Presbyterian General Assemblies seven years ago. My GA 101 series consists of the following

GA101: Preface
GA101: Introduction – Why in the world would anybody want to do it this way?
GA101: Connectionalism – The Presbyterian Big Picture
GA101: The Cast of Characters – A score card to identify the players
GA101: The Moderator – All Things In Moderation
GA101: Where does the GA business come from? – Incoming!
GA101: Doing the business of GA — Decently and in Order

Yes, what started as a six-part series expanded into seven completed articles with two more unfinished ones (still) in the queue.

And finally, on to the ridiculous. Lest we take ourselves too seriously, a couple years ago I had a little fun with the General Assembly and in the post passed along the GA drinking game and GA Bingo. In addition, Allan Edwards has posted an alternate Bingo card reflecting the polity of the Presbyterian Church in America and Neil MacLennan has created one that reflects the idiosyncrasies of the Church of Scotland. Please play responsibly. 😉

So GA Junkies, it is open season so enjoy! May you have an exciting experience over the next few months of watching us do things decently and in order!

Election Of The Moderator For The Presbyterian Church In Ireland 2019 General Assembly

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In the second Moderator selection of the day yesterday, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland conducted their annual voting process where all of the presbyteries meet on the same night – the first Tuesday in February – and vote for their next GA Moderator.

This year there were four nominated candidates:

So, when the dust settled last night Mr Henry was the overwhelming favourite, being endorsed by 11 of the 19 presbyteries. Mr Bruce was endorsed by four presbyteries, Ms Stanfield by three presbyteries, and Mr Rankin by one.

The Rev William Henry, Moderator-Designate for the PCI 2019 General Assembly. (source: PCI)

Mr Henry has been the installed pastor at Maze Presbyterian Church for almost 22 years, moving there in 1997 after being ordained as an assistant pastor at Whiteabbey Presbyterian Church in 1994. In 2001 he was given the additional responsibility of serving as the Stated Supply minister of near-by Ballinderry Presbyterian Church.

He was born in Belfast and grew up in Mallusk, County Antrim. He began his higher education at Queen’s University, earning a BSc in Chemistry. Sensing a call to ministry he prepared at Union Theological College in Belfast. He was licensed to preach at his home congregation, Hyde Park Presbyterian Church.

Mr Henry has served the wider church as convener of the Home and Irish Mission/Strategy for the Mission Committee for six years beginning in 2006. He also served as convener of the Union Commission beginning in 2012 and continued when it became the Linkage Commission in 2015. His service there concluded last year.

At the age of 50, he will be the youngest Moderator of the General Assembly in, as the press release puts it, “living memory.” (At this morning’s press conference it was confirmed that the youngest Moderator was Very Rev Dr Gilbert Patton, who was 49 when he began his term as Moderator in 1930-31. )

If you are interested in hearing Mr Henry preach, you can find an archive of sermons on the church website.

His nomination has received good coverage in the mainstream media including the BBC Northern Ireland, the Belfast News Letter, the Belfast Telegraph, and itv.

In the follow-up coverage on the Wednesday morning press conference, the topics predictably included the church’s stance on same-sex relationships, Brexit, and the relationship between Union Theological College and Queen’s University as one of the constitute schools in the Institute of Theology.

Regarding Brexit, he declined to answer the question from the News Letter reporter about where he stood but included in his remarks “We’re an all-Ireland church [with an] all-island perspective. We’d be wanting to make sure there is something workable on both sides, in both jurisdictions…”

The BBC coverage of the press conference was terse and focused almost exclusively on the church’s stance on same-sex relationships. Their lede is:

The next moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) said he supports the church’s opposition to gay marriage.

But, he added the church “abhors” homophobia and is “open and welcome to anyone”.

Regarding Queen’s University suspending enrollment in Union Theological College over concerns of the breadth and diversity of teaching, the News Letter has this quote from Mr Henry responding to inquiries about that:

“I’m certainly disappointed with the decision, because what that does is it denies some of our young people the choice to follow their dream, and to study theology at the highest academic level…

“My middle daughter had an 18th birthday just recently. Even at a relatively small gathering in our house… in that one social gathering, there were three 18-year-olds who wanted to apply to study theology at Queen’s this year and that’s been denied.”

[UPDATE 7 Feb 2019: Expanded coverage of the press conference appeared today in the Belfast Telegraph. And this story made their front page. They also have an editorial titled “New Moderator William Henry will prove a steady hand.” The piece begins by listing the issues in the PCI in the last year and then states, “But if [William Henry] continues in the vein displayed in his first major interview in this newspaper today, he may well be a healing balm in an institution in need of cool heads and strategic thinking.”]

