Category Archives: General Synod

General Assembly Season 2021

May 1st is my official starting point for General Assembly Season and while I try to have this posted by then some commitments in other areas of my life made that difficult. At this point, as we continue through the GA Season my teaching responsibilities will be trailing off and I hope to be tracking everything more closely.

Looking at this GA season, for the meetings that we have good information on there is a mix of in-person, hybrid, and online meetings. It will be interesting to see how these all go.

So this is the line-up for General Assembly Season as I know it now. Please let me know if I have missed an announcement or a presbyterian branch.

66th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Taipei
20-22 April 2021

61st Synod Annual General Meeting
Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago
Hybrid
22-24 April 2021

Synod
The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia
Hunter PCEA, Cardiff, NSW
5-7 May 2021

45th General Assembly
Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad
Hybrid, based at Atlanta Vision Church
11 May 2021

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Tasmania
11 May 2021

General Assembly & Family Camp
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Divide, Colorado
12-15 May 2021

47th General Assembly
Christian Presbyterian Church of Malaysia
13-14 May 2021

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland
17-19 May 2021
Videoconference

45th General Assembly
Korean-American Presbyterian Church of the Americas
18-19 May 2021
Videoconference from World Hope Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles

General Assembly
Church of Scotland
22-27 May 2021
Blended, from the Assembly Hall, Edinburgh

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
24-26 May 2021
Videoconference

General Assembly
United Free Church of Scotland
26-28 May 2021
Hybrid
Milngavie United Free Church
Glasgow

146th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Canada
6-9 June 2021
Videoconference

Synod 2021
Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland
7-9 June 2021
Videoconference

217th Stated Meeting of the General Synod
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
8-10 June 2021
First Presbyterian Church
Columbia, South Carolina

2021 Synod
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
14-17 June 2021
Indiana Wesleyan University
Marion, Indiana

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Queensland
Including the Presbytery of South Australia
21-24 June 2021
Living Church, Carina

41st General Assembly
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
22-25 June 2021
Second Presbyterian Church
Memphis

145th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
27 June – 2 July 2021
Louisville, Kentucky
Concurrent with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

190th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
27 June – 2 July 2021
Louisville, Kentucky
Concurrent with Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

48th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in America
28 June -2 June 2021
St. Louis

N.S.W. State Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Australia
in the State of New South Wales
5 July 2021 (begins)
Hybrid, from Presbyterian Ladies’ College
Croydon, N.S.W.

87th General Assembly
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
7-14 July 2021
Dordt University
Sioux Center, Iowa

General Assembly
United Reformed Church (UK)
9-12 July 2021
Online
Included as the successor to the English Presbyterian Church

Reformed Presbyterian International Conference
~~20-16 July 2021~~
~~Marion, Indiana~~
Rescheduled from 2020, Canceled. Next in 2024

84th General Synod
Bible Presbyterian Church
5-9 August 2021
Grace Presbyterian Church, Cape Canaveral, FL

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
29 September -3 October 2021
St. Andrews College
Christchurch
(biennial – but rescheduled from 2020)

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Victoria
4 – 7 October 2021

112th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Western Australia
29 October 2021 (begins)
St. Columba’s Church, Peppermint Grove

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Ireland
TBA

Other Branches
Traditionally I have listed only those branches with annual meetings described as synod or general assembly meetings. There are a number of branches with a single judicatory that form themselves as presbyteries. Some of these meet annually, some meet multiple times throughout the year. For information purposes, I am including a list here of some of those branches which I will update regularly as I track Presbyterian dynamics.

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.

I will again reference the series of articles I wrote as an introduction to Presbyterian General Assemblies nine 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

So GA Junkies, this season continues to be a bit different with all combinations of in-person, hybrid or blended, and online meetings.

And it is nice to be back to a full GA season, even if this one is still a bit different. And as I know some denominations found, in finding alternate meeting styles last year the GA season my have been permanently changed. More on that later.

So stay decent and in order my friends.

A Very Different General Assembly Season 2020

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Yesterday May 1 – my official starting point for General Assembly Season. But as many of you are aware, this will be a very different General Assembly Season. With the Covid-19 virus circulating almost all of the early meetings have been cancelled or postponed. Many are simply listed as “postponed” with hopes of rescheduling in 2020. Some have specifically stated that they will not happen this year. Still waiting on a few and I will update as announcements are made.

So this is the line-up for General Assembly Season as I know it now. Please let me know if I have missed an announcement or a presbyterian branch.

46th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Malaysia
~~23-25 March 2020~~
Postponed, date to be determined.

