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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good night. See you tomorrow

2018 General Assembly Of The Church Of Scotland

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

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

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

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

  • There will be live streaming of the proceedings and you can connect to the stream appropriate for your device from the media page.
  • Most of the Documents pertaining to the Assembly are linked from the General Assembly Publications page. This includes the Assembly Reports volumes, known as the Blue Book in several different electronic formats including the traditional PDF as well as MOBI and EPUB formats for your eReaders. For eReaders, the same is available with the Order of Proceedings included. There is also a separate Order of Proceedings. The Daily Papers will contain late-breaking changes and are available on the Papers, minutes, worship, and speeches page. There is an option to subscribe to notifications of new documents being posted. (It appears the GA app has been discontinued this year, but I will update here if I find it.)
  • If you only want the action items, there is a Proposed Deliverances Page which breaks it down by the individual reports as well as a link to a PDF with them all together.
  • If you need to refer to the documents about how they do this decently and in order most of those are linked from the Church Law page. This web page also used to have the useful “An Introduction to Practice and Procedure of the Church of Scotland” but it was being revised and seems to have disappeared. While dated, I have a copy of the 2009 Third Edition available from my Resources Site.
  • A brief order of the docketed events and reports can be found on the General Assembly 2018 page. And new this year is a very well done detailed Programme page which is tabbed by day for easy look up.
  • And from the Daily Updates page there will be regular daily updates in print, audio and video. There will be a new host this year, Laurence Wareing, and we look forward to his work.  For those who are not aware, the long-time host,the Rev. Douglas Aitken, a pioneer in British religious broadcasting, died earlier this year. I will have more to say later.
  • There is usually an official photo gallery of the Assembly. Will add that here when it goes live.

What we all want to know of course is how to follow along on social media and there will be no lack of that. You can begin with the Church of Scotland’s official Facebook page as well as the Facebook page for the National Youth Assembly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stay tuned…

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)

 

 

 

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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

 

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

 

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

 

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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

 

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

 

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

 

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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

 

cplogosmallwithtext200x200188th 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

 

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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

 

 

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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

 

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

 

NYA_0National 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)

 

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General Assembly
Presbyterian Church of Victoria
8 – 12 October 2018

 

 

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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.

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!

Moderator Nominee For The Presbyterian Church In Canada 2018 General Assembly

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Yesterday the Presbyterian Church in Canada announced the results of balloting for the Moderator Nominee for the 144th General Assembly (2018) to convene in early June. In a moment, the results of that balloting…

But first, a quick introduction to the three candidates on the ballot, in alphabetical order:

The Rev. Daniel Cho, B.A., M.Div. is the pastor of Rexdale Presbyterian Church in Toronto and the Moderator of the Presbytery of West Toronto. He emigrated from South Korea with his family and grew up in Toronto before attending college in Tulsa and Chicago. He returned for ministry training at Knox College and began his service to the church as a youth minister at that time. He has served on boards and committees at all levels of the church and currently serves on the Board of Knox College. In his Q&A section on the candidates page he speaks of the core of the church being Jesus’ teaching of the commandments, reducing them down to two. (But it is worth reading his account of one of his earliest memories of the church.)

The Rev. Peter S. Han, B.A. (Hons), M.Div. is the pastor of Vaughan Community Church, Thornhill, Ontario, where he has served for the last 28 years. He has served the church at all levels including as the Moderator of the Presbytery of Eastern Han-Ca and on the Knox Board. He was a founding member of the Asian Centre at Knox College.  He has structured his current church around a church-wide cell group system that has over 650 adults currently participating. In the Q&A section he singles out refugee work as an area the PC Canada should be more involved in. His bio notes a particular work of his and the singular recognition:

Peter is an advocate for justice. He led a coalition representing Chinese, Filipino, Dutch and Korean-Canadian communities. They successfully petitioned the Canadian House of Commons which unanimously passed Motion 291 to urge the Japanese government to officially acknowledge and apologize for the systematic sexual abuse and slavery against 200,000 women during the Second World War. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 for his contributions to the wider Canadian society.