Returning the original press release, Mr Henry speaks in there about his perspective on the PCI and that it has a specific purpose in 21st century Ireland. He includes this comment

“Our younger generation, and how they demonstrate their commitment to Jesus, will be key to that future. Having observed plenty of examples in my own congregation of the vital and real faith our young people demonstrate, I will want to highlight many more demonstrations of this throughout our wider church. I pray that God might equip me with the gifting I need to model servant leadership in His Church this year,”

Speaking more broadly, elsewhere in the press release he is quoted as saying:

“For me it comes down to this experience of ‘Enjoying God,’ and perhaps that is what I’d like to develop into a theme for my year in office. When we enjoy God, prayer and worship become real and meaningful because there is a sense that God has come near. That will result in practical service for Jesus.

“Encountering God is always radical and disruptive. However, the Church can become casual and forgetful of the presence of God; and wider society has a tendency to be self-contained or self-reliant – the effect for both is that they attempt to live without a recognition of dependence upon God.

“I would wish to use the year ahead that I have to speak about this message and explore with people what it means to ‘Enjoy God,’ both to the Church and wider society. I want to bear witness to what I might call the surprising and unsettling presence of God – the one who offers fullness in Jesus.”

We wish the Rev William Henry well on his Moderatorial year of sharing the message of Enjoying God. Our prayers for him as he prepares for, and moderates the GA beginning on 3 June 2019.

Moderator-Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland (Continuing) 2019 General Assembly

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Yesterday, February 5, was a busy day for Moderator selections and I will begin with the first news we got, that being from the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing).

Rev William Macleod, from the Free Church (Continuing) website

The Free Church (Continuing) announced that the Rev. William Macleod, pastor of the Knightswood Church, Glasgow, was selected as the Moderator-Designate for their 2019 General Assembly in May.

Mr Macleod is one of the original members of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) when it divided from the Free Church of Scotland in 2000. At that time he was serving as the pastor at Portree on the Isle of Skye. He began his pastoral service when he was ordained and inducted at the Patrick Free Church in 1976, and translated to Portree in 1993. He moved to his current pulpit at Knightswood, at that time known as Thornwood FCC, in 2006.

He has provided significant service to the Free Church (Continuing) including having previously served as GA Moderator in 2005. He also served as the editor of the Free Church Witness magazine from 2000 to 2017, and as Principal of the Free Church Seminary from 2003 to 2014 where he still serves as a lecturer in Systematic Theology.

He began his college studies at Aberdeen University where he earned a BSc in 1972. (On a personal note I was interested to see on his church bio that his studies included geology.) He began his pastoral training at the Free Church College in Edinburgh (now Edinburgh Theological Seminary) earning a diploma in theology in 1975. He continued his theological training, specifically in Systematic Theology, at Westminster Theological Seminary (Pennsylvania, US) being awarded a ThM from there in 1976.

William and his wife have three adult children and four grandchildren. His son Murdo is a filmmaker and directed the highly-acclaimed documentary Knox, about the reformer John Knox. The working title was “Give Me Scotland” and there is some good background to the film from Head Heart Hand that features Murdo. Their son Alasdair is the pastor of Knock and Point Free Church (Continuing) on Lewis. Their daughter Christina is married to Ian and they have two young children.

As I mentioned at the beginning, Mr Macleod was part of the original group when the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) divided from the Free Church of Scotland in 2000. He wrote the forward to John W. Kiddie’s account of that and the events leading up to it, A Divided Church. Permit me to close with a few of his words from that Forward.

I have been asked whether I regretted the stand I made and the actions in which I was involved. Looking back, with the wisdom of hindsight, would I follow the same course again? Without a shadow of a doubt I would. True, there were times when I and others could have shown more humility along with firmness when more gracious words could have been used, but wrongs had to be opposed.

At the end of the day what matters is not what people think of us, our success or our popularity but rather doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord, dispite the cost. Soon we will all have to stand before the Judgement Seat. The things that are important to many people today will mean little then. Our concern must be to hear the Lord say to us: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

(From A Divided Church: An account of the division in the Free Church of Scotland in 2000, p. 7-8)

We wish Rev William Macleod well as he moderates the upcoming General Assembly set to begin on May 20, 2019, and our prayers are with him. For more biographical details you can check out his church’s web page, the Free Church (Continuing) minister page, as well as the details in the official announcement. You can listen to his preaching on sermonaudio.com.

Moderator Designate For The 2019 Church Of Scotland General Assembly

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This past Tuesday the Church of Scotland announced that its selection committee has chosen the Rev. Colin Sinclair as their Moderator Designate for the 2019 General Assembly.

Colin Sinclair, Moderator Designate, Church of Scotland GA

Colin Sinclair, Moderator Designate, 2019 Church of Scotland GA (Photo: Church of Scotland)

Mr. Sinclair is the pastor of Palmerston Place Church, just west of the Old Town section of Edinburgh. He was ordained as an Assistant at that parish and moved on to be the solo pastor at Newton on Ayr. He returned to Palmerston in 1996 and has been on the staff there ever since.