65th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Taipei
~~21-24 April 2020~~
Postponed to a date not yet decided

60th Synod Annual General Meeting
Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago
~~April 2020~~ – Postponed Indefinitely

Synod
The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia
~~May 2020~~ – Postponed

45th General Assembly
Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad
~~5-7 May 2020~~
~~Orlando, Florida~~
Postponed to 4-6 May 2021
(I am seeing various info on this, still sorting through it)

General Assembly & Family Camp
Covenant Presbyterian Church
5-9 May 2020
Westcliffe, Colorado

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Tasmania
12 May 2020

44th General Assembly
Korean-American Presbyterian Church of the Americas
12-15 May 2020
~~Cancun, Mexico~~
To be held by Videoconference

General Assembly
Church of Scotland
~~16-22 May 2020~~
Edinburgh
Cancelled (breaking an over 300 years streak of Assemblies)
There will be a service to install the new Moderator on May 16

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
18 May 2020
Edinburgh
The Assembly shall convene by teleconference and suspend the Assembly to reconvene on or about 6 October in Inverness

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland
18-21 May 2020
~~Edinburgh~~
The Assembly will meet virtually this year with a single session the evening of Monday 18 May.

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Ireland
~~1-4 June 2020~~
~~Belfast~~
A Virtual meeting of the 2019 Assembly cancelled the 2020 Assembly – this is a break in a 180 year sting

87th General Assembly
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
~~3-9 June 2020~~
~~Eastern University~~
~~St. Davids, Pennsylvania~~
The 87th General Assembly has been postponed and will now convene on 2 June 2021

146th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Canada
~~7-11 June 2020~~
~~Wilfrid Laurier University~~
~~Waterloo, Ontario~~
The Assembly has been cancelled.

145th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
~~7-12 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled 27 June – 2 July, 2021
Louisville, Kentucky
Concurrent with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

190th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
~~7-12 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled 27 June – 2 July, 2021
Louisville, Kentucky
Concurrent with Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

216th Stated Meeting of the General Synod
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
~~9-11 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled 18-21 August 2020
Bonclarken Conference Center
Flat Rock, North Carolina

General Assembly
United Free Church of Scotland
~~10 June 2020~~
Perth
The Meeting has been cancelled

48th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in America
~~15-19 June 2020~~
~~Birmingham~~
Postponed to 29 June – 2 July 2021

224th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
~~20-27 June 2020~~
~~Baltimore~~
Will be held on-line with plenaries on June 19, 26, and 27

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Queensland
Including the Presbytery of South Australia
~~22 June 2020~~ – Rescheduled for September202 0, date pending
Brisbane Boys’ College
Brisbane

40th General Assembly
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
~~23-26 June 2020~~
Hope Church, Cordova, TN
Rescheduled to September 17-18, 2020

189th Synod
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
~~23-26 June 2020~~
~~Indiana Wesleyan University~~
~~Marion, Indiana~~
Cancelled as of 30 April

N.S.W. State Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Australia
in the State of New South Wales
13 July 2020 (begins)
Presbyterian Ladies’ College
Croydon, N.S.W.

Reformed Presbyterian International Conference
28 July to 3 August 2020
Indiana Wesleyan University
Marion, Indiana
Not an assembly or synod but a significant quadrennial gathering of Reformed Presbyterians
At this time still accepting reservations but may be cancelled shortly

Convocation of Sessions
Vanguard Presbytery
30 July 2020
Stephens Valley Church
Nashville, Tennessee
A meeting that is part of the development of a new denomination

84th General Synod
Bible Presbyterian Church
6-10 August 2020
Bible Presbyterian Church, Grand Island, NY

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Victoria
5 – 8 October 2020

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
~~7-11 October 2020~~
Lindisfarne College
Hastings
(biennial)
The Assembly has been postponed until October 2021

113th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Western Australia
23 October 2020 (begins)
St. Columba’s Church, Peppermint Grove

I will again reference the series of articles I wrote as an introduction to Presbyterian General Assemblies eight 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

So GA Junkies, this is a very different season. By my count, there are currently seven Assemblies or Synods that are still on as scheduled, seven that appear to be postponed to later in the year, two to happen by videoconference approximately as scheduled (not counting electronic meetings to decently and in order reschedule the meeting), and twelve that appear to be cancelled/rescheduled for next year. I am still collecting info and some of the later ones may yet be rescheduled as well. We will see.

So with that, I pray that you stay safe and healthy at this time and may it pass quickly. And for the hard-core GA Junkies out there may the withdrawal symptoms not be too bad and may you find something else to do to fill the time.

And finally, with the prospect of video GA’s coming up, I will start working on a Bingo Card for the occasion. Let me know if you have one and I will share all that I find.

