Category Archives: GA business

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

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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.

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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…

223rd General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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With the largest American General Assembly (about 1300 commissioners) having just concluded it is time to turn to a few more. The big one this coming week is also the highest numbered, and therefore, I guess, oldest or longest running.

logo+pcusaStarting today we have the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in St. Louis which begins on Saturday 16 June and finishes a week later on Saturday 23 June. There is a lot to look forward to in this meeting as the denomination works to connect with the host city, connect with itself, and decide how to position itself for the future.

The source for information on all this business is, as usual, the on-line PC-Biz system. And the PC(USA) event guide for the Guidebook App  is back as well. There are Android and iOS apps and it can be viewed in a web browser. The full program guide with schedules and worship resources is available from the GA web site home page.

A proposed docket is posted is posted as well as a full schedule including the non-business events, and you can also find the schedule, reports overtures/business items on PC-Biz as well as all the Constitutional documents, the Manual of the General Assembly, and other useful items on the PC-Biz Resources tab.

The Assembly will begin with opening worship with celebration of the Lord’s Supper scheduled for 11 AM local time and will be live streamed in the window embedded in the GA home page or directly from ustream.tv. Formal business will begin at 2 PM in the afternoon followed by the election of the Moderator Saturday evening. Sunday is worship in churches throughout the St. Louis area and a plenary session with reports of special committees and commissions in the afternoon. Committee work begins in that evening and it will run into Tuesday afternoon, maybe into the evening for some. During that time PC-Biz is the place to find out what the committees are doing with the pieces of business near and dear to you.

The meeting moves back to plenary on Wednesday morning and then it is a mad push to get all the business done by Friday night or in the wee hours of Saturday morning. But one of the realities is that there is no real schedule of when particular committees report until later in the week when committees have finished their business and they are assembled on the docket like a jigsaw puzzle. The final Saturday morning session is highlighted by worship and the closing business formalities.

One new feature of this Assembly is the Hands and Feet initiative to connect with the local community. This effort is under way and has been part of preliminary meetings in St. Louis, and it is planned to continue in the cities that will be hosting future General Assemblies. At this Assembly many of the Mission Tours are opportunities to get out into the community and help with various forms of service. On Tuesday there will be two different opportunities to participate in rallies/protests. In in the early afternoon there will be an immigration rally and later in the afternoon the “Hands and Feet Community Action.” The offering from today’s opening worship will be used for the local bail relief fund project to help out people in jail for minor offenses because they do not have the money to pay the fine. (And you can donate online if you won’t be there in person.) The community action is an un-permitted public action march to the City Justice Center that will deliver the offering and hopefully bail out some individuals on the spot. Finally, Hands and Feet will be offering a special concert on Thursday evening – Hands and Feet Celebration featuring Kirk Whalum sponsored by Northern Trust Securities. This is the first such concert I can remember since the Dave Brubeck concert in 1997.

Another similar point is the theme of the Assembly. The original theme of the Assembly was from Matthew 6:33 – “But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” That has been tweaked slightly to change kingdom to kin-dom and incorporated as the preaching theme – “Kindom building for the 21st century.”

Opening worship and plenary sessions should be live streamed and the viewer can be found embedded in the GA 223 Home Page.

The tracking utility on PC-Biz is the best place to follow business. While the PC(USA) does have a general Twitter account (@Presbyterian), the General Assembly feed (@presbyGA) usually provides more play-by-play. There is also the Presbyterian News Service on Twitter (@PresbyNews). The hashtag for the meeting is #ga223.

News items will also appear on the GA223 web page as well as the Presbyterian News Service feed. There is also a Facebook page, and the daily GA news is now by email – you can register on the main GA web page. The daily news roundup is also available from pcusa.org/ganews.

There are numerous entities of the PC(USA) that have Twitter accounts and you might want to watch the hashtag or check the list I compiled in a post a while back. One not on that list is the Committee on Local Arrangements (COLA) at @StLouisGA.