He grew up in Glasgow and as a student at Glasgow Academy he first became associated with Scotland Scripture Union. As he tells it, he first attended a film to promote one of their camps as an escape route to avoid a reprimand in the school hallway. The film resonated with him and he attended the camp that year and again the following year. As he says in the Kirk announcement, “I went back to camp the next year and decided then to follow Jesus Christ. So started an exciting adventure of faith that has lasted over 50 years.”

After completing his Honors Economic degree at Stirling University he spent three years as a Scripture Union training officer in Zambia, travelling around the country living out of his car. He says of that time:

“Those three years changed my life. Being away from everything familiar I was able to sort out which parts of my faith were mine, and which were not. I encountered people from many different countries and with many different beliefs. I met all the Church of Scotland missionaries there and everyone was very supportive. I learned to trust God.”

His association with Scripture Union has continued since that time. He served as a General Director in Glasgow, and he recently concluded several years of service as the International Chair of Scripture Union. Scripture Union Global has a nice video where he recounts his time with the organization and how it has influenced him.

Besides his significant involvement with Scripture Union, he has served at both local and national levels of the Church of Scotland, most recently as Convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council.

In the Kirk announcement, he speaks of his experience as a minister. In the concluding quote he says:

“I think that has become my philosophy over the years. What’s lovely is seeing young people who started off as SU campers become leaders themselves. I have loved seeing folk grow up, whether it is to become elders in the Church or to go into vocational ministry or to take their Christian faith into different avenues of public service.”

Not surprisingly, his theme for his moderatorial year will be Discipleship.

If you are interested in hearing more from him you can check out the Plamerston Church sermon page, as well as an oral history recorded by the University of Stirling.

Mr. Sinclair’s wife, Ruth Murray, is a medical social worker.  They have four children – all of whom are involved in Christian ministry – and three grandchildren.

And finally, his nomination continues a recent trend of Moderators having a brush with celebrity. While the current Moderator officiated a celebrity wedding, Mr. Sinclair appears (as an extra) in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As that article says, “He spent the day running up and down a hill at Doune Castle in ­Perthshire with hundreds of other extras dressed as soldiers – only to be “attacked” by police in the film’s final scene.”

There is significant press coverage of the announcement: Besides the Church of Scotland official announcement and the official Life and Work article, other online media includes the Edinburgh Evening News, the BBC, Premier, and some local outlets like the Oxford Mail.

Our congratulations to Mr. Sinclair and our best wishes as he prepares for his moderatorial year. We look forward to his service as Moderator during General Assembly week and our prayers are with him. And I leave you with his thought which has been picked up by all the media stories I have read and seems to sum up his philosophy of ministry well…

“Our message is still Good News and it still changes lives.”

 

Moderator Designate For The 2019 Free Church Of Scotland General Assembly

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The Commission of Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland has announced the selection of The Rev. Donald “Donnie” G. MacDonald of Portree and Bracadale Free Church in Skye as the Moderator Designate for the 2019 General Assembly.

Donnie G MacDonald - Moderator Designate

Donnie G MacDonald – Moderator Designate (photo: Free Church of Scotland)

Mr MacDonald, who is widely known as “Donnie G”, was ordained as a pastor 26 years ago, and his 25-year anniversary was marked by the Free Church last year. He began his ordained ministry at Ferintosh and Resolis Free Church where he spent 11 years. In 2003 he moved to his current charge. He is a native of Fort William but grew up on Skye, attending Borrodale Primary School and Portree High School. His college work in Glasgow included Chemistry and Molecular Biology, but he continued his education in preparation for the ministry at Free Church College, now Edinburgh Theological Seminary.

In response to the nomination, Mr MacDonald is quoted as saying “It is very humbling to be asked to be Moderator Designate of the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly for 2019. It is an honour to serve Jesus in any capacity and I will do my best to fulfil this responsibility simply but diligently.”

He reflects on the position of the Free Church in another quote: “The many Free Church congregations scattered throughout the country are working hard to bring that Gospel message to both the urban and rural settings of Scotland, revitalising the old and planting the new. We also remain committed to looking beyond our own borders to explore innovative ways of supporting mission work.”

On a side note, what jumped out to me in this last quote was the mention of ministry in a rural setting, a topic of some discussion and encouragement at the 2018 General Assembly.

Finally, you can see more about his Portree Congregation at their Facebook page, which does include the news of his nomination. He has recordings of his sermons available on both the church website as well as some preached elsewhere on Sermon Audio.

And so, we congratulate Donnie G and wish him well for his moderatorial year. Our prayers are with him as he prepares to moderate the upcoming GA and we look forward to following the GA in May, unfortunately on the live stream this year. Best wishes.