So stay decent and in order my friends.

215th Stated Meeting Of The General Synod Of The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

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Having introduced the Synod meeting of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, it would be appropriate to turn our attention to the 215th Stated Meeting of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. As mentioned previously, these are concurrent meetings with joint worship, workshops and some plenary meetings that began this morning at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

The basic documents for the meeting are posted. First, there is a schedule for the meeting with a general business agenda. The ARP News is posting many of the other items associated with the meeting, including the pages of the metrical psalms to be sung during the joint worship services. Commissioner-specific material was distributed to registered commissioners ahead of the meeting and unlike some previous years is not publically available online.

For the doctrinal and polity standards of the ARPC you can check out their Governing Documents page which has all of those, plus links to some other interesting information.

While there is no live stream, the ARP’s official media outlet takes up the challenge nicely. ARP Magazine will be extensively covering the meeting on their news feed, Facebook page and on Instagram. The news feed will also be the place to look for daily updates every evening. They are also the official Twitter feed for the meeting as well (@arpmagazine) and the usual hashtag is #arpsynod2019 although this year #arpsynod is clearly in the mix. While there is the official main @ARPChurch feed it has been quiet for a while. World Witness (@theworldwitness), and Erskine Seminary (@ErskineSeminary) are active, however.

Looking at the initial Twitter action I would recommend Benjamin Glaser (@WVPitt), and Mark James (@GeraldMarkJames). And since these are concurrent meetings, you might want to keep an eye in the other hashtag, #RPSynod.

Without the reports, it is tough to preview the business of this meeting, but one of the reports that caught my attention is tomorrow morning related to Homosexual Orientation. While I don’t know the content of the report, or if any recommendations are being presented, I have a degree of curiosity if it is at all related to a significant discussion that has developed in the PCA over orientation, above and beyond homosexual practice. We will see what the reports on the Synod let us know after this business.

So, in the midst of this General Synod, we pray for their deliberations and the fellowship with the RPCNA, and look forward to hearing how they are guided by the Holy Spirit in their business.

188th Synod Of The Reformed Presbyterian Church In North America

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This is an interesting week in GA Junkie Land as there are two sets of concurrent meetings happening at this moment. While I may get a chance to look in on the joint meetings of the Cumberland Presbyterians and the Cumberland Presbyterians in America, I first want to look in on the other set of meetings.

This morning the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America convened their 188th Synod while the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church began their Synod as well, both on the campus of Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. This is college associated with the RPCNA and this joint synod is the reciprocal gathering to the concurrent meeting of these two branches four years ago at Bonclarken, the ARPC conference center in North Carolina.

And if I may take a minute, this is your regular reminder that while the RPCNA and the ARPC have their own sets of unions and divisions over the years, ultimately they are their own streams – the Covenanters and the Seceders respectively – that came over from Scotland and Ireland independent of the branch we now consider the American Presbyterian mainline and the many branches off of that.

OK, on to what is happening this week.

This is not a meeting with a live stream so we are out of luck there, but regular updates are appearing on the RPCNA Synod Facebook page and that appears to be the best point to follow along. The main RPCNA web page also points us to updates at the site of their denominational magazine, RP Witness, where there are daily updates, so we will keep an eye on that as well. For completeness, I would mention that they also have a general RPCNA Facebook page, but that points you to the Synod page for updates. Photos are being posted on a gallery site that appears to require an email address to access.

So far there is a bit of Twitter chatter, but more saying that it is happening than updates from the floor. We will see if that changes as the meeting progresses. The hastag is #RPSynod but worth keeping an eye on #RPCNA and #ARPSynod as well. Three Twitter accounts with official connections are RP Witness Magazine (@RPWitnessMag), the publishing arm Crown & Covenant (@crowncovenant), and their seminary @RPTSeminary. For individuals, I would mention Nathan Eshelman (@pastoreshelman), Allan Edwards (@edwardsae1), and Jules’ Diner (@julesdiner). I plan to have the ARPC preview up later today with a list of a few more from that side who will be commenting on the combined sessions as well.

Dockets, schedules or reports are usually not posted. The Constitution is available for download to see their confessional and polity standards.

I looked but could not find the usual Synod preview article from RP Witness magazine so I can’t point you to a good source of the business coming up. Yesterday there was a pre-Synod workship on Psalmody with an article from PR Witness. A number of years ago the Home Mission Board began a 20/20 Vision initiative with goals for new church plants and mission churches leading up to having 100 bodies – congregations and mission churches – in the RPCNA but the year 2020. The church has exceeded every goal and now has 104 worshipping groups or churches, exceeding the goal a year early. There is also an indication that a Study Committee on Divorce will be making their report.