For individuals of note let me start with the candidates for Co-Moderator and Moderator/Vice Moderator that I know of Twitter accounts for: Eliana Maxim (@elianamaxim), Cindy Kohlmann (@cindykohlmann), Chantal Atnip (@atnipchantal), and Ken Hockenberry (@clerkkennyh). To this let’s add the outgoing Co-Moderators: Jan Edmiston (@jledmiston) and Denise Anderson (@thesoulstepford). There is also a twitter account for the Stated Clerk (@PCUSAstatedclrk) as well as J. Herbert Nelson’s individual account (@jherbertnelson). Moving on to Moderators of previous assemblies we can begin with Bruce Reyes-Chow who tweets at @breyeschow and @brc_live. Neal Presa, can be followed at @NealPresa, and as the incoming vice-chair of the Presbyterian Foundation Board of Trustees his insights could be interesting. And we will see if Heath Rada (@heathrada), is there as well. For previous Vice-Moderators watch for Larissa Kwong Abazia at @LarissaLKA, and Landon Whitsitt (@LandonWhitsitt). In this list of individuals let me throw in the Director of Operations, Thomas Hay (@DirOfOp) and also a true GA Junkie in his own right, Andy James (@andyjames). Finally, for color with a degree of snark (yes, some of us need this during the meeting) you can follow Jodi Craiglow.

Out in the press corps, keep an eye on the Presbyterian Outlook on their website (pres-outlook.org) and Twitter (@presoutlook) as well as their special correspondent Leslie Scanlon (@lscanlon) who will be covering the hot-topic Way Forward Commission.

I will be at the meeting for the opening weekend. I plan to live blog the plenary sessions here, but maybe not as closely as in the past. The rest of the week I will try to be glued to the live stream as much as possible and will post as appropriate and able. (I still have my day job) The Outlook has posted two articles I wrote for them on business coming to the Assembly related to Constitutional Overtures, and a backgrounder on Per Capita. I do plan to tweet extensively but not completely during the Assembly at my regular Twitter handle – @ga_junkie. And if someone is planning to live tweet the Assembly let me know and I will point people in your direction.

Finally, I will once again be passing out my “I’m A GA Junkie” buttons. Find me if you want one. Also, the Bingo Card is available for the meeting.

A few notes on the business of the meeting are in order. First, both the PC(USA) and the Presbyterian Outlook have produced summary articles for the different committees and business categories. There will be lots of the usual with fossil fuel divestment appearing to headline the social justice issues and Middle East issues coming to that committee.

The Assembly will have to deal with some important and controversial internal issues as well. The Way Forward Commission is already hard at work and they are bringing a proposal to unify a lot of the high-level workings of the national structure, something the Presbyterian Mission Board opposes. And as I discuss in my Per Capita article, the Office of the General Assembly originally proposed a 38% increase in per capita, which they scaled back to 10% annual increase each year for the next two years, after some significant negative feedback.

And so I am looking forward to an exciting week in St. Louis, some in person and some on the live stream.

But the decisions facing the commissioners are significant and our prayers are with them as the prayerfully, and critically, discern God’s will this coming week. Best wishes and get your sleep when you can.

46th General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In America

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As I write this the committees of commissioners are hard at work, the book sellers are apparently plying their wares, and the Twitter hashtag has started to get busy.

Yes, the 46th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America is starting to get rolling and they will convene in plenary session tomorrow afternoon, 13 June, in Atlanta. The meeting is scheduled to adjourn at noon on Friday 15 June. The theme of the Assembly is “Love God and Love Neighbor.” The meeting will be live streamed and they have their GA app available for several platforms to follow along. There is also a ShareFile! app there for registered commissioners to download reports and other documents.

While the full volume of reports is available only to commissioners, the docket and overtures are available on-line. A more general schedule of events is also available. There is a nice page with links to all the forms and schedules for the meeting.