 

 

Exceptional Comments By The 2018 Lord High Commissioner

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I am working to make time to catch up on a bunch of blog posts related to my visit to Scotland in May for three General Assemblies. Here is a post on what may have been one of the most interesting points in the GA’s for me. Stick with me through the whole post.

For every Church of Scotland General Assembly the monarch is invited to be a part of the proceedings. Needless to say, she usually does not attend in person but appoints someone to be her personal representative and carry all authority of the monarchy for the week. This is the Lord High Commissioner (LHC) and sometimes the LHC is a member of the royal family, like last year when HRH The Princess Royal represented her mother. This year a family member was not expected due to a prior commitment, and so a distant cousin of the Queen, His Grace Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE, DL, FSA, FRSE, was appointed as the LHC.

The Duke is well known as Scotland’s largest landholder and his appointment was not without some controversy. In his appointment and in comments during the week he was recognized for his dedication to conservation and sustainability in his land management. And a 2017 profile in the Financial Times [maybe subscription] highlights his conservation efforts. But his landholdings have come under scrutiny as the breakup of estates has been discussed, as well as for improper handling of toxic waste at abandoned mining sites. There is also concern over how access to the land is managed with tenant farmers and local communities.

Over the course of the week I had the opportunity to hear the Duke speak on three occasions. The first and last were at the opening and closing of the Church of Scotland General Assembly. The opening address can be read or viewed, and the closing address can be viewed [starting about 45:00] as part of the closing worship. But it is traditional for the LHC to pay a visit to the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly, and while he is warmly received with the honor and formality due the position, the LHC does not carry the same ecclesiastical relationship he does across the street at the Church of Scotland. The video of his comments to the Free Church is available on their website.

His first comment to both bodies was the formal greeting and assurance of the church/state relationship defined in the 1707 Acts of Union. As he said to the Kirk, and repeated something very similar to the Free Church:

Her Majesty The Queen has commanded me to assure you of Her great sense of your steady
and firm zeal for her service and to assure you of Her resolution to maintain Presbyterian
Church Government in Scotland.

In his closing comments to the Kirk he included many elements common to most LHC’s closing address. There was the commendation of the Moderator for the good job they did that week. There was also a review of some of the highlights of the week, which included not just the Church of Scotland events and visits, but he also mentioned the visit to the Free Church GA the previous day. In his additional comments there was significant overlap between the two speeches as he highlighted his participation on the Scottish Government’s Advisory Panel on the Commemoration of the Centenary of the First World War. And he talked about how “Armistice Sunday is not the end of it” and how the tragedy continued, noting especially the sinking of the Iolaire on 1 January 1919, a Royal Navy vessel returning almost 300 service men to the Isle of Lewis after the war. Over 200 lives were lost just short of the safety of Stornoway Harbour. And appropriate to the Kirk’s theme of “Peace be with you!”, he spoke of a planned march on Armistice Sunday to remember the war and it’s casualties, and to work to not let something like this happen again.

Lord High Commissioner addressing the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (photo from the Free Church)

But the Duke included a remarkable set of comments to the Free Church General Assembly that were not part of any of his comments to the Kirk. I found them an admirable insight in to Scottish history and a significant step in reconciliation. I will close with his words that opened his address, very slightly condensed, and with a couple of links added to help with historical references. The opening comments of The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry to the Free Church of Scotland:

Moderator, Fathers and Brethren

It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to address the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. And it is a great honour to have been appointed by her majesty The Queen as Lord High Commissioner.

My presence here is to confirm the determination of her majesty to uphold Presbyterian church government in Scotland.

Moderator may I congratulate you most warmly upon your appointment and may I wish you an extremely successful and fulfilling period in office.

Moderator, Fathers and Brethren – please be seated

Looking back at the Lord High Commissioners who have visited you I realize with some anxiety that many had happy links with the church from their own family pasts which they could easily share with you. That is not the case with my ancestors.

I am doubtful about apologies on behalf of those long dead, but I believe it is important to recognize and learn from historical events. I think particularly of my Queensberry forebearers in The Killing Times in the southwest. The first Duke was brother-in-law to the infamous Grierson of Lag, and government colleague of Claverhouse. Their hands may not have been stained with blood, but guilt by association was undeniable. And to read about those times – the summary shootings of Covenanters in remote lands. Or perhaps even worse, on their own doorsteps in front of their families is still truly chilling.

And then coming closer to the 19th century, there was a different kind of harassment for more than a decade after The Disruption in 1843, my forebear refused land for those who wanted to build new churches, leaving your folk forced to worship in the open air.

I am sad and sorry that those from whom I am descended showed such intolerance and such discrimination to fellow Christians.

Today we are hugely fortunate to live in a free society…