Finally, a little levity is in order. Allan Edwards, who I mentioned above, has provided us not one, but two Bingo cards for these meetings, depending on what you want to track. As hinted above by the Psalmody workshop, while the ARP has leanings in that direction, the RPCNA is an RPW denomination that worships with exclusive unaccompanied Psalm singing. So, card 1 is the sung Psalms bingo card. And for the polity wonks, card 2 is the business session bingo card.

In closing, our best wishes to Andy McCracken who was chosen as the Moderator this morning. Our prayers are with him, and both synods, as the meet over the next four days. May your deliberations be guided by the Holy Spirit.

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:

Presbyterian Reformed Church, 22 May 2019, Chesley, Ontario
Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad, 8-11 Oct, Sunnyvale, California

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!

General Assembly Season 2018

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Ah, the circle of life – overtures and moderator candidates are put forward, the General Assembly or General Synod has its say, and the descending overtures are considered by the presbyteries… And it begins all over again.

So here we are on May 1. And while a few Assemblies have already come and gone, we start to ramp up to the really busy season. What is headed our way? Let’s have a look…

First, this is simply the list – further detail will be necessary on a number of important and interesting items of business that will come before the various GA’s this year.

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.

44th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Malaysia
2-4 April 2018

22nd General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of East Africa
9-14 April 2018
St. Andrew Parish Hall, Nairobi, Kenya
(Triennial assembly)

200px-Presbyterian_Church_in_Taiwan
63rd General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
17-20 April 2018

Synod Annual General Meeting
Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago
26-28 April 2018
Naparima College, San Fernando
Celebrating the church’s sesquicentennial

pcea_logo
Synod
The Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia
1-3 May 2018
Manning PCEA Church, Taree, N.S.W.

pca_tasmania_logo
General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Tasmania
15 May 2018 (begins)

Logo_of_the_Church_of_Scotland
General Assembly
Church of Scotland
19-25 May 2018
Edinburgh

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland (Continuing)
21-24 May 2018
Edinburgh

General Assembly
Free Church of Scotland
21-24 May 2018
Edinburgh

42nd General Assembly
Korean-American Presbyterian Church
22-25 May 2018
New York City

General Assembly & Family Camp
Covenant Presbyterian Church
22-26 May 2018
Trinity, Texas

144th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Canada
3-6 June 2018
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario

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General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Ireland
4-7 June 2018
Belfast

arpc_2846216
214th Stated Meeting of the General Synod
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
5-7 June 2018
Bonclarken
Flat Rock, North Carolina

ufcscot_logo
General Assembly
United Free Church of Scotland
6-8 June 2018
Perth

210px-OrthodoxPresbyterianChurchlogo
85th General Assembly
Orthodox Presbyterian Church
11-15 June 2018
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Illinois

46th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in America
12-15 June 2018
Atlanta

223rd General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
16-23 June 2018
St. Louis
(Biennial)

143rd General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America
17-21 June 2018
Norman, Oklahoma
Concurrent with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

cplogosmallwithtext200x200 188th General Assembly
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
17-21 June 2018
Norman, Oklahoma
Concurrent with Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

38th General Assembly
Evangelical Presbyterian Church
19-22 June 2018
Hope Church
Memphis, Tennessee

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Queensland
Including the Presbytery of South Australia
24-28 June 2018
Brisbane Boys’ College
Brisbane

Reformed_Presbyterian_Church_of_North_America_(banner)
187th Synod
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
26-29 June 2018
Indiana Wesleyan University
Marion, Indiana

N.S.W. State Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Australia
in the State of New South Wales
9 July 2018 (begins)
Croydon, N.S.W.

International Congress
Free Presbyterian Church
30 July – 3 August 2018
Philadelphia

bpclogo
82nd General Synod
Bible Presbyterian Church
2-6 August 2018
Bible Presbyterian Church of Lakeland, Florida

NYA_0 National Youth Assembly
Church of Scotland
17-20 August 2018
Stirlingshire
(Technically not a governing
body, but still an Assembly I track)

General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
3 – 7 October 2018
St. Andrews College, Christchurch
(Biennial)

pcv_logo
General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Victoria
8 – 12 October 2018

111th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church in Western Australia
28 October 2018 (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 GA’s that I don’t have more information on yet:

Presbyterian Reformed Church, 6-8 June 2018, Jasper, Indiana
Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad, 30 Oct – 2 Nov 2018, Philadelphia

These are the ones that 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.

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!

Who Speaks For The Church – Or At Least The General Assembly?

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In my time doing this blog and watching global Presbyterianism, one of the things that has caught my attention has been the variation between different traditions about who speaks for the denomination.