The Rev. Mark R. McLennan, B.A., B.Th., M. Div. is currently the pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church in Woodstock, Ontario, but has served the church widely, in a geographic sense, including in Alberta, Labrador, Quebec, Nova Scotia and at the far western edge of Ontario in Thunder Bay. With that wide placement comes service as the clerk of one synod and multiple presbyteries, as well as serving as Moderator of three presbyteries and two synods. His bio says that “Ministry and mission are at the heart of his church work…” and that includes getting out into the community where he has helped with many community organizations where he has been like the Y and a museum board. He has also written resources for the national church. In the Q&A he has a nice concise statement of the most important features of faithful discipleship: “Compassion for others, Passion for the Gospel, Dirty hands, Open arms, Smiles, Honesty, Integrity. To be the eyes, ears, hands and voice of God in this world.” (And the chuckle I got in his Q&A was in his list of what he is currently reading that includes the book Why Dogs are Better Than Cats.)

For the last three months the elders and ministers of the church have been looking at these three men and discerning God’s call.

Yesterday the Principal Clerk The Rev. Stephen Kendall announced that through the balloting process The Rev. Daniel Cho has been called to be the nominee for Moderator of the 144th General Assembly. The info in that announcement includes the previously published Bio and Q&A that I reference for him above.

From the bio, I would add that he is already scheduled to be the main preacher at Canada Youth 2018. I was also struck in that bio by a paragraph talking about a spiritual mentor and some related writing he has done:

Daniel is blessed to have known the spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen, as a personal mentor. He has been profoundly shaped and impacted by Henri’s teachings which he shares with others. Daniel has written on spirituality in a book chapter and for the Henri Nouwen Society. He also wrote on the intercultural church in the Presbyterian Record and has led seminars on this subject.

And in the Q&A he says he would recommend to everyone in the PCC any book by Henri Nouwen and recommends several specific titles.

Also in the Q&A he talks about his vision for the church going forward. He speaks of spiritual renewal, one of the goals of the PCC Strategic Plan, as personally expanding capacities of faith beyond what is reasonable – like Jesus speaking of loving your enemies – and the church as the faith community through which this is developed for individuals. In another section, he touches on a related issue of what the church should make more time for. His answer is the involvement of the younger generation – their voices, their opinion, their particular wisdom.

The Rev. David Cho will be installed as the Moderator, should the way be clear, at the opening of the 144th General Assembly (2018) on 3 June 2018 in Waterloo, Ontario. Our prayers are with him as he guides what we anticipate will be a most interesting Assembly and best wishes for his moderatorial year.

[Programming Note: As you may have noticed it has been very quiet around here for the last several months. As we approach the GA Season I hope that will change dramatically. As mentioned previously there have been a number of things going on in my life but I believe I am on track for some of that to wind down and I fully anticipate that my blogging will be ramping up significantly. There is some exciting stuff coming in the next few months, which will be shared in due time. So I hope you will be joining me as the GA Season gets underway. Best wishes.]

Looking Back, Look Forward

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I like the association of the month of January, even if not universally accepted, that invokes the ancient Roman god Janus. Janus has two faces, one looking forward and one looking back, a fitting start to a new year. (And on a side note, Janus is also interesting in that his mythology is wrapped up in Roman history and is one of the few, maybe the only, Roman deity that was not imported from the Greeks or involved an emperor being promoted. See that first link for more. But I digress.)

So in that spirit, I wanted to wrap up the Christmas season – yes, today is the 12th Day of Christmas if you have not been counting – with a bit of a look back and look forward from a personal perspective.

Looking back, it has been a tiring year for me: I finished up of some significant volunteer duties, there have been more hacked computers to deal with at work, and as I noted in the Giving Thanks For The Saints post, we walked with my uncle through the valley of the shadow and continue to wrap up some of his affairs. There was also some significant excitement and blessings as welcomed this cute little one – our first grandchild – into the family.


In short, it was a demanding and spiritual draining year in some respects and exciting and promising year in others. In the grand scheme of things all years are like that to some degree, although this year seemed more so. And one of the bottom lines was that with so much going on I regretfully did not contribute to this blog as much as I would have liked. But life happens, some things need to be done and some things remain as partially written drafts. And in all that happened this year we felt God’s presence with us.

On the other hand we are also looking ahead expectantly as we pass into a new (Gregorian) year. I don’t do resolutions as such but try to plan goals and ways to meet them into the year. One of these, depending on what life throws at me, is to get back to blogging more and I hope my process to do that works out. There is the potential for a lot of exciting developments in this coming year and I will share some of those as the year goes along. However, one specifically related to this blog is my plan to cover the Church of Scotland General Assembly live in Edinburgh this year. And while I am at it I hope to visit the other Assemblies meeting there at the same time. Stay tuned for more on that as it gets closer.

