 |
As I finish writing this the 140th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is getting under way. The Assembly will run from today ( 30 May ) through Monday 2 June, 2014. The meeting is being held in Waterloo and Kitchener, Ontario, with business meetings and most activities at Wilfrid Laurier University.
|
| 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 #ga140.
The official publication, the Presbyterian Record, is posting updates on their Facebook page. Based on the first few minutes of the Assembly on Twitter I would suggest following Knox College (@KnoxCollegeCA), Jeff Loach (@passionatelyhis) and Matt Brough (@mbrough) for live updates. And I would expect comments from John Borthwick (@jborthwik) although he is not at the meeting. |
 |
A couple interesting items from about this Assembly I would like to highlight.
First, they have a program I don’t remember seeing before in any Assembly and that is a mentoring program for first time commissioners. This program, arranged by the Elders Institute, has designated tables that commissioners can sit at with an experienced teaching or ruling elder at the table to answer questions.
Another important event will be the commemoration on Saturday morning of the 20th anniversary of the church’s Confession of 1994 to “God and Aboriginal peoples for its involvement in the Indian Residential School system.” The event will include a keynote address by Phil Fontaine who received the confession in 1994 as grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. He has since served as the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. His address is scheduled for 11 am Eastern Time.
Best wishes and prayers to the Assembly and the Moderator, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Farris, for their meeting and we look forward to their discussions and deliberations.
Our 140th GA ended on Monday afternoon. Much discussion on Sunday and Monday morning dealt with bi-annual Assemblies. It was finally defeated, reverting back to Annual Assemblies. GA 141 in 2015 will be held in the Presbytery of Westminster, which centres around Vancouver BC. 2016 is still seeking a host, and 2017 will be hosted by the Presbytery of Kingston, that runs north of Lake Ontario between Trenton and Gananoque, on the east end of the lake.
Thanks for the run-down Al. I had a great time following along and maybe, just maybe, I can make it to Vancouver in person. Hope springs eternal.
Lots of good stuff happened at the GA and maybe next month I will have some time to reflect on it here on the blog.
Thanks again