Now, it is first worth noting that when it comes to pronouncements, particularly social witness stands, many branches recognize that a governing body (judicatory, council – whatever term you use) speaks only for itself and can not bind the next meeting of that deliberative body to that statement or commit other levels of the denomination to it. This is not necessarily the case in all branches, particularly those with strong national infrastructure and definitive decision making at the highest level, but it is true for the polity of many branches that have placed the presbytery as the fundamental governing body and the authority of the other bodies derives from the presbyteries.

The question of who speaks for the church has been an active one recently in the PC(USA) as the Way Forward Commission has wrestled with this. (See the section on Communications in the Outlook article in the link) While not decided yet, something may come out in their final recommendations for consideration by the 223rd General Assembly in June 2018, particularly in the area of communications and the various agencies and offices speaking with one voice.

Globally Presbyterian branches fall into two categories as to who is the voice of the denomination. In general, American branches tend to hand that responsibility to the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. However, elsewhere in the world the Moderator of the General Assembly or the General Synod tends to be the voice of that body.

I have been working with a semi-quantitative analysis of this over the last few months, but over the last couple weeks I realized there is a reasonable metric to do a quick sort on this. So here are the lists of who provided the official Christmas messages from different branches this year.

Moderators of the General Assembly or the General Synod

Church of Scotland, Moderator Rt. Rev. Dr. Derek Browning
Free Church of Scotland, Moderator Rev. Derek Lamont
Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Moderator Rt. Rev. Dr. Noble McNeely
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, Moderator Rev. Richard Dawson
Presbyterian Church in Canada, Moderator Rev. Peter Bush (plus an excerpt from a devotion)

Stated Clerks of the General Assembly or the General Synod

Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Rev. Jeff Jeremiah
Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, Synod Executive Dana Allin
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II

Web sites checked where I did not find Christmas messages include the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, CCAP Zambia Synod, CCAP Blantyre Synod, CCAP Livingstonia Synod, Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (English site), Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago, Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), United Free Church of Scotland, Nonsubscribing Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Presbyterian Church of Wales, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales, Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, Free Presbyterian Church of North America, Presbyterian Church in America (but see below), Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Bible Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church in Australia, Presbyterian Church in Australia in the State of New South Wales, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia, and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. If I have missed any in this group, or other branches not listed please let me know and I will update.

So the obvious conclusion is that most Presbyterian branches don’t post a Christmas message on their web site. A number of explanations for this: A few of the branches still hold to the Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God which has an Appendix against celebrating festivals or holy-days. For others, it is simply the expectation of the denomination – it is a nice idea but that is not what the GA or GS is really there for. And for others, the greetings are distributed in other forms and do not appear on the web site.

The other obvious conclusion is that while this quick analysis shows two obvious trends – Christmas messages are posted by the big institutional Presbyterian branches and they come from the Moderator unless you are an American branch – the other part is that a lot are left out. So back to the drawing board and maybe the semi-quantitative approach. (And this shift in focus to the stated clerk in American branches is an interesting phenomenon I am interested in reading more about, or tracking down more historical details if it has not been done yet.)

A few additional comments:

While the Presbyterian Church of Australia did not have a Christmas message, the web site does have a dedicated page for the Moderator’s comments.

The state branch, the Presbyterian Church of South Australia has begun functioning as a presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, but their Christmas message last year was written by the last Moderator, the Rev. Gary Ware.

The Presbyterian Church in America did not have a specific Christmas message, but their By Faith news arm does have a piece featuring one of their theology professors that does touch on Christmas theology.

And for the Church of Scotland, the advocacy and discussion of social witness policy is routinely delegated to the Convener of the Church and Society Council. Here are a couple recent examples of Kirk press releases related to “Church welcomes minimum pricing for alcohol ruling” and “Kirk hopes for a budget that will make Scotland a fairer and more equal society.”

Finally, something that was tracking with my other analysis but maybe is best considered an appendix here – a short case study on speaking for the denomination, in this case the PC(USA).

As the top continuing ecclesiastical officer the Stated Clerk speaks for the General Assembly, and not for him or herself, on matters related to policy of the PC(USA). This is covered in the Manual of the General Assembly.

Recently the Stated Clerk, The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, preached in South Korea as part of an ecumenical visit. The headline of the article said “Stated Clerk pledges repentance for No Gun Ri massacre: Nelson: ‘We’ll not let the silence continue’ about Korean War atrocity.” So the question is, as part of the sermon was he speaking for himself, or as the ecclesiastical officer of the PC(USA) was he speaking for the General Assembly?

