Well, many of the other American Presbyterian branches have had their Assemblies but now it is time for the mainline… The 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gets underway at 1:30 pm local time on Saturday June 30 in Pittsburgh, PA. The theme for this Assembly is “Walking, running, soaring in hope” from Isaiah 40:31, although it is difficult to find that theme on the web site and materials. (Expect it to be emblazoned around the conference center.) The schedule has been rearranged a bit this year with the opening worship service truly opening the Assembly on Saturday afternoon with business to follow and then the election of the Moderator Saturday night.  Committees meet Sunday evening through Tuesday evening so there will be a break in the live streaming until 2 PM Wednesday afternoon. The Assembly will conclude at noon on Saturday July 7. (I was going to make a snarky comment about fireworks on Wednesday evening but thought better of it. )

There are a lot of resources out there for the commissioners, observers, media and those following along at home:

• The brief Docket and the Full Schedule of Events
  
• Business is found, and tracked, on the PC-Biz system
• The Plenary sessions will be live streamed (expected source – will update if different)
• For more on the polity there is the Book of Order, the Annotated Book of Order, and the Standing Rules of the General Assembly
• Official news articles are being posted on the GA 220 page and will also probably show up on the general news feed
• There is a media guide for this event as well
• If you want an introduction to the Assembly there are also orientation resources

For following along on Twitter the most important thing you need to know is that the hashtag is #ga220. While there are several official Twitter accounts the most useful will be @Presbyterian and @presbyGA. For news coverage keep an eye on @presoutlook and @lscanlon. For all the rest of us crazies GA Junkies there are Twitter lists compiled by Bruce Reyes-Chow and Sonnie Swenston-Forbes. I plan to do some live tweeting at @ga_junkie and will be posting news reweets to @gajunkie. (I will also be blogging obsessively right here.)

As with most PC(USA) GA’s there will be a ton of business – there are several committees that will report, there are over 100 overtures and an as yet undetermined number of commissioner resolutions. Several of the items have the potential for spirited debates in the committees and in plenary and a few could have significant implications for the PC(USA) going forward.  I am previewing some of the business in other posts but here is a quick list of all that you can expect.

• Election of the Moderator – GA Junkie, Moderator Candidates Book
• Mid-Councils Commission – GA Junkie, Commission Report
• Marriage – GA Junkie (coming soon), PC News
• Confessions: Revised Heidelberg and Belhar redo – PC News
• Middle East Peace (and Israel/Palestine divestment) – PC News, Presbyterian Outlook
• Same-Gender Partner Benefits – PC News
• Immigration – PC News
• Ordination Standards – PC News
• Special Offerings (this may be the sleeper item) – PC News
• The 21st Century Church – PC News
• And two for the polity wonks and GA junkies that each get a commissioner committee all to themselves: Committee to Review Biennial Assemblies and the Special Committee on Existing Authoritative Interpretations
• Those Other Matters Coming Before The GA from the Presbyterian Outlook

Let me conclude with a personal note: Call me crazy but I’m coming to the Assembly with three additional special projects.  First, I am an overture advocate for Item 20-03 to provide partial disability benefits and I plan to write up my experience with this sometime after the Assembly. Second, I will be harassing interviewing people regarding social media and the church. Third, in an effort to identify and tag the true polity wonks, presbygeeks and GA junkies (and in a bit of shameless self-promotion) I will be carrying some GA Junkie bling to hand out. And yes, I will try my best to have my GA summary sheet out by the end of the day on Saturday July 7.

And with that we turn our faces towards Pittsburgh and pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit and what God will do in our midst next week.