Probably the biggest General Assembly meeting of the year begins on Saturday as around 850 commissioners gather in the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh to do the work of the Church of Scotland.  The meeting will adjourn the following Friday.

For those following along at home…

The complete book with the reports, overtures, docket, and other material for the meeting, know as the Blue Book, is available as a single download.  The docket and other essentials alone can be found in the main Order of Proceedings. The daily agendas and information on other events is linked to the General Assembly page. Links to the individual committee reports can be found on the Reports and Information page.

Once the Assembly convenes we can expect to have the live webcast and daily updates in written and podcast form available from the Webcast page.  I would also expect the usual Assembly press releases from the News page.

Update:  In addition to the Webcast page there are also the twice-daily updates from the church done by the Rev. Douglas Aitken.  In addition, they have posted the transcripts of speeches and the Webcast page has updates from the publication Good News.

The Assembly is on Twitter at @generalassembly.  While the hashtag #ga2011 was initially proposed there appears to be a trend to use the #ga11 hashtag instead.  In addition to the official Twitter account I would recommend following the Church of Scotland Youth – National Youth Assembly at @cosy_nya and their ga2011 list. The list probably has the best collection individuals who will be tweeting about it, but to highlight two in particular, there is the official publication of the Church of Scotland @cofslifeandwork and  cosy_nya worker/leader Chris Hoskins @chris_hoskins.  I will update with others once the Assembly gets rolling. 

Update:  I should have gone with my intuition and included Stewart Cutler in this list, as I have done in past years.  He can be found on Twitter (@stewartcutler) and his blog.  Others who are following closely on Twitter and the blogosphere (with thanks to @chris_hoskins for the suggestions and his including me in his list of who to follow) include @shunad (blog), Bryan Kerr @revbk (and how can you not like his blog “blessed are the cheesemakers” ), and Lynsey Martin @lynsey1889. These are but a few, so go to the hashtag #ga11 and see the whole group that is there.

I have already discussed what is probably the highest profile issue, the report of the Special Commission on Same-sex Relationships and the Ministry. A couple of more items of interest:

At the last Assembly meeting a report was approved that would begin “refocusing” the mission of the church and the Ministries Council report continues with that work and updates the progress. To tweak the report, the Presbytery of Ayr has sent up an overture asking that it be classified as an “urban-rural” presbytery and not an “urban” presbytery as the report does.  On the other hand, the Presbytery of Greenock and Paisley has sent up an overture challenging some of the basic findings of the report.  The second whereas says:

2. We do not believe that the Ministries Council’s 20:20 vision has the support of the Church, particularly when the full implications for local congregations are explained and understood. We do not believe that the 20:20 vision reflects the widespread desire of local congregations to have their own minister to lead, inspire and equip them in worship, mission and discipleship.

In this overture they ask for a suspension of the work and the establishment of a Special Commission to look into this further and consult with the church broadly.  This report and overtures are docketed for Thursday.

Another interesting report is always the one from Church and Society Council.  This year’s topics include Responding to Climate Change, Science and Ethics – The Internet, Suicide Among Young Men, and “Are We What We Wear? The Ethics of our Clothing Choices.”  Interesting to see that latter one come out of last fall’s National Youth Assembly.

But from a polity and church-growth perspective, the Church and Society Council topic that caught my eye was the report on The Involvement of Young People in Decision Making in the Church of Scotland.  In terms of what is already happening the report highlights the National Youth Assembly which I have particularly appreciated as a vehicle for involvement of young people and moving their concerns and deliberations upward to the General Assembly.  As I said above, several of the items from Church and Society bear the imprint of the NYA.  I am also intrigued how much of the report reinforces what I have been reading, especially the book Almost Christian, about the benefits of taking teenagers and young adults seriously in the church and integrating them into the multi-generational framework.

Look for Church and Society Council on Tuesday.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon (where the garden party used to be) will be a public festival called Roll Away the Stone. This event will “Celebrate the life of the church” with Celebration, Inspiration and Discovery.  And 5-a-side football.   The web page says

“Significance comes from the Cross and resurrection life flows from the
Tomb.” So celebration, inspiration and discovery will begin with
reflections around a huge cross in the garden area near the Ross
Bandstand. Meantime at the Bandstand itself, in the picturesque avenue
and fountain areas, and in St Cuthbert’s Church at the west end of the
[Prince Street] Gardens there will be space for worship, praise and singing amongst a
whole range of other things to see and do.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

So there we go — Lots going on at the Assembly.  But wait, there is more…  At the same time (Monday to Friday) the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland will be meeting near by.  Lots of interesting and important decisions there as well and I’ll review that in the next day or two.