Again, this was included as part of a sermon and the headline writer latched on to this for the article. Here is the full context of what the Stated Clerk said when he preached:

I cannot apologize for the government of the United States. However, we who are here today from the United States can pledge to not let the silence of this massacre continue. Just as the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse has called on the denomination to both acknowledge and repent of our silence as a denomination, we [the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)] must call upon the United States government to publicly repent of its actions at No Gun Ri.

He is clearly recounting the actions of the General Assembly, with an overture originating from the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse. The problem is that the 222nd General Assembly did not actually call for repentance on the part of any body or government, as the Stated Clerk implies. The final alternate resolution 1) Acknowledged the actions of the US military in the massacre, 2) Directs the Stated Clerk to ask the United States Government to acknowledge the actions, issue an apology and statement of regret as well as considering compensation, and include training for future military members. And 3) work with the ecumenical partners for resources and additional statements of regret.

In the whole action the word repentance is used only once in the original rational from the Presbytery, which carries the weight of action only to the extent that the final resolution asks for its inclusion in communication about the action of the General Assembly.

So the polity question is: Based on the actions of the 222nd General Assembly, did the Stated Clerk faithfully represent it when he spoke for their action?

So I will leave it at that. I have a lot of other articles in the works so it may be a while before I return to this topic. And to a large degree, this is a topic of debate for us polity wonks and presbygeeks, but does appear to be an issue for the Way Forward Commission.

Your mileage may vary.

186th Synod Of The Reformed Presbyterian Church Of North America

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We are on the eve of the opening of this Synod which has a particularly heavy schedule to pack into a three day meeting. But as we prepare for this meeting let me comment on the origins of this branch, with apologize to those for whom this is familiar territory. The U.S. is so full of “split-P’s” that it is worth reminding ourselves that the Reformed Presbyterians and Associate Presbyterians have their origin story in the Covenanters and Seceeders in Scotland and came across to the colonies as independent branches. And while they have their own convoluted history since then, it should be remembered that in their tradition they stand on their own apart from the mainstream/mainline of Presbyterian branches in both Scotland and America.

OK, on to what is happening this week.

The 186th Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America will convene bright and early tomorrow morning, June 28, at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, IN.

This is not a meeting with a livestream so we are out of luck there, but so far there is a bit of Twitter chatter so that will probably be our connection. In addition, there is so far no site I have seen with posted dockets, schedules or reports. I will update if that changes. The Constitution is available for download to see their confessional and polity standards.

There are three official places to look for information. First, they have an active Facebook page and I would expect that to have a nice variety of updates and pictures from the meeting. Second, their official media group, RP Witness Magazine, has a nice web site of news items where daily updates will be posted. There is also a Flickr channel, however that has not been updated in two years so we will have to see if there is any new activity this year.

Finally, there is Twitter. Still not sure if the hashtag for the meeting will be #rpcna or #RPSynod2017 and there is an official feed for the RP Witness Magazine (@RPWitnessMag). I would note that there is indeed an official Twitter account for the RPCNA (@RPCNA) but there have been no tweets. Looking at the early action it appears that Nathan Eshelman (@pastoreshelman) will be actively tweeting so might be worth a follow. [*I have added a note related to Nathan at the end.] Finally, in the category of “there is one in every crowd,” you just might want to keep an eye on John Knox (@fakeRPCNA) and see if he weighs in on Synod. And I will update all this info as warranted when the meeting gets under way.

As I mentioned above, this looks to be a very busy meeting as discussed by the RP Witness in their Synod Preview article. The article begins:

Recent Synods have worked to make the business of Synod more efficient and effective, partly in the hope of requiring less time of delegates and making it feasible for more ruling elders to attend.

This is a year that will test the practicality of shorter Synods, as there is a mountain of work to handle in a three-day schedule, including some very important issues.

The article gives a list of several important items to be considered by the Synod in the allotted time. Here is that list and my attempt at a brief description about each of them:

Special Committee on Vocalized Prayer: Is the Directory for Public Worship prescriptive or descriptive when it speaks of elders leading prayers in worship?
Special Committee Addressing Ruling Elder Participation at Synod: As noted in the quote above, recommendations on how to get better participation of ruling elders in Synod. Interesting that the ARP also reflected on this issue.
Special Study Committee on Gender Identity: Presents the paper “Gender as Calling: The Gospel & Gender Identity” for adoption as a standard for the church.
Special Committee on the Mediatorial Kingship of Christ (interim report): An interesting and timely report in progress dealing with the difficult issue of whether in civil elections to only vote for those who live lives that truly follow Christ.
Judicial Review of Communication 2016-2: complaint by members of a session and presbytery regarding the beverage used in the communion cup: The presbytery requires the use of wine in communion, a decision that belongs to the session. The Review recommends to drop charges and that all parties seek unity. (And that is simplified way too much.)
Judicial Review of Communication 2016-4: appeal of a presbytery’s actions by a retired RP minister: The teaching elder submitted a paper to his presbytery regarding his favorable views on ordination of women to the eldership. The presbytery found them outside the standards and recommended removing his ordination. A Special Committee reviewed the proceedings and recommends that the presbytery be found to have acted with “undue haste.” Presbytery says views are clear and due process was followed so Committee’s primary recommendation should not approved. Teaching elder accepts primary recommendation with concerns. Alternate recommendations are provided.

