Beginning tomorrow, June 6, we have the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

The General Assembly will convene with worship and installation of the Moderator at 7 PM local time on Monday June 6 in the newly renovated Church House in Belfast, and will continue to Friday afternoon.

The Moderator Designate is the Rev. Ivan Patterson, pastor at Newcastle Presbyterian Church.  For a good opportunity to get to know Rev. Patterson I recommend a video of an interview with him by Alan in Belfast. Alan has a great article on his blog with a discussion of this interview as well as the video and discussion of the interview with the outgoing Moderator the Rt. Rev. Norman Hamilton. (And a note that there is a slightly recast version of this article by Alan on the blog Slugger O’Toole.)

So where do you find the info on this meeting?  The PCI has put together a great narrative of the daily business on the same page as the official programme.  The links to all the Assembly reports can be found on the reports page.  For official announcements and press releases keep an eye on the Press Office page.

There will be live coverage of the meetings of the Assembly, but I don’t see a link available yet.  I will update here when it is announced, but keep an eye on the General Assembly page for the link and Twitter updates in the widget.

Speaking of Twitter, it looks like an active Twitter community is gathering for the meeting. Official tweets come from @pciassembly and the announced hashtag is #pciga11.  Other official accounts for the PCI include @PCIYAC (PCI Youth and Children) which have responsibility for the 12 youth delegates from the Youth Assembly known as SPUD (Speaking, Participating, Understanding and Deciding).  And keep an eye on @AlanInBelfast for his twitter insights. (I will update others as appropriate)

And if you want to refer to their polity document, you can have a look at The Code.

As I said already, if you are looking for a good review of the business you can do no better than the narrative from the PCI.  I will point out just a couple of items.

One of the traditional highlights of the Assembly is the Wednesday evening Celebration that is held in the context of worship.  This year the celebration will focus on the 400th Anniversary of the Authorized Version or King James Version of the Bible.  The theme is “The Word Is Life.”  More details are available on the worship poster for the meeting.  Based on the great worship at this event in past years even non-GA junkies might want to consider tuning in.  (I hope it is being streamed.)

A couple of other business items include the consideration of holding the 2013 Assembly in Londonderry. (Holding the meeting somewhere other than Church House in Belfast is rare but not unheard of.)  Another is a proposed change in the process of electing the Moderator that would accomplish it in one evening by having the presbyteries not adjourn until the first count is complete in case there is a tie so a second vote can be held that same night.  The Board of Finance and Personnel is presenting new formulas for ministerial pay and congregational assessments.

There is more so read the summary, and I might find time to say something about the Board of Christian Training’s Accredited Preachers Scheme. And there will be time to consider and respond in a couple of different ways to the approval of a plan to help out the savers and investors in the Presbyterian Mutual Society.

So tune in and join me in praying for the Assembly.  I’ll see you on the live stream.