Looking back, we give thanks for God’s provision and the blessings we have. Looking forward, we pray for what is to come and that we may know God’s constant companionship with us in whatever this life brings.

And so on this day I wish all of you, as appropriate, a merry 12th Day of Christmas and Twelfth Night, Epiphany Eve/Epiphany, and Eastern Christmas.

And of course, a Happy New Year!

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

Stated Clerks of the General Assembly or the General Synod

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.

Giving Thanks For The Saints 2017

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For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

As has become my tradition, on the First of November, celebrated in many Christian branches as the Feast of All Saints, I pause to remember and share with you those in my life who have inspired me and have joined the Church Triumphant in the past year.

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

I remember and give thanks for:

  • Adam – The son of long-time friends of ours who loved life and joined the Church Triumphant at much too young an age
  • Bill – A member of the Greatest Generation who served his country as part of a WWII bomber crew and one I enjoyed catching up with on Sunday mornings.
  • Lois – Oh where do I begin? She is one of those who lived life on her own terms and one to whom God blessed with a full measure of years, living a restricted but vibrant life much longer than many of us expected. She was a strong Christian, and devoted Presbyterian quietly volunteering in our presbytery office for many years. When visiting her in her later years she always asked me for news of the presbytery.
  • Robert – A respected, faithful, energetic and committed leader in the church. A long-time pastor and later para-church worker who had a sense of call to the disadvantaged and the outcast, and to recruiting others to help in these areas along with him. I did not always agree with him in theological matters, but I respected his views and he respected mine. He was a good friend and kindred spirit in our shared quirky sense of humor.
  • Michael – A faithful and hard worker for the church who I knew from synod work. Another who I frequently disagreed with, but in our disagreement we respected each other.
  • Edward – A faithful church worker, active with me at the synod level. His work and resources benefited many racial ethnic pastors, including some well-respected teaching elders in the PC(USA).
  • Garland – A down to earth member of our men’s group, loving husband and faithful in his religious observance
  • Don – A pastor who had to go on disability due to a degenerative illness, but who was as full of life as he could be to the end.
  • Gordon – A faithful and hard working ruling elder in my presbytery and others before he moved here. Another who I differed with on some theological and polity points, but who I worked closely with, and with great mutual respect, on a couple projects for the presbytery.

O blest communion, fellowship divine,
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

I will conclude with my uncle, Bob. Not a “religious” man and he held some strong opinions on the institutional church and its historic failings, views that were a road block to him for traditional Christianity. But he was deeply spiritual and believed in something bigger – he was just not certain what. We talked and I prayed for him, and with him, over the years, especially during his final days. He had questions about what was next, and we tried to give answers to those questions. So being the Calvinist that I am I commend his soul to God and give thanks for his life and what I have learned from him. I do hope for his salvation and that the human frailness and failings of the church are overcome and he has eternal life in Jesus Christ through the Grace of God.
[The picture below was taken at sunrise on the day he passed away.]
But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on His way.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

And so on this day I give grateful thanks to the Lord of All for having each of them in my life at one time or another and the witness and encouragement they have each been to me.

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon, to faithful warriors cometh rest.
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Moderator Designate For The 2018 Church Of Scotland General Assembly

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As the build up to the next GA Season keeps moving, this past week brought another Moderator Designate announcement, this from the Church of Scotland.

Rev Susan Brown of Dornoch Cathedral.

The selection committee has decided and the Kirk has announced that The Rev. Susan Brown, minister of Dornoch Cathedral, will be the next Moderator of the General Assembly. She is a native of Penicuik, Midlothian, and did her ministerial training at New College, Edinburgh with a Bachelors degree and a post-Graduate Diploma in Ministry. Following her probationer work at St. Giles she was inducted at Killearnan on the Black Isle, near Inverness, where she served for 13 years. From there she moved up the coast a bit to Dornoch Cathedral where she has been for the past 19 years.

Rev. Brown has served the Kirk at the national level as the vice-convener for both the Ecumenical Affairs committee and currently the World Mission Council. She also served for ten years as a regular member of a lifeboat crew for a local association. And her love of the outdoors, and these days particularly golf, led her to write a spiritual reflection for each hole of the nearby Royal Dornoch course and these are included in the course guide and gained a bit of international attention. In 2011 she was appointed as Chaplain in Ordinary to HM the Queen.