This list does not include a Special Committee that looked at the Directory for Church Government section of the Constitution and is making the recommendation that all sections related to establishing churches be consolidated into a single, new chapter.

A few other items of business caught my interest. The report of the Board of Trustees of the Synod which brought to the attention of the Synod issues in at least one state with the church’s Trust Clause and that it would not always stand up to neutral principles of property law. The Trustees will be looking at ways to make language in property documents more robust. A communication from a presbytery asks for a slight but notable rewording of the quorum requirements for meetings of a presbytery and the Synod to be very clear how many church must be represented and how many of the commissioners must be ruling elders. Another communication from a presbytery deals with a specific church which is unable to make its assessment payments to the Synod multiple years in a row and asking if there is a solution. They propose paying the presbytery assessment first and the Synod only if the church’s finances that year are good enough.

As I noted at the beginning, the quantity of the business before this assembly is high and the importance of many items is notable. So as the Synod begins our prayers are with the elders, ruling and teaching, who have gathered and we ask for the Spirit’s leading in their discernment of God’s will. We wait to see how they are led and the decisions they make.

*Off topic side note related to Nathan: He is one of a quartet of pastors that host a podcast called The Jerusalem Chamber that is walking through the WCF one section at a time. I have found it to be interesting listening for confessional Presbyterians.

213th Stated Meeting Of The General Synod Of The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

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So extending my analogy from the last post, we started yesterday juggling three balls in the air. At this time two of those GA’s have concluded – the OPC and the PC Canada. With the PC Ireland GA still going strong let’s look at the new ball in the air, the 213th Stated Meeting of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

The meeting began yesterday evening, 6 June, and continues until tomorrow, Thursday, 8 June, at the church’s Bonclarken conference center in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

The basic documents for the meeting are posted. First, there is the tri-fold program that summarizes the meeting. The rest of the meeting documents and information are being hosted on a Google share. The document names are fairly clear, but Index A does contain a list of the reports and whether for Committee or Synod and is helpful to find specific reports of interest.

For the doctrinal and polity standards of the ARPC you can check out their Documents page which has all of those, plus some national forms, in one place.

While there is no live stream, the ARP’s official media outlet takes up the challenge nicely. ARP Magazine will be extensively covering the meeting on their news feed, Facebook page and on Instagram. The news feed will also be the place to look for daily updates every evening. They are also the official Twitter feed for the meeting as well (@arpmagazine) and the hashtag is #arpsynod2017, but they tell us to check #arpmagazine as well. Other official and related entity feeds that may or may not be active include the main @ARPChurch, Outreach North America (@ONA_ARP), World Witness (@theworldwitness), and Erskine Seminary (@ErskineSeminary). The latter two are significantly fresher than the first pair.

Looking at the initial Twitter action it looks like Muswell Hillbilly (@WVPitt) and Robert Flight (@rflight79) are actively tweeting the activities. It is also worth noting that Iver Martin (@IverMartin), Principal of Edinburgh Theological Seminary of the Free Church of Scotland, is also attending the meeting. It is a short meeting, but I will try to update with others as the meeting progresses.

One of the bigger items coming to the Synod this year is a draft of a new Book of Discipline to be received by the Synod and distributed to the church for comment this year, anticipating adoption of the final version at next year’s Synod meeting. A couple items of interest from the Committee on Inter-Church Relations. One is the invitation from the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America to hold concurrent meetings in 2019. The second is the proposal to enter into Fraternal Relations with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales. And worth noting that the Rev. Iver Martin is at the meeting as the fraternal delegate from the Free Church. There’s also an interesting contribution from the Committee on Worship whose report contains a white paper on a Directory of Private and Family Worship and whose recommendations include one to form a special committee to consider if one should be adopted.