To track the polity of the PCA you can access the Book of Church Order (BCO) online, which also contains the Rules of Assembly Operations (RAO).

News updates will be posted through the official news website and online publication byFaith, including the update from today’s committee action.

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

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

As for individuals to watch – round-up the usual suspects. Some who will be at the meeting and are, or will probably be tweeting include Fred Greco (@fredgreco), Ligon Duncan (@LigonDuncan), Sean Michael Lucas (@SeanMLucas), Melton L. Duncan (@MeltonDuncan), and Jemar Tisby (@JemarTisby). For organizations I will mention Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing (@prpbooks), Greenville Seminary (@GPTseminary) and Reformed Theological Seminary (@ReformTheoSem). (And as a note, there are other Twitter accounts for the different RTS campuses.) There is a long list of people tweeting (check out the #pcaga hashtag) but I will throw in Elder’s Wife (@Titus_1_wife),  and three accounts that have some overlap: More in PCA (@MoreinPCA) – a grassroots organization of REs, Chortles Weakly (@ChortlesWeakly) and Presbycast (@Presbycast). It doesn’t look like Allan Edwards (@edwardsae1) is actively tweeting from the meeting, but worth remembering that in past years he has given us the Bingo Card and the Selfie Scavenger Hunt. And for a Twitter feed that is posted decently and in order there is the @PCAPresbyter himself.

One of the new elements of this Assembly are opportunities to live into the theme of the Assembly with what are being called Love Neighbor Ministry Opportunities. Two opportunities are being offered to get out into the community and help with ministry. The first was Tuesday afternoon with a trip to a local area with a concentration of refugees to participate in a neighborhood block party. The second is Wednesday morning to work with the Restore Life community development organization in West Atlanta.

The overtures to this Assembly will provide a lot of opportunity for discussion, debate and discerning God’s will for the church. ByFaith has put together a summary of the overtures and earlier today the Overtures Committee has made their recommendation on many of them.

One of the closely watched sets of overtures relate to the traditional definition of marriage. While the Westminster Confession of Faith is clear about that and chapter 59 of the Book of Church Order is similar, there is concern that while that is satisfactory on ecclesiastical grounds it may not be enough if challenged in civil courts. The proposals center around raising chapter 59 to full constitutional strength to help protect pastors in the denomination. (Yes, it is an interesting polity feature that not all sections of the Book of Church Order have constitutional status.) The Overtures Committee is recommending against approval of these overtures but word is that a minority report will be presented.

Another big theme in some quarters is the participation and role of Ruling Elders in the denomination. The summary article covers this as well as I could:

Since the first General Assembly in 1973, the percentage of ruling elders who attend has declined. In an effort to boost their participation, Calvary Presbytery has proposed the following: 1) Require that at least three ruling elders serve on all Ad Interim committees, and 2) reduce the GA registration fee to $100 for ruling elders.

The Overtures Committee has so far only dealt with the first of those and recommends it be answered in the negative.

And in response to the adoption last year of the study on Women Serving in Ministry, there is a request to clarify in the report to make it clear that when a church has assistants to the deacons, those individuals are not in an ordained position and do not have a vote with the Deacons’ Board. Again, the Overtures Committee is recommending the overture be answered in the negative.

There is also a special report being presented this year, the report of the Ad Interim Committee on Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation. This report will be presented Thursday morning following a seminar on Racial and Ethnic Reconciliation.

All this and more is on the table for the next three days. It should be an interesting meeting and some of the overtures I just mentioned, as well as some other business, will be a guide to where the PCA is at the present time and where it may be headed. Get ready to prognosticate.

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

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

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

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

More on that in a minute. But first…

Welcome to Generation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Liberton Kirk building, Edinburgh

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly

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

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

The press row

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) General Assembly in session

Three quick notes:

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

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

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

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

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

2018 General Assembly Of The Free Church Of Scotland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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