Well, the vote on substituting the minority report for the main motion has been taken and it lost 227/240.

If you wanted to make this a true left/right split the more conservative commissioners would be siding with the minority report and opposing the study that includes a lot of other names and descriptions of the members of the Trinity besides the traditional Father/Son/Holy Spirit or even Creator/Redeemer/Comforter language.

I’m not ready to declare this a true bell weather for the rest of the assembly but it is interesting.  It has been my observation on matters like this that a lot of centrists will go with a study paper like this were a lot of effort has been put into it.  This is not where they will draw a line.  But it looks like it could be very close (no, that is not new news) when they get to PUP in the ecclisiology report, probably tomorrow.

This was the first piece of business requiring strong parlimentary proceedure, speakers for and against, and electronic voting.

Watching on line it is interesting to see speakers at microphones are juggling their laptops in order to quote from the materials

Greetings,
   A pretty routine morning so far.  Everything up to this moment has been by voice vote and without speakers from the floor.  However, we have just hit the first minority report, this on the study paper on the Trinity.  We will see how it goes.

A couple of side notes, both sort of about LES, the electronic system to manage business.

On a lighter note, the Moderator announced that there would need to be pauses in business while LES caught up.  One of the items she announced would be used to fill the time was stand up comedy by executive presbyters.  I eagerly await their contributions.

As for LES itself, I am on it trying to follow the business.  My biggest frustration is that the list items are there, but just in a list, not in the form they are being presented to the assembly.  What it means is that there is no list of what is on the committee’s consent agenda.  Also, when I hit page 2 of Committee 13 I get page 1 of “All Committees.”  OH, WAIT, I just reproduced the bug…  When I hit page 2 of Committee 13 I get page 1 of “All Committees.”  If I then click on Committee 13 on the menu on the left I get page 2 of committee 13.  Don’t tell me this is a feature not a bug!

Stay tuned.

Greetings,

   Well, the GA of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is off and
running.  I was still on vacation for the first day so my comments
on the election of the moderator are  purely from news reports and
commentary on other web sites.

From reading all the press reports I think that I am personally
comfortable with Joan Gray and her comments that she “doesn’t have all
the answers but trusts God to lead” and that she is “comfortable being
uncomfortable” with the current status of the ordination
standards.  Being a self-described “polity wonk” she should be
right in line with us “GA Junkies.”

I am not sure what to read into the tea leaves of the elections. 
From Deborah Block’s lead on the first ballot it is tempting to think
the assembly has a slightly liberal leaning.  Or, is there a
conservative leaning since the liberal votes seemed to be consistant
for Block and the centrist and conservatives moved around between the
other three.  However, based on my observations from past GA’s the
election of a moderator has some predictive status but not much. 
Taking a “theology neutral” view and looking at only the candidates’
experience seems to make sense in this case.  The three ballots
came out like this.  (First and third ballots from PC(USA) press
release.  Thanks to the Layman for the Second Ballot numbers)

From reading through the candidates’ materials it strikes me that while
all four are parish pastors (WHERE ARE THE ELDERS?!)  Block and
Gray have national experience and exposure.  Based on that alone I
can see them pulling votes from Halverson and Carson.  But only
Gray really draws, Block’s vote variation is minimal.  What
resonated with me, and what I would attribute to her being the eventual
sucessful candidate, is her honesty with her stance on the ordination
standards debate and her statement that she is “comfortable being
uncomfortable” with the denomination’s present position and seeking in
this controversy.  I’m probably wrong but she strikes me as being
more in line with the average person in the pew than any of the other
candidates.

Well, we will see how she does when the plenary begins tomorrow.  I’ll be watching.  Add your comments if you want.

Coming up, an analysis of the committee work.

Peace and blessings