For the GA Junkies, Polity Wonks and Presbygeeks out there, I wanted to share a memorial (frequently considered overtures in other branches) from Second Presbytery. The concern is that the valued Presbyterian fundamental of parity between teaching elders and ruling elders is frequently a problem at presbytery and the Synod meeting with teaching elders being the dominant group in the commissioners present. The solution proposed is a specialized Point of Order they are calling a “Parity Challenge.” Not a challenge to get the ruling elders there but a parliamentary procedure to challenge a vote so that the parity of the two different groups of elders can be considered. The proposed addition to the Form of Government is:

2.13 In order to promote the unity, peace, purity, and prosperity of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, presbyters have the right to invoke “Parity Challenge” at all prebytery [sic] and General Synod meetings. A “Parity Challenge” may be called as a point of order immediately after any action of the court. When challenge is called, the court’s action is delayed until subsequent, immediate votes are taken of both elders and ministers by group. A simple majority vote of both groups is required for the challenged action to stand, otherwise the challenged action is revoked.

Seems like a creative way to handle an imbalance in elders but not sure how that discussion will go. (If anyone at the meeting wants to report back on this business item I would be interested in the arguments on each side.) If nothing else, I will put it in the polity book I am writing. 😉

So, in the midst of this General Synod we pray for their deliberations and look forward to hearing how they are guided by the Holy Spirit in their business.

212th Stated Meeting Of The General Synod Of The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

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In the midst of a very busy week for meetings of the highest governing bodies (substitute courts, judicatories or councils if you wish) the next one I want to highlight is the 212th Stated Meeting of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

The meeting begins today, 7 June, and continues until Thursday, 9 June, at the church’s Bonclarken conference center in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

The basic documents for the meeting are posted. There is the tri-fold program, and the more focused meeting schedule. The book of Reports and other documents related to the business of the Synod is also online. And there was also a PreSynod program featuring Josh Packard taking about Church Refugees, a workshop related to his book of the same name.

This Synod does not have a live stream, but it has the next best thing — The ARP’s official media outlet. ARP Magazine will be extensively covering the meeting on their news feed, Facebook page and on Instagram. The news feed will also be the place to look for daily updates every evening. They are also the official Twitter feed for the meeting as well (@arpmagazine) and the hashtag is #arpcsynod2016. Other official and related entity feeds that may or may not be active include the main @ARPChurch, Outreach North America (@ONA_ARP), World Witness (@theworldwitness), and Erskine Seminary (@ErskineSeminary). The latter two are significantly fresher than the first pair.

Individuals who I follow but that may or may not be tweeting during the meeting include ARP pastors Benjamin Glaser (@BenjaminPGlaser) and Clint Davis (@cleetus74). It looks like Michael Cochran (@koineguy) is at the meeting and actively tweeting. As always, I will update with others as the meeting progresses.

While this meeting does not have the level of interest and excitement as last year’s joint meeting with the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Synod, there are a few business items that caught my eye. One that carries some polity, parliamentary and theological interest is Memorial #5 that suggests changes to the recently adopted revision to the Form of Government. The issue in play here is that the categories of Active and Inactive members were eliminated in the revision and it is now just members. There are five recommendations that propose changes to better work with this new arrangement but maybe the most interesting, and possibly problematic, is one that would let each session decide how many “capable and eligible” members there are. While the interest in local flexibility is worthwhile, among the issues that it raises are the lack of a definition could lead to inconsistency across the denomination, it would be a de facto reinstituting of active and inactive members, and the proposed wording could open the session to possible charges of favoritism and politics if some members see viewpoints as part of who is eligible and who is not.

The Committee on Theological and Social Concerns has a couple interesting items as well. One would have the Synod adopt a position statement expressing concern that “The Word of God gives no warrant, expressed or implied…” for women in combat and so they should be excluded from selective service and inclusion in combat forces. The also ask that a position paper regarding race relations and the APRC be received as information. That paper can be found beginning on the 50th page of the Reports Book and may be the single longest document in the book.

A few other interesting actions include an invitation to the Free Church of Scotland to enter into fraternal relations, revisions to the Manual of Authorities and Duties for the Board of Erskine College and Seminary, and a revision of a membership vow to return an emphasis on accepting the “doctrines and principles” of the church.

So, as the business meeting gets off to a start we pray for their deliberations and look forward to hearing how they are guided by the Holy Spirit in their business.

The GA Junkie

The Politics of Presbyterianism

Category Archives: General Synod

General Assembly Season 2021

A Very Different General Assembly Season 2020

215th Stated Meeting Of The General Synod Of The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

188th Synod Of The Reformed Presbyterian Church In North America

General Assembly Season 2019

General Assembly Season 2018

Who Speaks For The Church – Or At Least The General Assembly?

186th Synod Of The Reformed Presbyterian Church Of North America

213th Stated Meeting Of The General Synod Of The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

212th Stated Meeting Of The General Synod Of The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church