Her husband Derek is also in the ministry, serving as a hospital chaplain in Inverness and as the lead chaplain for NHS Highland. They have two adult children, a son who is a novelist who was recently recognized by the Scottish Book Trust with a New Writers award, and a daughter who is a graduate in social anthropology.

Rev. Brown says of her moderatorial year:

My theme during the year will be walking alongside people. When you walk alongside people, you listen and you exchange stories. It gives us a chance to talk more deeply than when we are face to face.

This coming moderatorial year for Rev. Brown will have a number of anniversaries of note, not the least of which is the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women in the Church of Scotland. (For those counting, she will be the fourth woman to serve as Moderator of the Kirk GA.) The year will also include some significant centennial anniversaries related to WWI, including the commemoration of the armistice in just over a year’s time.

And finally, no biographical sketch of Rev. Brown would be complete without noting another distinction that she has, that of being the pastor that married the entertainer Madonna and Guy Ritchie and later baptizing their son Rocco.

Besides the Kirk article, there is significant mainstream and Christian media coverage of her appointment including The Scotsman, BBC Scotland, The Northern Times, Daily Record, and Premier Christianity.

Susan Brown can be followed on Twitter at @VicarofDornoch. And you can hear her preach on the Cathedral web site, although it appears on the current sermon is available and no online archive is available. Today’s sermon is based on the calling of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and you have to see a bit of self-reference in her second line “The story offers a great reminder of how God can, and will, use anyone at all – no matter how young or old, no matter how full of wisdom or yet to learn.”

And so, as Rev. Brown begins her preparation for the Assembly in May and her moderatorial year as a whole, we offer our congratulation, prayers and best wishes. And if everything falls into place, I am looking forward to being present in person for your installation and your time leading the Assembly. May God’s blessing be upon you and God’s Spirit granting you wisdom and strength for what lies ahead.

Moderator Designate For The Free Church Of Scotland 2018 General Assembly

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There is a certain cycle to each year as in the late months of one calendar year and the early months of the next we begin to anticipate the upcoming general assemblies with moderator designates and moderator candidates, overtures and memorials, and reports. We then enter Assembly Season and see what transpires in the meetings. That is followed by the time of reporting back and presbyteries voting on descending overtures to make changes under the Barrier Act or to the Books of Church Order, Order, or Forms. (Or the Code.) And somewhere in the midst of that it starts all over again.

Well, with the first Moderator Designate announcement the cycle begins again…

Late last week the Free Church of Scotland announced that The Rev. Angus MacRae had been selected as the Moderator Disignate for their 2018 General Assembly in May.

Rev. MacRae is the pastor of Dingwall and Strathpeffer Free Church in Ross-shire where he has been for the last sixteen years. He was ordained to a call at Kilwinning Free Church, Ayrshire in 1992 and came to his present placement from there. His higher education was completed at Edinburgh University and Free Church College (now Edinburgh Theological Seminary). He was born in Glasgow and grew up in Laxdale, Isle of Lewis.

Rev. MacRae has been serving as the chair of the Board of Ministry, experience that is reflected in his published statement where he says:

This decade has seen vibrant growth and renewal in many local churches and the denomination as a whole is united and encouraged. I am thankful for a steady stream of new leaders in training. Our churches and Seminary are working together to meet the needs of existing churches and an exciting movement of new church plants around Scotland.

He continues in his statement to talk about the ongoing work of the General Assembly:

The General Assembly is not just a talking shop. It is an opportunity for leaders to meet together in God’s presence. Our vision is to work together to bring the message of an unchanging gospel to all the people of our land. We do this individually, together in our local churches and in gospel partnership with all those who respect the authority of the Bible as God’s message for truth for every age.

The press release also tells us he “supports international mission and has a particular interest in East Asia and the work of OMF International.”

You can see more about his parish ministry on the Dingwall Free Church Facebook page as well as their YouTube channel of sermons, most delivered by him.

Rev. MacRae’s wife Ann is a doctor specializing in the treatment of addiction. They have three adult children.

Our congratulations to Rev. MacRae on his selection to this unique form of service to the church and our prayers and best wishes as he prepares for his moderatorial year. And on a personal note, I hope to be present in the gallery when he is installed in May and look forward to worshiping with the GA that evening.

May God’s blessing be upon you as you undertake this ministry.